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As to a real nice book to learn ‘everything’ from the very beginning: have a look at Pamela Bruner’s series Play the Harp Beautifully 1-3: http://pamelabrunermusic.com/harp_books.php
Hi Prajna, don’t worry about your age. Some people take up the harp in their eighties and have a great time with it! So, when your ambition is to play nice harp music for yourself and/or your local community, I think learning to play the harp is a great idea!
What kind of music do you like? When you love classical music, you may prefer another kind of lever harp, then when you love Irish music. Or perhaps you are looking for a harp which is more or less suitable for all kinds of music.
Some harpshops sell well revised second hand harps with a guarantee. These may be interesting to you.
How great that you live in the neighbourhood of a great harp showroom. In your case, I would make an appointment and tell you are brand new to the harp. Then in the shop, you let the shop assistant play for you. And you go and sit behind the harp and do some simple exercises. This helps you to get an idea of the ‘feel’ of the harp. Some harps may ‘feel’ nicer to you than others.
When you think you know what you want, ask a harp teacher to come with you and help you to select the harp that fits you best. Yes, if you do want to play a harp, it really is best to choose for learning the harp from a harp teacher.
Indeed, Biagio, using quality materials makes building a harp an expensive undertaking. And yes, the way a particular harp sounds, may turn out to be a surprise. Even when I try several (factory made!) harps of the same model and kind of wood, they all sound different.
Hi Biagio, according to his earlier posts, this young man liked a Dusty FH36H, but he loved a Sandpiper Nova (on a recording that is…), so I guessed the kind of custom made harp of his dreams would more or less be based on these harps. That’s why I thought 6K dollars would be a fine price for that kind of harp.
Hi Carl, great advice! The guy would be in for a steep learning curve, but perhaps, that’s exactly what he likes.
As Lhartharps is speaking about strings losing their tension *within a minute* one may think of slipping pins. Does the harp have zither pins? Or through pins (and threaded or conic?)? But perhaps something else is the matter…
I think buying a second hand harp when one does not have the expertise to examine it for (hidden) problems, one will be dissappointed in the end.
This is not what you want to hear, but I think 6K for a fine, custom made lever harp is a fine price. It takes a lot of expertise (and time) to select good soundwood and build a great sounding (and looking) harp. That’s what you pay for…
You’d take a great risk buying a second hand harp when you have no idea what to look for. You’d best take your teacher with you or someone else with knowledge in this field.
Old strings that have not been played for a long time, may perhaps have to be tuned a half or even a whole note higher when you tune them for the first time. But afterwards, they stay reasonably well in tune, though you may perhaps have to tune them up a little bit once or twice when you have been playing for some time (much more than ‘within a minute of tuning!).
This harp may have issues, perhaps quite different issues than you are thinking of. Perhaps they can be easily fixed, perhaps this is not the case.
But I find it very strange that a harp owner tries to sell a harp which has not been tuned for a very long time. Why did she not bring it gradually up to tensio herself before deciding to sell it?A harp that is not used to a certain amount of tension may not hold up (read: it may explode) after it is suddenly brought up to the right tension and sometimes it will explode even when you did take the time to bring it gradually to the right tension.
Hi Hearpe, I don’t understand: “to get a replacement from Dusty Strings-customer service from Pakistan.” Why order Dusty Strings from Pakistan? A broken string is a normal phenomenon, nothing to do with a warranty to your harp (this only gets different when lots of strings break within a short time).
You can order Dusty Strings (an American product) in a lot of countries. When you are in the UK, you can simply order them in the UK.
I found a very nice comparison of the small Salvi Juno 27harp with silkgut to the Camac Bardic harp 27 with the lowest strings of KF and the rest of nylon.
Never mind if you can’t understand French, just listen to Eve McTelenn’s harp playing.Congratulations, Hearpe! Would you like to upload a picture of your new harp? I’d appreciate that. And, of course, if possible, a youtube clip with you playing a piece on your new harp.
Do I understand correctly that you live in Sweden? Unfortunately importing harps from the US may cost you a lot more than you may think. You’ll have to pay VAT on the price of the harps and on the price of the (very high!) shipping costs. And besides you may have to pay for customs costs.
I don’t know whether there are any harp shops in Sweden. If there are, you may want to look at a (used) Camac Bardic 27.
There’s a Dutch harp shop that sells harps of several American harp builders. There’s another Dutch harp shop that sells Dusty Harps. They deliver internationally. You can buy Dusty harps also in the United Kingdom (Morley’s) and in France. At least this would give you an idea of the prices. These shops do ship harps, but I would definitely prefer to try and harp before I buy and then take it home with me.
Is this the post that dissappeared according to your thread ‘What happened to my post?’?
If so, I vagely remember I saw a post like this yesterday.
Edit: I googled and I saw it already indexed 23 hours ago. So, yes, something strange did happen. Maybe it was automatically classified as spam because of its unexpected subject description. Anyway, it has nothing to do with bullying or other mean actions.
So, I do hope you feel better now.
