clh-h

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: bringing harp outside today! #103714
    clh-h
    Participant

    Ah, Okay. That explains it.

    in reply to: bringing harp outside today! #103712
    clh-h
    Participant

    Okay, there’s either something wrong with me or my computer because my replies keep replying to the wrong posts.

    in reply to: bringing harp outside today! #103711
    clh-h
    Participant

    Yeah, it’s weird enough for a 20 year old to be climbing trees in the first place. lol. But I like it up there, it’s nice. The perfect place to play a Celtic harp. The only thing marring it was that the neighbor’s dog kept barking at me. lol.

    in reply to: bringing harp outside today! #103708
    clh-h
    Participant

    It’s funny how easily people are impressed by the harp. Last Christmas I was taking my harp to my grandparents house, but since Christmas was on Sunday, we were going straight there from church so I was taking my harp out of the trunk after church so I could hold it on my lap while we drove (there’s no way I was leaving it in the trunk while driving) and one of the men from the church saw me getting into the car with it and came over and asked me to play something, so I played a little bit of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and I’m not even much good and was only playing one handed and one string at a time and the guy got the most comical look of awe on his face as though I had just done a virtuoso rendition of some Mozart Symphony. It was pretty hilarious.

    in reply to: bringing harp outside today! #103707
    clh-h
    Participant

    I played my harp in a tree once. Pretty high up too. I kept a strap on it the whole time because I was terrified of dropping it. lol.

    in reply to: Cringe-worthy Harp Mobile Moment #104393
    clh-h
    Participant

    I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d have torn that guy’s face off.

    Then again I wouldn’t have a harp that big, so there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. When I took my harp to my grandparent’s house this Christmas I held it on my lap the whole car ride. My mom says, “Why don’t you put it in the trunk?” So it could get bumped around, yeah right.

    clh-h
    Participant

    O’Carolan would have been post Renaissance. I didn’t think about that. I had more in mind pre-Renaissance, before polyphony got common. But I guess that’s too early to know or whatever.

    in reply to: 19 string harp #156496
    clh-h
    Participant

    I have a 19 string harp and it is really hard to find arrangements that I can play in their entirety. Sometimes it’s possible to adjust some bits (shift things an octave or whatever) or omit a few notes without messing up the sound too much though. Good luck.

    in reply to: Free arrangement of the Wild Mountain Thyme #156472
    clh-h
    Participant

    Looking at it more closely, it seems to be exactly what I was looking for. Most of it even fits my little harp’s 19 string range! The few notes that are too low all seem to be simultaneous other higher notes so I should be able to omit them without messing up the sound too much. 🙂

    in reply to: Free arrangement of the Wild Mountain Thyme #156471
    clh-h
    Participant

    Thanks! 🙂

    in reply to: Why do you play the harp? #102571
    clh-h
    Participant

    I’m a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, and he often mentions the harp in his writings.

    In one particularly inspiring scene Fingon, an Elf, is searching for his friend who is being held captive by the enemy. He can’t find a way into the enemy’s stronghold so “in defiance of the Orcs, who cowered still in dark vaults beneath the earth, he took his harp and sang a song of Valinor that the Noldor made of old… and his voice rang in the mournful hollows that had never heard aught before save cries of fear and woe.” I always found it quite strange and intriguing that he suddenly had a harp at the ready, the idea that he would take his harp with him on a rescue mission.

    I started to think that if I ever played an instrument, I would be the harp. Admittedly, at first, because all the Elves were doing it, and because I didn’t know anyone else who played the harp and it just seemed like such a strange and wonderfully geeky thing to do. I mentioned wanting to play the harp to a friend once and she laughed and said I didn’t seem the type and would have to wear a long flowy dress if I played the harp. Her reaction did nothing but to enforce the desire. I love nothing more than to defy stereotypes.

    So I did some research about harps and when I graduated from high-school I bought my harp with some of the money I got as graduation gifts. It’s a 19 string mid-east pixie harp, which all of you with the big expensive harps love to call rubbish, but I don’t care. I love it. It may not be as good as one of the expensive ones but it’s good enough for me (and better looking in my opinion). I only wish it had more strings sometimes.

    What keeps me playing it is that it has just about everything you could want from an instrument. It sounds good even when you aren’t that good at playing. It looks great. And it feels amazing in your arms and under your fingers. It also has a rich and beautiful history, which along with it’s rarity (when compared to guitars, flute, saxophones and all that) always makes it feel old and exotic.

    in reply to: Strangest questions asked… #105314
    clh-h
    Participant

    lol. I don’t know why that cracked me up, but it did.

    I haven’t played the harp for that long, and not all that many people know that I do (I don’t play in public or anything), so I haven’t had a lot of opportunity for weird questions. The closest I’ve got is my Mom asking me why some of the levers (or those things as she called them) were up and some were down. I suppose it’s a legitimate question, but I had already told to before that that the levers were for sharps. And she didn’t ask it like, “so what do the levers do?” she said that it was weird for some of them to be up and some down. I don’t think I even answered her, but just stared at her incredulously wondering why on earth she thought the levers would be there in the first place if they weren’t supposed to be moved.

    in reply to: Harp Strings vs Guitar Strings #71532
    clh-h
    Participant

    And it is?

    in reply to: loose sharpening lever #72340
    clh-h
    Participant

    I wound a piece of thread around the screw behind the lever and it’s working alright now. Hopefully it’ll last. Thanks to everyone who replied.

    in reply to: Keep hands close or pull away? #155394
    clh-h
    Participant

    I usually keep my hands close, which has lead my little brother to tell me, “That’s not how you play a harp. You do it like this.” *proceeds to wave hands all around the place like he’s trying to conjure up the spirits of the dead* Then I saw a harpist on youtube doing something very similar. So I don’t know. I can’t see how it would really affect the sound, but I’ve never even taken proper lessons so what would I know.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)