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When I was pregnant with my first child, my harp triggered morning sickness. I didn’t know why, and it made me so sad!! I simply couldn’t bring myself to play (or even look at it) for a few months! Eventually that went away–thankfully!–and when I got back into playing again everything was fresh and new. Sounds like lots of good advice above, I’m sure you’ll get back to loving to play again!
I did have prior musical knowledge–piano lessons, flute, and guitar for most of my childhood, through high school. I agree with Jennifer that having some music theory, especially chord inversions is very helpful. But really, you can learn music on any instrument, and the harp is so beautiful that I think it really motivates. 🙂 I didn’t use Pamela Bruner’s or Sylvia Woods’ books, but I have heard very good things about them both. I mostly listened to LOTS of celtic music (that’s mainly what I play) and harpers in particular (Grainne Hambly and William Jackson are two of my favorites), and watched videos on YouTube. Good luck, and have fun!
I started on a lap harp, and I think it worked out just fine. 🙂 I personally prefer my harps to go down to at least C below middle C (Eve only goes down to G), but I played an Eve all summer, and I quite enjoyed it. It is good for outdoor playing, very lightweight but also quite sturdy. I think you should go with whatever harp you want! I’m hoping to someday have a small double-strung harp, to have more room for each hand to play, but still be portable.
When I first started playing, I was working as a substitute teacher. I landed a long-term sub job, and used part of that income (the rest basically went to my student loans…) to buy a cheap Mid-East heather harp. Very soon after that, I knew I wanted to keep playing, and wanted a better instrument, so started saving. About a year after that, my husband and I found out we had been seriously overpaying our taxes, and ended up with a huge refund-oops! ( I mean, we were very pleased, but also felt silly to have overpaid like that…) so we decided to use a good chunk of that to go in the harp fund. That fall, I purchased my Delight. We did use Allegro to finance some of it, but it was a fraction of the total amount and we knew we would pay it off quickly–which we did.
I wear my wedding ring and a right-hand ring. Sometimes I wear a right-hand bracelet. I don’t usually have any trouble, but my ring bands are very narrow and light.
That was great! Wow! Are you sure you haven’t been playing for much longer than a few months? 😉 I really liked that, thanks for sharing!
I use a Korg tuner with the clip-on pickup that came with it. I clip it inside one of the sound holes, and I set the tuner on the music stand or my knee. I’ve never had any trouble with it not “hearing” the notes or anything.
I had no problems with them. It was an easy enough process, and I also liked that there is no penalty for paying off early.
I never would have thought I’d even get to *visit* Scotland, let alone live there for a year! I had some ancestors from Fife (right where I’ll be, coincidentally) a few generations back, and I just couldn’t be more excited to go, for the musical opportunities, and so many other reasons!
And, I love my harp. I know carbon fiber isn’t for everyone, but it is exactly what I need. 🙂I’ve been enjoying “Stairway to Heaven”–which I started after suggestions in the last “What’s on your music stand?” post. 🙂
Also, I’m trying to become more comfortable singing while playing.
I’m not actually doing anything else *new*, but I am trying to memorize more of the tunes I regularly play.
In about 8 weeks, I am moving to St. Andrews, Scotland, and will be saying a sad but *temporary* goodbye to my lovely harp (my family will be there for one year, then returning to the States). I’m just spending as much time as I can playing, playing, playing everything I know before then! (Thankfully, I will have a lap harp while living there, but it’s not the same as my Delight…) I look forward to learning more about traditional Scottish music while I am there, and expanding my repertoire!I haven’t seen this one in any books I own, but here is one that has it arranged for harp and flute.
https://www.harpcenter.com/product/kolle-northern-folk-harp-book/harp-music-books-celtic
Beautiful tune, isn’t it? 🙂Here are a couple threads from this forum about those harps. There are many more about them, too, but it’s a start. 🙂
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/amateur-harpists/posts/45082
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/harps-and-accessories/posts/61354
