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A 46-string harp is far superior to 44-string, if you can find the right size and price. I would not go with the 44 if you are not a child.
Flamenco shoes are a great suggestion, as they have “Cuban” height heels, and strong shanks which give you great leverage. You don’t want a suede sole on the pedals, regular leather, not fiberglass. Menkes makes beautiful suede-topped shoes, but make sure you don’t get fiberglass soles. You might want a higher heel, in which case, look at ballroom dance shoes, but ones with leather soles, not suede, if you can find them. Suede soles put the pressure on your toes when you pedal because they are so soft and flexible. You can really feel each pedal, but it’s harder to push and your foot has to be squarely centered on the pedal, no moving it with just the edge of your foot or toe. Cobblers can mess up shoes. I had a pair of loafers with the original stacked leather heel, and the cobbler ruined they when he removed the entire heel, rather than just replace the rubber sole. I think Flamenco shoes have a 1 1/2-inch heel, where a Cuban ballroom heel is two inches.
These harps have a pretty big sound, and by this age, it should be full-bodied in all registers. You would want to keep the sounding board, if you have it rebuilt at all. The string spacing may be a bit different.
It may be heavier, but it is also lighter than many other harps, and has usually got a big sound to compensate. If it was made in 1983, it is probably of good quality, though possibly not as good as more-recent harps. If it belongs to Jennifer Hoult, then it is a fine harp. That is about when they resumed making them, and there was quite a bit of variation in sound from one to another. The two I knew in that year were quite different from each other. It is possible it might need a new neck or re-riveting, but it is likely well put together, otherwise. It is well worth up to $16,000, considering possible repairs. If it is much less, it may be a bargain. But buying a harp from a photo is fairly risky unless it has been inspected.
I was just going to mention Lois Colin, but I know both of them. Alyssa was the first harpist (and only) to welcome me to New York.
It’s useful to have lever harps, but I do find them annoying to play, not as much because of the levers, but because they constantly rock and move about as I play.
The best books for exercises are LaRiviere and Salzedo/Lawrence Method, in my opinion, plus Salzedo’s Conditioning Exercises, which are truly comprehensive. I find the Italian etudes by Pozzoli useful for learning to play Italian music only. They do not develop strength in both hands, and emphasize Italianate melodic playing. The etudes are attractive and usable for background music.
I recommend writing out your music by hand and photocopying it, or using a professional copyist. Computer software is not as good and each brand has its liabilities. The old ways are the best.
I have a Brother multifunction printer which can do duplex (back-to-back) printing and large-format work. Unfortunately, in turns out that inkjet ink is far more expensive than paper, so it would have been better to stick with a laser-printer. However, I don’t know if there are any reasonable laser printers that have an 11×17 bed and duplexing.
I too am still using sibelius 5.25 and sticking with it as long as possible. I think the founders of it are scum. It looks better than finale, but it is still far from professional quality. Unfortunately, composing is not the same as copying. Professional publishers used Score, but I don’t know if they still do or not. Composing at the computer is not such a good idea. Better to use the harp or a piano.A hand-illustrated break-up card is just that, and does not make up for the loss of income. Treating the teacher as a freelancer to be easily discarded is, at the very least, rude, if not nasty. If you want to be considerate, have one more lesson, informing the teacher prior to it that it will be the last one. You have created an expectation of being able to come, which means having time set aside. A teacher does not deserve to be fired without notice. Would you like that as an illustrator?
My students pay in advance, that way my time is reserved and paid for.The problem with a technician replacing the felts and then regulating is that the felts will immediately begin compacting and throw off the regulation. Unless it is done by master technician Karen Rokos. She has the best felt ever. The felts should really be changed months before regulating if you want the regulation to last. If you want the felts to last as well, then you need a really strong supply of felt. I don’t know if she will reveal her source. I have also used bushing cloth from a piano supply house with success. Plastic over rubber can work well, but they can slip more easily. I wonder about using leather over rubber.
