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I have a 27 string Clarenbridge Amergin and I absolutely love it! It has a beautiful voice and a LOT more volume than I would have expected from a harp that size. Sometimes I think it actually sounds better than my larger 34 string harp. I haven’t had the privilege of playing their 22 string model, but I think that Clarenbridge harps are generally considered good quality. A harp that size is fine to start out with, especially if you aren’t sure whether she’ll want to keep playing. If she does fall in love with the harp, she’s going to need an upgrade to an instrument with more strings pretty soon. My advice is to find a beginner lap harp book with songs that were specifically written for instruments of that size. Getting a new piece of sheet music only to find that you can’t play it because you don’t have enough strings is VERY frustrating.
I added B levers to my Clarenbridge and while it was very time consuming, I didn’t personally find it difficult and I was happy with the result. Just make sure you have a very good tuner that you trust! Levers run between 10-20 dollars depending on which brand you go with, so adding levers to every string is going to be a bit of an investment. You could add the levers a few at a time, but unless I’m mistaken, most lap harp songs don’t require lever changes anyway and a lot of them are written in the key of C.
Thanks for the info, Patricia. I’ve heard good things about the music theory books by Ms. Moore as well. I almost ordered them, but Melody’s website says that they were aimed towards pedal harpists and I won’t be transitioning to one of those any time soon. (don’t I wish though!) Do you think they would be okay for me even though I’m a lever harpist?
I also grew up near a lot of farms and I’ve driven and rode in several different ‘work trucks’, and you’re right those types are WAY different to ride in. The ones I rode in were a LOT bumper, and also they shook almost constantly. Not at all comfortable for me and certainly not for a harp, but they got their job done. My truck doesn’t ride the same at all, but it is a good decade or two newer than the work trucks I rode in so maybe they just make them differently. It’s also a lot smaller which might also play a role.
I hadn’t considered the possibility of an accident, I’d definitely rather have it inside a vehicle if something terrible happened. Assuming it didn’t though, I have moved a lot of large furniture in the back of my truck across the city before and it didn’t so much as shift.
