A jewish wedding song performed on the harp.

Black Forest Hamlet, a video I admire alot. Good, low budget shakesperean fun in a little under five minutes.

We're back! and with extra goodies

And we're back from an unnecessary hiatus. There's not much else I can tell you guys. I myself am stuck in the middle with moving forward with my own harp biz. But there's some I can still tell you, so get comfy. So I told you eons ago about playing for other people and the business involved. Did I mention I was going to introduce things other than the stool and the harp that you can have? Well, there is! In the Fringe I had to have an amp, because there's a lot going on and if I didn't have that nobody would hear me. I started out small. The kind of amp I had (and still have) is a Traynor TVM10 amp. 

There it is. Now I only know this because I kept the owner's manual for the thing. Otherwise I wouldn't have remembered the name for it~ (hooray, I win at life!) For the other things I have I usually have to research them, but at least you guys won't have to do it if I do, right? Right. You can find out more about the amp if you like on this link: http://traynoramps.com/guitar/tvm/product/tvm10/ 

Now what's nice about this amp is that it's battery powered. So if you get the right chord you can charge it up before you leave home, and as long as you remember to turn it off when you're not using it, it can last for a pretty darn long time. Now I haven't stretched it's power to the limit but it lasts at least two hours, at least. When you plug it in there's an LED light that turns on, and if it's red, yep, it needs charging. If it's fully charged supposedly it'll turn yellow. The amp has RCA auxiliary input jacks, which can connect to some sound sources. So like CD players, tape decks, MP3 players or even laptops if you have the right equipment, like audio adapters (ugh, my head. I am not a technician!). It has a volume dial (guess that's a given) and it has input 1, input 2, bass, low mid, hi mid, treble...you know what? I'm sure you guys will be fine with figuring it out if you purchase it, and keep the manual. It's a pretty handy dandy little machine. It comes with the charger chord and a chord to plug into your harp, and cost, for me, 190.00$. Now if you were serious about making it easier on yourself, which I clearly am not as you will soon see, you can have it that a plug in is drilled into the soundboard of your harp, and your harp can literally be plugged in, and the sound would come directly from there. Now I don't have a lot of money myself, so I do not yet have a hole in my harp. What I do have is this: 

The Fishman SBT-HP pickup. This cost 109.00$. Now this is nice, because it has the circular holder that sticks onto the harp and you can slip the jack in it. Unfortunately I don't have that holder anymore because it is permanently stuck on my teeny weeny harp that I"m not using anymore, and no amount of household remedies can get it off. So if you decide to get this, make sure you know exactly where you want that sticky, and if you want it on there forever. Unless there's a way to get if off that I have not discovered yet. The black end has to stick on the soundboard to get the sound into the amp..and how do I make that happen? Green tape. I seriously tape the black end onto the inside of my harp and that's how I get my sound. The jack sits on the ground next to my feet. If you would rather not go down this road that I have, you can go to a site like Sylvia Woods Harp Center and they show you pickups you can buy for your harp. Or you could go to Harp.com, because they have a lot of stuff to look at, and not just pickups. There's a lot to sift through on that site. And I know there's another site that I know that I looked through to find my stuff, but I can't find it at the moment. But when I remember I'll post it on here. That's all I have for you guys right now. 

Getting into the harp biz: part 2

Hi again guys. So I gave you a lot of stuff on my last post. Don't worry, it only gets more fun! So we talked about first impressions and such, and a little about preparation for playing for other people. Now we'll step into: becoming more well known. So you've got a list of songs in your head, you've practiced them all perfectly, and you've got something semi nice to wear. So what do you do to get noticed? Try asking your friends or relatives if they know someone who'd like a harpist to play for them, that's an alright start. You'll want to start small when it comes to playing at events or places. When I first started out one of my first places to play in was a small bookstore/cafe. It got me a good idea of how it was like taking my harp to other places and playing, so eventually I could play at places like the Fringe Festival, where there's a lot more people and a lot more places to drag your harp around. Try looking up shops, restaurants or events that have musicians come in for entertainment or background music. If you sign up and play there, it's a nice little way for more people to see you. So pretend someone tells you, 'hey, come play for us.' Here's a list of things you'll want to know or have with you, whether you're paid or otherwise:
1. Where it is. (and how to get there)
2. How long you're playing. (when you start and when you end)
3. Where exactly in what spot you're playing, and if you have to move your harp. 
4. Are you giving background music or are you the focus entertainment.
5. (if you're hired) What price you're giving them for the length of time you're playing.
6. Are you allowed breaks. 
7. What you're taking with you.

