Gary C

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  • in reply to: I just ordered a Ravenna 34! #74313
    Gary C
    Member

    Yeah! It’s brilliant.

    I’ve named my new harp Peggy (that was the first Folk tune I ever learned, Peggy O when I was 5, she has lots of tuning pegs, and peg legs, so she’s Peggy) and played for over an hour last night. My fingers hurt a bit because of the higher tension. Sounds fantastic though.

    I’m slowly getting used to the wider string spacing, hitting those

    placements quite well now, it’ll take a few more hours I think before

    I’m as confident on it as on my lap harp. It’ll be fun getting there

    though and I just know I’m going to improve faster because it’s just

    such a nice instrument.

    Happy!

    in reply to: Tried my hand at tuning last night #159139
    Gary C
    Member

    It’s the same with all pegged instruments like Violin or Ukulele.

    I have a few Ukes with tuning pegs, and they were a nightmare for me compared with the geared tuners on my guitars and a couple of other Ukes. I didn’t have a harp then, but when I got my first harp, I guess my experience with pegged tuners helped a lot because I never had any problems making small adjustments to my harp tuning, and I can guage adjustmets of 25 to 50 cents (I call a cent 1/100th of a tone) almost perfectly. That’s with my 22 string lap harp. Remains to be seen how I get on with the Ravenna when it arrives 🙂 More strings, higher tension, etc.

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159168
    Gary C
    Member

    I just ordered a Ravenna 34! She comes on Thursday! I’m quite beside myself!

    in reply to: Nervousness during lessons #155830
    Gary C
    Member

    Yeah it’s fun with other musos in some situations. If I’m in the audience I can tell if something’s been fluffed, at which point the band member and I will have a quick glance and grin. That’s fun.

    In most gigs I played (I don’t know about Harp, perhaps audiences are more discerning), it was quite clear that 90% of them didn’t know enough or care enough to catch the small mistakes, and the small number who did, you’d have a quick grin with. Quite fun really.

    The main thing I learned when playing live over all those years, was to never EVER stop. Even if you end up on the wrong chord or something, just keep making noise and you’ll get away with it most of the time, with most of the audience. If you stop though, that’s awkward, and people will notice. Even the drunk ones!

    Being in a lesson scenario is just totally different. I need to relax more. Now where’s my coffee?

    in reply to: Nervousness during lessons #155828
    Gary C
    Member

    I get this. I’ve been having lessons with Susan Z via skype for about 7 months (wow, is it that long?) and I often flub a piece that I’d been playing correctly only a half an hour before the lesson.

    I beat myself up a lot when I don’t get things right, which isn’t so helpful either, and I’ve been admonished for that.

    And this is from someone (me!) who used to be a gigging musician in his younger days. I was never nerve free on stage, but the critical observance of a skilled professional is much more nerve racking for me than playing to a house of a hundred or so slightly inebriated C&W

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159162
    Gary C
    Member

    But to my ears, the Ravenna 34 sounds just as good and is more affordable.

    I’m going to discuss the Ravenna 34 with my harp teacher tonight, but it looks like this might well be the one. Plus, I think I’ve fallen for the styling 😐 Loving the two tone look.

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159161
    Gary C
    Member

    Oh my. I’m populating this thread all by myself!

    The Crescendo 34 Dusty Strings from Clive Morely sounds nice! Blimey. So few manufactures do video and sound clips and they help immensely!

    It’s about a grand over budget but… Must contact Clive Morely!

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159160
    Gary C
    Member

    I’ll find out. Just west of Leeds is not so far.

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159158
    Gary C
    Member

    Thanks for the reply.

    I am mentioning string gauge when I talk to people about it. I live about 30 miles north of Newcastle, which, whilst not exactly scotland, is still a big bunch of miles and time from South Wales.

    I’m not at all interested in pedal harp so I’m not learning that. Fast traditional dances would be reels or jigs – might get into those I suppose but not really. I like playing songs I can sing to.

    My local Clarsach society (Northumbrian) does do rentals, 12

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159156
    Gary C
    Member

    And the last bit of background:

    My harp lessons consist of going through material in Sylvia Woods’ Teach Yourself Folk Harp book, with added instruction in improvisation. I enjoy the sessions immensely, the improv helps such that I can just sit down and play nice sounding music without slaving to those dots 🙂

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159155
    Gary C
    Member

    I didn’t cover what my priorities are, mostly because I don’t rightly know.

    I wanted to play the harp because… Well, I just wanted to play it!

    in reply to: Trying to decide on my first ‘big’ harp… #159154
    Gary C
    Member

    My preffered genre is english and irish trad. Songs like country gardens, greensleves, olde folk tunes. That sort of thing.

    in reply to: Strings…gut/carbon fibre/chicken wire!!!! #159059
    Gary C
    Member

    Yes. And what jessica said. They take ages to stretch in. I understand that the alliance harp strings are similar in this regard.

    in reply to: Strings…gut/carbon fibre/chicken wire!!!! #159058
    Gary C
    Member

    Well, I’m new to harp, but I’ll jump in with nylgut.

    Nylgut strings I use on my ukuleles as they give a good balance between gut tone and nylon durability. They’re strung to the same tension as nylon strings. I don’t know enough about harps to say whether or not either a nylon or gut strung harp could be strung with nylgut, nor even if nylgut harp strings are available. Be a bit longer than my soprano uke sets, I’d imagine!

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