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Aww, what a sweet boy and a beautiful harp. 🙂
I have a son about your son’s age who plays violin. I wish he enjoyed playing with me as much as I enjoy playing with him. 🙂 I accompany him on piano more than harp. He knows mostly old time fiddle tunes, which don’t go so well with the harp. Sometime I hope we can find something to play together at church.
If you ever make a video of your family playing together, please post it. I would love to see it.
Jodi,
I use musescore too, and I can relate with how tedious it can be. I haven’t used either of the other programs, but if you look on youtube, I bet you can find videos that help you know if note entry is easier on other programs.
Did you know you can enter notes with the keyboard letters? It’s not always the best way, but for example, if you are doing a scale of eighth notes, you can select the 1/8 note and enter the notes in using keyboard letters. It sometimes helps. It will usually put the new the note in the octave closest to the last note you input. I assume you already know that you can fix a wrong note by selecting it and using up/down arrow keys. It’s easier than dragging it with the mouse.
What I am really interested in is programs which use a touch screen and you “write” the music in. There is StaffPad, and there are also some apps for music writing. I saw one made by by Kawai that looked pretty good. I’ve never used any app/program like this, but I’d really like to try them out sometime. They look awesome. If staff pad really is as great as they make it look, I would consider buying a surface tablet just for that.
Anyway, look around youtube. Maybe you’ll find answers there. 🙂
As for scanning….I’m afraid I’m no help there. Let us know if you find something that works. It would be great be to able to edit/transpose music easily and quickly!
This may not be helpful, but….here are my thoughts.
1) building a harp would be a fascinating experience. If it turned out sounding good, and if I learned a lot about my instrument from it, I would not consider it wasted time or money, even if I didn’t play or keep the instrument long term.
2) as for repertoire, there is a lot of lever harp music that is not so difficult, and it may not be hard or time consuming to build a suitable lever repertoire, depending on what your venues and tastes dictate…that would be up to you. In other words, whether a lever harp would be useful depends on what you would use it for. You could improvise or adapt some of the music you currently play. Even if it’s just for your own pleasure to play at home, if it brings you joy, then it’s worth it.
3) I don’t currently own a pedal harp, but when I do get one (which I have been wanting for a very long time), I don’t plan on selling my current harp. Aside from not being able to bear to part with it, there are several Other reasons for keeping it. If I were to teach lessons, there’s a good chance students would be learning on a lever, so having one means they don’t have to haul theirs from home. Even if I had a pedal harp, I think I would take he lever harp out now and then. For example, once in a great while I play for church, which generally includes only one piece, so if it can be played on lever harp, it would make sense to take the smaller one. However, my perspective may be different, as I have played on lever only all these years.
Hope this is helpful. Keep us updated. 🙂
Byouke,
Yes, that is a viable solution. You can tune your harp to whatever key you’d like. No matter how the lever harp is tuned, there will be a few keys (1 or 2) that will be impossible to play in. There are two strategies: 1. Pick the key you care about the least, and tune accordingly. 2. If you just can’t bear to be without any of the available keys, you can retune your harp to play the notes you want it to play for individual song(s). This can be time consuming, but may be worth it to you. If you like d flat and don’t ever play in keys with more than 2 sharps, you can keep it tuned that way.
I use a digital tuner when I’m tuning the whole harp, but if I have come across one or two strings that need adjustment, I will usually tune by ear. If you have a smartphone or tablet, there are several free apps that are a good substitute for a digital tuner.
Patricia,
About 15 years ago I almost bought a camac mademoiselle harp (from a dealer in USA). It had levers which were pulled down to sharp the string. I don’t know if they are still made this way, and it’s the only lever harp I’ve ever seen whose levers weren’t flipped up for sharps. I always wondered why it was made “backward.” I hadn’t connected it with pedal harp mechanism also moving downward for a sharp. Interesting.The company you mentioned has a smart score app ($10 I think) that claims to capture printed music, then convert to .mxl files, which can then be imported to notation software on a computer, for further editing. If it really does this accurately, it’s better than spending $200 for basically the same thing. Although to expect a $10 app to do as well as a $200 program seems too good to be true. It might be worth a try, if it I will save you $190.
There are also some other tablet/smart phone apps that claim to take a picture of music and export it as a .xml file, so that may be worth looking into.
If you are ok with entering the entire score into notation software, I’d go with musescore or finale notepad. I know musescore has worked on getting an editable score from a PDF, but when I tried it (maybe a year ago?) I had no success. Maybe they’ve improved since then?
Please let us know what you decide to go with and how it works…I’d be interested in being able to easily and quickly transpose or edit a score. 🙂
I have seen some youtube videos for staff pad, and it looks amazing!!! Thank you, Kimberly, for pointing out the version for windows 10! I didn’t want to buy a surface tablet just for music writing, so I’m happy to know it’s no longer required!
I thought the same thing when I saw this video a few months ago. :). I know it would take me a LOT of practice. Those girls are a very unique pair, that’s for sure.
