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I would say something along the lines of:
“I’m sorry, but I can only afford to donate so many performances in a given period of time.
” So on a complete aside, how many of you first saw Patrick Stewart in Star Trek the Next Generation, and how many first saw him way back in the day when he had hair and played Sejanus in I Claudius?
“not only can I play them, but I could probably teach a retarded monkey to play them.”
OK, that was the best laugh I have had all day. Thanks.
Someone with no natural talent but a lot of determination and training can go far. Someone with a lot of natural talent but not a lot of determination or no training can possibly go far.
But neither will go as far as the person with both natural talent and determination and training.
So natural talent isn’t necessary for success, but the person with both is going to always
I think the advice given so far is all very good. But there was something in your post that jumped out at me and I just had to comment on.
Although I do think that renting at first is an excellent idea I think so because it lets you try a particular harp before you invest that money in it so you know it is the harp you want. But what you said I have to disagree with. You said:
“Until I prove myself worthy of the instrument,”
You are worthy. The harp is an inanimate object, it doesn’t judge you. And the opinions of others are irrelevant. All that matters is what you think.
There is no such thing as being unworthy of an instrument. All that matters is if you want to play it or not. If you do and you can afford it then you are as worthy as anyone no matter how accomplished they are compared to you.
So please do rent at first. But decide to buy based on when you decide you have found the harp for you and don’t wait for some sense of worthiness. Accept that you are worthy now just by virtue of wanting to do this.
I am the only one in my family, although many of my family members, and all of my nieces and nephews, play some instrument or another. Some of them multiple instruments.
My nephew likes to play around on my harp and I think he has potential, but he is totally obsessed with playing the guitar right now.
I use both Ray Pools arrangements and Deborah Henson-Conanat’s. They are very different in approach but both do wonderful stuff. Of course for true Jazz you need to go beyond the arrangements and improvise on the melody. That is really what Jazz is all about, and many Jazz standards are just Show-tunes that have been modified and improvised over.
Most Jazz players play from lead sheets and not from full arrangements.
Deborah Henson-Conant has a fun little book on Jazz Improvisation that comes with a CD of backing tracks you can learn to improvise over. Also the “Idiot’s Guide To…” series of books has a very good book in improvisations and Solos.
To really get into jazz you need a decent understanding of music theory and how to apply it on the fly. Improvising melodies, altering rhythms, using chord substitutions, are just some of the techniques that separate playing an arrangement from playing real jazz.
Once you start, however, you will get hooked. Jazz is addictive. If you have a basic understanding of music theory then I would suggest also The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine. This book is like the Bible to the use of music theory in Jazz, much like the Real Books are the Bible of lead sheets of Jazz Standards.
Another good book is Cool Chords and Groovy Rhythms by Verlene Shermer which shows how to “Jazz” up tunes on lever harp. It can easily be applied to pedal harp as well.
Sorry all, I haven’t been on the site for a few days. It’s been a very busy week.
I actually started guitar after harp. My first instrument was glockenspiel, and then flute, harp and last guitar.
I have to admit that on guitar I have very bad thumb position for that instrument. At least with the left hand. I do what in classical circles is a big no no, but among rock and blues is common, and that is I tend to hook my thumb over the guitar neck and use it at times to fret the low E string. I only tend to do it “correctly” when I am playing barr chords.
It is possible that the position for guitar is messing up their harp position. For guitar the thumb is supposed to be placed fairly straight and squarely in the middle of the back of the neck curve so you can get the proper leverage to fret the strings. However I really don’t tend to have much problem going from one to the other.
In fact my guitar teacher was impressed with how early I managed to make progress with my right hand finger picking. I approached the guitar strings very much like harp strings in how I placed my fingers and plucked strings. She often said it was difficult to find me good music to work on because my right hand picking was so far advanced beyond my left hand fretting, which has nothing really similar on harp.
I also have an advantage on
OK, all these names and classifications get confusing. I thought Nylgut was just a marketing name for the carbon strings.
The strings I use are the so called carbon fiber strings from Savarez. Those are definitely thinner.
If Nylgut is the same diameter as gut then perhaps it is worth a try, but how do they sound compared to gut?
30 string as well. I play a lot of relatively chromatic music so I can flip like a madman when I have to, particularly with Black Sabbath. I can’t copy Tony Iommi’s solos note for note, but I can come close on some and it takes an insane amount of lever flipping, but it is a fun challenge.
Lever. I have a Camac electroharp. This music actually requires a LOT of lever flipping, but I enjoy the challenge of playing such chromatic music on a lever harp.
Even though I also play guitar (both acoustic and electric) I only have a few pedals. For distortion I use an Ibanez TS-9 and I also have a digitech multi effect pedal that has various effects, including several versions of wah-wah effects. It’s lots of fun.
