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I can sympathize, I have the same problem. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the nearest harp teacher is roughly 90 minutes away from me. 🙂
I thought of something else last night too. For a while I was getting really sharp pains in my left shoulder, and stretching didn’t help. The pain went away once I started following my practice with a few upper-arm and shoulder exercises using some light hand-weights. It accomplished two things: got the blood flowing into the overused muscles, and got them strong enough that practicing was no longer an over-exertion. I only did it for a few months before the problem went away entirely.
Best of luck! Let us know how you fare!
First, how long is a long time? If you’re playing for four hours without moving from your stool, the solution could be as simple as taking a 5-minute break each hour.
Another thing to look at is the height of your stool or chair. If you’re too low, you might be lifting your shoulders to make up for it. I have a pneumatic stool that loses height over time, and if I don’t check it regularly I get tired and sore quickly once it gets low enough.
If you have a teacher, bring this up with him or her. If you don’t, next time you sit down to your harp, play for several minutes, then put your hands down and roll your shoulders back and down while elongating your spine. Have someone watch you. If you get taller, you were slouching, which will have all kinds of side effects. If your shoulders end up lower than they were before you rolled them, they were too high while playing. If that’s the case and fiddling with the height of your stool doesn’t fix the problem, you’ll have to remember to check for shoulder tension every few minutes while playing until you retrain your body to relax your shoulders.
Of course, it’s possible that this self-diagnosis won’t reveal anything, in which case your best bet is to find a reputable harp teacher and schedule a lesson to get some help with your specific issue. Even if it’s far away and expensive, one lesson won’t be too bad, and it’s better to fix the problem once for all and enjoy many more years of harping without pain than to let it eat away at your enjoyment of your harp. Good luck!
Regarding charging for funerals, I sing for both weddings and funerals, and I do charge less for funerals (about 25%). I make it clear on my website that this is a discount “due to the nature of the event”: I believe that music has a real purpose in the grieving process, and that everyone should have access to good music at such a time, regardless of income. It’s also because funerals are a *lot* less work. Grieving people are much less choosy than brides, and there is so little notice (usually 2-3 days) that there isn’t time for the client to flake out. If you can get into playing for funerals, it’s a great bread-and-butter gig. Good luck!
(What I specifically charge probably won’t help you much; I live in a very unmusical place, so my rates are quite low.)
Hi Nancy,
No, my student STILL doesn’t have her harp. I responded to a mass email in late July / early August and expressed my deep concern about the status of her instrument. Chris responded with a call to my student and told her that he would begin the dying process on her harp immediately (she sent in the dying-time payment at the beginning of June) – and that he would *keep in touch more closely* from now on. That was around four weeks ago, and she has not heard from him since. She’s made a few phone calls, but no one answers the phone or returns messages.
I saw an ad for a Heartland Aurora in the Classifieds here last week, and suggested to my student that it might be a good idea to drop the Sweetharp idea and go for the Aurora instead, since the Aurora already exists. (I have a Heartland Sylvan, and love it.) She’s totally stuck on the Sweetharp though, and she’s also worried about the trouble she’d have to go through to get a refund. At this point she’d rather stick it out. I mean, however long it’s going to take, she is a YEAR closer to the end now!
After reviewing the more recent posts in this thread, I’m going to warn her not to send any money for the case, until (unless!) after she receives it. Looks like she’s going to have to have one custom made — what a pain. And expense. At this point, I don’t know if it’s even possible for the Sweetharp to be good enough to repay us for all the time and headache involved in this process.
I’m putting together an annotated bibliography of harp resources and makers for an Intro to the Harp class I’m teaching next spring. I’m warning the class away from Caswell Harps.
