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Pain in your shoulders, at least in the right shoulder, sounds as if you’ve been playing Salzedo method, elbows up, but raising the shoulder at the same time. I did that and really had to work on relaxing that shoulder. Suggestion: massage, exercise, or a long hot soak.
Before you hook up with another teacher, do you have a good idea of what you want to play (obviously not classical)?
For me, playing harp (or guitar or banjo) does just the opposite. It takes away the tensions of the world outside.
I thought the Concierto de Aranjuez had been transcribed for harp by Rodrigo himself. Incidentally, the solo guitar part gives the guitarist a real workout. I don’t know whether it’s true of the harp as well.
Oh, well put, Carl!
My father, who was decidedly not a visionary, once advised a younger man to always have two professions. The younger man did very well for himself and was always grateful to my father. (And yes, my father took his own advice.)
AFTERTHOUGHT I hear this all the time from banjo players who seem to think they’re in some kind of competition to get to a certain level lickety-split. They aren’t, and you aren’t.
And replace those broken strings!
Recommendation: try to get hold of some of the Suzuki pieces for harp. I know, I know: basic. But your success with those may push you on.
Like some of the others here, I have heard negative things about the Shamrock. Basically that L & H had set out to make an actual folk harp (which the Troubadour isn’t) and not quite succeeded. But I’ve never actually heard one. Most of the Dustys and Tripletts you would be considering AREN’T in the same price range, alas! unless you go for something like the Ravenna 34.
What kind of music do you think you’ll be playing down the road? Folk? That will play a role in your choice.
Well, Rick Rubarth uses fluorocarbon for the Merlin and it projects well. It’s considerably smaller and lighter than the Troubadour (for example). Then there’s Josephus Harps’ Heritage model, slightly shorter and lighter than the Ana.
What Barbara and Michaela said. Except that I would add that the harp is considered the most beautiful instrument by some of us but surely not all! Back to what Barbara said, we’re currently living in a rotten economy, which is affecting everybody. A lot of harpists are making a living primarily by playing at weddings and other events, which means worrying about getting that large and expensive instrument unscathed to and from the event.
I probably have a lot of nerve answering this question, but it seems to me that when you are in a key with sharps, you would express an augmented interval as a sharp. A diminished interval too. Or is that not what you meant?
Well, I don’t mind flipping levers and I never liked the piano. The usual argument in favor of the piano, that you can learn theory from it best–well, I can see the structure of a chord better from the harp than from that sea of white that is the piano.
But I’m leaving out one important aspect: the tactile. All three instruments I play (guitar, harp, banjo) involve directly touching the strings. It’s a more intimate way of playing. (I do like the harpsichord, which is plucked strings rather than struck strings like the piano, but I don’t want to play it.)
