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You may like to hear the difference in sound between the Salvi Juno and the Camac Bardic 27. The videoclip is in French, but if you don’t speak French, you just listen to Greensleeves played in the same room on both harps.
Hi Kasey, I am not personally familiar with any of the two harps you mention.
But I am certain that I would prefer a harp like Music Maker’s going down 2 full octaves below middle C instead of a harp that only goes down 1.5 octaves below middle C.
I do know that lots of people are very happy with their Music Maker’s Voyageur: just google or have a look in the archives of the (closed membership) Yahoo lists of Harplist or Virtual HarpCircle (yes, you may like to join these lists, especially the Virtual Harpcircle list with its many kind and helpful members).
With the harp going down 2 full octaves below middle C you will be able to play far more harp pieces without having to apply ‘creative solutions’.
Hi Allison, by now you may have been able to enjoy starting the finishing of your double Stoney End Brittany. I do hope the ‘in the white’ harp arrived at your home in good order and looks gorgeous.
I read above that your harp was to arrive this Tuesday and now it is Friday. So, please, share your first experiences with (and hopefully, some photo’s of) this special little harp.
Hi Alan, you wrote: “I seen something about the strings reducing the accoustic sound (or something like that) will this also reduce the sound if an amp was used?”
I think you are referring to the volume of the harp, while Biagio and I were referring to the kind of tone.
To get a rough idea, you may be willing to compare
here: http://manufacturing.dustystrings.com/harps/video-audio/#
a single row Dusty FH26 in maple and a double row Dusty FH26 in maple.
In all these recordings the same tune is played in the same room by Harper Tasche.Hi Biagio, I must have mixed some things up regarding the Dusty FH double strung harp.
Anyway, this is the present string chart of the Dusty FH26 double strung harp. http://manufacturing.dustystrings.com/files/1813/7217/5318/FH26_Double-Strung_String_Chart.pdf
And this is the string chart of the one row 26 Dusty harps:
http://manufacturing.dustystrings.com/files/2013/7217/5322/Ravenna_26_Allegro_26__FH26_String_Chart.pdfFor comparison Middle C on the double strung is 40″ and on the single strung it is 50″.
So, like you said, the difference in tension per string between the two types of harp is not much.
Hi CelticKnot, all coursera courses are completely free and no strings attached! Even a (non-verified) certificate is completely without any costs! And yes, I’m proud of having earned several of these certificates myself. Just for fun….
These courses only cost something when you want a verified degree.It’s a great way for lifelong learners like myself to keep learning new things on all kinds of subjects. When you wonder how it can be possible for Coursera to offer these online courses for free: the universities that offer them hope you will be so enthousiastic about them that you will take a normal paid course from them…
If you can’t find out how to subscribe to a free course, let me know and I will try to help you to get subscribed.
Just try and find out whether these free videoclips are interesting for you. Even without being able to see scores, you may benefit from most of them, I think. There’s also a great Coursera course on the history of music. This course was given a few months ago, so will probably appear again later in the year, I hope.
Hi Biagio, yes, I agree in general on what you say about tone. In my previous message I was referring to very small harps.
As I was one time interested in a Dusty FH26 double, I looked at the string tension. On the double harp each string is only half the thickness as the same string on a single harp (so that the two rows of strings of the double pull together exactly as hard as the one row of strings on the double harp. And unfortunately, I did like the sound of the single Dusty FH26 a lot more, as it was warmer and significantly fuller in my ears.
From your nice ‘lecture’ (I love that word!) I understand that the width between the string rows has consequences for the acoustical features. So ideally the width between them should be as narrow as possible? I am trying to grasp the idea.
Anyway, I do understand now the advantages of a harp specifically designed to have two instead of one row of strings.
As to the question of alan-cross on other 34 string ‘lap harps’. There are a few lap harps with relatively many strings made in Germany. E.g.
a 33-string travel harp: the itinerant http://artefakt-musik.de/iti33.htm or the hobbit http://artefakt-musik.de/hobbit.htm or some travel harps of Martin Gust: http://www.magus-harps.de/Reiseharfen.html or the 31 string Kairos of Weissgerber at http://www.weissgerber-harfen.de/weissgerber_harfen_kleine_keltische.html. Unfortunately oversees shipping costs are very high nowadays.Yes, I think you are right, Biagio, the 2×26 Dusty with its 13-17lbs is too heavy to be played while walking around.
