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I normally use a Peterson VSII that I have had for years. I understand the newer Peterson tuners work even better.
And I also have the Peterson istrobosoft app on my iphone, and that works well in a pinch.
I actually started with a piano arrangement I found on Musicnotes.com and then stripped it down to the bare essentials and rebuilt it from that.
It really has a lot of potential on the harp, although I am trying to come up with my own unique solo for it, like writing my own cadenza, and that is the most challenging part. I want it to echo the original but be my own.
I don’t know how to tell how it will develop, but I have a Lyon and Healy folk harp that is almost 20 years old and it sounds fantastic. People compliment its tone all the time. If you closed your eyes you would swear
Great.
Isn’t it just an incredible sense of satisfaction when something you have been working on suddenly comes together?
Sometimes I struggle with something and then suddenly it just clicks and it’s like, what was I having such a hard time with before?
Congrats and enjoy your ever expanding repertoire.
I don’t tip either. Not that my harp tech doesn’t do a fantastic job, but because it isn’t that kind of a service. I would no more think to tip a harp tech for a regulation than I would tip my plumber or a jewler or my auto mechanic.
They provide a service. They charge set rates for that service. We pay that rate. End of story.
I can understand that. Early on I had similar issues. I didn’t want people to know, but once I started to let it be known I received mostly support and in fact people were often impressed. The real problem is that it seems people assume if you play the harp you must be a virtuoso concert harpist in an orchestra. The general public doesn’t get that harp is just like any other instrument and you can play just for fun.
But once word got out I received generally positive response. In college there were people who only knew me as “the cool guy with the harp”.
In fact I only once ever had anyone be negative about it, and they did that behind my back. I only found out about it through someone else. And honestly, the person was a small minded, racist who’s opinions I have no respect for anyway. So I consider it a badge of honor that someone so warped disapproves.
“The definition of what is and isn’t folk has changed radically. It used to be confined to songs of which the composer isn’t known. But in fact some “folk” songs turn out to be Victorian parlor ballads (“Wildwood Flower”) or minstrel songs (“Oh, Susannah”).”
Yes, Aryeh is excellent, as are all the others mentioned so far. I can’t fault any of them.
I would add Louise Trotter who has put out a very nice catalogue of folk and southern traditional music that is extremely well arranged, and, although better known for her books of classical and early music for lever harp, Deborah Friou has a few arrangements of folk music that are excellent. Her arrangement of Ashokan Farewell (by Jay Ungar) is one of my favorite pieces to play on lever harp. Although it is not traditional since we know who composed it, it is still a great folk piece that sounds like it could have come from the American south in the 1800’s rather than the Bronx in the 20th century.
I don’t think that anyone should have any fear that wood harps are going to all be replaced with carbon fiber some day. After all we have had electric harps for quite a while now but they still haven’t replaced acoustic.
These same arguments were being made when Les Paul and Leo Fender started playing around with solid body electric guitars. People said they didn’t sound like guitars, they had too much plastic and metal, they were going to ruin the legacy of guitar music, etc…
But the world found that there was room for both acoustic and solid body electric, and each had it’s place. And the electric guitar has probably gotten more people into making music than any other instrument ever invented. It practically single handed created several new genres of music, and expanded the musical landscape for all time.
There will always be wood, acoustic harps, just as there will always be wood, acoustic guitars. The sound of carbon fiber will have it’s place just as the sound of electric has its place and each instrument will fill its niche and the world will go on with everyone still able to make the music they want on the kind of instrument they want.
Heartland clearly thinks that it can do something unique by trying to be the first to fill this particular niche. Good for them. That takes innovation and vision. I wish them the best.
Sylvia Woods has a book too. Some of it is specifically Chanukah music, but some of it is good for anytime.
I focus on the harp, and play the other instruments as I can find the time. I have been playing some things much longer than harp so with them it is more about keeping up my ability and doesn’t require a lot of time to actually learn new things.
Someone commented about doubling with very different instruments and how rare it is. True. I was always very impressed by Derek Bell. He held positions as principal Oboe with several orchestras as well has principle harp for the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra.
Doubling is one thing, but to win positions as principle on two different instruments is very impressive. Not to mention that he didn’t even touch the harp till he was almost 30.
I will say, playing other instruments has definitely made me a better harpist. I often think of what can be done on other instruments and it inspires me to try new things on the harp, and to just look at music in general from different perspectives.
As Barbara said, most tuners can emit an audible tone.
Also, most give you the option to select a specific note rather than just guess at what note you are trying to tune by giving the closet to what it picks up.
So you can select a note like middle middle C and then tune approximately by ear and then use the tuner to fine tune it.
However don’t be a slave to the tuner for life. The tuner may help you get theoretically perfect or close to it, but perfect isn’t always best sounding. For instance many harpists tune the upper octaves slightly sharp intentionally because it sounds better.
Tuners are great when you are starting out, and are a fantastic tool even for the experienced harpist as they save a lot of time getting in the ballpark, but as you get more experienced your ear will develop and you will start to be able to trust them more. At that point trust your ears even if they don’t match the tuner exactly.
Yeah, I have purchased used sheet music on ebay, although mostly as collections in book form. But I see music there all the time.
However generally I think most people who actively play do keep most of their music. A situation like Carl’s, where someone gives you a bunch of stuff that you already have or isn’t the kind of music you play is a bit different. But it seems to me that when musicians buy music they hang on to it.
Never know when you will want it in the future, or know how hard it may some day be to find. Building up a decent library of music can prove to be very convenient in the future. I have never gotten rid of sheet music that I can remember.
