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Susan,
e-mail me privately and include a mailing address, and I will send you the list of proper string gauges from early troubadour harps I used to own. I only have the data for the diameters, in milimeters;
Renate, Mildred Dilling recommended tincture of myrrh, a clear liquid that any pharmacist could provide for you. I have not needed it myself because violin study came before harp and many years of my fingers pressing on the ebony fingerboard made them strong. When I began to get some splits in the tips of thumb or index finger from harp playing, however, an application of an over-the-counter antiseptic called Polysporin, covered by a band-aid at bedtime, usually meant the splits were healed by morning. Also, be careful not to remove too much fingernail when you are filing them down, but just enough.
Jane, since you asked for suggestions for a harp method, just about the most current one is Harp For Today by Susann McDonald and Linda Wood Rollo. With numerous color photos, and exercises from the most basic to more advanced, I believe it is adaptable to most beginners of any age. It has no pieces, just drills, technique, and quite a few pages of advice. However, this allows you to choose pieces that just fit the student. The patterns are easily memorized so that soon the student can play sections by ear, with eyes on the harp strings, which I find very valuable.
Jane, since you asked for suggestions for a harp method, just about the most current one is Harp For Today by Susann McDonald and Linda Wood Rollo. With numerous color photos, and exercises from the most basic to more advanced, I believe it is adaptable to most beginners of any age. It has no pieces, just drills, technique, and quite a few pages of advice. However, this allows you to choose pieces that just fit the student. The patterns are easily memorized so that soon the student can play sections by ear, with eyes on the harp strings, which I find very valuable.
Jane, since you asked for suggestions for a harp method, just about the most current one is Harp For Today by Susann McDonald and Linda Wood Rollo. With numerous color photos, and exercises from the most basic to more advanced, I believe it is adaptable to most beginners of any age. It has no pieces, just drills, technique, and quite a few pages of advice. However, this allows you to choose pieces that just fit the student. The patterns are easily memorized so that soon the student can play sections by ear, with eyes on the harp strings, which I find very valuable.
Laura, I don’t have a harp arrangement for that piece, but I think since you found a piano arrangement, you could adapt it. First see if the melody, or soprano line, has any accidentals. If not, just leave it alone. Now the rest of the harmony underneath was surely designed for a pianist with 5
Michael, another harpist, Betsy Mills, had a long restaurant job in California, about thirty years ago, playing two instruments at once: an electric keyboard with one hand, (I seem to remember her left), and her pedal harp with the other. It was very pleasing to hear, especially as she could sustain bass clef
Mel, I have the Magistretti Daily Exercises for Harp (Pub. Ricordi. 1928) and they are good, BUT VERY DEMANDING. On page 7 he is showing sliding tenths, which would
