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Natalie, it looks as though the Healing Music organization has closed their site. I hate that, as it was a very informative article in terms of specific qualities of healing music. I will look around to see if there’s not some way of finding a cache of it that I can copy and paste.
Hi Kevin, that makes me so happy to hear! I hope there will be more and more harpists and harp therapists playing for yoga. I’m now playing for several studios and doing a yoga teacher training myself, and I love harping for yoga more than ever.
Please keep us posted on your yoga/harp journey, Kevin!Practice reading simpler pieces first. Just reading the melody and adding in your own left hand will take you a good long way. Harp arrangements are pretty busy, even the simplest ones.
Practice reading something new every day or two. If you get stuck, play a tune and listen on Youtube. I taught myself neumes (Renaissance music writing) this way.
There are some Bernard Andrès pieces that would be great for practicing left-hand melody reading, in his first three books.
Also, many harpists work without sheet music. It may not even be a hindrance to your goals if it wasn’t on piano. There is no right or wrong way, it’s a very individual matter. I only memorize when I know that there’s too much going on in a piece for me to look everywhere at once, and even then I keep the paper in front of me in case something goes awry. Other people play the harp for years and never look at the printed page.
Oh, and another thing that helps, especially with reading rhythm. Find another friend who plays another instrument and play together. This will make it more fun.I love Veni redemptor gencium (both the St. Ambrose plainchant and the later Einsiedeln manuscript) and Elizabeth Poston’s Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. They all sound lovely on harp without even very much arrangement.
I have never heard a Stoney End harp that wasn’t absolutely superb.
I have a Triplett Christina and a wire-strung MusicMakers Limerick. I use both a strap and a knee bone with each and find this is the most effortless way for me to play and maintain good position and posture without being uncomfortable. People seem to love the sound of the Christina but I personally find it a bit dry and lacking in resonance (I like lots and lots of resonance, like the Dusty Strings!) If I had it to buy over again, I’d get a Stoney End Nightingale. That’s the prettiest sounding lap harp I’ve heard to date.
I play these two harps at two or three gigs each week (I’m a city harpist who rides the subway, so I need something that can go on my back quickly and not cause pain!)My teacher always said, “Use the fingering that makes the passage sound the best, not the easiest fingering.” And she almost always changed the written fingering. For example, she frequently changed single notes written to be played with the thumb to be played with the second finger. Another pattern I remember her changing was 4-4321 (fourth finger slide) to 12123 (crossover). I do try out what’s written now that I’m working on my own just to see how it sounds and feels, but I very rarely use the exact fingering suggested for the entire piece. There’s at least one little change or two. That said, I find it’s very helpful to have some kind of fingering written in by the arranger!
Hi Deb, I play wire-strung harp and there are very few teachers in North America in general. However, many people here work with a Skype teacher… I can recommend Simon Chadwick in St. Andrews, who charges 20 pounds per hour for Skype lessons, the same as his local students.
A large number of clarsach players in North America import their instruments from
Ardival in Scotland, so I am also doubtful that there would be any
comparable instrument available for either hire or purchase to the harp your daughter’s teacher is offering.
I have a wire-strung harp that is a bit of a hybrid, and I love it, but I can’t say it compares to the bell-like sound of the Scottish-built ones. Plus, it is strung in steel in the upper registers, which players who play with their nails say is very hard on them (I do not play with my nails).
As well, 1000 pounds is quite a fair price for any well-built harp, and I’m sure you’d have no trouble selling it in Toronto if need be, considering how rare and beautiful the instrument is. People who have played other types of harps can enjoy playing simple tunes on a clarsach without more lessons…I’m a harpist in Montreal (Plateau), with a Dusty Strings Ravenna and Limerick MusicMakers wire-strung , both of which I bought from North Art Heritage Music in Salmon Arm, BC, and a second-hand Triplett Christina I bought from a harpist in Quebec City, who ordered it from Ottawa. There are more choices than ever before… and also amazing Canadian luthiers building harps like this one!
http://www.timothyharps.ca/harpmodels_niamh.htm“How long have you been playing?” and “Is it hard?”
I have had some memorable questions about the colored strings (are they just for beginners, do you get to pick the color, etc.) One in particular I’ll never forget. I’m an American living in Canada, and the night after Obama was elected, a girl came up and asked if I colored my strings red, white and blue in honor of Obama!Hi Sarah,
Why don’t you call the Atlanta Harp Center and ask them? That’s the Southeast go-to for harps. They should be able to advise you and they may well have a list of techs in your area.Just an update – I have bought the Limerick and love it! The upper registers are steel and the lower registers brass wound. Right now I’m working with Cynthia Cathcart and Simon Chadwick’s tutor books. Some of my repertoire transfers and some doesn’t.
I’m planning to do some Skype lessons with Simon, who says fingertip style sounds very nice with Irish Baroque repertoire. I’m always an optimist, so I may look into that hoof protein nail polish to try and grow my nails but if not, I was relieved to hear from a historical wire harper that playing with the fingertips is just fine. It sounds nice to my ear – not as ringing, but that means less damping, too. A frequent question I hear is does playing with my fingertips on steel strings hurt and for me, no, maybe because I grew massive calluses each week on my teacher’s high-tensioned Ogden. Playing loud scales on that thing seriously lowered my pain threshold.Hi Ruth,
Bernard Andrès is a French composer who learned the harp (as an adult – isn’t that inspiring to those of us who learned as adults?) so that he could write for the instruments.
I enthusiastically recommend his two wonderful books for beginners, Marelles 1 and 2. Even if you are past that level, they are beautiful and intelligent pieces that sound great and people love hearing.
HannahBrenda, that’s the prettiest sounding one I’ve ever tried. Jeff is also really, really nice! I’m very happy with my Christina, but if I had it to do again, I’d get a Nightingale. He has thought of everything (except perhaps the lapbar, but no bother since the Christina fits it.)
Have a great time at Southeastern! Oh, and you could also try the Stoney End Evensong, another excellent therapy harp.
Wishing you crisp, perfect weather all weekend long in the Land of the Sky!
Hannah
