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Well, yes there are general rules but exactly how you execute them is different for every lever type. Let’s start with the math (groan, yes I know). The sharp point is approximately 94.5% of the vibrating length. “Approximately” because of several things: the amount of the sound board’s belly, the angle the string makes to the board, and the angle off the bridge pin. But taking that as said, the point at which the lever fret or stop engages the string should be at about that point.
Let’s assume a 32 inch vibrating length (board to bridge pin) which should be about right for the C below middle C; the fret should engage at 94.5% of that; or to make it simpler 1.76 inches below the bridge pin (0.055 x 32).
I generally set it there initially, engage the lever, and check with a tuner – open and sharped. If the sharp is only a little off, moving the pin out or in a little will often do the trick by lengthening or shortening it a small amount. If that does not do the trick, I may have to loosen the screw(s) and move the lever up or down a little. Down makes it more sharp (shorter vibrating length), up more flat.
That all assumes that the lever is properly aligned with the string, and that unfortunately is pretty darn hard to do by feel. Some lever designs are easier than others by virtual of the mechanical design. For my money, Lovelands are the trickiest and Truitts the easiest, Camacs fairly easy. But that’s the general principle.
Rick Kemper provides a precise description of mounting Camacs, which may be helpful (see “Mounting Camac Levers” under “Building the Lever Harp”).
http://www.sligoharps.com/btlh.html
Best wishes,
BiagioHere is the Virtual Harp Circle home page:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/virtualharpcircle/info
Unfortunately Camac does not publish details on it’s strings, but I would guess that C27 has a steel core, based on the rest of the upper band. Regulation (lever adjustment, actually) can be tricky even for sighted people so I’m afraid that I can’t be much help there.
Best of fortune,
BiagioNo problem. For what it’s worth I think it is quite probable that the student did not notice it. That is a stress fracture along the grain line on a thin neck, at the place of greatest lateral force. It could have opened up at any time.
With the way ‘sciles are made, they would replace both the neck and the pillar, or the entire harp, if that is what you decide to do. Repair is quite simple and inexpensive: super low viscosity glue in the crack itself and an external patch.
If it is still under warranty (and possibly even if not) Garin might offer to replace the harp at no cost. They are super nice folks!
Biagio
Samantha, yes I am afraid that you do need to worry. IMMEDIATELY slack off the strings and as Elizabeth suggests send the pictures to Rees.
This can be repaired but it would probably be more feasible to simply replace the neck. Sorry, I wish I had happier news.
Best wishes,
BiagioAh, gotcha Randal! Thanks, that’s another set of recording to add to my Christmas list.
Here’s an idea for you in return (sorry to derail the thread folks). I recall that you have a couple of harps but not if one of them is a wire strung. Any interest in building a small 19 (G3-D6) a la the Ardival Kilcoy, but easier construction?
I’m doing a design for a friend just for fun and if you like will send you a copy when I’ve finished the details.
Thanks again,
BiagioAgreed Janis, and as has already been said it also depends on how far one wishes to go. For someone who already is comfortable reading music, but with no harp training a perusal of Deborah Friou’s
- Harp Exercises for Agility and Speed
may be revealing.
I would suggest that one can go fairly far in it on their own, but it may be evident that if the hands and arms are all over the place it would be impossible to play (for example) the final theme and variations etude with any dexterity.
Biagio
You can find “The First Six Weeks” in the original in a number of places including here:
http://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=23209#
which includes his stretch tuning method that was discussed elsewhere on this forum.
His Universal Method for the Harp in the original can be found here:
https://archive.org/details/universalmethodf00boch
Have fun!
BiagioSarah, I think that you have made a very important point. To whit: the value of playing/learning with a group. This of course was how people learned the harp for centuries (I am not writing now of the concert pedal harp; a newcomer in historical terms).
With some kinds of harps we’re only now discovering or rediscovering effective techniques, and transferring those to other kinds. As one who is fascinated by the old folk crafts, this is very exciting to me. I’ll even take this one step further: making your own harp, even if it is just a little one, opens up new doors.
Alas, in many parts of the world it is difficult to find a sufficient number of harpers to form a circle. But that’s getting easier all the time and some are able to play in session with other traditional musicians that go well with the harp – pipes, guitar, violin etc.
Also as you and Randal observe, a solid background in music certainly is a boost. Put those two together – even if the group has just one other harper – and I would agree that one can learn to play the instrument happily and quite well.
Further, once your hands know their way around the strings playing with eyes closed or in a darkened room can be both very pleasant and an excellent learning device. I think Randal has discussed this elsewhere(?).
Best wishes,
BiagioI’ll buy that about Skype Carl! Studying (for about a year) with Laurie via Skype was certainly better than winging it, but in person lessons accelerated progression enormously.
Skype lessons were good for such things as posture, placement, and raises but technique did not really get better until we could sit down side by side.
I think this all depends somewhat on the student’s objectives and the kind of harp as well. I don’t use the same technique on my high tension harps as on the lighter tension double and of course wire is very different! Nor do I want to be a performer, but all the same Skype was not cutting the mustard:-)
I’ve been an auto-didact in many things and when my first teacher passed away after only a few months I studied assiduously from products by Woods, Bruner, Riley, Grossi, Kondonassis, and Friou. So I’d like to think that my technique was not completely rotten once I finally moved to where lessons were again possible.
Nevertheless, it took about a year of working with Laurie, going to retreats and workshops, etc. before the kinks alone were mostly worked out.
