New to pedal harp!

[Ohnahnettie]

I just got a L&H 85P yesterday! I’d like to get a consensus on how people approach the pedals. There is a delightful guy on Youtube named Josh Layne who recommends playing in socks, and not keeping the heels on the floor. It doesn’t seem to work too well for me. Maybe my feet are too small (6-1/2)? Yolanda Kondonassis’ book recommends keeping the heels down, wearing thin-soled shoes, and making the pedal changes using one diagonal motion instead of up (or down) and over.

What do you guys do?

Thanks!
Jane

[Tacye]

My teachers recommended trying sensible sorts of heeled shoes and definite down across or across up motions. I seldom follow the heel advice, but when I was lazy and tried to cut corners with the pedals it wore out the felts much faster and I find that way is a bit noisier.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

What works for man-sized Josh Layne is less likely to work for a woman-sized gal with smaller feet. You need some leverage to work the pedals. The best shoe I have seen is a flamenco or jazz dance shoe, with a full metal shank, and a solid heel of stacked leather. Keeping your heel on the floor prevents noise from suddenly hitting the floor with your shoe, and keeps you oriented. And you want a rubber sole for grip on the floor and the pedals, but a thinner sole can help give you feel for the pedals. You can also use a suede sole, like on a ballroom dance shoe. But harder soles are an asset, too.

[gorman-jones]

I use the same shoes that I wear to play the organ made by a company called Organ Master. They have thin soles but the heels are built up a little. They work extremely well for both instruments.

[Loonatik]

I am not a professional and don’t have specific playing shoes. So I have played the harp with all sorts of shoes, incl. barefoot and socks. Even flipflops work… ok, crocs and wide soles might be unpractical at times, i would not use those if the piece requires a lot of pedal changes. If the sole of the shoes are too rigid (I do have one pair of trekking shoes like that) then I don’t really feel the pedals anymore, and that was indeed disturbing for me.

No specific rules for me whether heels up or down. I guess it works as long as I get them right/precise, swift and silent. Mostly I have heels down on the outer pedals, but heels up on the inner pedals. Having heels down at a B flat and E flat position causes pain around my ankles as my foot would have to be flexed up so much.

[Alison]

I generally practise in a flat pair at home and in rehearsals, have a different pair with heels for orchestral concerts in my concert bag and occasionally find a work which definitely needs heels, such as the Debussy Dances. I wouldn’t play much in socks or barefoot, in case I hurt myself, as some pedal changes take a bit of let’s say, commitment. The dance shoes sound like a good idea. They all get a bit scuffed on top – so I don’t like using best shoes and moreover, to keep everything clean, I wouldn’t play with shoes that have been out in the street…. The worst thing for me is a wooden or parquet floor in heels, so noisy and slippy when playing as I am used to carpet. Stone floors are not so bad somehow.

[Author]

Posts