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Thanks for taking the time to chime in, Jack! The grant thing is a great idea – and I recently met someone who has experience with that kind of thing, which makes it an even better one. 🙂 Love the idea about the pentatonic scale, and I’ve also bookmarked your group’s website in case there’s enough interest and I can create an actual harp class later on. The Harp of Ur wasn’t in my history lesson, so I’ve added that too. Thanks so much!
The best part of music, Sherri — so much to learn! You can never get bored, or run out of things to do! 🙂
Hi Sherri,
I’m not sure what you mean by natural voice? I am classically trained, but I’m not good enough to sing opera (which is increasingly known as “elite” singing). My voice is best suited for church music; people tend to tell me I sound like an angel, then they learn my name, then they learn that I play the harp and their heads go kablooey. 🙂
If what you mean by “natural voice” is the kind of singing women do when they say they have very low voices, or that they’re altos (most women really are not), or they offer to sing tenor, or what you hear on the radio, then that’s actually unnatural; it’s shouting on pitch, or sometimes speaking in rhythm, but it’s not singing. What’s happening in these cases is that the woman is pulling her heavy mechanism, or “chest” voice, up into her higher range, and YES! that is very bad for the voice! It can cause problems that require surgery to fix! It also *severely* limits range. What is on the radio and TV right now is the musical equivalent of super-model thin: these people are setting an unhealthy example, and they’re making a lot of money doing it.
The only way for a women to sing higher notes without strain or damage to her vocal folds is to unify her registers by carrying her light mechanism, or “head” voice, down into her lower range. This does require a teacher, especially in the beginning. Most women won’t do it without a *lot* of encouragement, because it results in a temporary loss in power and feels very different, but the long-term benefits to the technique are incalculable in terms of vocal health, flexibility, range, agility, expression, etc. It is also part of the core of classical technique. Don’t let that scare you though; it’s completely possible to sing with a solid underpinning of classical technique but without a heavy vibrato, or vowels so round they are distorted, or whatever it is that turns you off from opera.
I wish you lived closer; I would gladly teach you how to do this. and help you free up those higher notes 🙂 Your best bet, though (time and funds permitting), is to find a classical teacher, tell her what you want to accomplish, and let her help you. Incidentally, it’s best to go to a teacher of the same gender, since males and females need to handle their voices differently.
Good luck to you! 🙂
(I’m sorry for hijacking the thread, Madeline; it was a complex question and one that is near and dear to my heart. 🙂 )
My primary instrument is voice. I’m trying to build up my repertoire of songs to sing and harp at the same time; I’ve noticed when I’m playing background music, those are the pieces that the entire room stops to pay attention to. However, I prefer to perform on voice and harp separately, both because I sing at a higher level than my intermediate harping, and because I get more satisfaction from performing when I can focus on just one instrument at a time. 🙂
Hello again everyone,
I said I’d keep you posted: I did speak with the music director on Monday night, and I will be playing everything I’ve worked on. What my husband helped me write in response was apparently the right thing in whatever manner the director understood it. We had a very cordial conversation, and we’re on the same page now (as far as I know, anyway!). Now if I could just get rid of this cold. 🙂 Thank you all for your feedback, and Merry Christmas!
Kreig, those are some good thoughts. In the first instance (last year), that’s exactly what I did – I told the pastor that given the final line-up, I would not be able to play. It was an agonizing decision, after spending four months working on this one piece, but I did what I had to do. (And aside from the repertoire issue, he also expected me to keep my harp backstage at about 55 degrees or lower – it was FREEZING – and then come right out onto a hot stage under full lighting and play without giving the harp any time to acclimate.. Even if I could have done what he asked, it would have sounded terrible!)
I like your deadline suggestion. I have *another* church-person who’s refusing to be pinned down for a 12/30 performance where I’ll be singing and playing harp; I just gave her a deadline yesterday, telling her that I need final music selections in time to put together a contract and get it signed by 12/16. This person behaved in a similar fashion two years ago, and by the time she got me the music lineup (one week before performance!), I ended up telling her that I was no longer available, and we pushed the performance date back two weeks.. I truly believe that she means well, but there must be limits., so I’m taking your suggestion and trying a hard deadline this time.
I wasn’t clear about the wedding: I’ve done one, and I did get paid. I charged less than I would now, because it was my first one and I’d only been playing for a year, but it was not free. I had a contract and it was still a nightmare., so I established some new policies that I haven’t really had to test yet.
My ability to set and maintain boundaries is very good, but it seems like almost no one I’m working with has any concept of professionalism/reliability/common courtesy, so I have to expend huge amounts of time and energy on those boundaries. I’m a big fan of the mantra, “You teach people how to treat you,” and I am absolutely relieved that insisting on reasonable treatment is at least considered an acceptable industry practice.
Tacye, while looking hard at the possibility of having to quit *another* Christmas performance this year, I came up with something similar. “I play the harp because I love it, not to make other people love me.” Though it’s good to have such a personal understanding, your suggestion is much more diplomatic. Thank you. 🙂
Sherri, thank you for sharing your story! I had gathered that you had been burned, but I didn’t know in what way. Even though I live in a place where most of the music is terrible most of the time, the only person I ever mention it to in specifics is my husband; to go right up to a performer and tell them they did a bad job, or gossip about it and let it get back to them, is just awful. I’m very careful about even offering to teach a clearly untutored singer, because the courage to get up in front of a group is so easily damaged. Good heavens, it’s no wonder you walked away from that! Your experience with posting your music online sounds attractive, and I think I will look into it. When it becomes my new project, I will definitely be in touch with you;. Thank you for offering me the benefit of your experience!
