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This will get worse as you get more advanced! But the music will get more interesting too, and you will have a bigger repertoire of pieces. I played harp for two years as a kid, most of which I’ve forgotten, and have also been playing the piano for 33 years, so I got to an advanced level at that. Taking up the harp again, it was rather delightful learning pieces that were so short and quick to learn. One suite has movements that start at only three pages long! Very different from learning entire concerti.
Something you might like is to get some music collections that are noticeably easier than the pieces you’re studying, the sort of thing where you can learn the pieces contained quickly and easily, and perhaps have one on the go in addition to your more challenging pieces. It’s great to be able to get something under your belt more quickly, it helps broaden your repertoire, you learn various techniques as you go, and it gives you pieces you can play when you are tired or not well-focused and just want something easy. So for instance, I am learning a couple of Bach preludes and the first Epices suite by Andres, which require proper study, but I also have Deborah Friou’s collection of early music for the harp, where I can polish off pieces quickly and which are great for relaxing with. I think I may be a few grades ahead of you, since I came to this with a lot of musical experience, so don’t assume that a book which I think of as relatively easy will be for you until you’ve had a look at it! But there is lots of harp music at various levels, so you should be able to find something that clicks for you.
Practice techniques: this is carried over from my piano experience, as I’ve only had a couple of harp lessons this time around, but here are techniques I’m finding work well on harp as well as on piano.
If you’re playing continuous semiquavers, try playing them in dotted rhythms, both the dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver and the semiquaver followed by a dotted quaver. I’m finding this particularly useful for lever changes.
Slow practice, taking the time to listen carefully. When I was studying a couple of Messiaen preludes for my music A-level, I remember doing quarter-speed practice. (I more commonly did half-speed, so this was new to me.) It was a very meditative experience, and really helped me understand and connect with the complex, colourful music, as well as do things like get my tone really well-balanced.
If you are finding that you keep stumbling, slow down, even if you are raring to go. You often don’t need to slow down as much as you think, usually to the point that no one listening even notices that you are playing more slowly.
Aha, I found a video of it! OK, that’s tinkly, and the legs don’t look removable at all. I think I’ll pass. Thanks for all the advice. If my finances permit in the future, I might get a lap harp for my partner’s, but meanwhile everything is up in the air with him moving flat, and my Mark Norris plus a year and a half more of renting is already going to eat up my savings.
But I have just had a good half hour practising Bach Prelude BWV999, and am feeling much happier and harpier.
I won’t have the opportunity to see it before I buy it, by the way. It’s about 500 miles away.
If the harp is twenty years old, then if it’s not been restrung since then, how likely is it that I should be changing the strings anyway? If so, can I do anything like use some strings for the ones next to them, rather than having to buy a whole new set for £70 or so? Also would there be any possibility of changing some or all of the strings for fluorocarbon, if I could get the same gauge (and it looks like it’s very close, judging by the charts they have), or would that kill the harp?
(I mean, really good harps in the sense of nice little budget ones, obviously.)
If I were to turn it into a G to G harp, how difficult and expensive is that likely to be? Do you need to buy a whole new set of strings? Could I leave the strings that were the right colour in place and just tune them up a tone? Could I actually leave them tuned F to F but looking like G to G, effectively making it a transposing instrument? I’m not going to be playing with other people a huge amount, if at all.
How much complex, lengthy harp music is there likely to be that wouldn’t work with F to F? I’m currently putting in a piece into Musescore to see how difficult it is. One page, simple, done in twenty-five minutes.
The plan would be to leave the legs off permanently.
I was hoping you’d reply!
Those harps were more commonly sold strung G to G, which I’m guessing means that I could change the strings, if I don’t mind painting the levers. Although does that mean buying a whole new set of strings, or can you take them off and put them back on a note down? I spoke to the people I rent from, and on the pro side they said those were really good harps, they have a lot of the 27 string models. On the con side, their courier plan didn’t work out, the chap they use would charge £100, so I’d need to figure something else out, if the seller agrees. The harp is 30″ high without its legs, and I’d probably be playing on the sofa or bed, with my legs up and the harp between my knees. That’s how I was playing the little 22″ wire harp I was using before, and I could manage a bigger harp than that up to a point. The Lorien harps you mentioned look lovely, but they’d be twice the price and that’s with very few levers. I don’t know of anything anywhere near that price, rosewood harp-shaped objects aside. Do you still reckon it’s not worth going for?
