I would really love to play the harp, but I’m 24. Is that too late?

[unknown-user]

I was a guitar player as a teen – then had the standard kid’s piano lessons – I was 34 when a very vintage Troubadour

[bella-bella]

Wow thank you again for such informative responses. I’m really grateful for all of your replies.

I’ve been looking on Youtube at harp music and everything sounds so nice- even beginner music.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to choose which harp to play lol. I love celtic music, but would also love to be able to play piano sheet music (as some sheets you can only get for piano). It seems that a lever harp is more suited for celtic music, but a pedal is more suited for classical. However, I would like to play both :p.

Sorry, I’m very uninformed. I’ve never touched a harp before. I’m just too excited. You can hire them from a manufacturer in London for £55 over three months with £100 deposit and if you decide to keep it, you just pay off the rest.

[daniele-di]

I started at 24…

…and I`m still 24 😀

you can do it, if you really want it 🙂

[Paul and Brenda]

Never too late to learn something new.

[adam-b-harris]

Age is not a problem, but time is. I tell all my adult students that they are probably in a better position to pick up the skills than many younger students because they are possibly more focused, motivated and experienced enough to relate the skills to something they already know.

Where you run into problems is that to do this, you need to either give up something else or do less of something else. Simple as it sounds, many adults refuse to make that simple compromise and as a result get nowhere.

Give it the time it deserves and I”m sure you will do well.

[tony-morosco]

“Those are totally different animals and coordination from a pedal harp”

Sorry, but other than the pedals themselves I have to disagree. Having started on lever harp and then switching to pedal harp I can say that it is not anywhere near that difficult. While there are many things I can play on pedal harp that I can’t on lever harp simply due to the specific limitation of the lever harp, there is almost nothing I can play on lever harp that I can’t play on pedal (although some things certainly are easier to play on lever harp). I go back and forth between them all the time as do many others.

Of course there is no reason not to start with a pedal harp if you know that is what you want and can afford it, but considering that the vast majority these days start with lever before learning on pedal, and manage it just fine, is an indication that the jump from one to the other isn’t really all that big of a deal for most. Hand position and technique can be pretty much identical, and you can even get lever harps as big as small pedal harps, so there isn’t even necessarily a size difference to have to worry about.

You just have to learn to use the pedals, and really, even if you start on a pedal harp you are not going to be doing an awful lot with the pedals other than setting the key when you first start learning.

[Angela Biggs]

Bella, I suspect that once you learn enough to begin to understand the harp idiom, you’ll find “piano sheet music” just isn’t good enough anymore. The day you pick up a piece of popular music transcribed for keyboard and feel the need to arrange it for harp, you’ll know you’ve really arrived. 😀

Good luck, and I hope your harp finds you soon!

[bella-bella]

Thank you again for your replies! Sorry, I don’t have time to respond to them individually, but I appreciate every reply.

Following your advice, I have started practising on the keyboard. I’m following a children’s book which goes through the basics and basic music theory.

I thought that the pedal harp would only be needed if you’re playing in the orchestra, but if the lever harp limits what you can play, I may steer towards the pedal. I was planning to treat myself when I get my first full-time job, so I could save up for a pedal while renting.

However, considering the cost of buying a harp, what is the reason for not simply renting? I did a quick search and a pedal harp can cost around £4000, but you can rent one for three months from Pilgrim for £55. It would take about 18 years until the cost purchasing a harp becomes better value for money.

It’s okay that I wouldn’t appreciate piano music on the harp as much as harp music. I might continue to teach myself the keyboard.

[tea-s-k]

I started when I was 24 and I am know 26. It is a hobby for me purely. Had no real instrumental background and I am not a talent at all(but then I just have to pratice harder I guess) But I love it every time I sit down and play a piece of music for myself, and that is a real joy I wish for all to experience. If you are in love with the harp do not deny it. I was so fortunate to be able to rent a harp from the music school the first year, so I did not have to buy one from the beginning – maybe it is possible for you to in your area.

