Wanted to update this with some corrections and new stuff I've learned/things I'm currently learning
Mass produced lyres can be wonderful instruments (I have one because I'm too cheap for a luthier), but make sure the tuning pegs are nice and tight when it first arrives. If the tuning pegs are too loose, it can make keeping your lyre in tune for more than a single play session nearly impossible.
This is my current lyre. I've had it for a year and a half now, and it's got amazing resonance and a nice warm sound. I rarely have to tune it, and anytime I do, it's small tweaks.
Humidity is the enemy of many things (myself included), but for wooden stringed instruments, it's especially terrible. Wood expands in higher humidity, and contracts in low humidity, which subsequently affects your instrument's string tension. When strings are stretched and loosened, they also lose their tuning. Keeping your instrument at a relatively stable humidity level can help you avoid having to constantly tune your lyre.
Using a guitar strap has been a game changer for holding my lyre so I can play with both hands more easily
A good starting place for any musician is to learn what individual notes sound like and where they're located on their instrument. An instrument like the lyre harp has all notes laid out in order (most 16 string lyres are tuned G3, A3, B3, C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, A4, B4, C5, D5, E5, F5, G5, A5), so it's a matter of learning string width and hand placement. Learning different modes/scales (ie Ionian/major scale and Aeolian/minor scale) can be useful if you plan on improvising or writing your own music.
Pentatonic lyres have a more limited range of notes, but instruments tuned to penatonic scales sound good no matter what notes you play together. It's a great option for people who just want to improvise without focusing too much on modern music, which tends to be written in diatonic scales.
You do not have to study music theory to be able to play the lyre, or even to be a good musician. I'm studying it because I like learning the technical aspects of music. If you do delve into the world of music theory, I hope you look into more than just western music theory. There's so much amazing cultural music built on microtonal modes that western audiences rarely hear. Farya Faraji is an ethnomusicologist on YouTube with a handful of super interesting long form videos that talk about non-western music theory. One of his more recent videos.
The most important part of learning any instrument is practice practice practice (regrettably there is no shortcut) and consistency ((this is also a note to self))
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