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When I was trying out pedal harps, I felt like I had to slouch under the semi grands. I’m 5’7″ and currently have my bench at 20.5″. I usually wear about 1.5″ heels while playing.
I just had my husband try to lift both feet off the ground while keeping the torso plumb and he said it was impossible, that the balance is off. Maybe I’m missing something. I will definitely try pivoting on my heels as much as possible. Perhaps I can keep my left heel down as much as possible since there are fewer pedals over there. Maybe I’m just trying too move my feet further than is really necessary.
Thanks, Gretchen!
80 pedal changes in 35 measures?!? It will be a while before I get there. Right now I’m struggling with one every couple measures. Hahaha! I totally get the “hope you don’t fall.” The higher my bench gets, the more precarious it feels…
I am taking lessons, and my teacher is wonderful and always notices things I don’t. But her physique is about as opposite as mine as you can get, so I sometimes present her with new issues that we just have to try new things to solve them. I figured I’d turn to the helpful people here to come up with some ideas.
I will try moving my bench up a little higher.
I have been working on strength and flexibility with yoga, pilates and barre, but am open to any suggestions about positions or exercises that folks find particularly useful for this issue. I do notice that even in regular life, I find sitting straight in a chair to be uncomfortable on my hips and find sitting cross-legged or “indian style” much more comfortable. Perhaps that is some sign of a physical deficiency I’ve had for a while that I haven’t paid attention to until now.
If the sound is produced by a real harp, it has been altered so much, I doubt you’d be able to reproduce it without running it through some electronics first. If you want to get as close as possible, I’d look into an electric harp.
My teacher and I started breaking up pieces into a couple measures at a time per day. If you play those measures slowly until you get them right at least 10 times in a row you are done with that piece for the day. At the end of the week, string together what you have learned. We do this because I am always tempted to keep going instead of learning it.
You can also try learning a piece from the end that same way. Learn the last few measures, then a couple measures before that. It helps to keep from rushing ahead before you are ready, and helps you end a piece with confidence as it is the part you know the best.
It seems to be working so far! 🙂
I have a couple of thoughts, they could be useful or not.
How much do you play your harp in different places of the house? outside? I ask because as I move my own personal instrument around it becomes foreign to me because of the background, the resonance of the room, lighting, etc. I would encourage you to move your own harp to different places regularly in order to begin to get accustomed to the feeling of something being not quite right.
Secondly, as you are relatively new to music in general, I want to be sure that you know that virtually EVERYONE does worse in lessons than they do at home. There is a degree of performance in each lesson, a desire to PROVE that you worked hard all week. This, for me, often translates into issues I have never experienced at home coming out in my lessons. My harp teacher is very aware of this and will ask me (trusting me to be honest) if certain things happen regularly at home or if it was a nervous issue. Her understanding has helped me to become more relaxed about mistakes and I therefore make less now!
Also, if and when you return to lessons, make sure that you are positioned the same way at the harp. I moved my bench back about 2 inches last night and I had to do some mental adjustments. Try to come up with some ways to quickly ascertain whether you are in the right spot.
I agree that recording yourself is useful, but if you are focusing in tone color and dynamics, you may be disappointed with what you hear if you’re just using your phone or ipad. Mine cannot pick up on nuance. If, however, you need to check tempo, hear awkward moments when you’re searching for a chord or performance anxiety, recording is wonderful!
Emma,
Just curious why you would want to switch to the Ana? For the extra 2 strings? Do you like her harp better (more comfortable, sounds better, closer to pedal tension)? If it is for the extra strings alone, it is a lot of hassle, and probably won’t make much difference in your repertoire. If it is other factors, that may be a different story.
You should also consider the greater difficulty in moving it around, but that depends on what you hope to do with your harp.
Hahaha! Hilarious with the Ravenna, Biagio. We love you, Balfour! 🙂
I’d like to add that the Ogden’s screw-on, screw-off legs would drive me crazy for outside playing. They drove me crazy for inside playing, too! Look for a harp that fits into it’s case legs and all, and you don’t have to find a relatively clean spot to lay the whole thing down to put it’s legs on.
If you really want to be HEARD, you may have to consider a pickup and amp. Huge bodied pedal harps often need amplification in an outdoor setting. Dusty Strings has a well-reviewed pickup that can be installed by them into Dustys (Ravenna??) or by the owner into any harp.
