Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
This site has lots of good answers. In my studio I have an earlier model computer with ancient Windows 98, but it has some helpful sites for listening and watching: A short video of the Welsh harpist Ben Creighton Griffiths at 6 years old playing New Blues by Deborah Henson Conant; the Rhythmaticity game from years ago that was soon bought by another company; etc. Also, if the student conducts in several time signature modes, standing away from the harp and the teacher sits at the harp instead, watch the beat in order to change from waltz time to a march and so on as the student changes his/her beat. Also,try setting the metronome at a reasonable speed and after the hand clapping of your student can arrive exactly with the anticipated next sound, fit more claps, up to six, evenly into the space instead. Good fun. Also on a DVD player sometimes, or even a turntable, playing short segments from my library of celebrated harpists’ recordings can inspire students to practice more, as can your own playing.
In the waiting area adjoining the studio could be the Reading Rainbow book:The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, by Karla Kuskin, with clever illustrations; the Fandex Family Field Guide “Composers” that opens out into a fan shape and features 47 classical composers’ pictures, dates, and most important works. (ISBN: 0-7611-1206-5,) and other literature for children.Victoria, you asked about that online site, Tonerow. I have not tried it and do not intend to. I did read through all their regulations, promises, and so on and did not find the site trustworthy; they take no responsibility for anything going wrong, would not give you any refund, etc. It seems like a scheme to get your information and that of many other eager students of music, make money through the registration fees, etc. A live teacher where you and parents can see a qualified teacher face to face, in the time-honored way, is still the very best way. Even if you must travel to his/her studio less often, it is still so much safer in these unusual times. With parent involvement the first few lessons, where mutual trust would be built, perhaps a train or bus would take you alone to continuing lessons if you are over 12, in safety. In upstate New York, I did this for two years between two towns, by Greyhound Bus at that age. With lesson books that include CDs or DVDs these days, such as those done by Schlomovitz, Bruner and others, you can supplement beginning harp lessons taken live, with more information at home between lessons. This was not available in my youth. What an advantage you already have, to own your own harp already!!
Virginia, since you bought the flute part once, perhaps Faith Carman could replace it quickly for you or the dealer from whom you purchased your duet copy of the Reverie could. Faith Carman’s home is now in Maine, and her e-mail is in the AHS 2015 Directory, p. 80. Sometimes players misplace a part and often it can be replaced at no charge, or only for the cost of postage. There are real angels to be discovered in the world of the harp.
Amy, there are some good suggestions other people have made, above. I’m going to address a comment you made, that her present teacher is the only one “within reasonable driving distance”. Hopefully you joined either the Folk Harp or American Harp Society, depending on whether your daughter feels she’d prefer the lever or pedal harp association for news, (online or regular hard copy magazines), helpful articles, group meetings and so on, for getting to know other young players. Either of these two national non-profit groups add that pleasant, supportive social element to harp study. Lists of names of members, and their addresses and contact information are included in the local and national directories. Secondly, if your daughter is as competent as you describe, surely she will progress quite well with a lesson with a more kindly teacher, every two or three weeks instead of just once per week, farther than a “a reasonable distance.” Many were the excellent harp players who had a parent who sacrificed to take their child to a more distant teacher with a child-friendly attitude. I taught a young student who was brought after a journey to me on a car ferry from a rather distant town; now she is a music conservatory graduate and has a good position in Philadelphia. Her childhood, so precious for happy memories, was not marred by harsh tones at her lesson. I think you owe it to your daughter to find another way for her to have a happy lesson, with no tears afterward, but joy instead. Her present teacher, as another blogger above has said already, will not change.
Victoria, a poster here asked “how do you find the standard price for your services in your area?” and people gave some good answers to that question. If you belong to American Federation of Musicians, you just charge what the professionals tell us in meetings, or just phone in or e-mail the local union office because we all have the contact information. Working, professional players have voted on minimum prices each year as fair in any particular area of the U.S.A. The groceries got much higher in my area over the summer: Coleslaw is now $4.50 a pound for instance. So lately the local union here raised minimums that performers and also teachers should ask, to avoid undercutting other professionals. The minimum for teaching a 1-hour lesson is now $55.00. It is more than I had been asking but for new students I will support that ruling because it is quite fair considering the poor economy in my area at present and property taxes are higher than they have ever been.
