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I can add one song to your list. My daughter recently played at her cousin’s wedding and the bride’s only special request was for, “The River Flows In You”. My daughter played a simple but lovely arrangement by Sylvia Woods.
You-all are the best! Seriously.
Charles, thankfully, I do know what you are talking about. (And I know it would be much easier to demonstrate!) 🙂 My 4 or 5 years of piano lessons have come in handy with helping my children with different things here and there as they have studied different instruments. Also, over the last year or two Amy has been learning to play from lead sheets when she plays the keyboard for the Middle School Worship Band at our church. She’s just starting to try the same thing on the harp so I am hoping that skill continues to grow.
And, Balfour and Gretchen, thank you for finding that arrangement for me. (Also, Balfour, thank you for your email! I always appreciate you sharing from your experience and your kind friendship.)
I did ordered that medley today so I think Amy may be able to use the section with this song as a guide and do what Charles was saying to fill in for the rest.
I so appreciate you all. You have really come through and helped me to find a workable solution. I am now hopeful that Amy can get work the song up in time for the children on Palm Sunday. I’ll let you-all know how it goes.
With appreciation,
Jackie
Karen,
Interestingly enough, like Charles, we also bought an American Harp Cart and we’re very happy with it. When we first started renting a full-sized pedal harp for our daughter it came with a standard harp cart (don’t know the brand), but our daughter has a L&H #30 and the weight would make the axle bow in the middle, which made my husband just a bit wary of it. My husband is a structural engineer and after looking at several carts online he decided on the American Harp Cart. It seems to be the sturdiest one that’s available and it’s very well built. The tires are pneumatic and larger than a lot of carts, and the straps are wider and are threaded through metal hardware. Like Charles, I also made some padded straps for ours, as those aren’t included, and they look great! Also, I’d like to add that I have read somewhere in this forum that some people have recommended the kind that has 3 small wheels on each side and say that they do well on stairs. You might want to check those out, too.
Hope this helps,
Jackie
Happiest of birthdays, Balfour! I think this is a beautiful time of year to have a birthday. I hope you have a wonderful year!
Harp hugs back to Balfour, Carol Lynn and all of you,
Jackie
Balfour,
You are correct! Amy is my daughter and you and your sweet wife, Carol Lynn, are two of the people that I had in mind with my comment about the wonderful people we have met in the “harp world.” I also must say that your playing is absolutely fabulous! Your music added so much to the rehearsal and wedding reception that we all celebrated together.(And you were so kind to allow Amy to play your beautiful lever harp.) I look forward to hearing you play again in the future!
I am learning so much from this forum, which I pass along to my daughter, and am so thankful for the experience and kindness of everyone here.
Jackie
Mariah,
I am a relatively new harp parent so I thought I would add my experiences to the mix. My daughter will be turning 13 in a few weeks and has been playing harp for almost 2 and 1/2 years. She expressed an interest for about a year before that and after my husband and I realized she was serious about learning to play we made the commitment to start lessons for her. One of the things I am most thankful for is the excellent teacher that we found. I didn’t even know enough about the harp at the time to realize how true this was. (We do not have an abundance of harp teachers in our area and found this teacher by recommendation of a friend whose daughter plays harp.) One of the most important things about playing harp is the position of the hand and fingers. When bad habits are developed they can be very difficult to overcome. (We had experienced this with one of our sons who has played classical guitar for years and was never really able to correct his hand position.) From what I understand, the correct hand position can help prevent injury and make the music more “playable” and beautiful. Though not everyone agrees exactly how to accomplish this, there are some important things to avoid. (O.K., end of rabbit trail.) 🙂
As for the harps my daughter has played, we approached this in a rather backward way. In an effort to “save money” on renting we actually purchased a harp at the time our daughter started lessons. This is not necessarily the best thing to do, as it negatively impacts the income that some harp teachers count on from rentals, etc. and you don’t usually know what to buy early on, depending on which path you choose for the future. But, in our case, I spent a lot of time researching online and calling quite a few harp stores. We ended up buying a Certified Pre-Owned Troubadour VI from Lyon & Healy, knowing we would spend a little less than on a new harp, it would already be somewhat broken in and we could also trade it in with L&H later toward the purchase of a new pedal harp. (After multiple conversations with our daughter and watching videos of different styles of harp music online, we had determined that she would most likely be working toward playing the pedal harp. Therefore, we wanted a lever harp that would provide the correct tension and spacing for that transition.)
Well, after about a year of lessons, with my daughter often practicing twice a day, we made the decision to look into renting a pedal harp for her. Even though her teacher wasn’t really “pushing” for this at the time, she took lessons on his pedal harp and we knew having one at home for practice would allow her more choices in her repertoire and also help her get used to playing with pedals earlier. Besides, she is on the tall side, and now over one year later she is already 5’6″, so a pedal harp feels very comfortable to her. As it turns out, we feel this is one of the best decisions we have made. Our daughter has made great progress since last year, and comparing songs from last Christmas to this Christmas has shown a dramatic difference.
But, I will say that the financial side of things is a huge factor. A few years ago I could never have imagined us purchasing an instrument as expensive as a pedal harp. In fact, most of our cars over the years have cost less than half of the price of a concert grand! But, when we realized that playing the harp was going to be something our daughter would likely be doing for the rest of her life (and very likely also studying in college) then we decided to make this a top priority in our finances. We tightened our budget and committed any extra money (instead of taking a vacation, etc.) to the purchase of a pedal harp. We just treated this as if it were a car payment. 🙂 That’s when, after even more research (several months), I found an 8-year-old L&H concert grand to rent with the option to buy. The conditions were that the first 6 months of rent could go toward the purchase if we made the decision to buy it. Well, our whole family fell in love with the sound and look of this harp! So, instead of trading in her Troubadour VI on a new harp we sold it to help pay for the harp we had been renting.
So, as our experience confirms, you’ve been given some very good advice by other more experienced harpists here in this forum. Most harpists can’t know which path(s) they will take in the future. Thankfully, things still worked out well for us, even though we jumped the gun a bit with our purchases, but each person is different. From my limited experience I would give these recommendations:
– If you are going to buy a pedal harp, I would NOT purchase one with only 40 strings. I know several people that are having a difficult time selling one like this.
– Make sure your daughter has a qualified teacher, preferably one with great technique. Also, it helps a lot if the personalities and teaching styles of the teacher and student are a good match, which is the case for our daughter.
– Another thing to consider. We moved the harp into our living room (away from the door and the high traffic area) so that our daughter would not be isolated while practicing. We actually got this idea from our son’s classical guitar teacher who recommended that our son not practice all alone in a bedroom, for example. He said from his experience that students practiced more and enjoyed playing more when someone was listening to them. He also reminded us that music is to be shared and said that over the years his students that stopped playing were those who never played for anyone else. So, there’s some food for thought.
– Finally, as you seem to already be discovering, prepare yourself for becoming an avid harp fan and harp transporter, willing to happily haul a harp around in all kinds of weather. 🙂 It’s worth all the work to hear that beautiful music being enjoyed by people, including some who have never heard a harp being played before.
Welcome to the world of the harp, Mariah! I can guarantee that you will meet not only some incredible musicians who make some of the most beautiful music in the world, but also some of the finest, kindest, most helpful people ever. We feel so blessed by the friends we’ve found here. Also, we can’t imagine our lives without a harpist in the family! I hope your daughter continues studying the harp and I wish you all the best!
Jackie
