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I recently purchased a Crate Taxi because my harp was getting drowned out in our 70-member concert band. I kept it pretty low, 2 at the highest, to add some more sound without it sounding obviously amplified. It carried my harp’s tone beautifully, including the bass, which I had to turn down a bit, and my harp was heard where it needed to be. FYI I used a K&K Big Twin pickup and a Fishman Pro-EQ II Acoustic preamp as well.
Like Gretchen, I practice them as block chords and get the block chords up to tempo first. You can also practice just with just the thumbs. Karen Vaughan gives advice on practicing the Swan Lake arpeggios at @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JZcHSSQbD8&t=2m37s.
If the arpeggios are all triads, you might try them with both 3 and 4 fingers and see which is easier. Four fingers gives you fewer crossings to worry about, but three fingers means you’re playing an identical set of notes each time, which makes placing them much easier.There is a young woman in the DC area who I sometimes see busking outside of Metro stops (playing inside the stations is prohibited, and even Joshua Bell was technically outside the station when he busked here). Her harp isn’t amplified and you can hear it fairly well. Some of the places she plays are covered, and we have plenty of stonework, so she often has a good acoustical environment, but even more out of doors you can hear her reasonably well (for the curious, she plays a Sligo harp). She has pretty good chops, but one could probably do okay with easier repertoire as well. I think an important part is to be able to make a connection: eye contact, smiling, acknowledging tips with a nod or “Thank you”, etc. with the passers by, and you should be able to do so with whatever you’re playing.
I wonder if a cute tip box or hat helps as well, maybe with a little decoration or colorful “tips” sign on it.
There is also young guy, maybe a college student somewhere, whom I occasionally see with a pedal harp at DuPont Circle. I think I’ve seen him with a tip receptacle, though he seems to do it more for the enjoyment.
Christian, how tall are you anyway? I only ask because I hear harpists who are 5’6″ saying they need to move the seat all the way back. I’m 6′ and very leggy and have never needed the seat the entire way back. The instructions I gave a couple years ago were before the Prius V had been tried more for harps, and the original poster wasn’t familiar with loading, so I included worst case scenario instructions for a regular Prius and how one could fit a concert grand.
I don’t think anybody has tried it with the seats all the way back. Hopefully you live close enough to a dealer to get a test drive out to your home. If I ever car shop again that’s what I will likely do, unless I get something obviously more than sufficient like a minivan. For now I’ve settled on ZipCar once again, realizing the hassles of renting a car once or twice a month are less than the hassles of owning full time. I’m fortunate to be able to use mass transit for my day-to-day non-harp needs.
I’ve been to many weddings where the mothers wear pantsuits. I guess a lot of people really like to costume everybody up, but at least in my opinion, if the musicians’ attire is appropriate for the ceremony’s level of formality, then I see no problem with pants or skirts or dresses or whatever.
Personal note: I prefer weddings where the wedding party is wearing nice clothes they already own, be it formal, suits, slacks and jackets, or whatever, and not this “match everybody up and color coordinate like they’re about to perform a choreographed dance number”. Oh wait, wedding parties are now expected to perform choreographed dance numbers, aren’t they? Ugh.
On the back of the soundboard, one fairly close to the bottom, and the other higher up, probably almost halfway up the soundboard.
I bought a K&K Big Twin and just put it on today to test it. It seems to pick up the whole range of the harp very well and is easy to put on. For now I’m putting the pickup heads (there are two) on with Scotch mounting squares. They’re like sticky tack for posters and should be easily removable if I want to take them off or try different placement. Since so far it sounds good where they are I’ll probably leave them for now.
Having your harp dissasembled is exactly what I’d fear. You’re probably familiar with the recent story of the flutist whose handmade bamboo instruments were destroyed:
@http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/02/showbiz/musician-instruments-destroyed/
Though you probably won’t have bamboo, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone want to look inside the soundbox at least, but who knows, perhaps they’ll yank the pedals off and rip the rods out to look inside the column. Unless it’s the gig of a lifetime and you have a written sign-off from your insurance carrier or you can locate a local harp (and even then you might have legal issues if there are problems and you are there on a tourist visa), I wouldn’t take it.
I think it’s been a couple years. The new Ford Escape is larger than the last one’s and is a better choice than previous models if you want a midsize and don’t have a lot of other stuff to move. The Outback has grown a bit too.
The Prius V (pronounced like the letter, not the Roman numeral) got a great review at @http://harpsetc.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/harpmobiles/ due to its large space and mileage. If I were on the market for a new car I’d look at one. Since I live in the city don’t need a car for many things, however, I’m looking at cars 5-10 years old.
