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The thing that would worry me about a CF harp like that would be that it would be horribly top-heavy. I don’t think the action is CF; that’s still metal. That would mean that the harp body would be very light with an even greater amount of metal at the top than is there now. That might make it awfully top-heavy.
People are always trying to find some electronic doohickey that will replace the pedal mechanism for pedal harps. To date, they’re all been unsuccessful; unfortunately, the current mechanism does seem to be the best way to do it. But who knows? Maybe someday a more compact electric/electronic means will be created, and that sort of thing will be doable. (I’ve been a bit curious about the electrical “pinch” devices that are used to switch IVs on and off automatically, myself.)
I never managed the first well, but as for the second:
“And what is the best way to keep a performer’s physical and mental energy up during the length of the program?”
Eat fresh, healthful food in moderate quantities, get a proper amount of sleep, and stay moderately active — the typical advice for this kind of thing, but it works.
Even if they could manage it, I’m not sure it would work out well. There are currently already about 1.4 bezillion moving parts to a harp, and adding yet more discs would at least double that. I can’t imagine what the neck of the harp would look like nor how thick it would have to be — nor how heavy the end result would be!
Another thing you’ll want to look into is what Greene calls “centering.” Focusing, shutting out unneeded distractions, is as much a performance skill as a good trill — which means it needs to be practiced in order to be mastered. If you wait until you are on stage to say, “I have to focus,” it’s too late. Try some of the centering techniques and exercises that Greene talks about, and do so before you need them.
If you waited until you were actually on stage to play your harp in order to learn how to play the harp, you’d never learn how. You will never master something if you only try to get a grip on it while you’re on stage.
I have NEVER IN MY LIFE found that voice to be useful, regarding music or just my life in general.
The best way of talking about it that I’ve ever heard was in an address given to a bunch of Juilliard kids by Joyce DiDonato, which I’ve linked here:
It’s a long talk, but watch THE WHOLE THING, especially a part of it where she talks about telling that stupid inner voice, “Look, I’ll listen to you later, but right now I’m sorry, I have work to do.”
She did another one the following year that you can find here:
Her YouTube channel is called Yankee Diva, and she addresses a lot of these sorts of concerns for singers, but it really goes for anyone who wants to accomplish anything at all, musical or not.
You can also find information about how to make that nasty little voice STFU at bulletproofmusician.com and from a fellow named Don Greene who is a performance coach at Juilliard and who has written a few books. There’s another dude named Stephen Pressfield (I think) who has an interesting outlook on that voice, which he calls Resistance, and how he manages to get work done despite it.
This is actually the best time I can recall to ask questions relating to stage fear and getting that ugly little inner critic to pipe down; after suffering from these sorts of things for centuries, it seems like musicians are finally opening up and being honest about them.
Thanks! There’s another — a left-hand nocturne by Scriabin — that I think might work well on the harp, but it’s one of those show-off virtuosic pieces like most of the LH-only stuff, so I’m not sure whether the whole thing is possible or even bits of it are possible. Parts of it seem well suited to the harp, though — picked out melodies near the top and a rising accompaniment in the bass:
Did you click on the link in that post … ? It’s right at the bottom of that page. Try clicking on the link in the first post of this thread, and let me know if you can’t find it.
If you click on that link, you should see a page titled “My Sheet Music,” and then see four things below it:
Vaga Luna
Bleak Midwinter
Zdes’ Khorosho
Theme from Piano Sonata #2If you click on the dark teal-colored names of the pieces, you should go right to a PDF of the sheet music.
Emma, I have never had to recuperate from an accident like this, so please take anything I say with a dumptruck full of salt, but there have been musicians who have recovered from devastating injuries in the past, so please don’t give up.
There’s the Haitian violinist whose hands were severely damaged during the big earthquake that they had a while back — he’s back to performing. (IIRC, he had metal spikes driven through his hand.)
And there’s my favorite violinist, Rachel Barton Pine, who got dragged behind a train and nearly killed when she was about 20. She got nerve damage in her scroll hand and couldn’t even play for two years while they tried to put her back together, and now she’s back to travelling all over the world and plays on one of the really good Guarneris, a 1742.