[tony-morosco]

If the finances for you work out better to rent then there is nothing wrong with that. I rented a pedal harp for several years. Then I had to move and so I gave up the pedal harp for many more years and had just my lever harp. Then decided I wanted a pedal harp again but this time I bought. While it may take years for the cost of rental to exceed buying, it will eventually, and so you put all that money into renting and then have to shell out even more if you decide later to buy.

Most rent to own deals have a time limit on them that is far shorter than the amount of time that it would take for your rental costs to exceed purchase cost.

Since I knew I would be playing this harp for far longer than it would take for the rental costs to exceed the purchase cost I purchased instead. But I am glad that in the beginning I rented. That gave me the time and experience to know that, indeed, I would be playing this thing for the rest of my life and so purchasing would, in the long run, be the better option.

As far as the limitations, yes, there are limitations. They really aren’t all that limiting at first, and depending on what you want to play they may not be limiting at all. Celtic and folk music, for instance, doesn’t suffer at all from any of the limitations of the lever harp. For more chromatic music, like a lot of Classical, Jazz, Contemporary pop and the like, you start to run into more issues.

However, there is plenty of music in all genres that is playable on lever harp, and more and more arrangers are specifically making arrangements of classical and other more chromatic forms of music that are playable on lever harp. That’s one of the reasons that more and more people are trying out the harp with a lever harp before deciding if they want to play the pedal harp. No matter what music you want to play you can find a fair bit in any genre that you can learn and play on a lever harp.

It’s just that there will definitely be things that you can’t play, so with a lever harp you have to accept that you can’t just go to the music store, pick some sheet music, and you will be able to play it regardless of how chromatic it is.

The flip side of that is that if you do want to play music with a fair bit of chrmaticism and you want to play things that aren’t necessarily very popular, and so can’t find easily find an arrangement already done, it really motivates you to learn and apply that music theory.

What really inspired me to progress with music theory was that period of time between pedal harps where I had only lever harps. I had gotten used to being able to play chromatic music, and now that I had a harp with different limitations I realized that if I wanted to continue to play the kinds of things I liked I would need to get creative and start altering arrangements or come up with my own. Despite a fair number of frustrations along the way I really think it helped me and definitely increased my understanding of music.

Also keep in mind that the pedal harp isn’t without it’s limitations too. All instruments, no matter what it is, has some limitations. They just have different limitations. It’s all about finding the right tool for the right job. But all else being equal it is hard to deny that the limitations of a lever harp are definitely more limiting (at least speaking strictly musically) than those of the pedal harp. The pedal harp has more limitations that have to do with practical issues, like cost of

[Tacye]

Harp rental is often a good idea to start with, but I fear you have read the wrong prices somewhere.

[bella-bella]

Thank you again, and thank you Tony, for typing so much information.

I am leaning towards the pedal harp as it gives more choice in music. I love music on celtic haps, but it would be more fun to have a wider choice.

Tacye, you’re right lol. It is £83 a month. I thought it did seem too good to be true…

How long did you all hire for before deciding which harp to buy? If you choose one, you might find out later that you need a harp with more strings. With the cost of harps, it’s such a big decision.

If you buy from a good company, with the cost of buying a harp, I would expect that all of them sound good, so the main factor would be the number of strings?

Sorry for all these questions. I could wait to ask my tutor when I get one, but I’m too excited. I hope I get a job soon!

[Tacye]

There is so much more than the number of strings- harps have character and different sounds and feel.

[bella-bella]

Are harps difficult to sell, and with 34 strings could you play piano music?

There is some music I would like to play that I could not find for the harp. Eventually, I would like to be able to play chart music, or sound tracks and you’re more likely to find the piano sheets for those.

[Tacye]

A harp is not a piano.

However, 34 strings is enough to play your own arrangement (based around whatever music you can find) of pretty much any tune.

If you are selling a known make of harp at a sensible price and don’t live in the middle of nowhere they are quite easy to sell though some models move faster than others.

[Author]

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