Improv – very useful, I will try that! Thank you.
Noooo! Not the Comfy Chair!
I keep going back and forth on lap harps: will the extra tuning drive me up the wall, will I find the limited range too annoying. There is a 22 string Morley lap harp currently on eBay at a price that has me very tempted, especially since my partner is having to move flat, so moving the 34 string harp between flats when we go back and forth every weekend is no longer going to be possible (and was a nuisance to begin with). It’s 21 years old, F to F, and the levers sound like they’re reasonable but you might not want to do lots of flips during pieces, judging by what Morley tell me (not as good as Camacs, anyway). I’ve started chatting with the owner, who had Morley put gut on the lower strings (the rest are nylon) to get a better sound, so they sound like they’re a proper harpist rather than someone who’s been treating it as furniture, and said the levers are in good condition.
How useful is that as a range? I’ve been playing quite a lot from a medieval book (arr. Friou), for instance, which tends to be C major/ionian, D dorian, or A aeolian, and which is often in a fairly small range, I think, with only the odd rare lever change. Entering everything into Musescore in order to transpose it would be a pain, although I suppose you can copy and paste a lot, and at least you don’t have a vocal part with lyrics to add, so it’s going to be a hell of a lot less work than, say, entering Handel arias or Mozart duets, which I’ve done in the past. I quite like singing Dowland, but that requires lever changes throughout the pieces, if not necessarily frequent ones. Bach would be right out. The 25 string Border harp in poor condition I originally borrowed from friends went down to an E, but that string didn’t really work and I don’t think I missed it, though I probably enjoyed being able to go up to the A at the top. If need be, I suspect I could move it to G – G, as most of the harps in that range were strung that way, although how much hassle is it to repaint the levers?
I can’t improvise to save my life and don’t see that changing. I have been meaning to learn to play some of the pieces my partner plays on the dulcimer, which would be nice.
If all else fails and I never end up using it, how hard would it be to flog a basic but decent fully levered lap harp in Edinburgh?
Arggh I keep being sporadically tempted by lap harps. There’s a cheap Morley 22 string on eBay which I probably do not need, in that having even more strings to tune every week would annoy me, as would the limited range (F to F doesn’t strike me as promising, either). If I am feeling musically inclined when at my partner’s, he does have an electric piano.
My guess would be that programmes of the sort you mention deal in cheaper instruments than pedal harps, I’m afraid. If you’re looking at second-hand ones, be careful about getting something that is in good condition, as there are sadly plenty of harps gathering dust that are no longer playable, sometimes even if a fortune is spent on restoration. The advice I’ve seen is always to look at the harp yourself, or get an expert to look at it. The folks here will be able to give you lots of advice.
Is there any chance your child would be able to enjoy lever harp more if they got something better quality than the one they’ve been using, or are they certain they want a pedal harp?
It wasn’t a new harp! My friend had owned it for years, and reluctantly given up due to not having the space (she lives on a narrowboat) and injuries. It seemed to be in good condition as far as the body of the harp was concerned, though it needed a couple of new strings put on. I really wish it had worked out, it is a lovely little thing and would solve the problem of not having a harp when I’m at my partner’s for the weekend, but I cannot keep up with that much tuning, and I was having a rough time seeing the strings due to eye problems. For comparison, I’m currently renting a 34 string fluorocarbon Camac Hermine, which can get away with being tuned once a week, and that’s being swapped for a rental Starfish Glencoe soon.
I did wonder if differences in harp construction were a reason why you were reporting such differences in how a wire harp keeps its tuning. Your harps sound lovely, especially the clarsach you’re selling (which I have sternly had to remind myself would Not Be A Good Idea, especially since my partner has suddenly been given notice to quit as his landlord is selling the flat, and we have no idea whether a harp will fit wherever he lives next). I’ve just had a look at your photos and am drooling over them. How on earth do you keep up with tuning so many of them, though?