I don’t want to make light of your injury, but please don’t think you’ll never play again, either.
You know, I have to wonder if it isn’t possible, by judicious scooting forward of the bridge pins, to make a cross-strung out of a kit like this. You’d have to noodle with the holes in the soundboard too, but …
Balfour, it’s not really a horrible arrangement, though. At least, it makes sense to me. The pedals ARE in order, starting with the first flat that you’re likely to need as you go down through the circle of 5ths, the B.
Start in the center of the harp base and go up the left side: BCD. Then start on the center of the harp base and go up the right: EFGA. So they are in order, actually — provided you start from the center of the base and work up the left then right sides.
It also seems to allow you to hop up the circle of 5th by alternating feet. The most common flats are easily accessible (the B and the E), and when you work upward, your feet go right, left, right, left, etc.
Mae, I’m glad to hear that things are improving for you! I hope I can manage the same sort of epiphany for playing without looking on the piano and the harp.
Pipe organs amaze me. I remember an interview on TV back home in Philadelphia ages ago with Virgil Fox when he talked about the Wanamaker, when he said that there was “no place else on the face of the Earth” where one person has so much scope and power than at the console of that organ. Fourteen stories of pipes! How wonderful it would be to have that kind of scope available musically. But then you have to take so much care over when you lift your fingers as well as when you press down, which is mentally exhausting.
Sorry for the ramble. 🙂
One more question — do you already play any other instruments? If so, that can be helpful, especially since you are aware of the kind of hard work that’s needed to play something well.
You will probably want to upgrade to a 34-string eventually, but you should be able to get a lot done on the 26, so I wouldn’t hesitate to get started if I were you.
And while it IS a good idea to get a teacher at some point, don’t let the lack of one keep you from getting started. I can absolutely recommend Josh Layne’s videos on YouTube. At this point, I should probably call myself a student of his since he’s had such a huge influence on me. 🙂
A teacher is a great thing to have, but if it’s a choice between playing with a teacher or not playing at all, then go ahead and start learning on your own. Just always pursue relaxation and suppleness in your hands and the rest of your body while you do so.
Good luck! 🙂
I believe it is the Reverie harp, yes. I think part of my interest is in disproving the belief (even promoted on its website) that it’s not for making “real” music and is for people who aren’t musicians. I’m attracted to the idea of getting an instrument associated with, let’s say, low expectations, and actually pushing it to see how far it will go. I mean, a lot of top-quality music has been written in pentatonic, and a lot is played on instruments with relatively few strings. The kora, for example, is played by some of the most accomplished musicians on the planet, people whose families have been playing it for crazy numbers of generations, and that can have as few as 21 strings. (And of course, the stuff o’Carolan and other Irish bards wrote was on a smallish harp as well.)
That little harp/lyre seems to sound pleasant regardless of what one does on it yes, but I’d love to see how far it can go if one wanted to really push it. That seems to be part of what I want to do with the lever harp as well — people say you can’t play Romantic-era music on it, and I’m enjoying deliberately arranging Rachmaninoff and bel canto for it.
Sorry for the thread hijack!
The harp I’m curious about is actually one that might be a bit lowbrow, but it looks charming and as if it has more potential than it seems to be associated with. It’s just a little egg-shaped thing that is tuned pentatonic (which has a lot more possibilities than people realize). The thing is, it’s portable; I continue my fascination with portable instruments!
It’s definitely not something I’m getting ANY time soon, though. I’ve only scratched the surface on the lever harp, and I do tend to get bored quickly with instruments that don’t have much of a low range. Additionally, I’m anticipating a cross-country move before the end of the month, which is going to run me … well, a good amount of money. 🙁 Definitely not the time for a somewhat useless vanity purchase.
Can you string up wire harps with wire guitar strings, by any chance? I don’t know anything about where you’d get strings for something like that. Do they draw them or wind them, like the Romans used to make gold wire by winding a thin tape? I can’t see how that would tolerate much tension, though.
