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Hello Wil! If I can be of assistance and help you post something, please let me know. Sorry these posts have been disappearing!
Harp Hugs and best wishes,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Bravo Molly, for taking your harp to work and playing for your co-workers! My friend, Angi Bemiss, at Simply the Harp, has many simple arrangements of favorite songs and pieces. You might find something there that you would enjoy–keeping it simple is an art!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Hi, Molly,
It is good that there are apps for learning music! I am also glad that Gretchen keeps up with all these modern things.
I forgot to mention that one very important part of learning and practicing is to review your past pieces. Do the ones that you most enjoy playing! Before too long, you will develop a repertoire that you can play for people.
It does sound like you are making great progress. Relax and enjoy the journey!
Our best to you,
Balfour and Carol LynnGentlemen, these are wonderful posts! This does make me wonder, as I have seen a decline in quality from L&H, if they indeed have changed their design and construction on the Troubadour. The older ones generally have held up really well, except for maybe the levers, which can be updated.
I agree with Biagio about just selecting another harp for your daughter. I have seen consistent good quality in Camac, Dusty Strings, and Thormahlen. I also like his recommendation of Musicmakers and the possibility of doing it yourself with one of their wonderful kits! Their new Epic harp sounds really good on the sample videos, even though I have not played one personally.
Best wishes and harp hugs to all my friends here,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Harry, do you know Carolyn Sykes at Pacific-Atlantic Harps in California, USA? She was from Australia originally, and is a harpist and dealer in new Camac harps. You can locate her website and contact her if that would be helpful to you. She should know first-hand about getting a harp to Australia. Also, if you would consider a Camac harp, you can regulate them yourself, if you are handy with your hands.
Also, Carl Swanson, who responded to you, is very well-known as a harpist, teacher, editor of great harp music, author of A GUIDE FOR HARPISTS (care, maintenance and repair of the pedal harp) and builder of fine pedal and lever harps. If he says a harp is good, IT IS!
Best wishes,
BalfourBrad, we want to know, how did all of this turn out? Has your Egerie arrived yet? Hope it has, and that the new harp is everything you expected it to be!
Best wishes,
BalfourAnother option that a lot of us did was to start out with cheaper, pre-owned harps, keep them a while, then trade up. It usually takes several trade-ups to reach your dream harp, unless you have a lot of spare cash, of course! Also, some harp shops have rent-to-own opportunities, or maybe a private individual would be willing to sell you a harp and receive payments over time to allow you to go ahead and get a harp. Just explore your options, and good luck!
Best wishes,
BalfourOh, this is all so advanced over actual note reading flash cards, ha, ha! I retired from music teaching in 2013, just in time to avoid all this modern technology, thank goodness!
Best wishes to all of you, my friends,
BalfourBack when I taught music, my students used to have 4 or 5 different books at a time. I can’t imagine just working on one piece at a time–I think variety is very nice! In her great harp method book, Henriette Renie always gave a list of supplemental music for the student to learn along with the method. Working with your teacher, I am sure you two can reach a common ground on this, and it will be more enjoyable for both of you.
Harp teaching hugs,
BalfourYou are welcome! The main thing I can say here is “be patient.” So many adult students that I had were not very patient. I would tell them that even I took years and years to get to where I am, and I started playing piano by ear at 5, with formal lessons at 6. (Harp and organ a little later, ha, ha!) I am now 67 and STILL learning! That is what makes life so interesting and enjoyable, especially in retirement, and now I can finally play just what I want to play!
Best of luck,
BalfourHello everyone,
Having taught many students in my time, I found that usually it was easier to teach note-reading by learning first Middle C, and then the space notes of the Treble clef–FACE. Then learn the Bass clef space note–ACEG. Recognize these by seeing the notes on the page and playing each one on the harp. After that becomes natural to you, concentrate on learning the line notes in each cleff. They are adjacent to each space note, and should come pretty easily, one at a time. Pretty soon, you can see, for example, C-D-E-F, which on harp can be fingered 4-3-2-1 in the Right Hand. With flash cards, you could get out those 4 notes, play them in order, then re-arrange them and play them in THAT order. Re-arrange them in every way they can be, and see if you recognize each note and can play that on the harp. (When you previously learned the 4 space notes of each clef, you would have used the flash cards to re-arrange those, also, playing them in every different order until you KNEW you were actually reading the notes.)
I must confess, I taught this more easily on piano, before a student took up the harp, and it was good to have a keyboard foundation before harp or organ, like Charles mentioned above. But, if harp is the beginning instrument, it CAN be learned, one note at a time! I agree, music theory should be added very early for an adult student.
Best of luck with your harp learning journey,
BalfourGood to see your post here, Sid, old friend! Brad, Sid gave you good advice. If the harp is VERY flat, you could also try tuning all the C’s first, then the G’s, E’s, A’s, and so on, to help the harp get back to tension. Camac does not advise tuning the harp down very much for shipping, so this harp may be closer to being in tune already than say, a L&H. Best of luck, and congratulations! Let us know how you like this new harp.
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)
Carl, another thought…..whatever happened to “the majority rules?” If one person complains about something, why does everyone else have to suffer for it? To me, that one complaint isn’t very valid. If the majority complains, then that is certainly something that is worth checking out.
Best wishes in this endeavor,
Balfour (and Carol LynnHaving owned and played many different brands of harps, I now prefer the wooden dowels that Camac uses. It is easier for me to tie the Camac knot around the little dowel, which is very secure. I have never had one slip, as in other styles of knots/anchors. The dowels do not try to pull up into the string holes like other anchors, either. I even used these dowels when I restrung my Dusty FH36S, and the tone is actually better, especially in the treble notes. The wooden dowel seats firmly against the bottom of the soundboard strip, and does not buzz or cause other problems, if done neatly and correctly. The Camac website has excellent videos about installing strings this way.
Cheers,
Balfour
