New to harp and have some questions.

[unknown-user]

I’m looking into learning harp, but I had some questions I haven’t seemed to find answers for. They could just be sufficiently abnormal it would be hard to find out or maybe I just didn’t look hard enough.

1) Are harp strings forgiving to being tuned to different keys or are there strings made to be used to put the harp into another key?

2) Do harps stay in tune relatively well?

3) Besides electricharp.com, are there any other companies that make purely electric harps in that sort of price range?

4) Is it fairly practical to teach myself to play the harp?

[bernhard-schmidt]

Well, normal questions I would say.

Harp strings are made to stay at a certain pitch. It is not a good idea to tune the harp to diverent keys.

It depends to the harp…but harps can stay very well in tune.

I know many who teach them self to play harp…but to have a teacher

[tony-morosco]

1) you can tune any way you like, but once the strings have settled into a specific tuning they are going to want to stay there. When I decided to change the tuning on one of my harps from C to Eb I found it easier to just restring it with new string. But there are no specific string sets for different keys.

2) The answer to that question is relative. It all depends in relation to what. Compared to a piano, no. Compared to a guitar, generally yes. But still, you typically have to tune every time you sit down to play. Many things effect the tuning that have little to do with the harp itself. Temperature changes and humidity changes both

[Audrey Nickel]

One nice thing is, once the strings have settled, they typically only need a little bit of a tweak from day to day…they may slip a little flat during the winter or a little sharp during the summer, but, in general, once they’ve settled, it’s a fairly quick procedure to get them in tune (be prepared for a busy first week or so of tuning, though!).

[Christian Frederick]

Bernhard,

Please tell us more about midi harp….

[bernhard-schmidt]

Christian,

thank you for your interest …but this would change this thread completly

[Christian Frederick]

Bernhard,

I would love for you to start a thread on this subject. I know nothing about MIDI harp, but will eagarly look forward to your expertise.

I’ve thought for a long time that MIDI, not Electric Harp, may be the direction in the future for non-traditional harp. We certainly saw how MIDI has taken over the acoustic piano in many venues.

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