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So glad to hear all this, Lily! I have also overdone many things like this, including harp, piano, and organ practice, so don’t be too hard on yourself. It is indeed our “passion” for the instruments that is more powerful than we are! Enjoy getting back to your beautiful harp, gradually.
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)The craving for 47 strings is probably the reason for the demise of the 22. We have experienced this in our own time, with models like the L&H 85 and Salvi Daphne. They used to be available with 40, 44, 46 and 47 string configurations. Now, only the 40 Petite and the full-size concert 47 are available. At least Camac still makes 44 and 46 string harps along with their 47 models.
Have a great day, everyone!
BalfourVery well-put, Carl! Your editions of the Bochsa Etudes are the best I have ever seen, and even a seasoned professional such as myself can greatly benefit from practicing these.
Best wishes, all,
BalfourLily, so sorry to hear your woes. I think you have just “overdone it,” but do let us know what your doctor says.
Best wishes,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)I agree with Carl. Speed does not always make the best music! When you become professional enough, you can literally “set your own tempo.” When I was younger, I often had to defend how I wanted to play something, and sometimes I didn’t have a leg to stand on. Age, education, fame, and proficiency brought more respect from other musicians and conductors. One good thing about modern times is that you can usually find a good example on YouTube of how you want to play something.
I wish you all the best in this, Victoria!
BalfourGood post, Wil! Lily, you will know more about all of this as you learn to play your Ravenna. All harps are different, as you are finding out, ha, ha! By the way, I found a lovely photo of a white Daphne on Salvi’s website, under personalized finishes. Wow, what Salvi can do to make harps beautiful!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Hi Carl,
What you said reminds us of exactly what we experienced here with Suzuki students. Many local churches here need pianists or keyboard players. When a Suzuki student tried out for one of those jobs, the first thing they asked them to do was to sight read a hymn or anthem (now-days, a praise chorus!) and the student would not be able to do it. Of course, they did not get the job. The same thing happened if the Suzuki student applied for a recording studio job. I had one such young woman student who came to me specifically to learn to read music. She had been trained in Suzuki and played very well, except she could not read a note of the music she was playing! I would refer to this as “musical illiteracy,” and my goal as a teacher was to make them “musically literate.” The young woman took three years of piano lessons with me, went back to Atlanta, and got the job at the recording studio!
Hope you all have a great day,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Hello dear Lily,
So sorry to hear that Camac told you that! I just looked at their Clio model on their website, and it specifically says “Speciality finishes to order.” (It should be spelled “specialty,” of course! French to English, ha, ha!) They are falsely advertising, in my opinion, if they indeed will not make you a custom finish. Maybe by the time you are seriously considering a pedal harp, they would make you one in white. It may have something to do with recovering after the pandemic.
However, the Salvi Daphnes are great harps, and I have enjoyed playing the petite 40 string model from time to time in my career. Many harpists use this small harp to gig with, and women in particular seem to love its smaller size and weight when transporting it to gigs. I also have played very nice larger models of the Daphne at the Atlanta Harp Center in Georgia, USA. I agree with you, Puccini would sound wonderful on one of these! They have a beautiful classic design which I think would look stunning in white!
Best of luck when the time comes!
More harp hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Thanks, my dear Lily! Don’t forget about the Camac Clio semi-grand 44-string pedal harp. Many professional harpists and harp hobbyists could be happy for a lifetime with the Clio! I just looked on Camac’s website and they advertise that they can do specialty finishes on many of their models. I bet they could make you a beautiful white harp!
Have a great day!
Harp hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Hi Lily,
Good to see your posts and Wil’s! I am so glad that you are now up to an hour per day of practice. I think the Excalibur could be played very lightly and softly in your apartment building. A harp is only as loud as YOU play it, ha, ha! Also, loud, strong playing is harder on your fingers and calluses. My Camac Atlantide is capable of powerful, intense volume, but on the other hand, she can purr softly like a kitten, and I know that the Excalibur is the same way. The Excalibur is not necessarily any louder than the Ravenna. Good luck on getting a white harp one of these days!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour and Carol LynnHi Molly,
I agree with Carl. I never used Suzuki for any of my students throughout my long teaching career, because it hindered their ability to read music. The Suzuki books were very good collections of music, however, so some of my students learned from them by READING the music.
I have had the wonderful ability to play by ear since I began learning to play the piano at five years old. When music lessons soon started, I resisted reading, since I could make my own tunes sound so much better than the printed music did at that level. Thankfully, my teachers persisted, and I learned to read music very well. In college music theory and composition classes, I had to sight read and play on piano all the handwritten composition assignments from all the class members!
So, read every piece of music you can get your hands on. The memorizing can go along with it, on the pieces you will actually perform, but like Carl said, concentrate on the READING and the understanding of the music theory behind the music. Somewhere in all of this is a nice middle ground, I promise!
Good luck, and happy Valentine’s Day!
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)With my keyboard background, I am used to seeing the bass at my left and the treble at my right. When you sit down to a harp, you must be positioned so that you can see the strings in exactly this same way! This means that you place the harp on your right shoulder, and then everything will look normal. To do it otherwise would be like looking in a mirror–everything would be backward.
Thanks, Molly! Left-handed people drive a car the same way right-handed folks do, and also, when it comes to using tools like sewing machines, they all do it the same way. In this world, everyone has to have the ability to just adapt to “the way it is.” I, for one, do not like the order of the harp pedals, and have felt since I was a young boy that they should be placed in the order of CDE–FGAB. But since the order of DCB–EFGA is standard, pedal harpists have to have the ability to adapt to it, or they simply cannot play a pedal harp, that is all there is to it, period!
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)
