I want to play the harp!

[james]

Thank you very much wil-weten!
What a great help.
I’ve watched quite a few videos now from harpists already mentioned, and together with the advice I’m getting, I feel a lot more informed.

[james]

Hello Balfour,
Many thanks for the excellent description of lever and pedal harps. Obviously a harp with neither would be very restricting. I have a couple of old glockenspiels, which are in C, but come with an F# and a Bb for expansion.

You said the pedal harp is tuned in C flat – isn’t that rather confusing? Or is it just “one of those things you get used to”?

Anyway, with help from you and others, I feel a lot more engaged in the harp business.
Kind regards,
James

[james]

Hello Biagio,
What a great story! It sounds like you’re a hobby woodworker, so I’m sure building the instruments is a large part of the fun for you. I will avoid that particular option, but you are, as you say, lucky to be where there are many other harpists.
I bought an electric theatre organ after having having seen one played in an old cinema!

I think my next move is to find a teacher.

Kind regards,

James

[james]

Thank you, Balfour,
That’s (for me) the fundamental fact I needed – and have discovered over the past few days. Having started on piano at about 8, then played many different instruments, the harp was a bit of a mystery. Knowing what I now know I can understand why the harp is regularly used for playing glissandos – because it can! By setting the right levers or pedals you can play in any key, whereas a keyboard instrument (prior to synthesisers) could only play in C major.

I feel a lot more confident about now approaching teachers and looking for a lever harp to rent.

Kind regards,

James

[wil-weten]

Hi James, harps without levers are a bit less limiting than you perhaps would suspect. You simply tune all the strings into the key you would be playing in. As to the fact that chromatisms would be impossible, there are several solutions to evade that limitation.

Cynthia Cathcart, who is an authority on the subject of wire strung harps, has written this article with several solutions (there are more of them, but this will give you some idea). http :// www dot
cynthiacathcart dot com/articles/accidentals_sans_levers dot html.
You may like to know that wire strung harps are usually without levers (though there are a few that do have levers, but that’s quite a different discussion)

Pedal harps and most lever floor harps are tuned in E flat. For the lever harp this means that the harp is tuned in E flat when all levers are down. In order to play than in let’s say C major, you would flip all the levers above all E’s A’s and B’s up. When you need accidentals, you flip them while playing (for how you do that, you could find several videoclips in which this is shown).

Anyway, as is mentioned above, both pedal harps and lever harps are diatonic instruments with chromatic possibilities, but don’t expect the same ease you can play accidentals as when you are playing the piano.

[balfour-knight]

Dear James,

Thanks for all your responses. It sounds like you love music and musical instruments like we do!

In answer to one of your questions, I play lever harp and pedal harp professionally, as well as piano and organ. Some harp players only do lever, and some only do pedal, depending on their preference. Each kind of harp has its advantages and disadvantages, as you are discovering. You never have the “freedom” of sitting at a harp like you can at a piano and having everything laid out for you without having to change levers or pedals!

The C flat tuning of the pedal harp is very normal. Tuned that way, it appears like it is tuned in C when you sit down to play it, and if your “perfect pitch” is not too affected by it, you just play like you are in C Major! By placing all seven pedals down just one notch, you arrive in the actual key of C, which I just do automatically when I sit down to my pedal harp. Then, placing all the pedals down one more notch, you will be in the Key of C sharp major. Neat, huh? As you said, it is a transposing instrument!

The Keys of G and G flat look the same on the harp pedals, all of them just down one more notch for G than they are for G flat. So are E and E flat, D and D flat, etc. You can place the pedals in any position to accomplish various glissandos in ANY key! Check out Sylvia Woods’ pedal gliss chart to see the amazing possibilities.

In my humble opinion, the pedal harp is easier and much more convenient to play with pedals moved by the feet than the lever harp is with having to move levers with the hands. However, there is that different beauty of tone with the lever harp and of course, its portability. But playing both types, if I could only have one, it would be my gorgeous Camac concert grand pedal harp!

Hope this helps.

Have a great day,
Balfour

[balfour-knight]

Hi Wil and James!

I was writing my post as Wil sent hers, so I just read it and wanted to add something.

Single-action pedal harps were traditionally tuned in E flat, but Double-action pedal harps were, and are, tuned in all flats, C flat, to enable the harp to play in All Keys.

Thanks for all your posts, my friends.

Cheers,
Balfour

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by balfour-knight.

[wil-weten]

Thanks for enlightening me, Balfour. I once almost bought a single action pedal harp (commonly tuned in E flat). I didn’t know that double action harps (so the ‘common’ pedal harps) are commonly tuned in C flat.

Anyway, now I understand why it makes sense for double action harps to be tuned in C flat.

As James lives in Germany, he might encounter several single action pedal harps from Germany or neighbouring countries (in German: Einfachpedalharfen), like Mürnseer, Zangerle (now retired, but Regelsberger is to build his models), Fischer, Riedel and more.
In the Netherlands (where I live) Masumi Nagasawa of the Maastricht Conservatory is specialized in single action harps. You may like to google her on youtube.