While so many readers have good advice, perhaps no one has mentioned any kind of storage inside a harp cover, other than the harp. When I first got my sturdy blue transport cover from Lyon and Healy and noticed no pockets inside or outside, the way there are on some other instruments’ non-rigid case covers. I took a plain cotton pillowcase and sewed it inside one side, open end upwards, carefully by hand. Pieces of music can go in there if few in number, with no damage to the harp. If you usually play your selections already memorized, and need none or very few in print, that is efficient for free-lance players. Playing outside your home somewhere, we need fewer objects to carry to and from a car. A large city where I live has some skyscrapers: Our tallest one is 72 floors and the private club near the top needs a total of 3 different elevators to arrive there because just one elevator shaft can be too dangerous to escape in case of fire; also the builders wanted to keep people who had no business there, from trespassing. To have to go back to the basement where your car was parked, for a second load of equipment from your car, is just too much!
Heather, if you go to http://www.msfocus.org you will reach Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Going to http://www.nationalmssociety.org in Seattle, WA (Tel. 206 284 4236) might also be helpful. There are many such groups worldwide, including the U.K. Just this last weekend, many bicyclists and also motorcyclists (racing in different directions, naturally!) held annual races near Seattle to benefit MS and I believe thousands of dollars were raised for research into this disease by their efforts. A family member volunteered, not on a bicycle, but with his large Ford van retrofitted as a medical/rescue vehicle and with his EMT and ham radio skills, stationed along the route in case of any exhausted or injured riders, of which there are several each year. Hopefully a cure
might come, to help you soon. Until then, bravely continue playing harp with all of us here rooting for you!In a lightweight black attache case, ready to go with my harp whenever we are playing out somewhere, I put these, along with other small items like the wire cutters/pliers combination tool, business cards, small clamp-on cordless Mighty Brite lamp, etc:
1 small 6×7-inch almost-round padded zippered cloth CD case, found at a drug store, with many sections inside, containing third octave and above strings, beginning with third F; all larger strings in a zip-lock plastic “slider” bag, 9 1/2 x 10 3/4-inches, beginning at 7th C, upwards to 4th oct. E. All of these in original envelopes. Snack-size zip-lock bag holds string-anchor bits plus a tiny fold-up scissors from a fabric store notion section.Gabriel Faure’s Requiem is now in public domain, and was composed for organ and harp and choir requiring many singers and soloists. Vanderbilt now carries a solo pedal harp version of that last part of the Requiem called In Paradisum which is reverent and slow, in their online catalog of music.
Biagio, I do not have a source tor Tyrolean harps but in the American Harp Society Directory there are currently 3 harp players listed in Germany and one in Austria. Their addresses are printed, and the three in Germany also print their e-mail. If you can look at such a Directory and communicate with them it might be that you will find a maker. I remember that a harpmaker in Germany used to post frequently here in harp column: Bernhard Schmidt. If you search: Bernhard Schmidt Harpmaker you will have results and his e-mail address will come up on your screen as well. He knows the English language. He may not make the Tyrolean style but probably knows people who do, and perhaps even knows someone wishing to sell a used one. Another clue is to contact people in the U.S. or Canada who have imported one. The different regional chapters of The Folk Harp Society have online monthly newsletters; contact some of those editors, perhaps to see if anyone in their area has one and find who the maker is. I am too busy to check and find these answers for you but do not give up. Communicate with Arsalaan Fay at Douglas Harps and see if he now makes a larger harp than mine of 33 strings, which is about 22 years old and was bought by me from another player. I enjoy the improved technology in it so much because it gives me back a richer harmony with less effort and my listeners want to comment on that difference when they see this smaller, portable instrument sound much like a concert pedal harp, especially when using some amplification. Mr. Fay now has a waiting list, I understand. He deserves success, since he did not give up when 4 hurricanes hit Florida in the same season and destroyed his business a few years ago.
