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I’m sorry, I had completely forgotten about the sound clip!. I will try to get it done in the next day or two and post a link.
Chris
I will second the vote for the Zoom H2. Mine is about 6 months old now and I’m still happy with it. It has many options, but the ones you actually need are easy to find and use.
It’s recording quality is great, with the internal microphones or an external one. Runs a long time on 2 AA batteries or you can use included AC adapter if it remains in one place most of the time.
Well, I’m not going to carry more than one passenger, but my harp fits in my brand new Mini Clubman!
I will second the vote for mrstandman.com
I have one in walnut with tiger maple trim, the walnut goes well with the wanut my harp is made of, and the light maple trim makes it look a little less ponderous.
It’s very sturdy, nicely made and has a much larger desk than any other stand I’ve seen. I also went for the shelf underneath and it’s great. It fits my tuner, an obelisk type metronome, a tuning key, dusting brush, pencils and still has room for a cup of tea on a coaster.
I don’t know how I ever lived without it. Mike will make whatever you want. I know he prefers native woods, but you can ask about bubinga or have another wood stained to match the general color of your harp.
I have not been learning as long as you have, but I also find it hard to look back and forth. I was at a conference earlier this year and saw something that hadn’t occurred to me and has definitely made my practice easier. You may want to try this too and see if it works for you too.
Try placing the music stand to your right, behind the harp strings. It’s not perfect, but I find that I can mpre quickly find my place on the page or the strings when looking back and forth since I’m just changing focus and not turning my head. The closer to the harp I can get the stand, the easier it is for me.
I still have to use the stand on my left for lessons (between me and my teacher) but when playing music I’ve worked on for the week I don’t have to look as often and it’s not too bad.
Page turning is a little harder, but not impossible. My teacher also keeps advising me to look ahead at the strings, to look where I’m going and not where I am at the moment as some of the other repliers mentioned.
Chris
Thanks Jennifer!
I like the way he’s extended the carving under the scroll further back onto the neck.
It looks a little more dramatic than mine. The scroll is also a little bigger and more round over the top.
Hi Ben.
I have a Webster Madame Cadilac which may be more alike to the 18th Century model.
I’ll see if I can post up a sound clip for you and let you know when it’s up with a reply here. If you’d like to chat about the harp and hear it over the phone, let me know and we can exchange contact information aside from the forum.
I have to agree with the other comments here, Mr. Webster is a real gem. His instruments are fantastic and his support of them after the sale is even better.
Hi Barbara.
I wasn’t talking about someone learning with the goal of winning a prize or orchestra seat, that’s an entirely different world. I mean for someone to learn to play, period. There is a ton of biting heirarchical protocol in the world of serious classical music that’s completely beyond me.
I went on to work with machines, it pays better and doesn’t involve personalities. I would never have been able to adapt to the world of professional classical musicians.
With the reference to Brahms,
Playing on the left shouder is in the Gaelic tradition, and these players usually use their fingernails rather than the pads of their fingers.
I
Hi Jean.
In your situation I would find a few recordings or sheet music that interest me and bring them to a lesson. If you’re not working on music you enjoy, you won’t be as motivated to practice, and more practice = more progress. I don’t think following a set method is really advantageous for an adult beginner, though I’m not a teacher.
My teacher has altered music to make it more or less advanced to better suit my ability or to round out a beginner piece with nice rolled chords. I’m sure your teacher could do that too, if you choose something that’s just a little too advanced (as opposed to something a lot too advanced). After the first few weeks we’ve gone from a beginner book to short complete pieces of music, just one or two pages that average 30-40 measures. Each one has
I agree with Carl, I have had two friends affected by false allegations.
One friend was a bus driver and had a 6yr old boy on his route who was often bullied. My friend being a father himself never thought anything about it. One day this little kid was crying as he climbed the stairs into the bus, my friend picked the boy up, sat him on his knee and showed him the controls for the lights, while trying to get the boy to tell him what had happened.
Some teacher outside the bus saw this, had no idea what he or she was looking at and filed a complaint alleging sexual abuse of this little boy. (Never mind that the kid was crying as he passed the adults outside the bus and none of them took interest) My friend lost his job and it cost over $20,000.00 to defend himself in court. The name of the person who reported this event was never revealed, they suffered no repercussions and are not subject to countersuit or defamation charges as their anonymity is protected by the school district officials. There is no requirement of the accuser to provide any proof.
The charges were later dropped and the job offered back, but it took over a year.
My other friend was falsely accused and lost his job at SUNY college because of their ‘zero tolerance’ policy.
While I hate to think ill of the people around me and their children, the fact remains that children are often coached to agree to things they don’t understand. They are easily directed by an adult, and there is no real way to defend yourself. If you have a videotape, it could be inferred that the problem happened before or after the tape was recorded. The best policy is to have the parent remain.
When I was a kid taking piano and violin lessons in the 70’s my teacher required a parent to remain. He explained that he was an instructor, not a babysitter. My mother might have a cup of tea with his wife in the next room, but I was never dropped off at the lesson, though I think his intent was more to keep the parents involved than to cover his back. Any parent should be able to make time to remain at a lesson.
I’m just guessing, but there’s a possibility that mechanical limitations are the reason. Adjacent strings’ mechanisms might have problems if their linkages and rods travel alongside each other throughout the mechanism. It’s an interesting question, I’ll bet this was well explored when the pedal harp was developed and a little reasearch will turn up the answer.
