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I like Sylvia Woods’ Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp, but for me, when I was an absolute starter, it went way too fast for me.
I can imagine other students feeling they are a failure when they just have to practice the same exercises again and again without the feeling of progress.
You may try whether Pamela Bruner’s series Play the Harp Beautifully Vol. 1-3 would suit slow starting harpers better. They really helped me enjoying learning the harp.
Bill, you said your instructor thinks your hand position and playing technique is fine. Still, I would take a few lessons of and ask for a second opinion from a harp teacher with a solid understanding of the way the human body works. Think e.g. of Laurie Riley.
Yes, Biagio, I understand your point regarding ‘light, medium and strong tension’ but I wrote that in order make clear that an unhappy experience with a kind of string may have to do with the set of strings used instead of the qualities of the material.
I will try to be more clear. Savarez Alliance C (so, now I am only talking about the red coloured strings) are available in a lot of different diameters. Something similar is the matter for the F-strings.
E.g.
0.52 mm
0.55 mm
0.57 mm
0.69 mm
0.71 mm
0.74 mm
0.77 mm
0.81 mm
etc. etc.Thanks for your thoughtful elaboration, Biagio.
Yes, indeed I meant ‘budget’ in the sense of ‘less expensive than more elegant appearance’.
I am very sorry, Saul, but one can get Savarez carbon strings in light, middle and hard tensions (and tensions in between).
When a carbon strung harp doesn’t ring, it has to do with other factors than the string being made of carbon, perhaps because a too hard tension was used for that particular harp or because the player was not used to play hard tension strings.
When you prefer the more clear sound of nylon, that’s quite a different matter, of course.
Thanks, Biagio, would you elaborate a bit about the structural and ergonomical aspects of the two ways of designing a double strung harp?
I tend to think the difference in sound between the two designs mentioned above may have partly (or perhaps even mainly?) to do with the fact that one manufacturer makes all of his harps in a budget friendly way, while the other builds only concert harps, with the exception of one insanely popular line of budget harps (the harpsicle line).
By the way, a few years ago I almost bought a cross strung Stoney End Esabelle, as, at the time, it would give a lot of bang for the buck. Perhaps the same would be the case for their double strung harps.
The Stoney End double strung seems a little bit V-shaped indeed.
I looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Double_harp2.jpg.This one looks like a real handy travel harp, though I would have preferred a whole octave below middle C instead of the G below the middle C as the lowest strings on this model.
I think that the main problem is that people like to buy a complete (sub)set of strings, instead of ‘A C-string of material X and diameter Y’.
And when they buy a set of strings meant for a harp built for heavier tension than the harp they own, things can go horribly wrong.But I degress. Here we have a violinist with tendon problems who wants to learn the lever harp. It looks like Robin needs some elementary information on how to proceed. Perhaps renting a low tension strung harp like the Camac Hermine (rather popular as a rental in Europe, don’t know about the situation elsewhere) for let’s say half a year or a full year may be a good start.
There’s a lot of confusion about the naming of strings. Clive Morley is a reputable harp shop in London. On the website http://www.morleyharps.co.uk/alliance-synthetic-gut-c102x2719905 it is stated: “Alliance Synthetic Gut
These are used as a man made alternative to gut strings on both lever and pedal harps. They are sometimes caleld [sic] Synthetic Gut, Carbon Fibre, Alliance strings or fluoro-carbon.”Camac harps have models meant for very low to very high tension. Several of their models are meant for carbon strings.
Very low tension carbon strings: Camac Telenn Kadiou.
Celtic tension carbon strings: Camac Hermine.
Camac Isolde Celtic.
Carbon strings with a tension between celtic and classic: Camac Excalibur
Carbon strings with classic tension: Camac Isolde Classic.
This is not a complete list, but it may give you an idea.As to the Grand Harpsicle, I heard one last year and it just didn’t not speak to me.
Edit: I tried to find Biago’s response to which I replied, but it seems to have evaporated. I still have the posted response, so I could paste it here, if you like.
In Europe we use to speak of ‘carbon strings’ but Biagio is right, they’d better be called ‘fluorocarbon strings’.
In addition, you may like to take notice to what Gretchen Cover and others have to say about harping with painful hands at the recent discussion thread:
https://harpcolumn.com/forums/topic/playing-after-a-long-break/One can have nylon strung harps as well as carbon strung harps with light, middle, or even more or less classic tension.
In your case, as you mention a Camac harp, I would go to a Camac shop and try different low tension harps. A very low tension harp which has a clear but still rather warm voice, is the Camac Telenn Kadiou, very suitable for celtic music.
There is also a Camac Llanera, mainly meant for South-American Music.
There are other low tension strings as well. They vary in string tension.
It may help a bit to listen to youtube clips and find out what kind of sound you like, but before you buy, go to a reputable shop and try these harps for yourself.
When you can’t visit a teacher close to where you live, you may think of taking some online harp lessons with a harp teacher who gives special attention to using your body in a way that prevents it from pain and harm.
This may help you both to find your way back to the harp at the level you once played as well as to prevent that the pain in your hands comes back,What about starting with very simple tunes you used to love? These may help you to refresh your memory regarding the technique of playing. This may be a rather quick way to get back to your old level of playing.
As to painful hands, I would start playing just for short periods at a time, say five or ten minutes, maybe a few times a day. Maybe find a professional teacher that can help you to play the harp without hurting your hands.
