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I use Finale on a 13″ Macbook and it’s fine. I guess it would be nicer on a bigger screen, but I really don’t have any problem on the 13″ screen.
However I also use Logic Studio on the same 13″ lap top and it takes some creative laying out of the various panels and a lot of switching back and fort between screens.
I rarely wish I had a bigger screen when working in Finale, but I almost always do when using Logic.
It really depends on how much you play. A professional who plays hours every day and needs the harp to sound it’s best at all times would probably do well to change all the strings once a year, and the top two octaves twice a year.
For the average hobby player every two to three years is fine, although I would still change the top two octaves at least once a year. Particularly if you have it regulated every year or every other year (and yes, lever harps do need occasional regulation too). The top two octaves are the most likely to have stretched thinner or develop pits or to play false, and they are relatively inexpensive to change compared to the lower strings, so changing them more frequently makes sense and can vastly improve the sound of your harp.
That said, I hate the way brand new strings sound. It takes a month or two of playing before they sound right to me so I wouldn’t change them less than a month before any event where I really need to sound my best.
Thanks for the explanation. Yes, being able to play both MIDI and electric at the same time solves a lot of issues. In fact MIDI guitars pretty much all
Bernhard, don’t worry, you are perfectly clear and understandable.
I have always been more familiar with the keyboard controllers. I use them when working on with my DAW. What you describe is much more sophisticated and makes the idea of a MIDI harp much more appealing to me.
I have never been against them, but I play Jazz and pop, and I always thought that some of the techniques I use often, like applying pressure to the string between the tuning and bridge pins to bend notes or add tremolo, as well as things like adding vibrato, just wouldn’t work with MIDI. I have found MIDI guitars to have these problems.
But if I understand what you are saying these techniques would work on your MIDI harp?
How about transmitting other sounds from the string? Can samples be created that would allow, say, the sound of a fingernail being scraped along a bass string produced? I use that sometimes, and it works exceptionally well on my electric harp, which picks up all noise off the strings and amplifies it clearly. Of course MIDI wouldn’t pick the actual sound up, but could a sample be used to mimic that?
MIDI has come a long way it seems.
Interesting. So how does the pitch recognition work on yours and the Camac? Does it read the exact pitch the string is vibrating at?
Well, that’s all well and good IF you happen to play keyboard. Not every harpist can play piano too.
That is one of the reasons they make different kinds of controllers. If you play piano you can use a midi keyboard controller. If you play guitar you can use a guitar equipped with a Rolland system. If you play a wind instrument you can use a wind controller.
You don’t have to relearn how to play in order to use MIDI.
I can mess around on piano a bit, but I can’t play piano anywhere near as well as harp. If I am going to play using MIDI why would I want to have to spend the time and effort to learn to play keyboard better when I can already play what I need on a harp controller?
Actually what you are describing is a MIDI harp. There are a few makers who make MIDI harps in something closer to a lever harp form (Mountain Glenn and Kortier come to mind), and as mentioned Camac has made a workable MIDI Pedal Harp (although I believe it is not in general production).
The electroharp is something different. Several makers make electro harps, including Camac, Lyon and Healy, Kortier and Mountain Glenn, and a couple other makers. An electroharp is more like the harp version of a solid body guitar. No sound box. They use crystal pickups that are pressure sensitive to detect the vibration of the strings and convert them to electric signals that get run through an amplifier to be heard.
The differences between the two are, an electroharp still requires the use of a standard pitch changing system, either pedals, or levers, since like an electric guitar, the actual rate of vibration of the string determines the pitch produced. With a MIDI harp the string vibrating is a trigger, and transmits information about things like duration, dynamics, etc… but the actual sound is produced by a sound module of some kind and so the pitch is independent from the actual tuning of the string. Raising the pitch is a matter of signaling the sound module to play a different recorded pitch when the string is played.
A wah pedal or whammy bar wouldn’t work with a MIDI instrument. The whammy bar works by loosening and tightening the string, and since the tuning of the strings is irrelevant to the sound produced by a MIDI instrument a whammy bar wouldn’t work.
