When I began the harp as a kid, my dad bought me a large briefcase with pockets inside to store strings, harp tools, pedal felts—everything! He showed me how to organize my strings into octave-packets, each packet held together with a rubber band and each string in the packet organized in sequential order within the octave from string E down to F. I store the octave-packets in my briefcase in order from first octave to bass wires.
Organization has saved a lot of wasted time and stress when I’ve had to find a quick replacement for a broken string. Thanks, Dad!
—Becky Nissen
I keep a small string bag (actually a toiletries bag) that contains a full set of strings inside my gig bag at all times. It also contains string ends, a small cutter, a string gauge, and a pencil. It goes with me whenever I play, and I always go to it when I change a string either at a gig or at home, but it does not contain all the spare strings I have. One spare set is not enough to cover all my harps, so I keep the rest in a box, grouped by octave. If I use the last string in my travel string bag, I go to the box and replace it, so I always have a full set on a gig. If I take the last of a particular string out of the box, I add that to my list of strings to order so I am never without the proper string to replace a broken or false string.
I also keep a tiny notebook in my travel string bag so I can notate the harp on which I am putting a string. Each harp has a section in the notebook, and I note the string (note, octave, manufacturer) and the date on which it was replaced. I have my harps regulated every year, and I usually restring each harp in the month before it gets regulated. This keeps the harps sounding their best and reduces string breakage throughout the year. Keeping track of replaced strings in the notebook helps me to avoid changing a string that I recently replaced.
—Fran Duffy
After returning from a dinner break before a performance of La Bohème with the Harlem Festival Orchestra, I found a string blowing in the wind! The opera was due to begin in 15 minutes. I went to my spare strings in my gig bag and picked out the proper replacement—crisis averted due to well-organized strings.
A permanent fixture in my gig bag is a 6 x 8-inch zippered canvas pouch in which I keep a full set of strings from 1st octave E to 7th octave C. They are kept in their respective six-by-eight-inch envelopes, clearly labeled with octave and alphabetical letter, and each set of seven envelopes is bound with a rubber band, making it easy to grab the proper octave in a heartbeat. I also have a pair of scissors, string ends for knot anchors, and a wire cutter in case a wire string is the guilty party in a surprise break.
I realized early in my teaching career that my students needed to know how to identify each string on their instruments. They frequently hear, “the E above middle C begins the 4th octave, and the bigger the string, the bigger the octave number.” I can proudly say that in 40 years of teaching, each pupil could identify the location of all strings on their instrument, making it easy to organize and retrieve a harp string at a moment’s notice. •