Plucking along,
BiagoI forgot – oops. This is not only a fascinating documentary but also has a lot of good video on a large variety of harps, from ancient to very modern. Hope it is helpful!
Biagio
Hi Sarah,
In answer to your questions – yes, I do think that a person needs some guidance for the harp more than many other instruments, and no I don’t think that it is mainly classical musicians who would say this. My teacher is a very well known multi instrument musician and had been playing professionally for 20 years before she took up the lever harp. She often relates how she hit a brick wall when she wanted to go beyond simple tunes.
Laurie, of course, wished to play harp professionally, so it was important to her to develop her technique beyond what she could teach herself. Others may not have that objective in mind. Another friend played classical guitar “pre-harp” and relates the same story.
I started to learn the harp after almost ten years of designing and building stringed instruments. I thought harp would be easy – boy was I wrong. One must also ask, what kind of harp? I make and play three: lever harp, wire strung harp and double strung. Watching beginning lessons on a concert harp could get me started on all of those, but not much further. I had to unlearn a number of ingrained habits after a few years:-(
I can think of many fine musicians who are self taught on a number of instruments (including violin and guitar) but I can only think of one on the harp.
But please don’t let this view that discourage your endeavor! By all means, study what you can find online and if you are an exception, that will be terrific. I certainly don’t want to throw cold water on anyone who wants to play this wonderful instrument!
Best wishes,
BiagioSarah, that’s a wonderful experiment and I wish you good fortune. You will however discover that beyond some point personal instruction is needed. Learning good hand position, posture and technique is absolutely essential if one is to progress beyond basic tunes.
Everyone’s hands and body are different and the harp’s playing technique does not feel “natural”. Trying to unlearn poor technique takes much longer than learning good technique in the first place. This I know from sad experience:-)
With that discouraging statement out of the way, I’d suggest that you also join one or two other online groups, both Yahoo!: The Virtual Harp Circle, and the Harp List. The former was specifically started for beginners, the latter is much larger and has been around much longer.
There are also several excellent books, CDs and DVDs that will let you go over lessons “ad nauseum” and while they are not of course free you might find them worth considering. Here are a few: Pamela Bruner “Play the Harp Beautifully”, Laurie Riley ” You Can Teach Yourself the Lever Harp” and “Basic Harp for Beginners”, Sylvia Woods “Teach Yourself to Play the Lever Harp”, Alfredo Ortiz “The Easy Video Harp Method Vol. 1”.
Best wishes,
BiagioBiagio
Excuse ME Saul. While I agree that a solid rigorous foundation is essential if the child is destined to excel professionally in any endeavor, it is at best narrow minded to make that assumption when she is at the tender age of 9 years. I am not suggesting that a parent waste their money on what amounts to “play time”, but I do suggest that there are appropriate levels of guidance at different stages of her development.
I do not know of your familiarity with Maria Montessori’s work (which with respect appears to be limited), but let me point out that her “Stages of Growth” principles have been adopted successfully by almost every professional education and social psychology institute for the better part of the last century. I see absolutely no rationale that the harp should be an exception.
Let me give you a practical example, in this case from the ballet. Mdm. Tatiana Semenova was a brilliant teacher, with colleagues stretching from Diaghlev through Balanchine. Madam taught Kirov style which is perhaps the most demanding for strength and endurance, and in her professional and pre-professional classes she was equally demanding and ruthless. However she also accepted and taught child beginners; her emphasis in those classes was on balance and rhythm – “Feel the music” in her words.
In her higher level classes she had a cane and would whack you if you did not give everything you had. Trust me, I know! Totally different approach with the children and when I asked her once about her teaching philosophy her answer was – “My dear friend Maria Montessori.”
Pardon the heated response, but it seems to me that your focus and references are to people who aspire to a professional career with the concert harp. That’s fine and I applaud it, but please recognize that that is a very small percentage of the larger music community.
Some here may take offense at this next statement but I will put it out there and take the heat. The pedal harp is not the one and only true harp and the techniques are only one of many. Anyone attempting classical Salzedo or French technique on a clarsach, cross strung or South American harp will soon find themselves throwing it out in frustration at the agonizing noise. But I think that few would say that a Cynthia Cathcart, an Alfredo Ortiz,or a Harper Tasche is not a consummate musician.
If there is no joy in making music what is the point? You will not encourage joy in a young child if they are not encouraged to discovery. Good technique YES, but that can be taught at the same time that the child explores as well. That is how children learn to speak, to read, and to write!
Biagio
You could calculate that manually Seiken. However it might serve you better to download this free Excel string analysis spreadsheet from Music Makers:
http://www.harpkit.com/blog/string-analysis/
It uses imperial units mostly alas but you can’t have everything (grin). It’s quite accurate and covers most string types other than more unusual ones such as gold, sterling silver yellow and red brass. I get around that limitation but substituting but unless you make wire strung harps you needn’t deal with that anyway.
You will of course need the vibrating length and pitch of the note in question. Incidentally Savarez Alliance fluorocarbon strings are in metric units; for instance HPK091 means 0.91mm. You can use Japanese fluorocarbon fishing line, believe it or not, and I have done so; but that is a real pain to calculate and hard to find at reasonable lengths.
Gut is slightly less dense than fluorocarbon but close enough that you could use that. Getting a gut string maker or seller to tell you the diameter is another issue however. Harp gut strings are sold by the pedal harp note name and numbering scheme, which is unhelpful unless you have a conversion chart.
Best wishes,
Biagio
