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If you are in the key of C with the E, A and B lever up that means your harp is tuned to the key of E flat.
The key of C has no flats or sharps. If you levers are up on the E, A and B strings and you are then in C that means that if you put those levers down the E, A and B will be flat.
So with the levers down if you were to play the strings they would sound as:
Eb F G Ab Bb C D
That is the key of Eb Major.
Since the lever harp can’t play in every key without being retuned each individual player needs to decide what key to tune the harp in because different tuning will give you different keys you have access to and others you don’t have.
Someone who plays Celtic music will most likely tune different than people who play American Folk music, who will in turn tune different than someone who plays Classical music because each has a tendency to use a different set of keys.
Eb major is a good key to tune to if you play a lot of classical music.
When I first started I tuned to C, which means that when I had all the levers down my harp played in the key of C with no sharps or flats, like this:
C D E F G A B C
This means that I could play in any key that had sharps, but no key that had flats (without retuning the harp to a different key).
Now I tune to Bb Major, which has two flats: Bb C D Eb F G A
So I can play music that has B flats, and E flats, and music that C sharps, D sharps, F sharps, G sharps and A sharps. Since B sharp is enharmonic (a different name for the same note) with C and E sharp is enharmonic with F I find this tuning gives me the widest range of keys that I am most likely to play in. I can’t play in F# Major or C# Major, but I don’t remember the last time I came across a piece in either of those keys I wanted to play. I also can’t play in Eb Major or anything with more flats than that, but again it is rare I come across something I want to play in those keys.
As mentioned, it is a bad idea to tune with the levers up. Put them down and just tune those strings that would need to have the levers engaged to be in C as flat notes.
The reason for these complications is simply that this is how music works. Different pieces of music is written in different keys, and since the lever harp is not capable of playing in every key without retuning each individual has to decide for themselves, based on the types of music they prefer to play, which key is the best base key for them to tune in so that they have access to the most number of keys that they will need for their individual choice of music.
Why were you taught to tune the way you did? Because your teacher wanted you to have access to the different keys that tuning would give you access to. If you find that this tuning doesn’t work for you then there is no reason not to change it. If it does work for you then you may as well stick to it. It is an individual choice based on what works best for you and the music you play.
As I mention in the thread that has been linked here, the fact that they alternate by fifths seems a deliberate things to me. It makes modulating through the keys by alternating left to right make much more sense. Keys proceed by fifths, and the pedals on the harp alternate back and forth by fifths. I can’t imagine that was coincidence or wasn’t developed with practical application in mind.
Exactly.
We have a specific vocabulary we share with musicians. We also have sub vocabularies we share with other players of our instrument. With other musicians who play the same genres of music we do. With others who work in other ways in the business side of music…
I am reminded of one of my favorite swing songs by Levey Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers:
All the other cats were gathering round
To see what he was trying to prove
But anyone could plainly see
He was pulling them out of the groove
At last the leader turned around and said
Listen Pops, you had better stop
There you go, you did it again
And you just beeped
When you should have bopped.
Sure we do, although some of it overlaps. We use general musical terms that the average person doesn’t but other musicians would typically understand, and some specific harp related terms. We also speak in terms of unique details which may be in relatively plain English but are referring to things the average person might not get. Like most of us understand the difference if we say “bridge pin” versus “tuning pin”.
We talk about “wolf notes” and “false strings”. We use terms like ‘Bisbigliano” and “pres de la table”. We argue about French vs Salzedo technique. We talk about the “knee block” and “pedal rods” and “linkages” and “levers”.
The average person may know what a lever is, but they probably don’t have any idea of the context in which we use it.
I think someone with no knowledge of the harp would probably have a hard time following some of our conversations due to the terms we use and the way we use them.
This might be a good time to teach this student how to play from a fake book. Fully done arrangements of contemporary pop tunes for harp are rare, but there are lots of lead sheets and fake books out there full of contemporary pop music.
Playing from a fake book is a totally different approach to playing that can be rewarding and very, very fun once you start to get the hang of it. It might be not only an infusion of new repertoire to keep them interested, but a different approach to playing that might help them look at playing differently.
I remember taking piano lessons when I was younger and hating playing the pieces from the books I had to use.
I have bought harps from International Music, Harps Unlimited, Sylvia Woods Harp Center and direct from Lyon and Healy.
The most recent was when I purchased my new pedal harp from Sylvia Woods (they were fantastic and I love, love, love my harp from them).
I have had excellent experiences and very helpful service from all of them. I would be hard pressed to suggest any one over the others simply because they all did an excellent job in helping me find the right instrument, answering all my question, and providing friendly and professional service. They all delivered exactly as promised in every way and I wouldn’t hesitate to go through any of them again in the future.
Congratulations. I have no doubt that you will find the harp a rewarding instrument to play. And start saving now for that pedal harp.
I am happy to say I have never spilled anything on any of my harps or anyone else’s.
On a rare occasion I may drink something during practice but I am very careful never to hold a drink over the harp.
In fact I try very hard not to hold anything over my harps. I don’t want to drop anything on my harp. The only thing that gets put over my harp is the tuning key and these days I only use keys that are completely covered in rubber. Not perfect but anything to help minimize any possible damage in case of a drop.
Never seen that. Two things that would need to be looked at to see if it would work.
One is can you program the vibration for a specific duration? If you can’t precisely control the duration of the vibration then it really can’t be used for a metronome. Also how fast can you get the phone to vibrate in succession. I have never seen an instance where the phone vibrates short but fast bursts in a row which it would need to do in order to accommodate different time signatures and tempi.
The other is the effect on battery life. Making a phone vibrate actually takes a bit of energy, more than just making it make a sound. If the app causes the battery to drain too fast that would make it impractical.
Depending on these two factors I don’t why the metronome apps can’t be reconfigured to vibrate as well as sound.
When I got back into pedal harp I also used Yolanda Kondonassis’ book. It helped.
As an aside I also play Barbara’s arrangement of Premier Arabesque and you are right, it isn’t easy. Of course it could be because Debussy apparently never met a triplet he didn’t like.
As a good exercise for getting used to pedals I also suggest simply trying to play pieces you can play on lever harp but that require lever changes on the pedal harp.
That will quickly teach you to think in terms of pedals. The idea that you have to keep in mind that when you engage a pedal you are changing ALL the strings of that note is actually a more difficult concept to deal with than the actual changing of the pedals. That simply comes with practice and you will quickly learn what pedal is where and how to move it quickly, smoothly and most important, quietly.
Pedal changes require as much of a sense of timing and rhythm as any other aspect of playing, but that comes with just doing it so start with the music you know that has accidentals in it and that way you can afford to put
I hate tuning by ear, but when I absolutely have to this is also the way I do it, by playing fifths and then doing the octaves. It is time consuming but it is the only way I can get a correct tuning without the aid of an electronic tuner.
I can hear when an octave is right and I can tell when a fifth is right, but if I am just doing a scale I may be able to tell something is off but I have a devil of a
