Warm Up for Winter

—by Angela Schwarzkopf

It’s that time of year again. The trees are bare, the air is crisp, and flecks of white are falling from the sky. Winter can be a magical time of year—ice skating, hot chocolate, and warm fires. But for harpists it can also be a treacherous season full of difficult harp moves over ice and snow, precarious driving conditions, and dry and cracking fingers.

While most people change their wardrobe and maybe their snow tires at the onset of winter, harpists are faced with a range of seasonal challenges. You have to “winterize” your harp life—from your studio, to your harpmobile, to your body.

Don’t be left out in the cold; find out from the experts how to protect yourself and your instrument from the harsh winter elements.

Skin Care

Take a close look at your hands in the dead of winter, and they are likely to resemble a dry, cracked desert landscape. When the winter air drains moisture out of your skin, cracking skin down your fingers and under your nails can result.

New York dermatologist and musician Dr. Judith Hellman recommends some general winter skin can tips that can help harpists.

“It’s important to keep the hands warm (with gloves) and moisturized to prevent cracking (hand eczema),” she says. “Before playing the instrument, clean with regular soap, not antibacterials like Purell, which really dries the skin and causes irritation.”

Away from the harp, Dr. Hellman recommends any kind of good hand cream, being sure to wash it off before using the harp and reapplying it after. “At night, sleeping with hand cream and cotton gloves or even plastic wrap can help absorption (of the cream),” she says.

For the common harp-specific issues of dry skin on the finger pads and cracking on the finger tips, she recommends seeing a dermatologist for medical prescription creams, usually cortisone creams, and to moisturize aggressively.

Fill in the Cracks

Cracked fingertips can be extremely painful and even debilitating, as any harpist who has experienced them will tell you. That’s probably why harpists are always searching for a magic product to keep the cracks under control. Harpist Gianetta Baril of Alberta, Canada, suffers from extremely bad skin cracking. She admits, “I honestly have never found anything to totally prevent cracks on my thumbs. But, when I feel the tiniest crack starting, I use a tiny drop of nail glue—the stuff you use to attach false nails—to keep it from getting worse.” Baril says that stopping skin cracks in their tracks with nail glue has been a career saver. “I had tried so many different things, all of which did not work. I was seriously wondering how I could keep up playing. Once I found this solution, thanks to a bass player colleague, it changed my life and the joy of playing returned.”

Count to 60

Schlepping your instrument to gigs is never much fun, but throw some frigid temps and slick sidewalks in the mix and moving your harp can be downright dangerous. Warming up your car before you load your harp and wearing some sensible shoes with traction go without saying. But harp technician Karen Rokos recommends taking extra precautions to minimize your harp’s time in the cold when the thermometer dips well below freezing.

“Once the outdoor temperature reaches the mid-20s, you have to start being more careful about not shocking the finish of the harp, which is the first part to be affected by the cold,” she says. “The lacquer and the wood expand and contract at different rates as they are different materials. If your harp is in a warm home and you take it outside when it is below 20 degrees F, you have about 60 seconds before the finish can be damaged.” Rokos says the cold can cause “crazing” in the lacquer, usually on the soundboard. “This is not possible to repair without totally stripping the finish and having the lacquer reapplied,” she says.

A heavy cover will help protect the harp, but it won’t significantly extend the amount of time you can safely have your harp outside. In very cold weather, Rokos takes the extra step of placing a blanket on the soundboard and then covering the harp with a heavy transport cover. “I do think this has helped avoid the lacquer damage,” she says, “but I still count the seconds once the harp is outside in transit.”

There’s No Place Like Home

Your home is usually the environment you and your instrument spend the most time in, so it’s important to get the temperature right—especially in the winter. Harp technician Jason Azem gives his clients a great rule of thumb about their harp’s environment: “If you’re comfortable, then your harp will be comfortable,” he says. More specifically, Azem recommends a general range of 60–75 degrees F (15–24 degrees C).

It’s Not the Heat, it’s the Humidity

Regulating the humidity in your harp’s home is crucial when the outdoor humidity plummets. Most harpists and technicians agree that you should keep your harp room’s humidity level above 30 percent, with between 40 and 60 percent humidity being the ideal range. Keep an eye on your humidity level by putting a hydrometer in your harp room. A hydrometer measures the level of moisture in the air. It’s affordable and can be found at most hardware stores and online. If your humidity level is low, run a cold air humidifier (keeping it a reasonable distance from your harp). A cold mist humidifier uses a rotating disc under the water that breaks up the water particles and disperses the cold mist into the air. You do not want to use a warm mist humidifier or vaporizer. They heat the water and disperse steam into the air and onto the objects closest to it, like your harp. You could also consider using a Dampit humidifier made specifically for instruments, such as Venus Harps recommends.

Wardrobe Change

No one wants to play a gig with frozen fingers, so dress for the weather. You never know when an old drafty church will have the heat turned down during a rehearsal or a concert hall will overcompensate for the residual heat of the audience by keep ing the thermostat too low. Dress in layers and even keep a pair of fingerless gloves and hand warmers in your gig bag in case you get desperate. Alaskan harpist Joanna Mergler Mayer says her winter harp wardrobe consists of layers—all concert black, of course—leggings, thick tights, scarves, and fingerless gloves. “My favorite item is my ‘Skhoop’ snow skirt, in concert black,” she says. “These skirts (available online for $125-$200) are designed by brilliant Scandinavian women who wish to remain warm and fashionable at the same time.”

With a little preparation and a healthy dose of respect for Mother Nature, you can weather this winter with confidence and enjoy the beauty of the season.

With a little preparation and a healthy dose of respect for Mother Nature, you can weather this winter with confidence and enjoy the beauty of the season. •