Also, if you can’t make it to all of their shops, perhaps make one trip to a harp festival. Even if you don’t want to spend the money to attend workshops, there are often passes to visit the vendors. Just pick a big festival that has a lot of the harp makers you are interested in.
Each harp is going to have it’s own sound. Since each is made from wood that is a natural product and will have variation, I would never purchase a harp I haven’t played personally. Not just the style, the individual harp.
For Semi-grand vs concert grand, I would go with whatever harp you find to sound nice and fits your body. I, personally, didn’t feel comfortable behind a semi-grand, it didn’t fit my proportions well. Which is unfortunate because I really preferred the smaller size to try to fit into my Prius!! That being said, you have a different body than I do and may feel equally comfortable behind both.
It seems to me that you have access to many quality instruments. My advice would be to choose the one you don’t want to stop playing. I know you can’t put the Salvi next to a Lyon and Healy, so maybe it will take a couple return trips to begin to sort out what you like and don’t like.
I played a lot of pedal harps, even before I was ready to purchase, when I changed from lever harp. I wanted to get a feel for what is “normal.” After a while, I started to identify the things I liked and didn’t like. I was looking for an evenness of sound (some harps boom really loudly in a small range that I was hoping to not always be accounting for), a degree of projection (some feel like the sound gets absorbed back into the harp), but not too much (I think some harps get muddy because they resonate so long). But those are all the things that I found were important to me. Honestly, I found I was able to identify things I didn’t like more than things I DID like. I guess I’m a pessimist. 🙂
You seem to be concerned about quality. All of these harps are well made, by trusted manufacturers, so don’t get caught up in who makes what. Also, price doesn’t have any reflection on how much you will like the instrument. Since every instrument is different, I have played an 85CG that I liked better than a Salzedo model in the same showroom. Again, my preference.
I haven’t seen a harp dealer sell off “last year” models. Every now and then a style may go on sale.
In short, I’m afraid we will not be able to tell you what harp to get. The decision comes down to your preference. While harp sound changes with the player, it may be advantageous for you to do a blind listening to some of the harps that you are interested in. Go the the far side of the room, close your eyes and ask someone to play a few harps for you. Write down notes, come up with a score sheet and rate their sound. You are not deciding between Salvi or L&H. You are deciding between individual harps.
Ha Ha, Gretchen! I enjoyed the pun, whether it was intended or not. 🙂 I will definitely be working on downward arpeggios and will look into those neck and shoulder stretches. Thanks!
You all are absolutely right.
I did go see the Alexander Technique teacher here in town, and while he had some exercises which made me aware of where in my body I hold tension and where I have difficulty releasing it, it will be quite a while before I learn enough about AT and he learns enough about harp to really address my issues before they become worse.
Angela, I also noticed while playing an easy piece I know well and trying to remain relaxed that I was, indeed, holding my breath and didn’t even know it!
Instead of AT, I am doing an intensive relaxation boot camp (sounds counter-intuitive) with my harp teacher. I am not going to play anything for at least two weeks that is not warm up exercises done at a speed where I can relax between and after every plucked string. It is definitely taking a lot of mental concentration to make sure I’m not zoning out and going back into old habits.
Right now I am focusing on releasing my shoulders, and letting my forearms almost “hang” from my elbows (not physically, my forearms are parallel to the floor, but mentally). As I am being taught in the Salzedo style, it finally makes sense why my elbows are up, before I was almost holding my arms up by my grip on the strings (again, not really, but to some degree), and elbows up just seemed like a waste of effort. It is a very different feeling, and I know that my future playing ability and comfort is going to be very much related to how well I can make this transition intuitive.
I would like to know how some of you folks “envision” relaxation. I have found that there are so many ways to do things and some ways “speak” to individuals better than others.
Each harp is going to have it’s own “quality” regardless of the make or style. Yes, it is probably harder to find a good Chicago, but they are out there, I’m sure. It is probably going to be easier to find a good 85CG than a Chicago, though. One of the best harps I ever played was a 100. (Of course, all statements are to my own particular taste in sound and response).
I am not good enough or patient enough to get the Camacs I tried to sound the way I wanted. I have heard others make magic on them, but that magic doesn’t seem to be in me 🙂
It’s going to come down to which individual harp you like the best, as another Arion won’t be the same as the one you tried in person. What held you back from the Arion? Wanted options?
