Harp sighting on Glee

[mark-andersen]

Did anyone else notice the Bronze L&H 23 on Glee tonight? It was seen sitting in the music room from several angles and then finally “played” in one of the songs. Unfortunately to my eyes and ears what we saw was a student pretending to play with a sadly bad technique and the sound of either a synthesizer or some wire strung instrument. It was certainly not the sound of gut strings on a 23 by any stretch of the imagination and the hand and finger movements did not match the music at all.

[sherry-lenox]

How sad! An opportunity to attract new students wasted.

[jimmy-h]

Thats just how TV land works sadly. They might have had a real harpist play something and pretended to be recording that for the show then just dubbed it over after the fact without telling him/her (I didnt see it). It happened to a friend of mine. She got a bit part on a made for TV movie and was so excited then they dubbed over her with another voice just for fun. I was so sad for her.

[kreig-kitts]

They used to have a girl in the voiceless band who played harp on some numbers. She had a mahogany Venus Diplomat and the parts sounded like real harp though they were usually small. I don’t know if she really played it but at least some of the band members can really play, if nothing else so it looks convincing on screen. One of them is interviewed at @http://www.adampknave.com/2011/04/04/an-exclusive-interview-with-glee-band-member-scott-henson/ and another at @http://www.adampknave.com/2011/03/31/an-exclusive-interview-with-glee-band-member-john-lock/ . The second was cast through the Musicians Institute of Hollywood so there met have been some desire for a musician. But some of the more part-timers, like the girl who hangs in the back on a violin and sounds like an entire studio string section? Who knows.

[marguerite-lynn-williams]

Hi Mark,
Which episode are you talking about? (sorry, I don’t currently watch the show)
They’ve used several different harpists over the years. I can’t speak for the others, but one was a harpist who attended the Eastman School of Music with myself and plays a gold 23. She’s done a few episodes lately including recording the actual music and appearing on screen. I can assure you that she has excellent technique and a wonderful tone, but you never know what they do post-production to the recording. She’s actually mentioned before that she does a lot of sitting on set and doesn’t get many seconds of screen time.

[mark-andersen]

It was the episode that aired on April 24. I have seen the gold 23 before and realized that it was being played but this it was one of the new “bronze” 23s that are painted bronze and mahogany. The person sitting behind it was making some motions with “claw” hands (using all five fingers) and the movement bore no semblance to what we heard. The sound was definitely a synthesizer. Very disappointing. I do know that they have used a real harpist in the past.

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