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I certainly don’t know, but I can’t see a 46 string SG fitting into a Nissan Leaf. But that would not stop me from buying a Leaf. Such are the future. For the Planet, if not for ones own finances.
If I were to come out with a line of medium to large size covered trailers that one could use to tow their Harps in if they choose to own small gas or electric vehicles that simply have no space inside for a full size Harp, would anyone here buy one? What would you want to pay for such a thing? 🙂
Hi Jerusha,
You probably don’t know me, and I have not seen your posts before as I am a new member. I don’t own a harp. Have never played a harp. Never really ‘heard’ Harps above the Sirens Call of all the other musical instruments with far more strident voices in the Orchestra that I have dallied with along my mainstay keyboard instrumentsA couple of years ago while listening to “The Wexford Carol” (seriously) Google Autoplay put “The Christ Child Lullaby” in the queue. I had never heard anything so beautiful up till then, I don’t think, though “Gabriel’s Oboe” (from ‘The Mission”) comes close.
I found less produced versions of “Christ Child Lullaby” and all seem to use Harp as the main accompaniment. I resolved to refrain from finding a piano version and commit to learning it on a Harp. That hasn’t happened yet, so maybe someone can do it for me? 🙂 I believe an arrangement can be found here.
And now that I have made actual Harp Friends like Balfour, Biagio, and even Sylvia Woods, maybe I now have the kind of accountability that leads to results!Unless its a tuning fork, even a dedicated tuner uses batteries. I have a $14 external battery that can charge my iPhone 5s four times before its own battery needs charging! The microphone of a tuner app does not need to be high quality you aren’t trying to make archival quality recordings. I am amazed at the sensitivity of the one on the iPhone. It tries to lock in on and give pitches to sounds that are incredibly faint. It is certainly more accurate than any ‘ear’. Not knocking ears but some things technology can do as well or better. Full disclosure: I am not trying to tune a harp with my tuner. The o.p. did ask about metronomes, however, and the best tuner apps usually have good metronomes built in. How many discrete devices do we want to tote around? That may be the question.
My Korg Orchestral Tuner gathers dust because the “Tonal Energy” Iphone app blows it out of the water and that is no easy feat! Seriously, give it a try. I don’t use its metronome function but it is very elaborate, it can count all the sub-beats you care to pay attention to in addition to the usual quarter note pulse.
Your earlier answer has been visible (at least to me) for several days Elizabeth. I am new to the forum and I find it interesting because when I look at old threads (really old threads) some posts are blank. I don’t know if that is what you mean. I am going to try using a different browser (I use Firefox) to look at this forum. Sometimes that makes a difference.
And as long as I am posting again I want to thank Victoria for ‘understanding me’. Yes. Exactly as you explained. That was my thinking!
$50/hr.??!! Any low/mid tier Civil Servant can make that. A craftperson at the top of their game should make much, much more! (IMO).
>Not to butt in Howard but your post reminded me: there are two other forums you might consider joining: the Harplist and the Virtual Harp Circle. Both are Yahoo! groups, the latter was set up originally explicitly for beginning “harperists”. It is easier to reply directly from them than it is here.<
In light of the quoted above I thought it important to share intel I acquired just minutes ago: https://organforum.com/forums/forum/blower-room/general-chat/668278-yahoo-shutting-down-groups
Of course … damping. I had not thought of that. One of (for me) the charms of harps is that even in a dry acoustic the ‘ring’ of the strings kind of acts like its own reverberation. The organ I have been playing for a year has built in digital reverberation and I LOVE it. I am playing a concert this Sunday on a pipe organ in a very dry space and I HATE it. Doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to invent a mechanical damper for pedal harps but you wouldn’t have a harp anymore at that point I guess. As for buzzing … I guess by the time harpists get good enough to be recorded or to post on YouTube they are past that? I ask because I read here about ‘buzzing’ but I never hear any in the performances I have heard. Someone should post a video of what people really sound like before they get good.
