Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi, I know you originally posted this question several months ago but I wanted to chime in for anyone else with a similar question. I did exactly this with my Salvi Daphne pedal harp when I moved home from college. It was a 14 hour drive. I also moved my harp this way again in a small Uhaul trailer when I bought a house and moved out of my apartment.
I put my harp in the padded transport case. I firmly strapped my harp to my harp dolly. Then I firmly strapped my harp dolly to the tie-down points inside the front corner of the trailer (closest to the end with the trailer hitch), ratcheting the tie down straps until my harp did not shift at all when I tried shaking the dolly myself. This way, there is not really much tension on the actual harp. Yes, it’s strapped to the dolly, but the tension on the dolly is what keeps it from shifting around.
Then I put my mattress against the harp so that if anything (boxes or items of furniture) did shift during the trip, the mattress would take most of the impact. It’s important to arrange the furniture and boxes in such a way that they don’t shift or fall over during motion. Strap down any large pieces of furniture to the tie-down points with ratchet straps (not bungee cords). If there’s space for things to move, try to use moving blankets or old pillows to fill the gaps and reduce movement.
You’re going to hit pot holes and rough roads, but I think driving carefully (stopping and starting smoothly, taking the turns more slowly than normal, driving more slowly overall, etc) is a huge help. I opened the trailer and checked things at every rest stop to make sure nothing had fallen or shifted too badly, and to make sure the tie down straps were still tight.
I went to school for a music degree, my focus instrument was flute because I had just barely started playing the harp 2 years before I started college.
A music degree teaches you a lot of things not related to playing your instrument (music theory, music history, aural skills, dictations, analyzing the performance of other musicians, composition, etc.) You work individually with a teacher for your chosen instrument. Weekly lessons and solo practice time, learning new repertoire and preparing for juries and recitals. My school also required participation in at least one ensemble each semester in addition to private lessons.
So, if you just want to be a really great harp player, I think you could save yourself a lot of debt by just continuing your private lessons and studying from free theory websites like http://www.musictheory.net
You could inquire with a local college that offers a music degree and find out if you could take private lessons with the faculty harp teacher. A lot of times the faculty instrument teachers are more than happy to take on another private student, especially if you are an adult who has already been taking lessons for several years and have mastered the basics.
You may also be able to audit classes at a local college. You attend for a small fee, you won’t earn any credits, and you aren’t required to pass any exams but you can still learn a lot by attending and doing the homework!
Hi Kathy-chanik,
Yes! The Caswell Sweetharp!!! Thank you for solving the mystery! I’m very saddened to hear the builder has died. 🙁 I had been hoping to add one to my harp family someday. The geared tuners and sound quality for the price really amazed me.
I will have to check out the Blevins harp and Camac Odyssey that were mentioned above.
I wonder if you laid the front passanger seat back, could you lay a harp down on the back of the soundbox? I haven’t tried many harps in the 30 string range and I have a 4-door Chevrolet Lumina which I have no trouble fitting a bigger lever harp into, so I’m afraid I’m not much help….
Hi there! I have been playing harp almost 3 years. I actually started out on a Ravenna 34 (which I still have) and just got a Salvi Daphne 47SE (pedal harp) in May. I will start by describing my Ravenna.
I LOVE that harp. Dusty Strings makes very high quality harps and the price is very affordable. The nylon strings do feel different than gut, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad… I really like the bright, clear sound of my Ravenna. It is also easy to get a big sound out of it without working very hard. I’ve been to several harp workshops and the other guests (who owned harps more expensive than mine) were blown away by the sound of my Ravenna. (I also bought that harp brand new, so it is still “green”. If it sounds so good now, I can’t wait to hear how it improves over the years.) I’ve talked to lots of people who play lever harp and they all have nothing but good things to say about their experiences wih Dusty Strings harps. The sound is lovely and crisp, the strings almost never break, and it’s an overall well-made instrument.
Now for the transition from playing a Ravenna to a Salvi pedal harp: I didn’t really notice a difference in string spacing. My Salvi has higher tension because it is strung with gut, but I can easily get a big sound out of the Salvi as well. Obviously the pedal harp is louder because there is more wood resonating and longer strings vibrating, but I feel the sound quality is nearly equal. I still play my Ravenna, and it is not hard to go back & forth between the two. I have noticed that the gut strings will make my fingers a bit tender sooner than the nylon strings do, but I’ve only had my pedal harp for the summer, so I could still be getting used to gut.
I hope this helps you. As someone else mentioned, your daughter’s ear won’t be developed enough to try a bunch of harps and see which one sings to her yet. But I think the Ravenna is a great instrument for any skill level of player.
I transport my Ravenna 34 easily in the back seat of my Chevy Lumina. It also fits in the back of my mom’s old Dodge Caliber but you have to put one of the back seats down. I’ve also put it in the back of one of my friends’ dinky little Honda. It looks like an Avalon, but I’m not exactly sure what the model is…. anyway, I love that I can fit that harp in almost any car.
We just bought a Chevy minivan (not sure the model name) from a friend so I can drive my new Salvi Daphne 47SE to college with me in the fall. It wouldn’t fit in my mom’s new Mercury Mariner! She was so upset because she actually bought that car with the intent of driving me down to school with it, but got it before we got the harp. It looks so spacious inside that my parents assumed a pedal harp would fit but they were wrong!
