Briggsie,
I think you misunderstand my reasoning. I am not saying someone who does not have a teacher will typically be able to play as well as one who does.
What I am saying is that we often assume that when someone decides to learn an instrument that they actually want to play as best they can. The truth is that the vast majority do not want to play the best they can.
To play the best you can takes years of lessons, hours and hours of practice, and lots of pain, sweat and tears.
Most people who take up an instrument don’t want to put that into it. They want to be able to play some music for their own enjoyment and perhaps for their friends, who will be much more forgiving than an audience paying to see a classical harpist perform a concerto with the local symphony.
I just think that advice needs to be geared towards the goals of the individual. If a person just wants to play the folk harp for fun at home in front of the hearth, and maybe play some Christmas carols for family at the holidays, then the idea that they need to dedicate years to study with a teacher isn’t applicable.
It is perfectly possible for most people to be able to learn to play well enough for their own enjoyment and amusement without needing years of lessons with a teacher.
That doesn’t mean that the average person will play as well self taught as if they had a teacher. It’s just that it isn’t necessary for the average hobby player because they don’t necessarily want to push it to that level.
As for hurting one’s self, I think that it is not that hard to learn to play without hurting ones self. The reason most people hurt themselves is not bad hand position. It is because they over practice.
I think that since the harp is a bit more difficult to take up those who do tend to be more driven to take it up, and as a result we tend to play more than people who take up other instruments. CT and Tendinitis are often caused by improper warming up and repetitive motion. Even with perfect technique harpists often end up with these problems. In fact the majority of the harpists I know of who have these problems are mostly professionals with those years of lessons. But being professionals they spend hours and hours every day playing, either practicing or performing.
I don’t know many hobby players, self taught or not, who have CT due to playing the harp. The more you play the more careful you need to be, but also the more likely you are to have these problems.
Again, the stress put on the hands and wrists when playing the guitar is much, much greater than playing the harp, yet the majority of guitar players are self taught and no one is overly concerned that they are all going to hurt themselves. Most do fine and
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