As I have frequently mentioned, I do not suppor column-loading the harp. It needs to lay flat on a springy surface so as not to vibrate. There used to be cars long enough to have the harp behind the back seat. If you load it base first, then you may be able to lay it flat and have one person seated next to the base. I used to fantasize about getting a used hearse, as they are quite long and have a lift, but apparently their mileage is very poor.
Perhaps you might consider getting a trunk and securing it to the top of the car? I don’t know if anyone has done that. To have four or more passengers and a harp may require a full-size van or small truck, or an enclosed pick-up truck.
As for column-loading, those of you who have been doing it the longest, have you had to have your harps necks replaced? My concern is torquing, when the harp is on the column and not attached to a frame or the side of a van, then all the vibration goes up the neck and into the knee-block, which has always been said to be the most vulnerable part of the harp, most needing support and protection. And, in case of an accident, what happens when a harp is on its column? I imagine it could be quite deadly to the passengers.
If you have to column load, try making a metal or wood frame for the back side of the harp if not both sides, put a thin padding on it and attach the harp strongly with straps. This frame could have rollers under it to slide in and out. But, that, too could pose a hazard. A well-padded frame under the column and along the side could be attached to the wall of a van. Again, it is more vulnerable in an accident than if laying down.
Lynne Aspnes may still have a wonderful wooden form for laying the harp in and sliding in the car, the best “tray” I’ve ever seen. It has hand holes along the sides, as I recall, and can be attached to a handle on the wheel-well of a station wagon with bungee cords to secure it.You can play harmonics with a wide dynamic range with practice and skill, and raising helps sustain them, which gives them more volume in terms of content and size. They can project extremely well. It is rare that you need a fortissimo harmonic, but doubling it with the note an octave higher takes care of that. You can also softly double a harmonic just to reinforce it, and guarantee the pitch is there in case you miss the node and get a knocking harmonic.
If you don’t place your hand exactly on the node of the harmonic, as you probably have learned, if you are a little too high or too low, you will get an incomplete, bony sound like knocking on the string. Not a good habit. A lot of harpists never get the hang of it, unfortunately. It helps if you are used to playing on or near the center of the string. If you are used to playing much lower on the strings, then the center is harder to suddenly locate. Looking for the top of where the string is stopped, the disc pin or post just before you play should help your eye divide the string in half so you land on the node. Practice doing that.You also adjust the angle of your fingers more sideways to play with the flesh. When you play at the very bottom of the string, there is a very noticable difference in tone quality from pres de la table, which is a good bit higher. It has a wooden nasal tone from the stiffness of the string, which is lost higher up. PDLT is like speaking in a French accent, where Guitaric and Plectric Sounds are like plugging your nostrils and speaking. Big difference. Again, ANYTIME the music says to play with the fingernail, it is Plectric Sounds and MUST be played at the bottom of the string. NOT in the middle of the string, or PDLT. Playing with the fingernail in the middle of the string just sounds obnoxious to me, like bad playing. Osian Ellis did it a lot, though, to get an accent, so in Britten, if you want to do it like him, do, but he used the corner of his finger, not the middle of the nail.
A student should learn to play in the best way from the start, if they have talent. That does not require torture or anything negative, just learning good position and finger action right away, instead of fumbling around and baby-stepping. If the student decides to pursue serious training, but then has to spend months or years correcting bad habits or acquiring good habits never learned, then too much valuable time has been wasted. It’s a very competitive world. And developing good practice habits along the way is also vital. Students grasp what they are able to, and some things take longer than others to assimilate, particularly with coordination. I probably said it before, but to assume a musical child will not ever pursue serious studies is to cut their legs off before they run. This doesn’t mean they have to practice their heads off, but they should learn to play well and learn high-quality music all along and not waste time. If you doubt me, just look at the competition repertoire for the American Harp Society competitions and see how difficult it is. It may be nearly impossible to suddenly catch up to those levels once the student is in high school. I know that I couldn’t. Unfortunately, competitions are not geared to students who start late.
