An Alternate Tuning for Lever Harps

[balfour-knight]

That’s right, Allison! I wanted to post an update and say that my two lever harps being tuned in the two different keys, has worked out very well, EXCEPT for one violinist!!!

The harp/violin performance was today and went very well. However, getting there—–

The violinist just could not make up her mind about the keys we were to play in. She wanted G AND F! I told her this was not possible when we planned this gig weeks ago, and that she needed to pick all sharps (C through seven sharps) or all flats (C through seven flats). Well, she finally came to terms with it when I would not give in on the issue. She selected sharps, and hand-wrote out all of her transpositions from flats to sharps! (I knew all the selections by ear/memory, so could go either way.)

Although I felt bad about her going to all that trouble transposing, maybe it will make things better when we play together in the future. One can only hope!

It is good to have a nice thaw here in the mountains and be “out and about!”

With best wishes,
Balfour

[mae-mcallister]

Hahaha this topic exploded overt the weekend:)

Let me clarify a few things:

Laurie was not playing in B on the DVD! As you have pointed out, she was playing in normal folk keys:) What I was trying to figure out was what her harp was TUNED in, by what levers were sticking up, i.e. if all levers were disengaged. The reason it caught my attention is because she starts the DVD off in Cm (when she plays that Cm chord), but some of her levers are sticking up…so she can’t be tuned in the normal key Eb, nor F or C which are other common ones. I was trying to guess from how many levers were sticking up in which keys as to what tuning her harp was in, but it was very hard to see so I could be wrong. When she was playing in Cm at the beginning, I though I saw 4 sets of notes sharped, and when she was playing in C later on I thought I saw all the levers sharped, which would support the hypothesis that the harp was tuned in B. I was juts curious as to why someone who plays a lot of folk music would tune their harp into B, it precludes playing in G, D and A, which cover 95% of the tunes I ever play. As I said, it was hard to see, I could be wrong. I vaguely remember her playing something in G too…now that doesn’t make sense…any ideas???

The key a tune is played in has far, far less to do with its history than where it came from (although there is a bit to that, the original key can often tell you where it came from and on what instrument it was written:) The reason I was giggling had nothing to do with keys, only the claim that the tunes were Scottish:) And not in a mean way – there’s a massive amount of cross pollination between Irish/Scottish and it’s an easy mistake to make as you all point out, it’s just that Drowsy Maggie is like, the number 1 All-Irish tune and so it was very funny. I don’t know what the folk scene is like in the US, over here there’s a clear distinction between Irish/Scottish/English tunes and there are many sessions that are specifically for one and not the others (plenty are free for all too) so you’d get some seriously funny looks if you walked into an Irish session and played e.g. an English tune. There are a bunch of tunes we know that people claim are Irish and they’re in fact Scottish and this is really funny. I can’t properly explain why. It’s something to do with each nation being very proud of their tunes…kind of like, imagine if maple syrup was in origin American and here are all the Canadians going round being proud of it and claiming it as their own…wouldn’t that be kind of funny? It’s similar. I didn’t mean any harm by it.

Balfour – glad the snow has cleared! I was laughing at your post too..usually G and F are quite similar, friendly keys, poor violinist:D No perfect pitch, but sysnesthesia…I ALWAYS know what keys people are playing in:D

[Biagio]

Some of the harpers around here will sharp a note that is “normally” played as a natural or vice versa. One I heard recently – Beach Spring – is an old shape note song; Harper Tasche plays it in G but throws in a natural in one place for interest.

On the DVD that got us into this discussion for awhile….Laurie very clearly states on it that Drowsy Maggie is an Irish reel, that it is played differently in Scotland, and she plays it as she heard it in Appalachia on banjo.

Believe me, she would know what it is: Laurie has been a professional musician for most of her life, performing on harp for over 30 years of that, adjudicated for 20 years with Celtic music as her specialty, backed the Chieftains in place of Derek Bell….I don’t have to go on, I think.

You were mistaken.

Biagio

[mae-mcallister]

Hmmm….I’ll have to go back and rewatch that bit.

I’m confused by your comment on accidentals because while true has absolutely nothing to do with what I was asking/suggesting. Was it just a “for interest” comment?

Also, what key WAS her harp tuned in???? This is what started it all…

[Biagio]

Mae, I just threw in the accidental comment for the sake of interest. Just got back from a workshop with Harper and we got into such variations at one point. He is a master of the cross strung and “just craved those out-of-the-home-key-notes” (his words). No real point to that except, I guess, other than with public domain folk music you get to do whatever you want. I learned Beach Spring on a steel strung lap dulcimer – boy is that a different sound!

L says it was tuned in C, but hell, that DVD was produced 15 years ago in 1999 so possibly not- no big deal. I think there’s one tune on that DVD in F – maybe that’s the answer to our question? it would make some sense to keep one tuning on a recording if possible, I’d guess. She made a face when I asked, so perhaps she’s been asked the question before:-)

At home she is always tuned to C except when she plays my Clark (Eb) or her wire (G). She made a face when I asked, so perhaps she’s been asked the question before:-)

My favorite on that recording is Wild Geese which she learned from Chris Caswell. Chris (one of my design mentors) plays it on wire and I do too – gosh I love how things get passed around in the folk harp community!
B

[Biagio]

OK I got curious about this Drowsy Maggie thing so went back to the DVD syncopation section (L. has been known to forget things – haven’t we all?).

Maggie is directly preceded by Rooftops of Langley; Laurie composed that in C for the double strung (which is also how I learned it). And that’s where she plays it on the DVD – all the levers are down.

BTW syncopation is lot easier on a 2x – give Rooftops a try on your new creation Mae, it’s fun and easy!

It looks to me as though they’re all down on Drowsy Maggie too – it’s not as easy tell with Lovelands as with Truitts (which she has on her double). So I’m guessing visually. that the harp is tuned in C. It would be really strange if it wasn’t given the DVD is about Celtic music (unless it were in F).

Another thought: could we be talking about Bonnie at Morn, but referring to Drowsy Maggie? Bonnie she plays in a minor key on the DVD – it’s typically played in G Aeolian, (Bb tuning) so maybe that’s what is going on with those levers. To be a little critical myself (sorry L) it is actually from the Border country of Northumbria; I’d bet both Scots and English could claim it but the style unique to that area.

My two shiny pennies on that:-)

Biagio

[balfour-knight]

I looked up Laurie on You Tube. She is truly wonderful! Biagio, practice hard for such a special teacher as her–it is a true honor to be able to study with her, you know!

Still digging out of EIGHT MORE INCHES of SNOW!

My best wishes to all of you,
Balfour

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