I may be old fashioned, but I think it’s best to break the news face to face, if possible. Phone call is second best, and email or text is probably at the bottom of the list. It depends somewhat on how you normally communicate outside of lessons, etc. the “rules” have changed with all the new ways of communicating, but that’s my 2 cents.
Just tell her what you said here–that you have enjoyed these past six months, but you would like to try a different teacher. Then send a card in the mail expressing your appreciation. Anyone who teaches must be prepared for the eventuality of their students leaving them, so hopefully she will know how to handle it with grace.
Good luck. 🙂
There is an arrangement in “my wedding book” by Suzanne Balterston. It has arrangements of 25 classical/traditional wedding pieces. It’s a nice book.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I am not perfect at it yet but I have made some improvement.
I play a l&h prelude. I often just play an octave above. I don’t see rh harmonics that often in lever harp music, either. Probably why I’m not very good at it, lol. The piece that brought this subject asks for harmonics in the octave above middle c, so string length isn’t an issue, but they are sometimes 1/8 notes–fast rh for harmonics, for me.
A mini van with two bucket seats for the second row is probably your best bet. You can fit the harp in between the seats (upright, on the column) and still fit up to four people in it. Usually the back seat will fold down into the cargo space so you don’t have to completely remove the seat. I think most mini van makers offer the two separate seat option. We owned a ford freestar and it was fine, as far as mechanics and maintenance.
I drive suburban (with the middle row a 2/3 split. I can fit my prelude by only folding the back seat down, but you would have to remove the back seat and fold down part of the middle seat to fit a pedal harp. It would still carry a harp and 3 people. And probably lots of room for all your other stuff too. Depending on how often you would use the back seat and how often you are moving the harp, you could just leave it out most if the time. One thing to consider with a suburban (or ford explorer, Yukon, etc.) is it is higher off the ground–harder to lift the harp into it. But it is an option, if you don’t want a mini van.
You could try a smaller SUV, such as a ford freestyle. If I remember right, it has 3 rows, with the middle row having two separate bucket seats. You would have to check to make sure it fits. I think the back seat folds, but I don’t know if it stows flat or if you would have to completely remove it. Bring your harp to try loading it before you buy, if you can.
Other than that, you’re probably looking at a full size van. Like 12-15 passenger. Kinda overboard for a family of 3. 🙂
Congrats on the new baby! :). What a wonderful, exciting time for you and your husband.
Aside from what the college requires, think also about what you want for the future. College lasts for a few years only. I probably would buy a harp based on what my harp goals are, not what the school requirements are. Obviously cost is a big factor, when you take into account the expense of a car you would need along with the harp. It sound like you are already feeling somewhat confined by levers (and oh, how I know this feeling!) but is having pedals worth the extra cost? Or in other words, if you can’t (or choose not to) afford the cost of the harp plus the car, then you have your answer. Likewise if moving it will be too hard.
There is a lot of music for lever harp, so sticking with lever harp won’t keep you from being able to freelance. And with a good knowledge of music theory you can write your own pieces or arrangements/covers, too. I enjoy creating my own arrangements from time to time. :). Lever changes get easier with practice.
But if you can afford it, and decide it is worth it to you, you could go either of two routes, buy or rent a lever harp for now (or use the school instruments, if they are available to you) until the time when you can buy a pedal harp (and a car). It would be really great if the college had pedal harps you can use while in the program, so you can be saving money to buy your own later on (whether it be pedal or lever). ;). If you ultimately think lever harp suits you best, you could look into renting a pedal harp, if the school requires one but doesn’t have them for students to use.
Ok, I’m done rambling. I doubt my thoughts are even that helpful. Let us know how it goes. 🙂
To Elizabeth: I would be interested to know what lever harp music you played before you got a pedal harp. 😉
I suggest you call the manufacturer of your harp, and see what they say. They can give you recommendations based on how long it will sit unused, etc.
If it is only a few months, I doubt there will be any specific instructions aside from using a dust cover and making sure it is in a protected spot. They may. However have specific instructions for shipping the harp.
Hope this helps. 🙂
I love it! So fun and original. I just might make one when I change my bass wires next…I only have 5 wires, but it might still work. 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
I like it. Not for a wedding perhaps, but to play for friends, they would all get a kick out of it.
For a second it looked like someone turned her page with their foot. For a brief moment I imagined her turning the music with her own foot. Had to laugh about that. The hand just comes out of nowhere. It is a hand, right? Lol
Balfour, I sure wish I could just “wing it!” That has never been easy for me, no matter the instrument. Improvising is definitely something I’d like to be better at. :). I can arrange music, but off the cuff, not so much. There is something very comforting about having sheet music in front of me. 🙂
It’s not the first youtube harpist I’ve seen who appeared to be using the pinky. I think it just looks that way, I don’t think she actually uses it.
I’ve never had a marriage proposal (except from my actual husband, that is). Although I mostly play in church, so not much opportunity. It might be awkward if someone from church proposed…
Sylvia, I give up…what did you notice?