Re: Classic Harps of the Northwest. Charles Nix linked to that shop in just the 3rd post of my debut thread on this august website. I called the shop owner not long after. I have a more or less standing invitation to come by and touch some harps. Preparing for Sunday’s concert and selecting music for the upcoming ‘festive season’ has taken priority to figuring out how to get to CHotNW. The shop owner is dubious of my ability to get there via mass transit.
I wish Sylvia (Woods) was still based stateside. I don’t know how she found time to play harps, sell harps, compose and arrange music for harps, and travel too. Amazing. I’d like to get my Ravenna 34 through her. But I really want to actually play a harp or two (or four) before committing cash.
>In the Puget Sound area where Howard and I live …< I just did a quick Google Maps on Whidbey Is., WA to Portland, OR. 20hr 38m. by bicycle. LOL. If I rent a car and drive it its 4hr 7m. Those logistics are why I haven’t already suggested we meet up at a Starbuck’s near you. You said you had friends in Tacoma. Is that where you think I live?
Portland IMO is not worth the drive down from Puget Sound. The ‘area’ is beautiful but the city is kind of … worse for wear? For someone into bicycles and bicycle culture it did make sense. Still, its saying something that we are both on the West Coast because I’m not from here. I’m a born and bred NY’er until just 8 years ago.
Harp content? <shrugs>
Chapeau! I am happy to have had some small part to play in this revival of your interest in Harpmaking. I have an upcoming Organ Concert this Sunday and then its right into every working organists bread and butter season. The pressure won’t let up until New Years Day. But I hope to have the Harp (Howard’s Harp) be here in time for Christmas.
Correct. There are no … tourniquets (turnstiles?:-) on Portland Light Rail. You just wave your HOP card at the little reader and walk on the train if it is there waiting. More than one rider has realized with a shock that they have not paid when one of the random “fare checks” commences. $75 for a first offense. Ouch.
>So, my nine links in my message above of two days ago, obviously didn’t make you change your mind about your current plans.< Was that your intention? Well, lets just say that a Ravenna 34 is still in play but moving onto a used L&H Troubador at $2700 vs a months long build out of a Cheyenne … but lets keep that entre nous because I don’t want Biagio to know. He is pretty invested in the woodworking aspect of harping. BTW did you notice your spelling of ‘would’ in your last paragraph? Hee hee.
Re: Transportability. I have a really high tolerance for the impact of a large instrument on transport. Car free transport. I have an 88 key hammer-weighted piano action Yamaha Keyboard that weighs 90lbs. I don’t hump it to gigs often, but I do it one or two times a year. When I mentioned ‘portable’ in my first thread I meant an acoustic instrument that is more portable than a real piano.
In that “Ultimate Buyers Guide” on Stephanie Claussens site I was intrigued to note that Ravenna 34’s and anything larger all get a ‘N’ in the ‘transportable’ section. Really? My Horn in its case is 22lbs. A Ravenna doesn’t weigh much more. It is far more unwieldy but that is not really a deal breaker. Mass transit in my area will allow me to get just about anywhere with a Ravenna on my back. Even weekly.
I wouldn’t want to do it every week, but mass transit would also allow me to get to anywhere I can think of with a L&GH Prelude on a trolley. For anything bigger there is Uber, or whoever it is that wants me to bring my harp there. I have kept very, very quiet about my … penchant for car free living. The latest harpmobile thread keeps taunting me to say something, however, I understand an unwillingness to risk a $40G Concert Grand harp on the Subway. I am reasonable 🙂 But I myself would risk it. Maybe not with a Concert Grand, but absolutely a 44 String. Now that I would post pictures of. I am less sure about faithfully documenting the build-out of a harp kit. Would a ‘before’ of the just opened box of pieces and an ‘after’ of the completed project work?
>Of course, a pianist is not at all qualified to talk about harp notation. It takes a lot of expertise to do so.<
Was that really necessary? Despite being a pianist I happened to be correct! Salzedo’s conventions haven’t made it to general adoption and independent authorities on harp notation do not concur with your opinion. You scorn is unwarranted. Nor was I even in a position to know about Salzedo let alone make any characterization about his practice. That was another poster. A poster who showed a lot more grace and diplomacy in educating a pianist about harp matters.
