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Barbara Where is best place to buy your carbon fiber strings – Alliance?
Are you in the US? If so, I’m interested to hear that your cf strings are sourced from France as that seems to be the only place we can get them in the UK too. I haven’t had to replace a string yet (and have a set of spares anyway) but the strings for my new(ish) harp came from Savarez in France and I’m sorry to say they were the only hitch in the process and didn’t arrive until about 3 weeks after they were ordered so, even if your local supplier is quick off the mark, if he/she orders from France on demand then I’m afraid it looks as if you may have quite a wait on your hands. I’d say that until these strings become much more commonly used to the point where it benefits suppliers to keep a good stock, it is imperative to have your own spares – at least of the higher (more likely to break) strings and especially if you depend on your harp for your living.
I’d simply been working and saving for many years before the urge to play came upon me. My first harp (a Sharpsicle) was bought for a few hundred pounds by dipping into those savings and asking all my family to contribute towards the harp by way of Xmas presents that year.
To be honest, I always assumed that would be my ‘harp for life’ as I knew the chances of my ever being able to afford an upgrade were remote. However, after my mum’s death I did receive an inheritance that meant I was able to go for my dream 34-string Clarsach. It was a tough choice at the time because by then I was unable to work due to disability and had no income, but it was a case of being determined to use at least some of Mum’s money for something other than day to day living expenses and it’s certainly made my enforced retirement a lot more enjoyable and easier to cope with. It is also something solid and beautiful that I’ll be able to leave to my children when the time comes.
To me, the point is that we all use what money we have in different ways and those ways always involve a choice. Friends who drive this year’s BMW tell me they ‘wish they could afford’ my lovely harp when the truth is that if they were driving my car they probably could. To buy one thing we sacrifice another and my priorities may differ from other people’s.
Maybe it’s a generational thing too? I was brought up to believe that if you can’t afford something you don’t have it – and if you want it badly enough you save up the money first. I suspect that in these days of so much credit there is a different mind-set that says you can have whatever you want without having to save or even supply the cash yourself (I know that doesn’t apply to everyone younger than me and I do apologise if it sounds that way).
I’m too old to be a big fan of tattooes myself so you may want to ignore my comments anyway but I have to say that, if it were me, I wouldn’t want my choice of clothing to be constricted by whether or not I have tattooes on my arms. If you are likely to be playing on a hot day or in a heated room I’d have thought you’d be risking real discomfort by not being able to remove your jacket or always having to wear long sleeves (that’ll happen soon enough once middle age and the ‘bingo wings’ kick in anyway!) Having said all that, if you’re never going to display them then I’d have to echo Tony’s comment that it’s nobody else’s business what goes on under your clothes.
The thing about tattoes is that they’ve now become so ubiquitous that the rest of us are just going to have to get used to them so if you feel like being a pioneer I’d have to applaud that too. An offer to cover up if that’s what the customer wants is the most that should really be expected from you.
Another word in favour of Harpsicles – mine turned out ot be the perfect starter instrument for me and the tone is lovely. It’s always going to be a dilemma for any beginner whether to save for the best they can afford (and later discover they are landed with something they don’t play any more) or to get a reasonably-priced instrument, which they may later want to upgrade. However, I do believe the portability and convenience of the Harpsicle can be more encouraging to a beginner than having to lug a larger instrument to and from lessons. I had mine shipped to the UK which added to its price quite considerably but I still felt it was worth the money and the people at the workshop were incredibly helpful whenever I had any questions or needed any advice. I would, however, not necessarily recommend buying all those litte extras from them – I found the stick and, later, the stand were both flimsy and broke within a matter of weeks – but the actual instrument is a real winner.
Edited to add website – http://harpsicleharps.com/
Excellent point about that left-over cashTracey. I’m also quite amused that this woman insists that by giving her our money we are benefiting the world of music and the performing arts in general. Let’s be quite clear about this – the only person this money will benefit is her. If you want to benefit other people en masse just send those spare pennies to Cancer Research, Save the Children or some other registered charity. There are plenty of places where donations will be put to really good use and this isn’t one of them.
Edited to add – Incidentally, having just looked back at some of the lady’s campaign publicity I am interested to know how much the harp she wants (us) to buy actually costs. She says she needs to raise either $14,000 or $20,000 – which is it?