Thanks everybody! I’m just LOVING the sound. Every time I play, she just sounds more and more fabulous. I have a pretty good mic so I will try to make a recording next week. I’m learning Memory from Cats right now and those low bass wires are like dark chocolate for my ears!
No name yet. I never even named my lever harp! I wish that if I did, they would carry themselves to the car….
@J Valentine, I do have an awesome family. They have always supported my musical aspirations and made a lot of sacrifices (both money AND time) so that I do improve at what I love most. And they never complain when I want to practice, even if it’s 10:30 at night. 🙂
Those fancy guilded ones are nice, but I’d be afraid to go near it for fear of messing it up! Also, it can seem a bit too much in more casual situations. My harp is a clean kind of elegant, if you get my meaning. It will fit in no matter where I play! I just can’t get over the fact that this beautiful harp is actually mine!!
Just want to throw in my 2 cents –
I’ve been playing harp for nearly 3 years. My first harp was a Dusty Strings Ravenna 34. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a lever harp at this point with big range, great tone, yet a relatively small pricetag compared to some other harps. Very sturdy instrument, and I’ve only ever heard good things about the company. 🙂I just got a Salvi Daphne 47SE as my pedal harp. I’m very much in love with it. It’s a semi-grand but has the same number of strings as a concert grand. So, the same capabilities in a smaller, slightly lighter package! The tone is fabulous and Salvi is a great manufacturer.
As far as actually playing the harp, the weight should mostly be on your knees. Your shoulder should only be a guide for the angle of the harp. Good posture is very important and you shouldn’t ever feel like the harp is squashing you! Also, I’ve never gotten callouses. A harpist friend of mine has been playing over 20 years and she has also never gotten callouses. The flesh in my fingertips gets tough and I can feel the skin is a bit tougher, but I’ve never had a callous. Some harpists – like my harp teacher – get callouses but I think it is individual, based on body chemistry. Your fingertips definitely should not crack and bleed. You do have to watch out for blisters, especially when you first start out. As you’re building up stamina, if you play too long, you will start to feel a blister start. You’ll learn your limits and not go to the point of getting blisters pretty quickly. 🙂
Sorry for the delay! I’ve been busy playing the new harp so not much time for posting pictures of it, haha. Anyway, here’s some pictures! I got a force-flash photo of the kneeblock so you can see all the layers of the mahogany and the really rich color of the wood. It’s GORGEOUS. The pictures really don’t do it justice. And the sound is amazing.
You can’t really tell from the pictures (poor lighting), but except the soundboard, the harp is all the same color mahogany and the wood grain is just lovely. ♥
The base: http://tinypic.com/m/hrhtus/2
Kneeblock: http://tinypic.com/m/hrhtuu/2
Column/crown: http://tinypic.com/m/hrhtuv/2Oh no, I’m NEVER selling my lever harp. In fact, it will most likely be the harp I regularly take with me to perform until I can afford to drive myself. I put blood, sweat and tears into getting it and it really is a great harp. Most of the harpists in this area that I’ve talked to all say they’re jealous because they’ve always wanted a Dusty too! 🙂 I have to put new bass wires on the lever harp, so daily tuning should help it not feel too abandoned. 😉
I just can’t get over how big and warm the sound is from the Salvi! I can’t believe that it is only going to keep getting bigger, because it is a brand new harp. It was actually a favorite among the ladies who work at the Harp Connection. I’m going to have to make a recording and put it up here somehow so you all can see why! 😉
I like to offer myself to play for no charge to causes or organizations that I have a connection to (which I think is what the OP was referring to). But I do not accept requests to play for no money (except when my church asks me to play because nobody gets paid, not even the ministers). For example, I have a few elderly relatives in nursing homes/assisted living centers. I used to volunteer for those nursing homes almost every Sunday before I went to college. I got to see my relatives frequently AND get to “test drive” my newest pieces (which maybe I was nervous about performing) on a very forgiving audience: win-win situation!
I haven’t been performing professionally long enough to get any “exposure” gigs offered, but the one or two times somebody did ask me to play for free, I told them that I would be happy to play at their function, but here was my fee – so far they all agreed to pay the fee. Usually people say something along the lines of, “You’re so young (I’m 19), we didn’t know you had your own business playing for money.”
One thing that’s nice about my area is that it’s so rural, the only other harpist here is my teacher who lives 2 hours away! He actually encourages me to go out to nursing homes and the community to get better known as a professional, so I never worry about taking gigs or undercutting another harpist. 🙂
IT’S HERE!!!! It showed up as a surprise delivery this afternoon!! (I say surprise because I was supposed to get a call from the shipping company to arrange when they could deliver it, and we never got a call, and we were expecting it to arrive at their facility *next* week.) But I’ve never had a better surprise in my life!!!! The delivery truck driver was unbelievably nice. He helped my dad carry the box up the stairs to our porch and into our living room for no extra charge. He said he’d never delivered a harp before and he was very interested in it. He actually stayed around after I signed his forms to watch me unpack it, and even asked me if I could play a little tune because he’d never seen a harp played live before. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the harp was still mostly in tune even after being shipped, so I played him a Scottish tune I’d arranged for a competition a while ago. When he left to make another delivery, he said, “I’m sure you’ll have a great weekend now, won’t you?” He has NO idea! haha 🙂
I’ve already played it for a while today and the sound is even better in my living room than it was at the harp store! I took lots of pictures and I will try to post them tomorrow. 🙂
