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I am a Michigan Certified Florist and MSU Master Gardener and currently work at a greenhouse . I hardly ever get to practice during the growing season.
Oh my! I’m spilling my coffee here laughing so hard- maybe you should all stage a revolt and play totally different pieces in syncopation the night off.
I have an adjustable keyboard bench that I reupholstered. Cost me about $7 at my local dollar store, and has served me well for over 2 years now. It has a sturdy metal frame and no back. I cover it with a velvet throw and it dresses it right up, plus I can tuck extra music under it this way too.
Karen
Hi,
I can’t help but respond to this, if only to give you some moral (not necessarily “professional”, I’m not quite that seasoned) support. After reading your last post I can see the bigger picture-sort of. It would be nice to hear her side of the story too, but from what I can glean from you, it appears to be envy on her part. I have been in a situation where myself and a fellow musician “rubbed each other the wrong way”. It became so apparent to the other players in my group that I finally had to put a stop to it. Yes, playing flute (and harp)
Thanks so much! I will look into the Sounding Harps series. I did wind up purchasing the Dawning of The Day by Rasmussen and am looking through it. I’ve been playing Inisheer all along, it is one of my favorite tunes. Another that I love is the Gentle Maiden. Celtic music is my main interest, so these suggestions from those who specialize in this genre of music is most welcome.
Happily Harping Away~
Karen
Thanks Fearghal!
I am self-taught but I relied heavily on both Sylvia Woods and Pamela Bruner’s teaching series. They both support the thumbs-up technique, thank goodness. If your interested, this harpist plays the song “The Wild Geese”. I think that is the video where I saw her thumb-under technique. I still think she does a fine job of it regardless, but then I don’t have an educated ear for these things. I just liked what I heard.
Karen
Well, welcome back Liam! I missed you!
Trust me, keep those thumbs as high as you can. One thing I have been noticing with my wire harp technique is that I have to pluck the string A LOT gentler with the thumb, especially in the upper register. It’s like I don’t know my own strength. No strings breaking from this (whew!) just a harsh overtone if I’m not gentle, which grates on my nerves.
Karen
When I went to college they wouldn’t accept anything from Wikipedia as a reference. It cracks me up when I read the bottom of this webpage- they assure those who plan on using this as a citation that the information is accurate and unbiased, etc. LOL I guess I should have looked a little closer at where they got their information to begin with. The sad thing is that a person who knows not to get information on Wikipedia (like me) and knows nothing about the harp (unlike me) would use this as a reference. To all appearances it looks to be a college-based source.
Fearghal,
This is exactly how I’ve been playing all along, with both my wire-strung and celtic harps. I was rather perplexed by that website. I mean, how in the world would you manage to do cross-overs and cross-unders with your thumb low? However, I have seen a harper on Youtube play this way. She always tucks her thumb into her palm under the first finger. It really surprised me when I noticed this because she plays rather well regardless. Now I can’t help but wonder how well her tone would sound if she played the thumbs-up way….
Correction: this information was taken from the Cambridge Encyclopedia, Vol. 32 (according to this website). Yikes- makes you wonder what other misinformation is floating around out there, doesn’t it?
What really surprised me is that this site affiliates itself with Cambridge! Perhaps someone should send them a correction. This had me all confused.
Karen
Tony,
I came across this website in my research and this is what led to my questions:
http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/9513/harp.html
Scroll down to the heading of Harp Technique. I think someone goofed when typing this. It says that the Grandjany and Salzedo method has the thumb moving under the fingers, rather than being held high as in the modern technique. This confused me as to which was the better method, as I have heard many references to Salzedo and Grandjany on these forums.
Karen