In terms of playing with others, which keys do you find it most useful to have? It was something we took into consideration when ordering my partner’s travel dulcimer. His main one is DADD, which a lot of dulcimer players prefer if they’re playing with other dulcimers, only we don’t know any other dulcimer players around here. We got the Sparrow built in GDGG, which suits its size nicely and should also fit well with other instruments – I’m dying to hear it recorded with the banjo, for instance. Of course, since Pete put a high enough fretboard on it to use a capo, and since it is chromatic anyway, he could easily play in other keys as well. You’d want at least a few levers on a harp for playing with other people, wouldn’t you.
Here are the lap harps I know of which you may want to consider:
Fullsicle – 26 strings, goes down to the C below middle C, fully levered within budget. A lot of people complain that the string tension is way too low and that it’s like playing rubber bands. Quite a basic-looking harp. Very popular as a budget lap harp.
Blevins – make a variety of lap harps including some very compact models, but way above budget. I had a chat with Cindy Blevins, who is quite delightful, when I was vaguely contemplating getting a cross-strung harp. She talked me out of it, explaining the very good reasons why they are so little played, and also mentioned that she doesn’t have a lap harp because she finds them too restrictive. She’s a useful person to talk to.
Noteworthy County Kerry – 24 strings, goes down to C below middle C, partially levered within budget, fully levered outside budget (though double check that, I’m having trouble finding prices and suspect the place I looked at was a lot more expensive than buying from the luthier). This has a very good reputation, and I think a better string tension. It’s fairly compact as harps with that range go, as well, and looks more like a traditional harp.
Stoney End – these are higher pitched harps, and you’re going to run into budget issues if you want levers (and you sound like you do), though possibly not if you’re happy to build it from a kit. Popular wee harps, more basic quality I think.
Triplett Christina – 25 strings, a lot more expensive.
Heartland Infinity – 36 strings, carbon fibre body, surprisingly small and portable, but way, way, way over budget! Interesting in terms of showing you what can be done.
If you are really sure that you want a lap harp, I’d probably look at the County Kerry and the Fullsicle. I have the County Kerry at the back of my mind in case I ever want a lap harp, as it seems to be a good one, but I always end up concluding that the smaller number of strings would only frustrate me.
I’m wondering what it is about the mountain dulcimer that put you off? A lot of people play it at a fairly basic level, it’s a popular folk instrument, so I’m wondering if you have had a chance to see what a dulcimer can really do when played with more skill. My partner recommends listening to Bing Futch in particular, Jean Ritchie, Joanie Mitchell, and the videos people put up on the Mountain Dulcimer Players Facebook group, as they’re good.
If you play a 34 string lever harp, there will be a huge amount of music you can play without having to rearrange it. If you play a lap harp, there is some music around, usually the more elementary stuff, but in general you will be rearranging everything. This may work out well if you like folk music and are happy to work out arrangements yourself.
With dulcimer, it’s pretty much all working it out yourself, and heavily folk-oriented. Which doesn’t mean you can’t play all sorts of things – my partner plays some metal, for instance, he[s been doing a version of a Chopin waltz, and his most popular piece when busking is the Game of Thrones theme. The travel dulcimer in particular is lovely for being able to pick up and play any time, for instance keeping it on his lap when he’s working at the computer. He’s just wandered in and started playing the Hitchhiker theme on it.
A diatonic dulcimer is easier to learn on, the chords fit neatly into it, and a chromatic gives you a lot more musical possibilities but is harder. Of course, with the price of dulcimers, you can build up a stable of them, and most dulcimer players do. I’d be playing one like a shot were I not disabled in a way that makes it painful for me to play fretted instruments. I’m not good at improvising, which is one reason why I haven’t gone for lap harp, I’d find it a chore to be<span style=”font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5;”>figuring out all my music. </span>
Another harp vs. dulcimer for travel thing: dulcimers have four strings, in general, and hold their tuning a lot better. If you’re going to be merrily subjecting the instrument to changes in temperature and humidity, and probably jolts as well, you’ll be spending a lot more time tuning a harp than you will a dulcimer.
