Changing from Isolde to Ogden

[Jennifer Van Vliet]

Hello,

A few weeks ago, I posted asking for advice on my first harp. Ultimately, I decided on a L&H Ogden. However, it’s going to be a few months waiting for it to be built, so in a couple of weeks I’m going to start renting a Camac Isolde Classic as a placeholder so I don’t have to wait quite so long to get started.

Does anyone with experience on both of these models have any advice in terms of big differences I might keep in mind as I’m beginning to learn? I understand that the Isolde has a few more strings, is a bit heavier, and has a different type of strings. Do you think that there will be certain things I’m going to have to adjust / relearn when I move to my Ogden in June?

I’m definitely going to try to arrange a few Zoom lessons in the beginning, especially for posture and hand position advice, but beyond that I may be largely self-taught for awhile, and doing a lot of reading has always been part of my learning style, so any advice is welcome!

[wil-weten]

Congratulations in advance with your Ogden.

Both the Camac Isolde Classic and the L&H Ogden have pedal gut tension.

The main difference is that the Isolde is strung with fluorocarbon strings and lever tension wire strings and the Ogden is strung with pedal gut strings en pedal wire strings.

The Ogden will sound warmer and mellower and have thicker strings.

The levers of the Camac can be flipped more easily and smoothly, but the levers of the Ogden are nice enough too.

The technique of playing those harps is exactly the same. You will even need the same force to squeeze the strings.

[Author]

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