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You may like Pamela Bruner’s self-teaching series Play the Harp Beautifully (vol. 1-3). More information at: http://pamelabrunermusic.com/harp_books.php
As to looking at youtube clips: Have you already discovered the ‘Harp Tuesdays’ of Josh Layne? Here you will find many great instructional clips: http://www.joshlayne.com/harptuesday/
or the very well presented teaching clips of Ray Pool at: http://www.raypool.com/video.html
As to make your own, simple arrangements, I think Sylvia Woods’ Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for All Harps, is both fun and very good.
Also, you make like to join the Yahoo discussion group Virtual Harpcircle at: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/virtualharpcircle/info. This is a well moderated group with lots of kind people who like to help one another with all kinds of harp questions.
So, the harp owner doesn’t care what happens to the harp she has rented to you?
Interesting.Am I correct that she still expects to get the harp back in the condition she gave it to you?
According to your other very recent messages on this forum, you rented a harp. You put metal wound guitar strings on the lowest strings as you did not like the original ones and used permanent marker for the C and F strings and now you tuned the 5 lowest strings each a semi tone higher than they were meant to be.
Did you ever wonder whether all this extra tension could harm the harp you rented?
Guess what the owner of the harp you rented will tell you when she finds out what you have been doing?
Tapered pins work great for me. No slipping.
I would be more shy if a harp has zither pins, although they have their advantages too.
I am sorry Robin, but I very much doubt the tension of these Alliance Savarez carbon harp strings of the harp will get substantially lighter. I don’t have a Camac 32DHC, but I do have experience with Alliance Savarez strings and though they will stretch and stretch in the beginning, I never got the feeling this lessened the tension.
Frankly, I am surprised this expensive harp was advised to you because of its so called light tension. There are several other Camac harps with really light tension if that’s what you were looking for. See the other thread in which you asked for advice because of your tendonitis problem: https://harpcolumn.com/forums/topic/carbon-fiber-versus-nylon-strings/
The advice you got or playing glissando’s with a felt guitar tip to loosen the tension, surprises me a lot.
Your Dusty probably has nylon strings. Nylon strings feel and sound different from carbon strings. Carbon strings are significantly thinner than nylon strings with the same tension and they may have a bit of a different texture.
I am sorry about your health troubles.
As I have said before, I’ve got no technical skills regarding harps, so I probably can’t be of much help.
I tried to find the weight of the cardboard fireside harp. According to https://www.etsy.com/listing/518736788/fireside-folk-harp-kit (great pictures) the cardboard backyard harp has a weight of 6 lbs, so, 2.7 kg, which is almost twice as much as your 3 lbs/ less than 1.5 kg lyre which, as you mention above, sometimes causes you fibro pain.
Besides, you would like to make it a double. This will probably ask for an extra heavy string rib (or two ribs) to withstand the doubling of the tension (the fireside harp already does have very light string tension, so I doubt you could go even lower and still have a nice sound).
As far as I, know plywood is heavier than corrugated cardboard. The string rib may be somewhat lighter when using plywood for the soundbox instead of corrugated cardboard, but then you would like to use a quite different design, like that of Rick Kemper’s Waldorf harp. The problem is that you find the Waldorf harp too large and too heavy and the string tension too high. To complicate things even further, you’d like to convert it into a double. So, instead of getting inspired by an existing model, you would be trying to design a whole new model.
I got the impression that you are thinking about a cardboard soundbox with a top layer of plywood.
When you keep the string rib as heavy as it is, it will add extra weight to the harp.
I don’t know what would happen if you use a lighter string rib. Then the string tension would pull on the plywood soundboard.
A soundboard is only completely flat before you put it under tension by the strings. After some time a soundboard makes a nice little belly. Anyway, a double harp may add to this effect. I wonder whether this effect would tear off the plywood layer from the rest of the (cardboard) soundbox.
Even with an all wood harp, when the gluing was not perfect, sometimes the sound board is pulled out of the rest of the sound box.
I can’t help you, but if you want to use wood or plywood for building your own small harp, you may find some great tips on: http://www.sligoharps.com/plans of the reputable harp builder Rick Kemper.
The fourth design, the Waldorf, is a 22 string harp (sounding 3 notes lower than usual for this kind of harp!) is free. In the documentation below the links of that harp you find valuable information which may be inspirational for you. It’s not a double strung harp, though.
Would your public come primarily to your performance to enjoy your harp music? Or do they like seeing you performing?
As part of an audience, I wouldn’t like to be distracted from the music by some attention drawing clothes, jewelry, make-up or hair style.
I love Sylvia Woods’ Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for All Harps. I think it’s a great introduction to music theory, especially for those of us that like hands-on learning.
Hi David, you may like to see how professional harpists, e.g. Josh Layne put their fingertops at the strings.
You may like to have a look at:
Is it a tapered pin?
In that case, have a look at:
https://teifiharps.com/project/fix-stuck-slipping-harp-tuning-pin/https://reesharps.com/slipping-lever-harp-tuning-pins/
or
Thanks, Guzzie, but I still can’t make the embedded links working.
Brook-Boddy, how do you manage to make the embedded links working? I really want to master that little trick.@ Guzzie, please tell me, how do you make youtube clips visible in this forum? Which code do you add to the link to the clip?
Hope this helps. There are many more of these kinds of clips on youtube
Camac Korrigan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZreDLhVuSY&feature=youtu.be
—
Camac Melusine:
https://youtu.be/DHGJ5IuJkK8
or
https://youtu.be/9jLxTl6LxJw
—
Camac Excalibur:
https://youtu.be/lvVroKcB448
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS1fQFK96LQ
or
https://youtu.be/ZgrD3qriqh8
—
Camac Isolde Classic:
https://youtu.be/uJ7vvyrRTno
—
Camac Isolde Celtique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0tI19uSsN8
One can find quite a lot of people playing the Camac Isolde Celtique
