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If you’ve had lessons for 7 years, and you play well on your own harp, why do you want to take lessons? Sounds like you are wasting your energies and emotions (and money) on lessons, when you could be putting those energies and emotions into practicing.
I suppose if you are planning on giving grand concerts somewhere, maybe…
But if you are doing gigs, you are ready to go.David, with the advent of same-sex marriage legalization, you just MIGHT be prettier than the bride someday.
I haven’t had any SS weddings yet, but I had a commitment ceremony some years back for two women. I was NOT prettier than the bride. That’s something I just don’t have to worry about because I never am. 🙂If you understand chords, you don’t need to worry about the left hand. Just play the melody and put the chord in the left hand with it.
Actually, the rug does not need to be under the harp…just to the right side where the view of the strings is, so it doesn’t need to be really big or slip-proof or heavy. Even a piece of cloth will do…as long as other players don’t step on it and mess it up. Depends on where you are seated and what the traffic is there.
Thank you for your response.
My brother has Meniere’s and wears hearing aids, so hopefully your hearing loss is similar and can be helped.
I’m wondering if you are able to drive.Keep us informed of how your harp life progresses.
Thank you for posting.
1. I was kind of amazed that someone so young would have Meniere’s disese. I read that there is no known cause. Do you also have tinnitus?2. It sounded like you move the harp yourself. How do you move your harp if you have difficulty walking?
3. Do you ever have vertigo episodes while playing? If so, what do you do? You’re already sitting down. Do you lie down by the harp? Onstage during a concert?
4. I wasn’t clear what happened to Timmy when he hears music he doesn’t like…like the Debussy. Is he taken out where his growls and howls won’t be heard? In that case, it would seem that he couldn’t be backstage, either, because he could still hear it….and the audience would hear his reaction. So does someone remove him from the area during the offending piece of music?
I, too, was an adult when I started playing harp in college. My parents thought the harp was a waste of time and never supported my choice. After I decided on music, I paid for the rest of college myself. It took a while because I had to work and go part time. After I graduated, it took four years (and a lot of saving up for the down payment) to buy my first pedal harp (on a LH payment plan), and my parents were not happy about it. When I bought my second pedal harp 18 years later, they were sure I had lost my mind. I guess if you’re a harpist, you just are, and no one can change that.
Considering all the muscle work involved, it’s more of a guy’s instrument than a girl’s…unless you are a living room harpist.
The really great harpists were men. Zabaleta (my favorite) and Grandjany. (Everyone has an opinion on that.) But Zabaleta had a guy who moved his harp. I saw him in person twice. Of course, he could afford to have a harp mover.
My teacher was a man, a former Salzedo student. I came up in an era where men dominated the harp world, so it seems strange to me that anyone would think men didn’t belong there.All I could find in my Method book was on p57, he says to consult the Modern Study of the Harp, p19. He calls it Isolated sounds (the square with a dot).
Looks like you play with one finger and muffle with the thumb, but on p57, in XI, M8, there is also a tie, so I don’t quite see how that one could work.
TIA is Spanish for aunt, so I’m wondering about that.
If the church is not Catholic, I’d be sure and ask before using the Ave Maria. Some churches don’t allow it.
Not just in churches… I have a wedding ceremony and dinner in an event center coming up in September. The guy asked for all classical music, except the Ave Maria.
The Panis Angelicus is a nice piece.
Sorry, I don’t know about stands, but if you don’t find one, you might consider getting special glasses that are distanced just right to read from the stand.
You could enlarge your music.
Also, it helps to keep as much music as possible on the right side of the stand…sometimes cutting and taping sections together works.
Here’s another ramble about harp cost.
I had parents who would have never bought their kid a harp, whether or not they could afford it. They never did approve of me playing a harp.I bought my first harp in 1971, L-H 15, the cheapest at that time, while I was working nights in a nursing home. I saved for three years to have half ($1400) the total cost ($2800), and L-H financed the rest. If you think that sounds cheap…. we worked for minimum wage…. $1.60 hr.
That’s a LOT of wet beds.At that time, L-H always said the wait for a used one was 3 yrs…like every time I asked. If I bought a harp today, I would definitely want a used one…regulation all settled in.
I would suppose L-H still finances harps.I first went to my bank, and the loan officer laughed at me. He thought it was hilarious that I wanted to buy a harp. He told me that when time came to make the payments, I would buy clothes. There I sat, in a homemade dress and some sandals from K-Mart. I went out to the bank prez and told him I was closing my account and why. I knew they didn’t care because I didn’t have much in it, but still….
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Some universities have donated harps. When I was at Illinois, I think a couple of the practice harps were donations. There is one donated harp here at a university, but it is not being taught. As far as I know, it is out on loan.
Even a private harp student has to have a way to get access to a harp (buying, renting), and have the motivation to play.
It is unlikely that public schools will ever have them. There are so many schools in one city that it would be impractical. Also, other instruments are easy and cheap to rent from music stores. Even replacing strings is easy. I rented a violin while I was brailling music for my blind student, and if I needed a string replaced, all I had to do was go to the store, buy it, and they would put it on right there.
Harps are expensive and hard to play.
My teacher was a clarinetist before being a harpist. He told me that (his words) anyone can become proficient on a clarinet in a year, but not so with the harp…it takes much longer.
So think about where your harp or harps will be when you pass on, and maybe you can place one where it will be appreciated and played, like maybe a church school where there wouldn’t be any state requirements regarding the teacher having certification or whatever like in a public school.Maybe you are referring to harpists who teach but don’t go out to play.
No one could possibly have that perception of me. My harpmobile is a ’95 Honda wagon. Not exactly ostentatious.
Why would anyone think we’re rich? We must need the money, or we wouldn’t be out lugging a harp around in all kinds of weather.
Maybe it depends on the area of the country you live in. I live in an economically depressed area.
