anyone else find a patterned carpet offputting?

[armande-fryatt]

I don’t know about you, but I do find a patterned carpet off-putting. Give me a wooden floor anyday, that way I can see the strings! I think I might get a piece of plain carpet to take with me!

[jessica-wolff]

Any kind of carpet swallows up some of the sound. OTOH a clay tile floor makes the harp reverberate like mad.

[Affeltranger@att.net]

I carry a piece of black cotton velveteen in my “emergency bag” which mostly stays in the car.

[Karen Johns]

Oh goodness yes! I’ll never forget the time I had to play at a country club that had this god-awful checkered carpeting. Absolutely horrible time trying to see the strings.

[Sylvia]

Amen, Sister.

[kay-lister]

I remember I was playing a gig and a woman in a wildly flowered dress suddenly appeared on the right side of me – THE ENTIRE HARP PRACTICALLY DISSAPPEARED!!!

[David Ice]

And all it takes is a moving plaid among the violins (during a rehearsal) and the strings disappear, too!

I played a concert in a new hall with blonde hardwood floors…and the slats lined up perfectly with the strings and everything totally disappeared.

[kreig-kitts]

I had a teacher whose hardwoods had a very distrinct light/dark grain pattern, and strings disappeared when holding the harp at certain angles.

[tony-morosco]

Yes, I always carry a dark piece of cloth I can put down if necessary. It doesn’t happen too often. I can typically adjust. But some patterns are just impossible to cope with, so always have something you can put down just in case.

[armande-fryatt]

crikey I have really hit

[harp guy]

I once played celtic harp at a luxury resort nearby (it’s a big castle that’s been turned into a resort). I played in the music room, and what a disaster. Dim lighting, and the most horrid carpet for harping. It was burgundy with white swirling flowers. Put all of that together, and it was nauseating. It was almost as bad as a time that I played with a large wind ensemble. they had me on the right side of the stage and up front. To look at the strings you had to look right at the lights at the bottom of the stage.

I politely asked to move and they obliged. Every harpist prior and after me had done the same thing!

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I have found that a footlight helps, as it shines on the strings. Walter Pfeil equipped one of his harps with an l.e.d. attached to the brass plate.

I have trouble with solid colors, too, when they are the wrong color. Like rusty orange. I can see the strings, but when they start to vibrate, they disappear. Treacherous.

[Gillian Von Severinghousen]

OMG that happened to me my very first professional gig

[steven-todd-miller]

This thread is so funny! I never thought others had this same experience. And it’s always your longest gigs, too- receptions, anniversaries, parties. The rug pattern mocks you: “Look at my swirly fleur-de-leis! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

[deb-l]

>hey I bet no-one else plays with a parrot on their shoulder. I should put that on youtube!

Yes

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