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He’s been posting on facebook, although most of his posts are not in English so I don’t know what he is actually saying. But he is alive and apparently well as can be expected at the moment.
It makes perfect sense. I prefer microphones to pickups for acoustic harps, but I have used pickups before and what I did was to use the kind of sticky stuff they use to hold down vases in museums. Living in earthquake country I have most breakable things in my house secured down, so I tried using the same stuff for pickups. What I found works best is not to put what ever adhesive you are using between the pickup and the harp.
Instead put the pickup directly against the wood and then use your adhesive material around the edges or over the whole thing to hold it in place.
I just ran the sticky stuff around the edges and a bit over the top edge of the picup. It worked very well. But I still prefer microphones. They are more hassle but the sound quality is, I find, far superior for acoustic harp.
This is the brand I used, the Quakehold Museum Putty.
Music Theory teaches you how music actually works. That should be desirable knowledge for anyone who even has a serious interest in music, not to mention who wants to make a living making music.
One day you will need to do something more than just play music off a completely arranged piece of sheet music. If you are going to make music your business then eventually you will need to arrange something, or alter an existing arrangement, or transpose something, or even be asked to improvise off a lead sheet, or asked to come up with an accompaniment to accompany cousin Jeanie who is going to sing at the wedding…
Can you make music without knowing theory? Sure. Just like you can turn on a light without understanding electrical engineering. But once you step out of that basic function you need the knowledge, even if it is just so that you can know the rules because you want to break them all.
My advice is to try them and decide based on which one you like to play best. I would say don’t choose until you have tried both.
Not familiar with Morley harps, but Pilgrim harps are really good instruments so I wouldn’t advice you to choose until you have tried them out.
I guess fitting in depends on your goals.
If the student isn’t going to be entering competitions, and if their goals do not include things like playing in an orchestra where they would do well to have experience and familiarity with a certain repertoire, then I don’t see any point in fitting in.
I know I took up the harp as a means of self expression, and so what I do with it is unique to what I feel I want to express. I was fortunate to have had a teacher who encouraged that.
Of course I learned a lot of music in the early learning process that she picked because they were part of her pedagogy. They were how she taught certain techniques and skills for playing. But since she knew my goals she always told me that all she asked is that I try out what she suggested, and that if I didn’t like we would find something else.
I also think she appreciated that I often brought music to her I was interested in that she wasn’t familiar with. I think she really enjoyed the challenge that presented to her as a teacher. We kept each other on our toes.
Some approaches are all about fitting in. The Suzuki method for instance seems very focused on everyone playing a predetermined repertoire with little deviation for instance.
I think the approach needs to fit the student, and some students will need more guidance in figuring out what they want to do, and what they want to get out of it, than others will.
I have to admit, however, that I do find a concern to fit in a bit funny coming from a harpist. I mean, we play the harp. That automatically makes us not fit in in a lot of ways.
What about the downloadable version? I just tried to download it to my iPad but it is still the prior issue that comes up.
Same here. The battery life on mine is pretty much as it was when I got it over a year ago. I really got the external battery because I travel a lot and like to watch movies on it on long flights. It just comes in handy to have just in case.
Indeed, it doesn’t behave like a computer. It runs on a very different principle. An app can occasionally crash, but it is much rarer than on a laptop or desktop running windows, and typically easily recovered from.
Over a year of heavy use and I simply have never had a problem with it. It works wonderfully for everything I demand of it.
Yes, I keep a book of music in my car (I have copies of all the music I use in a spiral notebook so I am not carrying around entire collections just for one piece). I just leave it in my trunk at all times. I also have a large number of pieces in my repertoire memorized so that in a pinch I could play for at least an hour or two without sheet music at all, although I always prefer to have it there just in case. I just may not be able to take requests.
However for the music related activities I use it for the battery lasts almost 10 hours, far longer than I would need it to for any gig. I also have a back up battery that plugs into the docking port and can run it for an additional 20 hours almost. I also have copies of all my music in PDFs on “the cloud” so if I had a software glitch and lost them off the iPad I can always back it up off the cloud. The software itself can also be redownloaded in a matter of minutes if necessary. So even if the entire iPad got reset back to factory settings I could recover everything I needed on the go.
I’ve been using the ipad for over a year now and haven’t had a single issue. The iPad is far more reliable than most computers.
I know musicians who, due to how they make music and perform, have no choice but to rely on computers. Nothing is foolproof. A circuit board on an amp can short out. A tube can blow. The battery in an effects pedal can die if you forget to change it. You can drop a mic and ruin it. And a lot of effects, mixing and sound manipulation that are a part of live performance for many performers are handled by electronic equipment and computers these day. While most harpists can manage to not have to deal with computers when performing that just isn’t the case with music in general, and having seen so many people I know manage it without much problem I am comfortable with it.
Congratulations.
I have two Lyon and Healy harps. My pedal harp, but also my Folk Harp, which was the model that the Ogden replaced. I have had that harp for over 20 years and it is still going strong, and sounds amazing. People always give me compliments on the tone. Like most harps, it has sounded better as it has gotten older.
I have had nothing but good experiences dealing with Lyon and Healy.
I use a standard music bench. I have a collapsible one that has a carrying case that I use outside the house. The portable one is a little thin on the padding, but works well.
I don’t like chairs with arms. They just get in the way. Freedom of motion in the arms is essential.
Not for beginner, but for intermediate to advanced you should check out Barbara’s books. She has a nice arrangement for lever harp in one of her Classics by Request books. Book 2. I can’t see this piece being done well as a beginner’s piece. The amount of simplification it would require would really kill the feel of it in my opinion.
Actually, I just went and looked it up on Sylvia Wood’s site and it is available as an individual PDF download, so you can get just the one piece if you like, although I highly recommend the entire series. They are really great arrangements.
Here is the link: http://www.harpcenter.com/product/pdf-download-brundage-class2-ave-maria/
“Since I’m not comfortable discussing my age with strangers, and I was raised to view it as a rude question, I answer with “old enough to have been playing for 21 years.””
A good response.
I’m reminded of the first time I ever met Patrick Ball. I said to him, completely without thinking, “wow, I’ve been listening to your albums