Single action harps are a lot cheaper than double action harps, but one can only make them sound half a note higher (just like the lever harp), not also half a note lower (like the double action harp). Usually they have no more than 40 strings and often their tension is significantly lower than the tension of a double action harp. As far as I know, the single action harps that sound most like an ‘ordinary’ pedal harp, are built by Mürnseer.

[wil-weten]

Of course, there a specicalty harps, you may be interested in the chromatic cross strung harp. In Germany, that’s almost always a 6×6 (in the US usually a 7×5). Cross strung harps are really chromatic harps!

Anyway, Google in youtube on ‘chromatische Harfe’ in combination with resp. Saitenwürstchen, Reidun and HarpForest.

I was interested in them for quite a while, but in the end, I realised that most music I like is diatonic with the occasional accidental. Also, there is way more nice sheet music than I could master in my whole life…

When you are interested, go to chromatiker dot de

[Biagio]

Regarding tuning, single double and no action etc…..a few remarks:

-During the first year or so the beginning “harperist” will be learning effective technique, so to my mind it does not matter very much, other than in looking to the future. James should understand that wrt to single action a full set of levers constitutes about 15%-20% of the total cost depending on other factors such as the choice of wood. Accidentals will be minimal at this stage; the student will likely be playing in only one key.

-Depending on the student’s interests it may be most logical to tune to Ebmaj on a lever harp, despite the fact that many (most?) tunes for beginners are in Cmaj. This does not really have a bearing on the choice of model.

-Assuming one does not wish to invest the cost of an SUV it does not make much sense to me to buy a pedal harp right away, nor even a high-end lever harp unless you are sure that you will keep if forever.

[Side note to James] Well, yes I enjoy harp design but that was not the point I was trying to make. Rather there were two: a) your interests and needs will likely change and b) in my experience, beginners spend far too much time on the minutae comparing one harp to another. Rather, they would be better off choosing an instrument designed for the style they most enjoy. Love the Celtic style? get one with low tension, 34 strings. Prefer the orchestral classics? at least 36 and preferably 40 strings, gut strung and high tension.

Cheers,
Biagio

[charles-nix]

@biagio: Amen! Buy used, rent, buy new, but find a teacher and a harp and start playing. Don’t sweat finding the perfect harp–because there is no such thing. If the harp isn’t working for what you end up wanting to do with it, sell it on and get a different one. Even from new, the depreciation is the least expensive part of owning a harp. (if you consider strings, regulation, teachers, music!)

[balfour-knight]

Well put, Charles!

[wil-weten]

I agree that finding a harp teacher before buying or renting a harp is a great idea.

Now about finding a harp teacher: of course it would be great if you could take lessons locally. But before you do, find out whether the local teacher would be a great fit, technically, and of course, also personally.

Some teachers insist that after one or two years you ‘upgrade’ to a pedal harp. That’s fine if you dream of a pedal harp, but if you have set your heart on a lever harp and play lots of non classical music, you may discover that you need a different teacher.

Other teachers like to teach both pedal harps as well as lever harps. In your place, I would try and find such a teacher. Teachers of pedal harps tend to give a lot of attention to good posture and hand technique in order to prevent chronic injuries. The techniques you learn on a pedal harp are great for most lever harps too. When you would prefer a low tension strung lever harp, you may have to learn not to overplay the strings and you would have to damp the lower strings more often than when playing an intermediate or heavily strung lever harp.

Also, some teachers offer online lessons through Zoom or Skype. This could help you progress most in times of lock downs because of covid-19.
If you like a specialty harp like a cross strung harp or a double strung harp, the chances are very slim that you can find a local harp teacher teaching that way. Then you most probably would have to seek a teacher teaching online.

So, try to get a trial lesson before you decide on taking lessons every week or fortnight.

[balfour-knight]

Good points, Wil! I also wanted to add that most teachers have a preferred “tuning” that they want the student to use while learning whichever method the teacher prefers. Like Biagio stated, if all the exercises and pieces stay in the key of C, then the C tuning, even with no levers, would work for a while. It would be only when a new piece used F sharps or B flats that something would need to change. These Key Signature sharps or flats could indeed be tuned on the harp without levers. A levered harp would definitely be needed for accidentals, though, or some way of producing those notes quickly and temporarily!

Seek out the teacher first, and make sure it is a good fit. Then think about renting a harp to see how you like it!

Best regards,
Balfour

[james]

To Wil, Balfour, Biagio and Charles-
Thank you all very very much. Your posts have answered all my questions and given me a few extra tips, too.

I will now begin my search for a teacher – which may take some time.
Due to Lockdown all music lessons at the local school are now being held online, and I haven’t seen the harp teacher along the road recently.

Thanks again for your help so far!

[Author]

Posts