How would you respond?

[tony-morosco]

LOL, Ray is a very perceptive guy.

These comments remind me of an episode of Cheers where Cliff is trying to tell a harpist that the harp was once played like a guitar, because those old time troubadours had hands the size of small dogs.

People rarely refrain from commenting on things just because they don’t know what they are talking about.

[David Ice]

Love it!

[Sylvia Clark]

Sometimes if the harpist is

[liath-hollins]

I think that might be it – I regularly got comments like that when I took my (41 string!) lever harp out.

However, I still get them now that I take my concert grand out! The other day, somebody said (sounding disappointed) “Oh, is that as big as they go?”

It’s probably because

a) I’m very tall for a woman
b) People only see harps on telly and have no sense of scale.

Btw, when people make such comments, I say something like: ‘harps come in all sorts of different sizes’, then launch into a lecture on harp history that bores them into going away and bothering someone else

Dealing with irritating questions is all part of being a harpist, but you just have to smile and reply nicely. While we hear things like:

“How long have you been playing?”,
“How much does one of those cost?”
“Can you play Smoke on the Water?”

every time we go out for a gig, remember that these people have probably never seen a harp before, and that they’re interested enough to come over and speak to us is actually a compliment.

[susan-ash]

Love all the comments….they have truly made me laugh.

[Sylvia Clark]

I always sit there thinking sarcastic things like…I put it through the wash and it shrunk…. or…

[Sylvia Clark]

Ooops.

[Joe Arry]

Try something like: “It is not small, I am just too shining an talented, that everything looks small next to me:o))” (If it was guy, who asked you, you can add: “and you BTW next time do not wear so tight jeans – as I said everything

[william-weber]

If it’s a Ravenna 34, it’s easy to reply that there are even smaller ones, lap harps, and show their heights with your hands. At least they didn’t call it a lyre – I’ve gotten that at the bookstore open mike night!

[kay-lister]

. . . size

[margaret-helminiak]

Most people don’t know there are different types of harps.

[adam-b-harris]

On a related note, a question I get asked alot (regardless of which harp I am taking out) is “did you make that yourself?”. Again its probably a size related kind of question, but the people that ask that obviously don’t know the first thing about me. In high school all the other kids were onto the next thing when I was still making the candle stick holder. And my candle stick holder never looked as good as all the others. And the candles wouldn’t stand up straight.

I say no I didn’t, but somebody did. If asked if its homemade, I say I daresay it was made in somebodies home.

[Author]

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