New and need help…lever or pedal?

[HBrock25]

Hi!

[Tacye]

It is possible to play classical music on the lever harp to a high standard.

[jan-fetty]

What harp does her teacher recommend?

[deb-l]

If your daughter only played for a year on a lever harp there’s still a lot of material for her to keep learning.

[tony-morosco]

If she is playing solo there is no reason she can’t make do with a lever harp for many, many years. I used a lever harp for almost 15 years with only a few years early on renting a pedal harp, and only purchased a pedal harp because I really wanted to play full jazz improvisation, which really requires pedals. But in that time without a pedal harp I built a fairly decent repertoire of classical music all playable on lever harp.

In the time I have been playing amount of classical music being arranged for lever harp has expanded exponentially. Enough to keep someone challenged for a very long time.

And ultimately, even if she feels the need to switch to pedal harp in a year or two, if you are only renting anyway there is no loss in renting lever for as long as needed and switching when the need is felt. In the mean time you can start saving to put down a downpayment on harp of her own in the event that she really takes off with it.

[Roxie Martin]

Thank you all SOOO much…your input has been invaluable!

[kreig-kitts]

For most worship music, a lever harp will do very well. Unless you want to play the canononical (no pun intended) repertoire of sacred music written for harp, there’s a lot out there for lever harp, and lead sheets/fake books increase it a huge amount if your daughter learns to work with them.

If she might play as part of a church group, the flexibility increases even more since other instruments can take over more to fill in notes she might not have access to or give her time to change levers.

And aesthetically, while a pedal harp always catches the eyes, in many church sanctuaries the less imposing stature of a folk harp might look better, not to mention give a bit

[Roxie Martin]

Thank you, Kreig!

[patricia-jaeger]

Roxie, give this forum an idea where you are located–the U.S. or not; then the area (near Philadelphia, or near Los Angeles, near Toronto

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