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You are right to seek a harp builder. Looking at the photo has limits, but the break in the column looks clean. The neck looks clean also. If the pieces will really fit well back together with no missing chips, and on a lower tension harp like Triplett, I think it would be worth a try to repair with epoxy.
Some don’ts for you: don’t fool with the pieces fitting them back together–if you knock little splinters loose it will affect the fit. And don’t try it yourself unless you have experience with wood and the right tools.
Worst case, if it won’t hold, you need a new neck and/or column. If a tech is talking about using screws or nails in the neck to help hold, find someone else. If it is a good fit, epoxy (or other two-part glue) is stronger than the wood. Specialized clamps will be needed to hold it together.
Carl Swanson is in Boston. He might take it on–and may see your note. There are some other techs on this list, or Carl may know of someone in your area.
Agreed with all the above. Find the teacher first. Bad habits are easy to acquire and hard to unlearn. On harp, bad habits directly translate into bad tone. Every detail of how your fingers contact the strings affects the sound; it takes the guidance of a teacher to learn what sound to expect and what to alter to get what you want.
A teacher or other harpist can help you evaluate an instrument in person. A harp technician may also be a good choice for referrals on finding instruments. I am a proponent of renting and/or purchasing used. A used instrument, if in good condition, will already have developed its mature sound, and is unlikely to further depreciate–so you can sell it on once you more fully understand what sound you want from the harp. But be sure to know the pricing market and evaluate the condition and work needed.
Even new instruments may have failures, sometimes just out of warranty. Or the warranty may require you ship to the factory for repairs at your cost.
If you like the sound and price buy it. If you’re not sure whether you can truthfully evaluate it’s condition, hire a good technician to evaluate for you, or if the price is good, take your chances.
Harps are made of wood. Sometimes there are hidden flaws. Every major builder has built lesser and better instruments, and that may not coincide with the price of model of harp. A lot of the price is just for carving and gold, which are labor- intensive.
So see if the harp speaks to you with your touch – or not.
And, if you haven’t, several reputable technicians and stores have info on their websites about how to evaluate a used instrument. There was also an article in HC a few months back, I think. I remember Peter Wiley and Carl Swanson were two of the contributors.
How much else is in the truck?
Harp on the bed is different from harp on top of every thing else. And that is different from what might shift/move/fall on the harp.It is often surprising just how much things can shift from ten hours of pot holes, expansion joints, and swerving/braking to avoid an accident.
That all depends on how far you have progressed and what music you want to play.
For classical harp, unless you are a complete beginner, or unless you are comfortable making or altering arrangements, you may find it limiting.
Therapy harpists may never use anything larger professionally.
Also, consider what levers are installed. C and F means that you can play in three major keys. Is everything you do play or want to play in one of those keys? Or can you transpose?
I think everyone may need a lot more information to give you sound advice.
Wow! Did you report seller to ebay? It is odd that seller has so many good reviews- but says in the listing to only contact outside of ebay. I wonder if the seller’s account is being used without his consent.
Absolutely play something you are totally comfortable with, particularly if you are new to performing or nervous.
You don’t say what kind of harp or strings, but breakage would not be my first concern. I’ve never had a nylon break unexpectedly. Wires are also rare (though dramatic if it happens). Even guts usually show signs beforehand (suddenly one string is rather more flat than its neighbors, or fraying shows at the bridge or tuning pin). If any are suspect, Sylvia is right, change them. You really can’t do it in a funeral; you’d just have to play around it. But unless you are regularly having broken strings already, there is no reason to suddenly expect them in the performance.
Arrive plenty early–I plan on a full hour in the room, plus whatever time it takes you to tune _before_ people start arriving. That can be two hours before a funeral “starts” especially since music often starts earlier than the announced time.
Unlike Balfour, I have never been successful in memorizing reliably. When I play for a structured unfamiliar event (like a funeral or worship service) where there are many things going on, _everything_ goes in a three-ring binder, service plans, everyone else’s music, my music, in order of appearance, with copious notes of who does what and when. I always methodically walk through the event in my head. That may not be necessary if you are only doing one piece at a particular time.
