Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I couldn’t get my module 3 homework in anyway, due to getting ready for the N’Awlins festival. Her time is surely limited, but I didn’t figure how limited mine would be. The feedback is nice but you’re getting the most important part, you can be sure of that.
Well, I’m between the MRI and my next visit with the Orthopedist, and share your fear. My medical provider is the Department of Veterans Affairs, i.e. VA, so there is no cost to me but the waits are long. I had my MRI two weeks ago and it will be over a month before my next appt. with the doc to find out what the MRI showed. Lots of pain, and I’m afraid harping may be a contributing factor, although I’ve torn my shoulder up considerably in work-related injuries over the years too.
Here at long last is the Silhouette. It took me a long time to get back here to post it. The lighting is a bit rough, but it is truly a beautiful harp.
@Terry, it’s a shame you let that put you off if you were interested at all. She’s a wonderful teacher, kept the group to a manageable size, and gives one-on-one feedback to people who chose to pay the extra fee for it. The feedback includes text – an email, basically – but also a personal video in which she plays the pointers she wants you to have on her harp, including slow play, close-ups, or whatever she feels she needs to do to get her message across. She also created a private Facebook group for class members only so we can interact with one another outside her immediate oversight, and has a weekly “Office Hours” chat session where she answers questions that have been sent in over a question link over the week. Videos, pdf’s, audio play-along files… I couldn’t be any happier, nor want any more value for my money.
Of this group, I am there, and Angela Biggs, and I don’t know of any others but I’m quite new here and don’t know all the members.Well, I bought Jerusha’s Silhouette, but it’s not here yet. I bought it a Cube Street amplifier, tiny, 10 lbs and will run on batteries so I can take it busking. I’m climbing the walls for the harp to get here. I don’t think she got it shipped out yet, maybe tomorrow.
And here I am, only a few months in and already thinking about going busking when (if?) The crummy weather ever passes.
If I ever get to the point where I’m not a beginner I’ll let you know, but meanwhile I know a bunch of songs from my guitar days, and the harp with its cookie cutter chords is wonderfully merciful.
To some who have replied with years of experience claiming to still be beginners: meaning no particular offense, but it ain’t so. Just ain’t. “Still learning,” yeah, OK, that’s as it should be, but don’t make it sound like those of us who really **are** beginners won’t have made any significant progress in a decade. The harp is not incomprehensible. We will learn, if we put honest effort into it, and you surely already have.
Could you get yourself a reasonably portable lever harp and modify your repertoire to go with it? I’d hate to put a big, therefore presumably expensive, highly technical harp on sand.
Aside from that, from here Atlantic beaches, Pacific beaches, and Gulf of Mexico beaches are all about the same distance, so it’s not an issue I’ll be personally dealing with any time soon.You might want to look into the [Harp.Mastery Retreat] (http://arsmusica.us/home/index.php/events/harpinthemountains-2/) in Pennsylvania in late June of this year. I thought about it but I’m already going to the [New Orleans Jazz and Pop Harp Weekend] (http://neworleansjazzharp.com) earlier that month and couldn’t spare the additional time. Jazz and blues better suit my harp objectives, but I know that the Pennsylvania event is focused toward more conventional harp studies.
Back when I used to play my guitar and sing (mostly in churches) with my first wife, I had a standard position on mistakes: 99% of the people won’t catch you. Of those who do, 99% will be too polite to mention it. The one percent of one percent who remain simply do not count. Play like nobody’s listening!
The L&H Sil would have been out of my reach if I hadn’t bought the used one Jerusha Amado had listed here on the forum, and it still cost me more than a Kortier would have.
The DHC light by itself is affordable, but then it’s $350.00 for the case and $350.00 for the strap and $350.00 for the stand and about $500.00 for freight.from Washington State US, and holy moly, I’m outta here!
Kortier is a flat price for harp, case, and shipping within the US, and $85.00 for the strap. I’d have had to build my own stand, though, and I like the Silhouette stand. I still paid more for my used Sil than I’d have paid for a new Kortier. Dithered a long time over the decision; the stand and pre-amp controls made the difference.
If your family is on the east coast of US they.could get the Kortier shipping free. Or stay with the DHC Light, if it weren’t for the money I’d have one.Since you can get it brought over, look into Dave Kortier’s [31 string solid body electric.](http://www.kortier.com/electric.htm) It’s very reasonably priced, 2 octaves below middle C to 1st octave E (I think). My teacher Diana Rowan has one in her collection and speaks highly of it. It has pickups on every string and is more portable than a Silhouette, quite a bit cheaper, and *way* cheaper than any Camac.
The base plate shown lays flat on its side under the strings when the harp is in the included case. Very easy to carry.
Last time I corresponded with Dave he had a 31 in stock.
By the way, check [my Pinterest board](http://pinterest.com/junkrigsailor/electric-harp-accessories/) for some amps and things I’m working through deciding on for my Silhouette that I just bought. I’m a giant fan of Deborah Henson-Conant and her [wildly funky harp blues-rock](http://youtu.be/9EcGJzsxmug) and I want to be able to make those sounds. ‘Course, she’s got about a forty year head start on me… and I’m older than her…
For the style of electric harp that appeals to me, watch anything by Deborah Henson-Conant. She pretty much plays slap bass with a near-constant pluck-damp-pluck-damp style to keep the bass from muddying up on her. Christine plays beautifully, and has chosen an arrangement that works very well, but, well, in the words of DHC, “I wanna play the blues!”
