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If you sing belcanto it is very hard. As your hands move your rib cage moves in a way sometimes not aligned to the phrasing of the voice. Even Osian Ellis sounds very uncomfortable in his recordings in his “Songs with Harp” album. If you sing in a lighter style it should be more manageable. If you make your own harp arrangements, you have more leeway.
Just one remark on the word “same” as in “same tension”.
It is not exactly the same. 40-string harps have shorter equivalent vibrating lengths and the tension is lower on most notes where real pedal strings are used. The tension is still higher than smaller harps. The lowest notes (metal wound strings) may be thinner than pedal strings, as in the case of Camac. I have not touched the other two brands.
In place of “same” I’ll substitute “closer”. This is good when you are physically growing up and really need an in-between stage. One could consider renting or doing without it.
Mademoiselle has the wonderful Camac levers, which are highly celebrated. My only regret for moving to a near pedal size instrument is that if (and only if) you are planning to move to pedal anyway it is not worth doing unless you find the transition to higher tension really too hard and require a middle step, like if you are still growing up physically. I started as a grownup and found that though the middle step was nice, I would have rented instead because it is just a transition phase.
However if this is your a target instrument, say for many years to come, all 3 should be good from what I have heard via Internet footage during my own quest and it takes nothing but personal preferences to arrive at a verdict.
I did not try L&H and Salvi Ana while choosing. I had been a convert of Camac levers beforehand and so I did what I did naturally without, say, travel around to try the others. I keep the mademoiselle because I know when I get yet older I will have to return to lower tension instruments because of age related limitations.
Lever flipping could be an intense activity, better try out how those levers fit your handand fingers. If you are after a more classical tonal quality, I would go for highest tension available if side by side comparison is possible, anyway the sound will tell. So somewhere between the lever goodness and the tonal qualities lies your personal choice.
Do compare if the highest and lowest strings are levered. Mademoiselle is fully levered but I Can’t recall off hand for the other two. Please double check. Older models of L&H did not even have 40 strings I believe. Good luck for your quest.
Hi Carlin,
Australia is dry. But we had a few very unseasonally wet months. And string broke in matter of 20 minutes when door was kept open besides breaking much more often until I decided to dehumidify and check the hygrometer daily. Also overbending the vibrating part of the guy string (so that it becomes all white and non translucent) while tying the knot has been observed to facilitate breakage.
So I can attest to both (humidity and bending).
I am more trusting of manufacturers’ workmanship, to the extent of not checking because I had no suspicious repeated breakages.
Dear Janna,
I had a period ith string feelings when I attempted voice, with several teachers. It is jist like driving. Ones drives badly when observer simply because it is not yet second nature. The way to deal with it is to gain the com0lete trust of the student so that having some breakdown in the playing in front of you is nothing but a good opportunity. Most voice teachers tries to do that because voice is very personal, compared with any other insteuments. I ha seveal voice teachers and most of them did that. The honest feedback is not to blame the situation. just like driving, one needs to be fluid or else the car jumps like a kangaroo. To be on the road one must be safe. To enjoy music one must be ablevto converse while playing the piece, as least answeing several consecutive yes / no questions. Else it is not obust enoit yet.
Dear Karen,
May be this is less of an issue for girls and this ma also vary with body dimensions. Its time to line up your shoes to see which pair works best! For boys it may not be easy to have the right heels!
Cheers
Dear Balfour,
I think we are very similar except that I think in centimenters! My harp is like 176cm and I didn’t feel comfortable trying a full sized harp. Still doing minor adjustments on chair height etc. Increasingly the sole insert trick almost accomplishes the job, but the shoes are almost not walkable with so much stuffings inside. This morning I suddenly had a “Ive got it” moment to the adjustments and will keep refining…..
cheers
Thank you guys!
Dear Loonatik, it is for “leverage”, or raising the foot to a level that makes it easy to depress the pedals.
Dear Byouke,
ther are clip on piezo pickups you can order online for less than 2 dollars. I use that sometimes for the tuning machine when the environment is noisy. I have never heard it amplified but people sell then for the guitars and they are so cheap. By the way they look indistinguishable from those sold many times dearer.
some harp makes use multiple pickups to have more balanced sound. some goes so far as to having one per string. It is worth experimenting with a few located across different octaves. It you use too many you would need a pre-amp/mixer.
May take some experimentation, just keep trying and don’t ignore those cheap stuff.
Dear Jacob,
There is a Tasmanian Harp builder Andrew Thom who builds harps with aluminium (yes you heard me). they are ver robust and stand well to abuse (Alice Giles brought one to the Antartics).
From memory some models offers lower notes without even being 30 something strings and may be u can discuss your low notes requirements with him further.
cheers
Dear Karen,
I believe somebody may still find this informative.
I ended up with a Salvi Daphne SE. Smallish but not small enough. Very heavy esp when I am accustomed to Camac lever harps. I am 100% appreciative of the Camac features like cables, DIY adjustments, better radial spread of the high notes to ease hand position and light weight. The non use of felt makes every sense. The fact that rod are used means bad engineering. Metal is hard to break when pulled but easy to break when pushed. Camac is doing a good job in mechanical engineering
Missing the lowest 3 disc is tOo much. I also tried the camac athena and cannot manhandle such a large object 185ish cm tall. I am way too short!! Having sort of tried US and French ones, part of me wants to try Italian, just once! May be because it is not made to be not light in weight, the low notes sound clear to my ears for for a lower cost instrument. This matters a lot!
Best regards
Dear Karen, apology on clumsy typing on mobile phone. I have given up the clio idea. Too many important notes with discs.
I went for a 47 string of 175ish cm tall and accept the weight and size. I dont travel with my instrument at all. I am short but I dont want to be ever again seeing the harp as lacking something. Pls consider the possible displeasure that you have the low notes but cant change the note on the fly ….. annd some how a future piece of music reguires it…..
In lever harps, I like levers on every string (L&H Prelude was ousted as a choice) I think for pedal, especialky if one desires a smaller one, should think harder on the capabilities of the additional notes one aspires for. I once changed from34 to 40 feeling I am harmically incomplete without Bs. Now I dont want to repeat that feeling again. For the unavoiable lack of disc true for every full sized harp, it is a given and I dont care aboit the 00 octave nor the lowest C or D.
Dear Karen,
Exactly in the same boat! been looking at clio 44. all camac features sound nice to excellent but but I can’t stand the fact that the lowest 3 strings are without disc. think of it, f, g and a without discs. also having e is better. f & g without disc are limiting even gor relatively simple keys. so the additional weight of a “smaller” 47 string is worth it, unless mobility is absolutely necessary, which is untrue for me. I would rather skip the new engineering features of the camac if I have to. that how much serious I am for the range of the instrument. done enough od buying a larger harp for the extra note. tired of that! I wont miss the high end. the daphne 44 and l&h 44 are discontined I believe.