A guitar effects pedal works by manipulating the electric signal produced by an electric instrument. It works with an electric instrument, but not a MIDI instrument. MIDI instruments can mimic these effects, but that is done thorough a sound plug-in at the sound module and not by an actual effects pedal.
Think of it this way. An electric instrument still produces the vibrations that get converted to sound, they just take it through the additional steps of converting the vibrations to electric signals and then back to sound.
A MIDI instrument is just a triggering device. The sounds produced are triggered by it, but they are actually produced by a computer that holds pre-recorded sound samples that it plays.
That is why a MIDI instrument can look like anything (a harp, a recorder, a guitar, a keyboard…) and produce a sound like any other instruments or even non instruments (Jingle Bells barked by dogs for example). In fact they can do things other than just produce sounds. Play a specific string or key and instead of it playing a sound it can control a light (or do both at the same time). That’s why they are called MIDI controllers. They control other things. Most often a sound module, but they can control other things as well.
There is video on youtube of the Camac MIDI pedal harp being played here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOObcnzN_oI
And of the Kortier MIDI harp being played here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ct6YMfjMHM
To see an electric harp check out Alan Stivell (who is pretty much one of the Godfathers of the electric harp) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z593IhlhR4s
And Deborah Henson-Conant here playing an electroharp with guitar effects pedals:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYGaxdxcuMY&playnext=1&list=PLD150535E92D37D07&index=9
These are just examples to demonstrate the difference between a MIDI harp and an electroharp.
Yes, I always carry a dark piece of cloth I can put down if necessary. It doesn’t happen too often. I can typically adjust. But some patterns are just impossible to cope with, so always have something you can put down just in case.
David,
Nothing really to add to the excellent comments and advice by the others. Only wanted to lend my sympathies to you. You, nor any harpist, should not have to deal with this kind of stress and pressure. Your job is hard enough, you don’t need to be doing someone else’s work on top of it.
I’m just sorry you are in this position and my best wishes go to you that you will find a satisfactory solution to this situation. It just makes me feel bad to read about situations like this.
I’m telling you,
The trick to using levers to play accidentals is to arrange the music so that you have a place where the left hand is free to flip the lever up or down.
The trick is finding the right place, where leaving your left hand free isn’t going to negatively impact the music, and where you have enough time to flip the lever before the accidental is needed, but also in a place where the string itself won’t already be ringing (or where you will have time to dampen a ringing string AND flip the lever).
Most arrangements with accidentals in them are already arranged this way, but if you do your own you need to examine the music to find the best place to put the lever flip, and arrange it so that you have the time.
With experience you will probably find that you will learn to be able to do lever flips faster and more accurately, and so you can put the lever changes closer to when the note is actually played with less time needed in the arrangement to have the left hand free.
As for actually playing them, lever changes in the music should be practiced just like every other aspect of the music. A lever change is as much a part of the music as plucking the string, or hitting a key on the piano while pressing a pedal. Don’t think of the action as separate from playing the notes. The movements and actions involved should be incorporated as part of the whole piece of the music. Your motion to move in and flip the lever should be in rhythm with the music as much as possible and flow with all your other movements in playing. It then becomes part of your muscle memory just as plucking the strings and placing your fingers ahead become part of it.
Do a search, there are some older threads about it. I recall Carl has some really great insights and tips on it. You will definitely want to read what he had to say about it. Or you can try emailing him if he doesn’t pop up on this thread in a bit.
I just remember reading some of his posts on it and being really impressed.
She was referring to Shelby’s suggestion of the Sylvia Woods Christmas book. If you look at the top of a response you can see the number for the post the person is replying to.
I agree with the idea that there really isn’t a strict rule about this.
There is a lot to be gained from paying attention to the conductor even when he is working with a different section and you don’t have anything to do for a while. Being able to grok his overall vision and interpretation is always beneficial, and with a good conductor you can learn a lot about a piece, and if a piece is worth playing it is worth