I am still trying to figure out how on earth a harp is an instrument you could go backpacking with! They’re huge! And rather expensive for subjecting to the risks of travel! The cardboard ones might work if you don’t mind its being small and unlevered, they have a surprisingly good reputation and are dirt cheap.
When you were learning harp before, what sort of music were you playing? Were you improvising and arranging music yourself? Did you get a chance to figure out what sort of range you would need, and how much you use the levers? I play classical music, so I am all over the levers, especially with things like Bach preludes.
(Apologies if I have any weird typos, by the way. I’ve just had to do a factory reset on my Android tablet, and now it’s doing all sorts of weird autocorrecting even when I use the external keyboard, and I can’t figure out how to stop it doing that.)
Bingo – I’m really surprised to hear you find that wire harps keep their tuning better, since I’ve always been told the opposite! Where in the world are you, what are the temperature and humidity conditions like there, and which harp(s) are you playing?
I’m in Scotland, which doesn’t get particularly warm and does get rather humid, although in the winter it will be dry indoors due to the central heating. I have a 19 string brass-strung Ardival Kilcoy on loan from a friend. Ardival is a Scottish maker of historical-style harps, very well respected. When I rang Ardival to ask why I was having to keep retuning, and why it wasn’t even holding its tune through a tuning session, Bill Taylor told me that wire harps need to be tuned daily, preferably more than once, and at first will need to be tuned four times a day. He also mentioned that you have to heavy-tune and then light-tune each time you tune, i.e. go through it twice or more. Again, he is very well respected as a wire harper and teacher, and as far as I know, what he says about this is standard. I’ve met other people who said they tried wire harping but gave up because of the amount of tuning needed. I’ve just had a look at Triplett’s page on wire harps, to see what a US wire harp maker had to say in case it was a regional climate thing, and they say that they are “more temperamental” and “not recommended for beginner harp players unless you are going to work closely with an accomplished wire harp teacher”. Anyway, I have posted in a wire harp group to find out what other people find on this topic, as I’m curious now.
When I was considering whether to borrow this harp, I was told by several people from harp professions that it’s a completely different animal from lever or pedal harp. The strings are different in so many ways – composition, sustain, spacing – and the technique is very different, leading to a different (and smaller) repertoire. Wire harps don’t have levers (one reason why the string spacing can be smaller), although a small minority of them may have partial or full sharping blades, and that makes a big difference as to what you can play. There is a strong tradition of playing them with long fingernails, and while the history of this is disputed and some people prefer fingerpads, again that’s a reason why the string spacing tends to be narrower. I’m 4’11 so I have small hands, and I still found the string spacing to be challengingly narrow, probably because I was playing with my fingerpads.
I’ve just realised another problem with a wire harp as a campsite instrument: you need good lighting to play it. Instead of the nice obvious difference between string colours you get with other types of harp, wire harps are strung with the same colour of metal all the way through, perhaps changing to silver in the bass wires if you have a larger and more expensive model (out of your budget, from the ones I know). You have to paint the Cs and the Fs, and they still don’t show up that well. When I had a lesson with Bill Taylor, the first thing he sorted out was lighting, and when practising at home I found that I needed very strong lighting, very close to the harp, and still had trouble seeing the strings. Playing a wire harp in low light conditions would mean that you wouldn’t be able to see which string is which. Obviously some people are fine with this, there have been blind harpers, but it’s harder and definitely worth bearing in mind.
The main thing that’s striking me about Jacob is that he wants to a) Do All The Things, b) have a small instrument, and c) have a budget instrument. It’s hard to reconcile all three of those with harps. Levers add versatility, I wouldn’t be without mine, but they also add weight and cost. If he is worried that a harp that only goes down to the C below Middle C won’t have a big enough range, well, most lap harps don’t even go that far down! I get the feeling he’d be better served by having a 34 string fully-levered harp at home, and then either compromising on a lap harp that he won’t be able to do as much with for travel, or getting to know the full capabilities of a mountain dulcimer for travel. Because you can do all those three things with a dulcimer, you can play it in low light conditions, and it’s generally much more travel-friendly.
http://www.inlaysticker.com/ any use for you? I ordered their lizard ones for my partner’s birthday, along with surprising him with a travel mountain dulcimer his sister and I schemed to get him. The stickers didn’t go on the dulcimer in the end, we both preferred it plain, but might adorn laptops or something. They have a good reputation, I understand from guitar forums and such. If you see a fretboard design you want without the bits cut out for the frets, I think they’ll do that for you. The lizards (from the uke section) are very cute, and the faux abalone looks nice. What sort of thing were you thinking of?