One last thing: when you arrive, or soon after, go over the order with whoever is in charge. I can’t tell you how often a family has changed something major, but no one thought to tell the harpist that your piece is now in a different place. That will save a lot of embarrassing moments.
You need to be aware that everything about the Blevins and the Troubadour are likely to be/feel/sound different. The Troub is strung with pedal gauge/tension and graduated spacing. The Blevins is light gauge/tension.
What you need to consider is your goals for the harp.
And in-person is the only way to tell. Harps will sound different under different hands/techniques. You need to know how a harp will sound under your hands.
You can not tell only by looking at the key signature. That does not tell you the mode, which is the order of half and whole tones that make up the scale. Major scales are W-W-H-W-W-W-H. Minor (natural minor) are W-H-W-W-H-W-W.
For most Western “classical” music composed roughly 1650-1900, and a majority of 20th century music, you can look at the lowest concluding _bass_ note of the piece. For all folk and pop music this is also true. For all hymns this is true (well, I know of one exception).
For a concluding bass note of F with a key signature of one flat (B), you have F major. For a concluding bass note of F with a key signature of four flats, you have F minor. D minor will conclude on D.
Music majors/music theorists will know exceptions–but this will get you what you asked (until it doesn’t) and by the time you are playing music that doesn’t follow this rule, you won’t need to ask the question.
Always have only heard of fake books in US, never a cheat book. There is nothing fake about it, though. When you think about it, they are a harmonic description, very similar in content to a figured bass. No one would ever think of realizing a baroque continuo part as faking.
Forgot to comment on a couple of the questions:
You can probably start using pretty quickly. A full-on complex classical score takes a while to learn how to do. The note entry is straightforward for all software. Phrasing, and other notations, will take most of the time, followed by hand-adjusting clashes where it puts two or three different elements on top of one another.
I don’t know of any music score equivalent to auto-correction as far as note entry goes. However all programs will determine the horizontal spacing of the notes based on their value and time signature. You can crowd or stretch them later, but this can lead to some oddly crowded or extended measures at first.
One thing I’d identify is whether you want finished score to transmit to a publisher — or if you want finished score to play from.
Finale and Sibelius are great at mouse entry of notes, graphic display of final product, and having fairly (mostly?) good-looking score as final output. They are expensive, and can do mostly anything if you can figure out how.
If you want accurate note entry and editing, and ability to enter other basic music signs, one of the free programs will work just fine, and be much easier to learn. MuseScore is mentioned above and is the most common.
You also might find that a combination approach of getting (maybe playing from a MIDI keyboard) the notes in, then adding phrasing, pedal markings, and effect notations in on the final copy by hand will be the fastest to get ready for a publisher. You can still send them the notes played in an electronic format, and let them pick up the rest the same way they are now.
(One side mention, for anyone else later on reading this thread, is my personal favorite: Lilypond. It produces professional-quality scores with very little tweaking needed. It is very consistent in resolving spacing issues, and output is much superior (IMO) to any of the above. You can easily customize how it makes decisions about absolutely any spacing issue, and application will have consistent appearance throughout the score. It is also free, and under continuous development, and for nearly any OS. The original developers were classical musicians, who loved the appearance and elegance of early 20th century hand-engraved scores, and wanted to implement a modern method. However, it is not a good option unless you know or want to learn to write code, because it is a programming language for music typesetting. It has excellent documentation, and the language is not much more complex than HTML, but it is still programming code.)
I’m unclear on what you are asking: is it
1) the wound bass strings have a different tone than the others? “twanging”
2) when you play you sometimes don’t like the tone in the bass? “control improved”
3) the basses sustain longer than all the others? “stop the ringing”
4) you want to learn other methods of damping? “slamming my palm down”The words in quotations lead me to think you’re asking about different things.
It might also help to know what your experience level is and if you have a teacher.
So sad to hear. “Upon the Willows” is one of my favorites. I didn’t know him well, but we talked harps (and organs) a couple of times. He was so kind.
(@Sylvia: Maybe I’m missing something–but the link from Psychology Today goes to a counselor in Houston, with photos of Brook Boddie. Neither gender, ethnicity, nor city–Houston is 4 hours from Shreveport–match our Brook.)
