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A good harp does not need frequent servicing. You can learn to change the pedal felts on your own. Even minor regulation. What area are you in? I would recommend, as money is an issue, a second-hand Lyon & Healy harp of a smaller size, like a 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, etc., if it is in good condition, as it will always be useful to have and have rental or resale value if needed. If you shoot for the moon and buy a full-size concert grand now it would be great, but then she may never have another harp besides it. Another option would be Venus, which has some very nice models. You will of course, have to change strings yourselves. Basic maintenance skills are a necessary part of being a harpist.
I didn’t know I would major in music until my sophomore year. It’s not easy to know sometimes. Can you ever imagine your life without playing your harp? Do you feel like you have the talent, the drive and the resources to make it your life? You can study music and go on to another profession in graduate school. But you can’t replace these years for studying music, ever. How much have you studied so far? How advanced are you? What level of school are you likely to get into? Have you played for any advanced teachers? What does your teacher think? You should aim as high as you can, maybe higher if you underestimate yourself. You should have the best teacher and school that is possible. If you just want to enjoy the harp, then pick a school with majors that allow you enough time for lessons and practice, ie. not a science or studio arts.
There were schools I might have attended, but I never even tried because I didn’t know what was possible. One can work one’s way up step-by-step, but it is much harder nowadays than it used to be. So better to commit to music now. Can you live with it or without it? Try reading the Harvard Dictionary of Music (all of it) and see how interesting it is. That will tell you something.So, here’s an idea for a flight of stairs. Get a few gym mats, the kind made of ground latex about an inch thick, and lay them down, or a lot of old quilts. Carry the harp, but know you can set it down on each step if needed, or when needed, and it won’t get damaged. That’s more or less how they moved my piano out.
Another possible source for steady employment may be funeral homes, playing for services and viewings.
Here’s a semi-related question: Gretchen and Heidi Van Hoesen recently performed magnificently a Triple Concert by Eugene Goossens with oboe. There is a piece on imslp.org by Goossens for oboe, harp and orchestra. Is it the same piece? Is the triple concerto available? Can you find the publication details for that piece or versions of it?
I was using a footlight to light my harp, and a child sitting in the front row was kicking her leg about while I was playing, and then realized she could kick the cord and move the light, and she did it. The adult with her did nothing, because she didn’t like that I was playing a modern piece, Intrada, by Josef Tal, which I think is quite palatable. So, in small spaces, one must also not allow people to sit in the front row, I guess. I don’t know what they cost, but do we have to add to our gear our own stanchions and velvet cords? On the other hand, if we had more gear, and a roadie, then perhaps we could get away with charging more, just like a band does. Who doesn’t look better with proper lighting, maybe a fern on top of a Greek column, a complete stage set?
It sounds like a nervous, nerve, or neurological problem. If you are anxious about playing and reaching, then it can be helped psycho-emotionally. If you have pressure on the nerve, then it is physical. If you have a neurological problem causing involuntary movement, then it is that. It isn’t necessarily a huge problem. I knew an orchestral harpist who had Parkinson’s, and she trembled visibly, but was secure once on the strings.
I gave the C’s as a guide, the other strings would gradually rise to match the increase. The fourth and fifth octave are not stretched. It has to do with the way the ear naturally hears.
Too many teachers can produce a confused technique, more apt to run into problems. Not listening well enough can, also. To be a good student means to be able to empty of one’s ego, to truly absorb like a sponge the knowledge of the teacher. If one is arrogant, or too self-absorbed, you just won’t get it, and you can’t blame the teachers for that. Music requires everything of you, and if you can’t give it everything, you can’t expect to get everything.
There is a history of blind harpists. If you can reliably reach an octave, then measure from the octave above. Or the one below, the lowest string being a C. Lighthouse for the Blind has programs for musicians, and they may have methods for dealing with such problems.
The unnamed demon in the room is the computer, and now the cellphone. What you do away from the harp is as important as what you do at it. You can play perfectly, and wreck it by too much typing or texting or swiping or whatever you do on a technological device.
It can also have to do with what music you are playing. Some pieces are overly obsessive on certain patterns and likely to cause injuries from too much repetition. There is also a factor of how much pressure you are putting on yourself, how you push tempo forward. I recall seeing a young man play and exhibiting almost all of the issues I have been bringing up. Having too many teachers can be a problem sometimes. One wise thing Miss Lawrence told me, because she was not playing much at the time I was studying, and didn’t demonstrate whole pieces, was that I needed to formulate a vision of what a good technique is, to have a goal. I saw an awful lot of harpists without finding that. If I had seen Jim Pinkerton more than once, it would have helped. So my main inspiration became Heidi Lehwalder, whom I was fortunate enough to know, and see perform many times. From her I observed such freedom of movement, while maintaining excellent hand position and finger action. Not to mention dynamic and glamorous stage presence, and sheer excitement of playing.
I know how important it is for students to see great harpists, and that is why it is so frustrating to see so few recitals given by great harpists, and to see so few students bothering to attend them!