A friend of mine who’s a designer would love to do some work for harp. Look up Eithin if you’re interested.
Lots of rest – I’m still recovering! It turns out that I badly overdid it, especially with all the practice beforehand. Anyway, my rental Starfish Glencoe will be arriving in a week or so, and I’m excited about moving to a better harp. Any advice on washing the dust cover for the Camac I’m renting before I return it? They said they’ve had problems with people with cat allergies before. The cat hasn’t been sitting on the cover as far as I know, it’s either been in a box or sitting folded on an armchair she doesn’t touch, but if it’s been in a catty household then it will have allergens on it to some extent, I imagine. I was thinking of putting it in the washing machine, then hanging it up in the bathroom to dry so that it is cat-free, and then putting it in a sealed container. (The cat regards the clothes horse as her personal climbing frame.) It’s polyester, I think, otherwise I’d tumble dry it.
Mark Norris was very friendly on the phone, very friendly at the festival, and hasn’t replied to emails since. I’m a smidgen worried about that.
In case you get keen on the dulcimer again, my partner has a travel dulcimer from Pete Staehling of Feather Dulcimer. He has a chromatic Sparrow model, tuned to GDGG, and loves it to bits. Having the chromatic frets opens up a lot more possibilities, and he’s playing as much or more than his Ron Ewing full-size dulcimer. It took him a while to figure out what to do with the dulcimer, since they’re little-played in the UK and he had to teach himself (including doing some online music theory courses along the way), but now he finds it a very versatile and expressive instrument. Pete’s dulcimers are designed as backpacking instruments, with features such as zither pins that make them more compact, but they still sound lovely. It also holds its tuning very well, and arrived in tune with itself and only a semitone flat even though it came to us from the US in early spring. It’s built in cherry with a sinker cypress top and maple fretboard, and is a lovely little thing. There’s a huge amount you can do with mountain dulcimers.
With regard to wire-strung harps, they are smaller due to closer string spacing and there is repertoire for even the 19 string ones, but they require tuning every day, probably more often. A friend lent me one, and I couldn’t work out how to get it to hold its tune. A chap from the luthier told me that it should be tuned four times a day to begin with, and tuned twice each time. I couldn’t keep up with the tuning schedule and it’s going back to my friend.
I’m still not sure a harp is a natural backpacking-and-campfire instrument, but carbon fibre ones have a reputation for surviving that sort of thing better, and some string types may work better for you as well.
When I mentioned on Facebook that I was thinking of taking up the harp again, another pair of friends lent me their harp. 25 strings, bigger than you’d expect (no way could you travel with it), crap levers (the bottom one fell off), soundbox splits, all sorts of problems. I was enjoying messing around with it anyway, but the range was horribly limiting, and I couldn’t really get anywhere until I started renting a decent student harp, the Camac Hermine. I’m about to change that over for a Starfish Glencoe while I wait for my own harp to be built, since the Camac has too low a string tension for me. People frequently complain about the range being limiting on smaller harps – you’re often advised to learn on a 34 string and then figure out if you can manage a smaller one and what you plan to do with it – and many people don’t get on well with a partially-levered harp either.
The Teifi was indeed nice, and not too heavy, but it seemed really loud in the middle. I’d have liked to have had longer to play with it. The levers were good, which is the main point. Although I tried four harps with Camac levers at some length today, and they varied a great deal in terms of how stiff they were, even with the same luthier. Well, I can sort that out later. The Norris ones are definitely easy to reach.
Fluorocarbon strings sound a bit brighter than gut, am I right? I think that’ll work nicely with the Norris harps. Plus generally I’m much happier with a luthier who is used to working with fluorocarbon regularly and likes it. He didn’t have any 36 string ones there, but he had a couple of 34 string ones with the larger frame he also uses for the 36 string ones, and the larger frame suited me better. It felt right.