I keep my rings on (wedding and engagement, grandmother’s wedding ring and one other gold band) though they are all fairly discreet and I certainly wouldn’t wear anything large. I normally like bangles and bracelets a lot but would never wear them while playing because they just rattle around too much. I do make a lot of my own jewellery though and have discovered that a snugly fitting cuff is wearable (opinions will differ on whether it is a distraction to one’s audience but I don’t yet play for audiences so don’t have that problem). My favourites are woven bead cuffs with no dangly or fringed embellishments and a flat fastener that cannot brush against the strings by accident.
Wow! Aren’t your friends and relations in for a surprise Sarah! I have known plenty of people who have started learning an instrument and immediately thought they were at performance level and it’s not always pleasant for the audience so I think it’s probably far better to be a little reticent at first. However, your friends don’t even have any expectations – no matter what you play they are going to be amazed and delighted
Tacye, you are quite right about the futility of going right back to the beginning of the piece – thank you for picking me up on it. What I meant to say was ‘go back to the beginning of the problem section’. I still have some pieces I can’t bear to play because I’m bored to death by the first few bars. In fact, I like your idea of completing the piece much better because one thing I really need to get right is continuing to play despite little errors. Thanks for that bit of advice.
I don’t think you’re a slow learner or particularly impatient (any more than any of us, of course). You may well be a bit of a perfectionist and hear mistakes in your playing that others wouldn’t notice but I’m guessing most of the problem comes from your own idea of what is ‘fit to play’. I’m an older learner too and have been having lessons for about the same time as you and although my tutor is now gently encouraging me to play in front of others, I still don’t feel that confident about it.
One point she has made to me though, and I believe her, is that very few people play harp and it just sounds so great that most people are stunned that you can get anything out of it at all – it’s a very impressive instrument and is assumed to be a lot harder to play than it really is. Unless you are playing for a room full of experts (in which case they will remember what it was like the first time for them too) people will be pretty darned impressed.
A couple of suggestions. I spent a year and a bit learning to play a piece that my much-loved aunt used to play on the piano – she was quite elderly and losing her sight at the time and I’d got it into my head that it would give her pleasure to hear me attempt it. Although it was still far from perfect and I was nervous enough to make a lot of mistakes, I finally plucked up the courage to play for her about a week before she died (don’t think it was my playing that did it) and I’m so happy to have done so. My point here being that people who love you will forgive mistakes and simply be happy to hear whatever you can attempt.
Secondly, you could pick a piece that you know reasonably well and set a date (maybe a month from now) when you will play it for someone . . . anyone. Then make sure you rehearse it every day, stopping whenever you make even the tiniest mistake and going back to the beginning. If your mistakes come at the same place every time then you need to extract those few bars and practise them over and over on their own until they come together smoothly. Don’t pick something that it beyond your capabilities because the whole point of this exercise is simply to play for another person, not to take over the world. I would guess you will be so pleased with the response that you will be itching to play again.
Now all I have to do is learn to take my own advice!
Pardon me for coming in late here and, perhaps, resurrecting an old argument but I haven’t been around much lately and so only just noticed this thread.
Please can we not compare this campaign with giving to charity! There is a massive difference between asking people to donate to a charity that saves lives or does real good and asking other people to give their hard-earned cash to buy a luxury item for someone who feels a sense of entitlement to whatever other people have got. What is being asked here has nothing to do with charity and everything to do with greed. Okay, if people want to give to something like this it is their own business but I know I would rather give any spare cash I have to genuinely needy causes.
Deb – your post is very touching and very wise. I wish you and your family luck and strength throughout this ordeal
Do you use a stand for your harp? My Harpsicle developed a buzz a while ago that was eventually traced back to the stand I had just started using. Can’t remember exactly what it was that was causing it but I do remember that, once traced, it was easily rectified.
My new harp has Savarez strings and I love the sound they produce. Having said that – other than the occasional go on my tutor’s harps – I have never played with gut strings so I’m not really in a position to make a comparison. Compared to the nylon strings I’ve been used to, the Savarez ones have a very mellow voice (if nylon strings were Katherine Jenkins, fc ones would be Karen Carpenter). I’ve also had no problems with them hurting my fingers, they are easy and comfortable to play and hold their tuning well. As a veggie, I never felt that gut strings were a real choice for me so I was delighted to find the fcs and I’m very happy with them so far.
