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Harps 1 and 2 both have those chords – look at tactical coordination.
Howard, as a pianist you have the luxury that most composers are moderately competent at knowing what is playable on your instrument or how hard the things they are writing are. Harpists regularly encounter things that range from impossible to ineffective. You might find it interesting to compare the score of the Nutcracker or Sleeping Beauty cadenza to any recorded version…
.Peter Brough’s levers are elegant engineering, aren’t they, I am sorry no-one licensed the design and carried it on. Other high-tech levers that deserve a mention are those by Mark Norris, Telynau Teifi and Frank Sievert.
I also have a lot of time for older and simpler technology – often price is a significant issue for harp buyers and I personally would incline towards a full set of levers or more strings rather than fewer high-tech ones. For instance Pilgrim’s plastic levers do a perfectly good job, especially on lighter tension instruments. I also have a harp with blades and have not felt any need to ‘upgrade’ them. The limiting feature in my musical results is almost invariably my playing rather than the levers.
In the UK a venue needs to pay for a music licence, how much depending on the type and size of the venue, and then the Performing Rights Society distributes this to copyright holders. Big concert halls need to send in programmes, I believe, but the money from most venues gets divided up on a percentage basis. Likewise if you issue a CD you need to send in a licence fee for the copyright holders – and if your CD gets played a lot on the radio both you as performer and the composer get some of the fee the radio pays… The system is still catching up with the internet!
If you are going to play with the music – or indeed without – you might benefit from working on anchor points throughout the piece. As well as starting from the beginning, get used to starting from places throughout the piece, and know where they are in the music. When something happens you know where to pick up again at the start of a phrase or section. In reality of performance it doesn’t matter all that much if you pick up in the right place, just that you do! If you are using sheet music, you can even mark them in, I like coloured sticky page markers.
Tuning with the levers off is slightly better for the strings and levers, as well as giving better results (assuming the harp is well regulated). So I think this is very important. Teaching care for the instrument and all that. My tuner shows Bb and Eb, and I imagine there are tuning apps which can be set to show flats rather than sharps.
I see no great advantage to starting at 3rd A – I usually don’t when using a tuner. If I know the A isn’t going to be at 440 I will calibrate the tuner to it and then tune sequentially.
I doubt that tuning by tuner and later learning tuning by ear with different note order as a separate skill would cause confusion. A full tune by ear is a rare lifesaver in my playing – and I don’t think I ever taught it to anyone I would class as a youngster. But a rapid check on tuning or a tweak of a string or two by ear are much more common for me and I suggest worth teaching separately.
Can you play all six 2 fingered combinations evenly (1+2, 1+3 … 3+4) and all four 3 finger combinations? If not, those would be useful exercises.
Harps can go into surprisingly small cars – my quest for a small harpmobile ended with a B-max at 4.08 m long. But this works so well because of being a right hand drive so possibly not what you are looking for. I found this website with boot measurements really useful https://www.ridc.org.uk/content/car-search
Look up Karen Marshalsay, she uses nails on gut and nylon strings – as well as finger pads. Latin American harp may also interest you, nails are used on the right hand there. So, yes it can be done. However, it will give a different sound. More significantly it will require a very different technique which will mean fewer teachers available to you and a lot of resources won’t be relevant. But first I suggest you listen to the different nail played harps and decide if you like the sound and which you prefer!
If you are interested in wire harp, Simon Chadwick maintains a set of webpages which is a good place to start, particularly if your interest is historical.
I often say it cost as much as a car, but lasts much longer.
On which topic, I have just noticed my main instrument’s replacement as new valuation divided by how long I have owned it has fallen below £1000 a year.
Are you on facebook? The UK Harp Association forum is a good place to contact UK harpists (and worth joining the UKHA if you haven’t). But also when phasing your question I think few harpists will know about all of the programmes to discuss the differences, while many know a lot about one or two specific colleges.
I have difficulties getting the timing right. I know, theoretically, that the chord is supposed to begin not on the beat, but just before it (so that it ends on the beat), but no matter how many times I seem to practice going as slow as possible, I still end up playing on the beat when I try to speed up. Either that, or there is a forced delay instead, so the melody comes in too late and sounds ‘chopped’.
So you are aiming for the first two notes of the chord just before the beat and the left hand melody together with the top right hand note on the beat? Is timing the LH with the end of the arpeggiation a technical problem for you – you can (and should) practice this with any chords. Another practice angle to approach the timing would be turning the bottom notes of the chord into two right hand grace notes before the beat before turning them back into an arpeggiated chord. For balance between the hands you can also practice it without any arpeggiation.
I too prefer Emma’s fingering.
I don’t find it intrinsically more difficult, but it will be less practiced than the other way round. I suggest you play lots of left hand melodies and right hand chords before trying again to put this together.
I went to Prague, which was brilliant, and for a day to Geneva because I had developed a fascination with the konghou at the Prague one. It may of course have changed since, but I don’t remember any workshops where participants were playing – they were all presentations to an audience (and a bit of singing/clapping etc) or lecture recitals so worked with larger numbers than if everyone had a harp.
That isn’t the soundboard crack that worried me. I was looking at the bit either side of the centre strip 2 octaves from the bottom.
My experience of such harps is they have their uses, if the price is right. That board looks rather like one a friend bought – it was some years before she changed the soundboard, but that one looks like it too has a replacement in its future. Is the neck straight enough – do all the sharp disks engage the strings properly?
Can you get a technician to look at it and advise? It would need servicing anyway, how would you arrange that?