These are examples of a couple things handy to take with you:
Stool (or chair). This is the seat you can bring that you're comfortable sitting on while playing your harp. The seat has to be low enough that the lowest set of levers are level to your eye. If you're too low or too high, it's really awkward when you're playing. If you forget to bring it with you, it's a slim chance the person you hired you will have something like it. But bring it anyway, it's a good sign to people that you can come prepared and not forgetting stuff. 
Tuning machine (with lever tuner):
Your strings absolutely love to go wonky on you. It's good to arrive early and do a little last minute tuning for your harp, just to be sure it'll sound as well as it can. 

Those are the most important to bring with you. In another post I'll go into more detail about all the useful stuff you can have with you, to make your performance as comfortable, or as awesome, as possible. 

If you're getting paid, you have to have your price ready when someone contacts you to hire you. It's normal for a harpist to be paid 100$ for one hour of playing, or half hour. If you play longer, you'll want to consider prices as 115$ or 120$, and so on, depending on how long they want you to play for. It's alright if you want to be paid less, but let that because you yourself decided to, not because your employee asks for it. People will want lower prices, and you have to guard yourself against being persuaded to give a lower price than you deserve. You may want to research a bit more about how much harpists usually cost for what hours. For me I'm usually paid in cheques, and you may do it like that too. 

Next post, more info! Agh, there's a lot to talk about. See ya!

Getting into the harp biz: part 1

Alright, so in the posts to follow I'll be talking about what you can do if you're looking to play the harp and get paid for it, and doing it solo. There is a lot to consider, but of course, as the title suggests, I'll start off with the basics. First thing to playing for other people: having a repertoire of songs. And that's a list of songs that you've memorized that you can play without sheet music on the harp. For example, I myself have memorized 21 songs. Now they're not all long and complicated songs, you don't need to memorize all hard songs. Some of my songs are short and simple, and that's fine. Listeners like simplicity as well as complexity. If you like Celtic music, then you'll want to find Celtic songs to play. Trust me, if you do you'll find A LOT of that. I do too. But if you like some diversity, find songs from different genres. In my repertoire I have a couple Celtic songs, a couple jazz songs, songs from movies and tv shows, even a song from a video game! It's pretty sweet when you can play Silent Hill's Promise on the harp. I don't recommend memorizing 21 songs straight off, though. Start with five. If you can memorize five, then you've got a good repertoire going already. Maybe there's a song you want to play but you really, absolutely, for the sake of your life need sheet music when performing in public, then go for it. But in society it just looks more professional when you don't need the sheet music. Alright, so you got your repertoire, and you've memorized it. Now what? First off, play in front of relatives or friends. If you get stage fright, this'll help ease you in to performing in front of people before you actually get out there. Also, word of advice. When you're playing in front of someone, and you mess up on a song, don't react to it. Just do a glissando or something and keep going~ or just do a jig on the strings with your fingers. Most of the time no one notices if you mess up or not, so it's totally fine. Except if you're in the wrong key and you pluck a string that was supposed to be sharp or flat and wasn't because somehow you missed it. (from someone who admittedly knows ^__^) Even then they'll forgive you, as long as you just keep playing. Mistakes will be made less the more you play, I promise. Also, when first performing: smile! Okay, maybe you're not a very sociable person at all and you'd rather not talk to people, but if you can play without having to look at your strings for a second or two you can look up and smile at your audience. People like to see musicians have fun playing music, and it helps them consider wanting you to play for them in the future. If you don't look like you like them or the music you're playing, then they're less likely to want to hire you. Also, dress nice. Dressing well is also part of that impacting first impression you want to make. Yeah, I know, maybe some of you are like 'ew, gross, I have to dress formal.' Well, sorry, but if you want people to consider hiring you, that's a big part of it. Girls, if you're wearing a dress make sure that it's not too fitting, or else you can't steady the harp on yourself very well. Not even a dress, just a blouse and dress pants will do! When I busked at the Fringe I had very colourful attire on, as you can see if you check out my website www.thevenetianharper.com. Maybe you want a certain theme to go with your playing, like I did mine. Be creative whenever you can, with your selection of music and your look. 
Alright, that's enough words on this post. More to come!