On the other hand: can one get a warm and full sound from one of the even smaller and lighter harps?
It seems to me that is a question of having ‘either… or…’ trading one nice feature in in favor of the other. But I do hope that I am mistaken!
As to double strung harps, you may also think of the Dusty FH26 double strung. Have a look at: http://manufacturing.dustystrings.com/harps/models/fh26-double-strung/
Hi CelticKnot,
You may be interested in the following free online courses of music theory, consisting mainly of videoclips:
* https://www.coursera.org/course/musicianship (6 weeks; just started again; you can still subscribe; great course!)
* https://www.coursera.org/course/musictheory (5 weeks. It will start in August. I followed this course last year and I still wonder why it was called ‘fundamentals’ as it was clearly not a beginner’s course…Yet, if you folow the ‘building your musicianship’ first, you will have a great foundation for the second course.By the way, all this goes much further than you have to know for starting to learn the harp, but it does make playing the harp more fun and when one recognizes the musical patterns it all becomes more simple!
If you decide for a second hand harp from the harpsicle line, make sure you get one of the newest model, I think they made these in or after 2012, but I am not sure), preferable with the new Rees levers instead of the old Robinson levers.
The newest model is a bit taller, especially in the bass section, which really should be an improvement for the very low string tension of the bass strings. If you want to use the ‘Special Edition’ strings (with the bass strings nylon wrapped around nylon for a bit of better tension), the harpsicle needs to have larger eyelets for the bass strings and only the newer harpsicles come with larger eyelets for the bass strings.
I’ve got a picture of the older one next to the newer one, so one can see the difference in height, but I guess it is copyrighted, so I can’t publish it here. I got it from Harpsicle harps some years ago, along with some other important information after I’d asked them some questions about the harpsicle and its levers.
By the way, you’d best try before you buy!
This is what I would buy (in hindsight) to make a start on the harp.
* Music Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for Folk Harps (Sylvia Woods).
* Play the Harp Beautifully (1-3) Pamela Bruner.I love Sylvia Woods’ book Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for Folk Harps.
It guided me in a easy and fun way to the core concepts of music theory and to learning to make one’s own simple harp arrangements. It contains lots of folk songs to immediately apply the new learnt theory and accompaniment patterns on. Even now, a lot of years later, this book is still of great use to me.
I am also fond of Pamela Bruner’s book series Play the Harp Beautifully, part 2 and 3 (I don’t own part 1, as I had some harping experience when buying part 2 and 3). I wonder though whether you can make sense of the book when the pictures are not visible to you. I wonder whether the optional DVD for the parts 1 and 2 might be helpful for you. Here you can download a 3 minute fragment of her DVD: http://pamelabrunermusic.com/bruner_chap3web.mov
I wholeheartedly agree with Biagio on the useful and nice books he mentions to learn the harp! Hopefully at least some of them are available in braille or can otherwise be made accessible.
Further on, you may like to have a look at the youtube clips of Ray Pool. Here: http://raypool.com/video.html you find a list of this clips. There are other great people teaching through video, like Josh Layne (many instructional video’s!), but I would start with Ray Pool as he explains in a clear way what you need to think of while learning the basics of the harp.
Edit: I read Biagio’s post after I wrote mine, so I edited my post a bit.
In addition to what Biagio above has written. As far as I understand these ‘paki harps’ are put together in Pakistan by different people under different circumstances and subject to different standards of quality control…So some people may be lucky to have a functioning paki harp.
Paki harps don’t have much value on the second harp market (too many people know of hopeless levers and exploding soundboards, while other harps like those of Stoney End, Dusty, Triplett, Blevins, Camac and other harps with a good reputation retain a lot of their value on the second hand market.
Have a look at these soundclips of 22-string backyard harps with a cardboard soundbox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErdABWr3pXY or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_xs2PIixA4
Not bad, I think.Of course, harps with a wooden soundboard always sound better than the same harp with a cardboard soundbox: listen to the difference of these Smartwood harps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGB_RllE0iA (you can build them from a kit if you are handy). These Smartwood budget harps do have a good name. And later on, you may want to put some levers on them.
Hi CelticKnot,
You wrote: “Weirdly, I actually liked the special edition Fullsicle over the Ravenna, which I was not expecting, since things I heard on-line made me think I’d like the Ravenna over the Fullsicle.”Indeed, this is quite surprising. I wonder whether you heard a special edition fullsicle in maple or in cherry or walnut?