Angela,
I don’t know, though in the areas I’ve lived in the longest after leaving home, Atlanta and Washington, DC, many of the churches with more traditional worship are doing quite well. There is an Episcopal church that does a full mass every week with incense and chanting, including congregational chanting, and the choir sings only traditional Anglican music, and it is very well-attended, including by younger people (under 40 would be “church young” and I think I recall families with children from my visit. Similarly, there are Methodists that keep a lot of the traditional hymns, with a large choir of probably 50 voices, and a full congregation that sings along, again with many younger adults attending as well as older members. They also include many spirituals in their service, which is fairly common in many protestant congregations, especially those in diverse communities. A friend of mine is a staff singer at one of the Catholic churches and I believe he does a lot of older music, though I’m not sure about Gregorian chant.
Angela, I don’t think Vatican II is entirely to blame. The folk music revival and the coming into adulthood of the rock and roll generation caused many churches to experiment with other styles of music, for better or/and worse. I think because protestant, especially evangelical, churches tend to be more flexible in their worship styles, the changes both came and left sooner. In addition, because protestantism probably has greater freedom of movement between churches and even denominations, I’d wager that people tended to move to congregations that had service styles they wanted, hence some churches were able to stay with traditional music while others developed styles that resembled more popular styles as the strongest opinions both ways moved to churches that met their needs.
With the Catholic congregations, however, I imagine that their greater institutional inertia meant that in those that changed their music styles, what they adopted stuck around for a very long time, outliving people’s taste for it.
The Wind Repertory Project lists the Symphonic Prelude as the one title like that by him with symphonic band instrumentation and no harp. I imagine you have a version somebody arranged. Is there a note on the part, multile copyright dates that wouldn’t be explained by regular renewal, or another name somewhere? They probably took the orchestral bells and wrote it over for harp. Could you imagine the part being played on mallet percussion?
@http://www.windrep.org/Symphonic_Prelude_Based_on_Black_Is_the_Color_of_My_True_Love%27s_HairThe Youngest Ishmaelite
Long ago, there were three young Ishmaelites. The two older Ishaemlites two played the flute, while the youngest Ishmaelite played the harp.
All day long the two older Ishmaelites would say “come accompany us!” to the youngest Ishmaelite. Sometimes the youngest Ishmaelite suggested certain music that would be fun for harp, and but the two older Ishmaelites always refused. “Accompany us!” They made the poor youngest Ishmaelite always play chords as they played their fancy melodies. “Play chords!” they shouted. “Arpeggios!” they demanded.
Sometimes the two older Ishamelites wanted to play their fancy melodies too fast, and the youngest Ishmaelite couldn’t keep up, because harps can be very difficult to play sometimes, but the two older Ishmaelites didn’t care. “We don’t care if your arpeggios sound good! Play faster!” they berated him as they trilled. “Why should we develop diaphragmatic resistance to play sustained pitches? Faster!” Faster, faster, faster they trilled their fancy melodies.Then one December, a star shone in the sky, and the three young Ishamelites knew they should play for the baby Jesus. The two older Ishmaelites knew just the piece. “This piece has fancy melodies that the baby Jesus will like.” they said. The youngest Ishamelite looked at the harp music. “These repeated block chords need some space to sound nice,” the youngest Ishmaelite suggestsed. “No! Play fast!” the older Ishmaelites replied.
When they arrived at the stable for the big recital, the youngest Ishmaelite tried and tried to keep up, but the two older Ishmaelites played faster than ever. They played so fast the youngest Ishmaelites fingers were bleeding trying to keep up with the two older Ishmaelites.
After the recital for the baby Jesus, the youngest Ishmaelites needed something else to play. The youngest Ishmaelite decided to play without the two oldest Ishmaelites, and was warm in church sanctuaries all through the winter. The two older Ishmaelites were turned away at every door, because all the churches and chamber ensembles already had enough flutists. They had to sell their flutes for stale bread to eat, then they froze to death in the dark.
THE END
If you go to their web site (@www.usafband.mil), the band includes several ensembles, including the Concert Band, Ceremonial Brass (funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, receiving foreign dignitaries, etc.), the Air Force Strings, and the Singing Sergeants. he Air Force Concert Band is also unique among the service bands for having a small cello section. In this case, the flash mob seems to have combined some of the groups. Living in DC, I have several friends who play in various military bands, so I’ve picked up bits of info here and there. They’re also one of the best sources of no-admission-fee music in the area. Working near the Navy Memorial, sometimes on my way home I stumble upon a concert.
