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Woops!!! I didn’t even notice I was saying the exact same thing as the person above me. Sorry! 🙂
I could’ve shortened my post to, “I concur.” :p
I don’t know if it will sound great, depending on how many weird keys they plan to cycle through and how the voicing of the arrangement looks, but you could try just playing whatever notes from the chords you do have.
. I.e. if you’re looking at an A major chord, play just the A and the E, and leave the C# out. Or if you’re looking at a C# major, just play the F and leave the root C# and fifth G# off.
Good luck!
If you are really concerned about price, but would like a harp for playing gigs, my suggestion would be to rent something from harpconnection, or keep your eyes on e-bay/craigslist if you are dead-set against renting. You can get a nice, 32 string harp for $50 a month… which may be more managable than scraping together $800+ all at once for a fullsicle, which will give you less strings and less sound quality.
I have a feeling you are going to find yourself wanting more harp if you intend to play weddings. I love my little Fireside 22 string harp, but I do wish for more harp all of the time. :p More sound quality, more strings, etc…. in my case I purchased the smaller harp so that I could practice before renting a bigger one.
… all that said, the harpsicles are really beautiful and do have a lovely sound. 😀 I encourage you to do what everyone else has said and get the harp -you- want!!!
Good luck and enjoy!!!
I can almost promise you her advice will be to slow down!!! That’s really the only way to put the two hands together. 🙂
I remember when I began piano, at first I literally had to stop every time I needed to play two notes at the same time with different hands!!!! I had to stop, find the notes, play it completely wrong, spend another minute figuring out which hand was wrong, and then start all over on the next combined hands section…. but over time it got much easier. 😉 Start slow! It’ll pay off. 😀 These days my hands just work “together” easily… so it’s definitely a practiced skill!!!
Cut myself off…
Another great resource is musicnotes, where you can transpose the piece before purchasing it. That could end up being very costly, though…. so you need to decide whether it’s in your best interest to drop $50 on sheet music, or get the free version from a library music book and put it in Finale by hand.
Personally I tend to choose Finale… because sometimes as I work on a song, I find that I would actually prefer it in a higher or lower key than what I originally thought. If you bought it in that key you’re stuck, but if you have it in Finale it just takes a second to change the key. 🙂
You could also split the work between you. A friend and I recently did that for a duet with a very complex arrangement. I did the first five pages and she did the last five. 🙂
Some compilations (such as this one: http://www.earfloss.com/karaoke/1705214.html) are specifically in low keys and might be of interest to you. More often you find those for arias and oratorios, but some of them do exist for theme/seasonal music.
Try going to your local store and asking what they have for singers in the “low” key. If they don’t have it in “Alto/Contralto” (same voice type) keys, ask for it in the “Bass” key. Your friend will have to sing in the bass clef, but it’s easier for her to memorize the melodies (if she doesn’t already know them) and you can just play off of the accompaniment.
As a baritone, I know just how she feels… but also how you feel, because (in my opinion) the burden of transposition should fall upon the person responsible for needing the transposition…. i.e. if she wants to sing a carol in a lower key, she needs to take care of it.
When I sing a solo in church, or otherwise, and it requires transposition I do it myself in Finale. Typically I enter the music in, use the program’s transposition tool, and then go through and make sure it didn’t create any weird double sharps or triple flats. :p It can be time consuming, but if you really need something in a lower key, it’s worth it.
When I’m playing piano and my sister is playing guitar, and we decide to do a piece in another key, I run through visually and (if there are chord symbols) I pencil in the new chord… and rather than try to sight-transpose, I just play the chord outlines and add in embellishments similar to the original arrangement. Since we primarily play folk music, I can get away with that…. not like trying to sigh transpose a Bach sonatina or something. :p
Mine just arrived, and I am somewhat considering taking pictures of the construction process… would anyone be interested in seeing that, or would it be a waste of time? 🙂
I’ve been burning with curiosity since I first heard about cardboard soundboxes, but I don’t know if anyone else shares my curiosity? 😉
I have only had three lessons, and no harp to practice on yet, but I have found that my fingers are automatically beginning to find their way to the strings (in close groups… not big leaps, yet ;)) without looking… I suspect my years of casual piano are the cause for that (I do not often have to look down at the keys, unless I am playing something complex). I think it
FINALLY remembered it… the Taubman Techniques. My university has the whole DVD set of the lectures the woman who runs/ran those camps did during one of the camps.
http://www.taubman-institute.com/html/home.html
But I understand that finger isolation exercises are still quite popular with many pianists/musicians, so for all I know I (and the videos) could be completely wrong. 🙂
I may get in trouble with some musicians for saying this, but some of those exercises are quite unhealthy from what I understand.
I have watched some videos of a very famous piano therapist (who’s name I can’t remember now… I’ll go looking for it later) and she said that finger isolation exercises (which I saw lots of) tend to be a main cause for injury/RSI in piano players… especially involving the third/fourth/fifth fingers, because they are linked.
When you try to exercise just one of the third/fourth/fifth fingers through a full range of motion to the exclusion of allowing the others to move at least somewhat with it, you are simultaniously involving both pull -and- push muscles, which is not healthy because they fight eachother.
But I am not an expert, and if it helps you without hurting you then more power to you.
Thank you so much for posting this! I ordered one a few days ago and I can’t wait for it to arrive. 🙂
I needed something cheap to practice on between lessons (total beginner here) and this one has such a nice sound for the price.
I’m sorry to be such a downer, but I would strongly suggest against getting either one of those harps. They are both Mid-eastern harps.
I have done a good deal of research, and those harps sound like toys compared to real harps… there is very little resonance and no tone quality to speak of. I have also read a lot of horror stories about people buying those harps and having them come apart, or require adjusting right away.
My suggestion is (if money is a big concern and maybe you’re not 100% sure about making a big investment on a harp till you see if you’ll really enjoy playing it) get something like a cardboard harp:
http://www.waringmusic.com/new_page_6.htm (19 strings)
http://www.backyardmusic.com/Harps.html (22 strings)
If you listen to youtube clips of the backyard and waring harps, the tone is actually much sweeter and more mellow than any of the mid-eastern harps.
I also like the sound of the Caswell harps:
He has been having some supplier problems, but it sounds like he’s moving past that. These harps have a very nice tone, and he has a no-interest payment plan for all of his harps.
Other than that, I would suggest renting from somewhere like: http://www.harpconnect.com
However this is the blind leading the blind. 😉 Good luck on your purchase! Hopefully some of the more knowledgeable harpies will chime in.
I just found my measuring tape! I think it’s gonna fit!!!!!!! WHEEE!!!
Soon as I can Imma get that Ravenna. OMG I’m giddy with excitement… I didn’t think I was going to be able to! But my car has room across the back seat for 55″, and the Ravenna is only 49″!
I have a 2005 Kia Spectra… I have not been able to find my measuring tape to actually measure… do you think a Ravenna 34 would fit in the back seat? If so, I think I might just go for that.
I’m not going to pretend to be knowledgable about harps, but from my singing (I am a simi-professional baritone) and other musical training I have good ears and I have done a lot of research as far as sound quality… and I love the quality of the Ravenna.
I am hesitant about the idea of a 26-29 string harp anyways… I want to be able to accompany myself singing Celtic music, and with only a C below Middle C there isn’t a lot I could play. Plus I just prefer the body of sound you get from a floor harp vs. the smaller ones.