That’s such a kind offer, Andy. Thank you. I’m going to let this one go – I think it would end up being the little bit that would break the whole performance. Thank you though. 🙂
Thanks for all the information, folks! Based on that, I think I’m just going to tell the Music Director that this one isn’t going to make it into the lineup. I had an absolutely horrible experience with a different church last Christmas – I’m keeping this year as simple and painless as possible, because I need a win! 🙂
Well, I’ve started my lesson plan, and so far I’ve come up with one game which was inspired by the Amazon preview of “Harp Games” by Lisa Lamb. (I subsequently ordered the book!) I’m going to have the students come up with as many words as they can using only the letters in the musical scale; they can use each letter as many times as you want, so baggage” would be a valid word, for example. Then everyone will take a turn at the harp to play the words they came up with. Students who aren’t sitting at the harp will be invited to play the performer’s words mentally, using a labeled illustration of the harp that will be on a board at the front of the class. And while everyone’s working on their word lists, they’ll be called to the harp one at a time to for a hands-on lesson in tuning.
I’m assuming the class will have a board. Once I get a full draft of the lesson plan, I’ll have to check on the resources that will be available to me 🙂
Thanks for bringing that up Saul, because it’s something I’ve been thinking about. In my voice studio, I’ve had students who actively go after every bit of information they can acquire, students who are willing to soak up everything I have to tell them about anything related to singing, students who just want to know the absolute basic mechanics of how to sing so that they can get up in front of people and show off, and even a husband and wife who wouldn’t believe a single thing I said about anything whatsoever. (I’m still wondering why they even bothered.) I anticipate a similar mix here — but this is the first time I’m doing this particular type of teaching, so I don’t really know what to expect.
I’m planning to start the class by diving right into playing the harp, so that we can wear off the edge of the desire right away. I’m also considering dropping the class time to two hours instead of three, in case all anyone wants to do is play. If it turns out that a few people are interested in more than just playing and listening, I can still have packets of information available on further reading/research/resources.
On the other hand, I want to infect them with my excitement so that the harp virus really starts spreading in this city. More time and more information might be good for that. 🙂 I’m hoping that this will start to gel when I begin my lesson planning.
Thank you Patricia, I’ve sent an email to the FHJ “past issues” contact and I’ll see what he has to say. 🙂
Thank you Jessica, that’s another good idea! If I use a handout packet, I can include a sheet listing websites, videos, books, performers and recordings of further interest. Also resources for purchasing new and used harps. . .
::rubs hands together with glee:: This means I can do all kinds of harp-reading and -listening and write it off as a business expense! lol
Georgina, that’s a super idea! I built one of those for my niece, who was 3 at the time – but I wouldn’t have thought of that. Thanks! 🙂
(As an aside, I’ve been looking for my next music-focused reading. This was very helpful! Thanks everyone! 😀 )
Yes. Mostly to encourage her to cooperate with me. Of course I don’t think she’s really going to “help” – but I figure it can’t hurt. 🙂 She lives in the office at the back of my house (alternately called “the harp room”), so I usually don’t have to worry about anyone hearing me. But I do talk to her as I take her out of the case when we’re out in public, and I invite her to sing with me when we’re about to start performing; it’s part of my ritual, so it calms me down and helps me get in the right mindset. I’m sure a person or two has seen me doing that, but I truly don’t care. I’m holding a harp, and given where I live, I’m fairly certain none of those people have never even seen one in person before they see me talking to it! lol
The cheaper harps do sound different; though some of them sound pleasant, they simply don’t compare to higher-quality harps. However, if you’ve never played a nicer harp, you won’t know the difference. I started on a series of Pakistani harps, and at the time thought they sounded good. (To be fair, it was almost a decade ago, and I think that I got some especially good ones.) It wasn’t until I upgraded to a professional-quality lever harp that I understood what I had been missing.
If you wait until you can afford a high-quality harp, you could miss years of enjoyment and especially of learning and repertoire-building. When it comes time to spend a lot of money, you’ll want to have some pieces well in hand so that you can evaluate the harps you’re considering. Good luck in your search!