Sorry! ^__^'

Hooray writer's block! JK, I don't mean to bring on a hiatus like this, I'm sorry. I'll start coming up with new posts real soon. And when I do they'll focus on playing the harp as your business! Now that deserves a hooray!

Transporting your harp

Hello guys! So you have your harp, you want to take it to other places but you don't know how to go about it. Right now I'll be focusing on two ways to transport your harp: by car and by cart. First of all, when you're taking your harp around, you may want to protect it with a harp cover. Harp covers are like gloves for harps with zippers, generally looking like this:

Of course, they'll vary in size depending on the harp. Harp covers are designed to, well, protect your harp. It'll be handy in cold weather, and when you're carrying the harp. I have a cover as well, but it's temporarily lost, so my poor harp has scratches on it from being bumped around in my small house whilst being moved. I'm sorry Troubadour! :'( But if you don't have a cover, a blanket or quilt will do. Make sure the blanket can't catch on the pegs or on the bits of string that stick out, because then you'll have threads pulled out of the blanket. For those of whom who aren't aware, there are holes in the back of the harp. 

Yeah, those ones. Much of the sound from the soundboard of the harp comes out though those, and they're good for gripping on to help hoist the harp up or to attach amp wires into. How I carry mine: my right hand is in one of the bottom holes and I hold the curved front with my left. This is a very awkward way of carrying your harp, which I'm sure is kind of obvious already; but being so, it's prone to being scratched without a cover. Because it's big and awkward to carry, you can't see on all sides to see if it's touching anything, so it's easy to bump it into doorways and walls. If you have a 26-29 string lever harp then one person can carry it fine; a 36 lever harp, one person can but it's incredibly hard, anything bigger you may want a couple people helping to move it. You may be able to carry a small pedal harp alone, but again, it's really difficult. Them's HEAVY instruments! Most likely you'll be transporting the harp around by car, but make sure it's the kind of car with a big enough flat surface to accommodate your harp, like a van or a pick up truck. If it's in a van, laying the harp diagonally across on its side, I find, is easier. But if you can manage to put a seat down you can lift the harp onto it, so the harp lies straight in the back of the van. Oh, it may be helpful to put some blankets under the harp so it sits more comfortably and is less likely to move around. Also make sure if there's anything else loose in the back, move it away. Anything heavy could slide around and hit your harp on the road (this is for those who don't have harp covers.) Some of you are probably not as paranoid as protecting your harp as I am, but that's okay. This is just in case. If you're going to rest your harp on its back so that it's lying vertical instead of its side, make sure it's stable. When laying your harp on its side, lay it on the PEG SIDE. Don't lay the harp on the side with the levers, strictly on the pegs. If you have the same kind of harp like I do, it's 38 pounds of unnecessary weight on those levers and probably will cause some damage to them. 

Alright, so if you're playing at somewhere else, and you don't want to have to carry your harp because A: you don't have the energy or B: it's too darn heavy to carry, then a harp cart may be your next choice. Here's an example of a harp cart:

Frame, two large wheels, and a platform for the base of the harp to rest on. Some of them come with straps to create more stability for your harp. Well, this doesn't look so bad right? Let's look at how much this one costs:

$350.00

Yes. They cost a lot. Almost as much as lever harps cost. This one is from www.harpsetc.com. I confess, though, I myself don't have a harp cart, or dolly. I don't because I saw the prices for harp carts and I wanted to find a cheaper alternative. I looked at Canadian Tire garden carts and wagons. Hah! You might look for other options too. If you do, the base of your harp has to mostly fit on the platform of the cart. Okay, I'll warn you, I once got a flat platform...wagon thing. It was literally a grey flat platform, a handle and wheels. That was it. Cost 100$ or so. I got it to carry the harp to the Fringe Festival where I busked. We used bungee chords to strap the harp to the handle. Do not use something like that for your harp! The handle would not stay locked in place and it was a pain to pull the wagon around and try to keep the harp stable at the same time. So be careful when finding something other than a harp cart or dolly. 

Anyway, that's it for today! Questions, comments? Let me know!~