Musical range.

[unknown-user]

Hi! Have encountered several systems of defining musical range, which is of course very relevant in the harp world, with the different sized instruments with different ranges. One of the best I have come across, and apologies, I can’t recall where it was, is this one:

It’s based on the piano-the lowest note, an A, is designated A1, the next A#1 or Bb1, then B1, C1, up to G#1 or Ab1. Then the next chromatic octave goes A2 to G#2, next A3 to G#3, and so on right to the top note. Middle C is C4.

For playing songs, in my experience, a minimum range is C3-A6, while C3-C6 or D6 is better. This gives adequate bass, and such a harp should still be lap-harp size.

What do others think?

[andy-b]

I’ve not ever seen that particular way of noting range. The most common one for harps starts with the lowest note of a concert grand being C7, and going up to g00, with each octave numbered from the F to the E (C7, D7, E7, F6, G6, A6, etc). It’s also common to reference just the number of strings or octaves above and below middle C – Two octaves below middle C to three octaves above, for example.

I’ve always loved lap harps and admired those who play them. I love watching and listening to beautiful music coming from such a small harp. For my own personal playing, I prefer at least five octaves. I play my 44 string Camac more than my 34 string lever harp, but everyone’s different in what they like. That’s what makes the world of the harp so interesting.

[Tacye]

It makes rather more sense if you think that the harp string naming
starts at the top at 1st E -the top string on many early pedal harps
which I assume is when this convention started.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The Harvard Dictionary gives the designations as OO for the lowest octave, from the “Great C” on the piano downward (CBA), then O for the next higher, then 1, then 2. It is the opposite of our string ordering designations, but it is a standard for all instruments.

[william-weber]

A concert grand harp goes down to C7? Using the string convention Blevins Harps does, where C5 is one octave below Middle C, this places C7 as the lowest C on the piano. Does a concert grand harp really go this low?

[carl-swanson]

I just looked at my piano keyboard to verify what you said, and yup, the harp goes down as far as the lowest C on the piano.

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