Your harp's pedal caps, the black rubber pads that cover the tip of each pedal, are designed to give your feet traction as you move the pedals. Over time, and the more you use them, pedal caps wear away. In the case of the slip-on type, they can also split or crack,...
I took a little blog break; I guess you are allowed that being your own boss 🙂 Many freelance musicians with me have a life where we juggle many different roles. I teach at a school, and I teach privately, I run my own bands and chamber groups, I do a lot of work as...
Busking With a Harp! How not to annoy people. N.B. This is quite specific to my experiences in Cardiff, Wales. I’ve been busking regularly for four years in February and this week I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learnt over the years for those...
It has been a quite turbulent week here in Sweden. Exactly one week ago, we got to experience what people in cities all over the world have experienced: there was a terror attack in central Stockholm. I am so sad that there are people that want to use violence against...
What the heck is a P.R.T.B.? It stands for pedal rod tubing buzz. It is a sympathetic vibration caused by a harp's pedal rod tubing assembly, the system of parts inside a pedal harp's column that connect the pedals at your feet with the mechanism above your head. It...
Not long ago, the only things that could damage a harp in a house were humidity, children, pets, and clumsiness. Now, the modern harpist must contend with a new threat: the robot vacuum cleaner. I love my robot vacuum cleaner: With two young children and a large,...
This is how I started to learn the harp: There was a form to be filled in to start learning an instrument at the Music School. I ticked the box for “Harp”. I wish everything was that simple. You choose a skill that you would like to have, tick a box, go to your...
When I was fourteen my friends and I had the habit to go to the local record store and check if we found anything exciting. It was far from every time any of us could buy anything, but the staff of the store was cool and they were all into jazz, so the jazz selection...
Being a freelance harpist and teacher, I get the opportunity to encounter a diverse spectrum of individuals. We all have our war stories dealing with personalities - the aggressive demander, the indirect-manipulator, the whimsical mind-changer. The ones oblivious to...
The most common workshops organized by the Musicians Union of Sweden, the Swedish Jazz Federation or any other of the music organizations there are in Sweden, are about social media. We are taught that we will become successful artists if we only know how to use...
