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They are called string pegs and some sizes can be replaced with slotted guitar bridge pegs – and possible a bit of work with sand paper because the holes may not be standardised.
It is hard to comment without knowing exactly what sound you are aiming for, but in the video of the work in progress you are placing on the half beats – muffling the previous chord, getting a slight buzz and sounding stacatto or even slap bass (though not bass). Very effective, but only if that is what you want. Have you tried placing later on repeated notes to let the previous chord sound and the replacement buzz blend into the next note? If you want stacatto, perhaps replace earlier so the buzz is more covered by the start of the note. The medium long notes you have at the moment are particularly hard to play without buzz.
Morleys are still in the harp business and have some historical information on their website http://www.morleyharps.co.uk/
I don’t know of any harps other than Morleys which have the top A.
I find it very useful to work with beginning hand position away from the harp – it takes away any anxiety and urgency of notes. My hand position may well be different to your teachers, but go into the kitchen and grab an empty water bottle, or similar with your fingers round it and your thumb pointing more or less to the lid, a bit of an angle towards your fingers is good. Hold your arm out in harp playing position so the mouth of the bottle is pointing vaguely over your shoulder and your hand will be in a starting approximation to harp playing position.
Hire a case. I believe both Pilgrim Harps and Munsons in the UK have pedal harp cases they will hire, and assume they are not unique. A few individual harpists have them too, but it will take a lot of asking around to find one.
Surely if you had a word with L&H they would give you a valuation of $25,000. Or $17,000 as that is what their experts priced it at… Wouldn’t they?
Thankfully, I have not had any problems over old harp valuations – I suggest a number and the insurer says that sounds reasonable… but as you are not in the UK doubt my experience will help you.
Have read of this thread – most buzzes are easy to fix, once you have found what is buzzing!
http://musicstand.harpcolumn.com/forums/harps-and-accessories/posts/63691
Your harp teacher should not over-rule your doctor. So if you can provide a doctor’s note that s/he does not feel harp playing will cause or increase joint damage then your harp teacher should not try to stop teaching you.
On a practical note, have you tried playing a harp strung with lever gut? Either a lever harp, or an Erard Grecian? If this feels better to you then it is possible to restring even a modern concert grand more lightly. It will sound different, but may be worth it to increase practice time.
So glad to hear I can play most pieces, though!
I think I ought to clarify what I wrote – which was that you will be able to play most ‘tunes’. By this I meant the melody line, and very many of these are written to be sung. Most people have a singing range of two octaves or less, so with three octaves of strings you will be able to play the melody. A ‘piece’ I think of as an arrangement, such as both melody and accompaniment and very many of these will need more than 22 strings.If you are only playing with one hand on a small harp you can try to make sure that you use the left as often as the right. You can also divide up the work more equally between the hands with them playing in about the same range, rather than the right hand getting the top of the harp and the tune and the LH the bottom of the harp – the RH will play a few notes and then the LH take over and then swap back.
If your brain is like mine it is slightly lazy – and if you are only working on a few pieces then why learn to sightread ? It was only when I started getting vast numbers of orchestral parts to learn on short notice that I had enough music going over my music stand that my sightreading improved. So play through something new every day – a conductor really helps too, so you can’t stop and think!
The other thing to point out is that reading individual notes is dreadfully inefficient – just as you don’t read A N D but ‘and’ as a whole word you don’t want to read C, E, G, A but rather the whole pattern whether you mentally call it skip skip step, triad of C with a 2nd on top or first inversion 7th of A… Also when you are looking at the music and not your hands it is far more important what the interval is from the last note, than the note name – it is irrelevant that the C string is red when you aren’t looking at it, what matters is it is the one above the B you last played.
With 22 strings you have a good melody range and can play most tunes. What you don’t have is the bass for much of an accompaniment, and will often find yourself playing up an octave which can sound rather tinkly. If you will be studying with a teacher I really suggest you consult your teacher before buying such a small harp as much published music will need more strings. In the ideal world you would have (at least) two harps – one for home and one for travel and exposing to the elements.
I own an Eve and find larger harps are easier to hold for long playing sessions. I restrung it in medieval brass wire – removed the levers and bridgepins and Simon Chadwick calculated and sold me appropriate wire. It had rather wide spacing for wire (Stoney End used to have a model with closer string spacing for wire) and the soundboard developed rather a belly, but it took the increased tension and had a pleasant sound.
Wire harps do come with quite a lot of strings too! http://www.irishharp.org/shop/studentQM.htm
Before you reach for the sand paper (and maybe smelly solvents too) another thing to try is a ‘magic eraser’ sponge. As always, try in an inconspicuous place, but I find them excellent for removing all sorts of grime off many finishes, and have used them on several harps.
Pilgrim made me a soundboard and might be worth talking to. eg http://www.pilgrimharps.co.uk/Clarsach-Soundboard-Not-Tapered/flypage.tpl.html
The guitar or violin wood might not be too small if they are the right wood (are they quartersawn?) as the induvidual bits of spruce in a soundboard are not large – it is made up of strips about 3 inches wide glued together. For the rest of the harp you will need wood seasoned considerably better than normal, most wood you can get is unlikely to be up to the job.Those are lovely pieces to listen to – I am sure the first time you heard your teacher play La Gimblette you enjoyed listening! You could sit your kids and husband down for a practice concert – I know they will have heard you before, but have they really listened (and given you the sensation of being listened to by someone other than your teacher)? I occasionally invited friends round as a trial audience – they often turned into very nice afternoons.
