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Hi there,
Have to jump in… There is one more harpist nere who plays exclusively with nails – myself – but I’m a wire harpist. I don’t play pedal harp or classical repertoire at all, nor nylon-strung Irish harp, which is why I haven’t contributed to this thread so far. My area is Gregorian Chant on wire harp, not Irish folk tunes, so I’ve modified my playing technique somewhat to accomodate my arrangements.
I’ve never had any pain issues or tendonitus from playing with nails. My hands tend to be very relaxed, close to the strings, I’m not concerned with pointing the thumbs up or anything like that and I don’t play with a lot of force. It’s a very natural, comfortable way for me to play and I can’t imagine switching over to nylon/gut/pedal/etc. because not only is this the perfect harp/music for me to work with, the others have simply never interested me. I have a 36-string Triplett Luna wire harp and it is just a dream to play. I cringe though, when I read here about some of the other harpists’ pain issues. Fingertips, posture, etc. It really makes me wonder, how much of taught formal technique is unnatural and a product of cultural forces that might maybe need to be reexamined. A possibility for cultural anthropology studies, as Marco mentions.
I’ve started a blog section on my website http://www.sherrimatthew.com where I discuss arranging for wire harp. I’ve been writing this in installments, among other blog entries, with more to come, but I do mention playing with nails and will probably expand on that further.
Hi Tacye,
Thanks for the link… I’ve never seen that style before. Quite an asking price for the chair, even for an antique! The lot notes were an interesting read.
The comments that followed the article told a lot. – not just musicians, but just about anyone in the creative sector. Especially if your work can be digitized and made available online. I’ve never had a problem with making full-length streams available of my work, so that people can become familiar with what I sound like, but I do take exception to free downloads. It removes the incentive to buy the tracks (and really, is 99 cents that much??) I’ve bought other musician’s recordings both as a show of support and a matter of principle. I’m beginning to think this free thing is what’s putting the global and U.S. economies into such a mess. At some point people are going to have to go back to old-fashioned paying for things, and then maybe employment might pick up again. Just my thoughts on that matter. 🙁
Hi Kay,
What model humidifier do you have? I have a Honeywell Quietcare model which is quite large and.needs a new filter for the season, along with one of those tank cleaning inserts. Never noticed any hard water buildups inside the humidifier, but there’s quite a rim inside the cast iron humidifier pot on top of our woodstove.
Good idea to thoroughly clean it before using your humidifier for the season! When I opened up ours a week ago the filter was in seriously bad shape, probably from sitting all summer. Looked like some kind of mold, so I tossed it and scoured out the entire unit with soap and hot water. Can’t recommend much except to make sure everything is clean before you start it up for the season.
Hi guys,
Thanks for posting – I do a lot of cooking… Indian food especially! And lots of veggie stir fries. You’re right, cutting onions is a tricky business and a couple of times I sliced off a harp nail, usually my thumb nail, but fortunately didn’t hit the thumb itself. Then I’d have to wait it for it to grow back. I think I’ll try your suggestions – I like leeks – and they should stir fry well just as well in olive oil.
That’s pretty neat… never heard of those before! Sort of a Victorian style, like the balloon-back chairs?
My current “real harp” chair – for sitting and playing a harp like we know them, is in need of re-upholstering – kitty cat likes the fabric too much! Maybe will get done by Christmas…
Angela – chairs? For playing your harp? Floor harp, lap harp or pocket harp? 😉
I always like to wait and see if anyone responds when we get the occasional post from someone who comes across this site and posts to it without checking it out first… looking for advice about the “harp”! Lol!!
Hi Tracey,
It’s been so *many* years since I started piano lessons that I’ve forgotten what the process of learning was like then, but you’ve got me thinking a bit about it, because at some point in my mid-30’s I started transferring all of those years of keyboard/notation reading skill to the harp and it was a challenge. For me, sight reading in itself tends to be pretty automatic, so I know what it sounds like when I look at the music, much like reading text. I don’t remember when I got to that point. I read pretty much everything because my memory is so bad. Always has been, even when I was a teenager. I never even considered that route, so I guess I can’t be of much help there.
I think if you stick with learning to read music you’ll get there. It helps a lot if you are into theory (I enjoyed it a lot; it was my favorite class). That way you can see how everything goes together, like going from the alphabet on up to sentences, paragraphs, and then larger constructions in writing. Even if you don’t get into arranging music at some point in the future, it just helps to be able to see the overall construction of a piece, and then the subparts, etc.
Oh, I hear you! (I actually never wear high heels; I tend to wear clogs quite a bit). These were worth the giggle, I needed that! 🙂 But thanks for posting the info about shoes and foot injury… These things really need to go – into the past. There’s plenty of dressy flats out there to choose from.
Now here’s hoping somebody finds another silly thing out there with a harp on it! Stick a harp on it and you’ve got instant class! 🙂
Hi Alison,
Thanks for posting the link, it was an interesting read! I don’t play pedal harp so I’m not familiar with the piece you mentioned… maybe a link to a good example of it?
On wire harp I started with the traditional Irish folk music… I still appreciate it but I dont’t play it at all anymore. My work now revolves entirely around arranging Gregorian chant for wire harp. It was a good way to learn the basics of technique, but mine has evolved a lot to accomodate playing chant, so it’s not at all historically correct anymore… Not a question of like/dislike per se, just my own musical growth and development. I doubt I could go back to playing, say, jigs and reels in a truly authentic way on harp now. Once in a great while I’ll give a listen to someone else doing that, say to myself, “oh, yes I remember that one” and then it’s back to chant studies.
It looks great! 🙂 I only play wire. If you ever get into building wire cross-strung, I’d be very interested in following your progress on that project. I realize there’s going to be quite a learning curve in harp building (and playing!), but this one looks like it turned out quite well. Maybe you could post a sound clip of it further down the road?
I don’t analyze jerks. I just take note of them and avoid them from there on. Hope all goes well for you in your future work and you don’t get any more of these. Sounds like everybody else appreciated you! 🙂