If you’d consider another brand of lever harp that more people are having an interest in, look at Douglas Harps which are single action with only 7 levers, (just as the single action Tyrolean harps have seven pedals,) for altering each string with the same name, by one/half step. Arsalaan Fay who patented this action placed it inside the harmonic curve of this portable 33-string harp, makes them in the Sarasota, Florida area, and he demonstrates them on youtube.com. It makes all other lever harps obsolete in my very humble opinion because it increases your repertoire and full harmony greatly when you can change pitches of each string with a similar name by one swift lever motion, and with either hand. This rather new technology was an idea that Mildred Dilling inspired Mr.Fay to build. We would not go back to using gaslight after the invention of the incandescent light bulb, or LEDs. Paul Hurst, Emily Mitchell, Erik Berklund have performed and recorded on these, among other well known harp players.
In 1998 I brought my (used) pedal harp into Canada through Blaine, WA in order to experience summer study on harp with Rita Costanzi there, at a camp on Vancouver Island. The customs officials on both sides accepted my story and waved me through without any charge. Things are different now, sadly.
In the 1970’s, I taught “Beginning Harp Classes” for 16 years as part of night school offerings, to the public. For this I needed small lap harps for people to rent which needed to be affordable for the 8-week class, 7-9 PM , held in various high school music rooms, or in community centers. Since Mildred Dilling had purchased a quantity of these from the engineer-maker (now deceased) Earl Linrud Thompson, I did this also and received a discount for the 40 22-string instruments that I eventually acquired, buying 4 at a time as my class increased. The string spacing is the same as most pedal harps, though of course the tension is less. All but one eventually sold and the one that I kept is so useful I intend to keep it. It fits in a suitcase and weighs 4 pounds. No levers. You could advertise that you are seeking a “Linrud Minstrel Harp” since there must be many used ones out there.This model is fiberglass (gold Ford auto paint) except for the front column and harmonic curve, which are maple. It has led some students into wanting a larger harp of their own, once they have experienced a few beginning lessons on this small one. The lowest of the 22 strings is the C below “middle C”, so the left hand has enough to do. If this size does not seem to be available, try to ask a harpmaker who is familiar with fiberglass to construct one for you.
Wil-weten’s comment above concerning harps built in the same climate being advisable when using them, rings true for me, as I have heard this before. I live in latitude 47 and around the globe, London is approximately the same climate. Pilgrim Harps are built in that area so would fare well here. The island State of Tasmania, in Australia, seems about the same distance below the equator as my location to the north of the equator, though of course their seasons are reversed, and on December 25 many Aussies head for the beach!New to me was the comment that getting a Spanish guitar in Spain is not a good idea when that instrument is used in an entirely different climate. Where can we find good research on this interesting subject?
When Henning Christiansen(Danish-American) was President of Lyon and Healy, in the early 1970’s, a number of us signed up for bringing our harps to a facility in my town. He had us put our pedal harps on tables there, with the top of the column fully cushioned, the removable base part protruding over the edge, and the harmonic curve vertically in the air with the kneeblock at the highest point, where we secured the stability of the harp in this position with strong tape that tied the harp firmly to the table. The purpose of this learning session was to learn how to replace felts on our harps. The charge included a plastic roll-up kit($35.made by WACO Products Co.and likely used for small tools in other trades, also) that included this strong tape, a screwdriver in removable sections with different metal ends for different -sized screws; 7 replacement felts; a razor blade for removing old pedal felt a special broad-nosed pliers with a wire-cutting slot on its side made by Sargent & Co., New Haven, Connecticut; a needle-nosed pliers; and several other small tools useful for pedal harpists.There are 15 sections in the roll-up kit and over the years I have added items I thought to be useful. Leaving the roll-up kit at home, I only need with me on playing engagements that broad-nosed pliers plus a C tuning fork, and a complete set of extra strings (with string-anchors and a pair of tiny fold-up scissors (available from fabric stores). He could demonstrate each step of changing felts on one of the harps and walk to each of us to judge our work. That experience has been well worth it over the years.
