Harp Amplification

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This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 8 months ago by barbara-brundage.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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February 10, 2011 at 7:43 pm #72454

lisa-kikol
Participant

Can anyone give me the brief over view of what I need to buy

February 10, 2011 at 9:10 pm #72455

barbara-brundage
Participant

Hi, Lisa.

Well, that’s sort of like asking, “How big is a house and how much does one cost?”. There are a lot of different answers, depending on a lot of different variables. Are you talking about amplification for background music, and if so, for how large a crowd? Do you mean stage performance, church services, solo, ensemble, etc?

The least you can get away with is some kind of mic or pickup plus an amplifier and it can get a lot more complicated than that, depending.

February 11, 2011 at 3:29 am #72456

lisa-kikol
Participant

Barbara – I have played at weddings in a large 150 person convention type room and it would have been nice to add a microphone to increase the level of sound or I have played for an outdoor cafe type setting and I could like my sound to carry further to attract people to listen.

February 11, 2011 at 3:35 pm #72457

tony-morosco
Participant

If you want a good overview of amplification, the options available, with tons of pointers and definitions and explanations of how things work so that you can best figure out the correct solutions to your playing situations then I highly recommend Deborah Henson-Conant’s The Gurls Guide to Amplification.

It isn’t an overly technical or in depth explanation. It is a basic overview, but that will give you a good basic understanding of what different pieces of equipment you might want, what they do and how they are used. You will be able to walk into a music store and know what to ask and be able to understand what the people trying to help you are talking about.

There are more in depth books out there, but the thing about this one is that it deals specifically with harp amplification and so includes some of Deborah’s explanations of harp specific problems she has faced and how she and her sound people have overcome them.

February 11, 2011 at 3:41 pm #72458

barbara-brundage
Participant

Yes, that’s a very good resource, but I think the best one would be to just ask the other harpists in your area (you’re still in S FL?) to show you what they use.

One small caveat about Deborah’s book–it’s a lot of info, and in the real world you can get by not understanding everything it covers. I know plenty of harpists with successful gigging careers who manage without understanding almost anything it covers, but if you want to go into this knowing what you’re doing it’s a good place to start.
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