And thank you all for your feedback! I heard back from the Central NY music director yesterday, and have an appointment for a phone conversation with him tonight. It looks like it may still be possible to work something out. I’ll be “sticking to my guns,” and I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
I tell them, “More than I have. This harp was a miracle.” If they are actually interested in the instrument, I’ll tell them *everything* they want to know (and more), and if they still want a number after that, I’ll give it to them. 🙂
In the earliest days with my harp, I read something about the early days of pianos that mentioned pianists used to play like harpists (refering to rolled chords), but then there was a movement toward giving the piano its own sound by playing block chords, which are “more masculine”. I wish I could cite the source, but this is all I remember of what I read. I can say that as I’ve gotten better and have been able to place my fingers fast enough to play larger chords in blocks, instead of cracking them, I’ve noticed that the block chords sound much more masculine.
I’m hearing a piece in my head, but I don’t know which one it is. I’ll think about it and try to pull the name to the front of my mind. Anything I’ve played would fall into the “less advanced” category. If you’re looking for slightly more advanced, Deborah Henson-Conant’s “New Blues” is not feminine at *all*, and it’s super-fun and quite bouncy.
As far as harps being soft: frankly, they are, especially when you compare them to almost any other instrument. You can play a concert grand loudly and get a big sound, but it still won’t stand up to much other instrumentation. I don’t think that’s a drawback, though.
I’ve been working on Christmas since July/August. Unfortunately, I’m getting sick of it a month too early. 🙂 I think this week I’m going to pick up some fresh music and try to memorize something short and sweet, just for a change. . .
That is a very good question. My student also started with one of those, and she refused to use the top octave because it was so plingy due to excess tension. I almost tried to restring it, but ended up finding a used Harpsicle that I loaned her instead. Of course, the tension on the Harpsicle is so low that now the lowest notes are loose, but it’s a good little instrument for what it is. 🙂
I’ve owned a number of Pakistanis in the past, and the bigger they are, the faster they pull themselves apart — even with their own strings. Increase the tension on the lower end of the harp,, the end most susceptible to torsion, and you’ll accelerate the process. I would say: do not change to higher-tension strings, but if you have a nasty octave at the top and you want to substitute with lower-tension strings there (which I think means using a thinner string?), you shouldn’t hurt the harp. If you can get a string chart from the company, that would make it easy for you to experiment. If you can’t, you might have to call or visit a string supplier and ask for help.
There are a few harp builders and re-builders here. Their comments are always enlightening and usually fascinating; I hope they chime in!
I try the suggested fingerings, and if it is clearly a good sequence, I’ll stick with it. If there is an awkward portion, I practice it a little bit; if it remains awkward I’ll see if I can rework it to feel more natural. I do this very early on, so that I only *learn* one fingering for a piece. I am only an intermediate-level lever harper, however. I’m interested to read what more advanced players do.
Just two cents here, but I think it’s also important to note that players will become accustomed to the harp they’re using. Almost any instrument at which you spend hours per week or day is going to become second nature to you. Of course there will be extreme outlier harps that are much too big or small overall for a particular player (lever harps, anyway) — but I think that the information you can find on most websites is sufficient to weed out those harps. On my current harp, I can’t easily reach the very lowest strings if I’m sitting straight on to the harp. For a while I compensated by turning the harp slightly so that the neck was positioned more at my right upper arm than my shoulder; lately I’ve sliding my right shoulder down the curve of the soundbox to get closer to those lower strings when necessary. Either way — it’s part of the unique combination of my harp and me. I don’t think absolute dimensions are the be-all and end-all of a harp/player unit.
When I play outside (for my own pleasure only, on days of perfect weather), I turn my heat-reflective tarp over with the silver side to the ground and use it as a mat to protect my harp from any residual dampness in the grass. For indoor gigs, I bought a piece of discount forest-green upholstery fabric and had it hemmed. I lay that under my harp if the floor is distracting (although, I use it less often since I changed the flooring in my practice room to a more distracting pattern).
When I read the title of your post, I gasped! I had a similar incident last year; in my case, the child didn’t kick the harp, but he did grab hold of the column and use it to swing himself around a corner. His parents were nowhere to be found during that afternoon: they were both in the bridal party, and I can only imagine they felt this excused them from parenting responsibilities. After that incident, I added a clause to my harp policy that states the hiring party needs to provide a roped-off area 6 feet square. I will also put my harp on an altar or stage, or in a choir loft, but I will NOT expose it to unmonitored children. Or to the middle-aged adults who felt it was their prerogative to walk into my (stationary!) harp and then glare at *me* during that same wedding. It was the first wedding I’d ever done, and in many ways I almost hope it was my last. . .
Did you mention to the mother that should her child damage your harp, your insurance company would like to speak with her? I’m sure they’d want to recoup their costs. I once had a coworker who twisted his knee in an icy hiking situation, and the health insurance company kept calling him to get the story of what had happened, hoping he’d say something that would give them grounds to go after the owner of the property or the manufacturers of the equipment he was using.
I second the Peak’s nomination. I’ve had one for several years. Though my antique brass music stand “matches” my harp better, the Peak is my first choice, every time. It is very stable, solid, packs down quite small, and the handles on the carry case that came with mine are long enough to sling over my shoulder. After a few years of nominal use, the velcro that wraps around the handles started to come undone, but it was a quick fix with a needle and thread.
