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!~

Possible harp songs for new harpists to try.

I'm starting a series of videos where I play some harp songs and you guys can decide if you like the sound of them and would like to try them out on the harp sometime in the future or not. If you'd like to have the sheet music for what I'm playing, let me know and I'll email them to you. This song is The Chanter's Song, a very light and bouncy celtic folk song, and it's in C major so there's no tricks with the levers with this one. I know I'm playing this song really quickly :3 I've been playing it sped up for a long time, mostly because I'm having so much fun with it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnihFowOjTY&feature=youtu.be Here's the video, check it out!

Harp for Beginners: how to work the pedal harp

Hey guys! Finally back from the hiatus to talk about how to work the pedal harp. Well I explained a lot of generic info about the harp in the last post, along with how to work the lever harp. So there isn't a lot to explain here, which is good because you won't have to read a lot with this one. So if you've read my "Harp for Beginners: how to work the lever harp" post you've learned about which strings are which and how to change keys with the levers. Now I'll tell you how to change keys with the pedal harp with, of course, the pedals. Now I don't personally own a pedal harp, so if I leave out any important info I"ll make it up to you. According to Britannia Encyclopedia there are brass and metal disks along the neck, or the curved top, of the pedal harp that rotate to change the key of the strings. Mystery solved for that one! Now the pedals. When I first tried out a pedal harp from a friend who owned one (or two, or three) I thought, 'hey, the pedals will go from left to right, c, d, e, f and so on!' NOPE. It actually goes in this order, from left to right, so these are the strings that each pedal manipulates: D, C, B, E, F, G, A. Here's a visual for you:

That's what it looks like when you're sitting behind the harp. The reason why they're set up like that is not really important, just so you know which order they're in. Confusing part number one. Now confusing number two involves each little pedal. The pedal is fixed in what looks like a crooked block from Tetris, as seen in the picture above on the right. The picture says that the steps are second notch, first notch and upper position, but I'll just call them steps for now. Now when I was younger and was trying out that same pedal harp I had another assumption that the top step would sharpen the strings, the middle would make them natural and the bottom step would flatten them. No again. I was only right about the middle step, it does make the strings natural. But it's the top step that flattens notes and the bottom step that sharpens them. Here's another visual:

So we have the mechanics down. So now let's say you wanted to play in E flat major, with three flats. You would have to move the three pedals for B, E and A up to the top step to flatten them. It's similar to the lever harp in that you still have to sharpen or flatten certain strings to change keys, but this just saves you time from having to flip every single lever. With one move of the pedal can change like a hundred of them at once. It helps too if you have a flat or a sharp note popping up in the middle of your song. You can just move the right pedal with your foot, keep playing and don't have to create a pause and think 'okay gotta go reach up and flip the lever right now.' I'm going to warn you though, just learn the feel of pushing the pedals around first. When I tried it out it took a considerable amount of effort to move them. Practicing with the pedals will be just as important as practicing with the strings, you may eventually have to move like Speedy Gonzales with them with more advanced, complicated songs. Alright there you go. If you have any questions guys, ask away! In the next posts I'll tell you about taking the harp outside of your house and transporting it to another place. 

  

I'm back!

Hey guys! I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. If you haven't noticed that I had gotten into a bit of a hiatus, then you don't have to worry about this. I had gone on a four day trip to Disneyland in California with my school band. We had performed there a couple times. Nope, I did not play the harp there. I actually played the trumpet, it's another instrument I'm fairly good at playing. But now I'm back, exhausted and sore, and I'll soon be posting stuff about harps again. Talk to ya then!

Harp for Beginners: how to work the lever harp.

Hey guys! We're talking about the lever harp again, hooray! Well maybe not too much 'hooray', since it's a little bit complicated, and I think that's what adds to the confusion. By that I mean people think it's the hardest instrument to learn to play, and I think part of that is because of the layout of the strings and levers. But I'm here to cut it down into understandable pieces. Alright, let's start. First of all, the harp is really similar to the piano. Pretend, for a moment, that you're sitting down behind a harp. Your head will be looking at the strings from your left. The strings, in order, if you are not looking at them straight ahead, will be going from left to right. Just like a piano. On the piano the keys go from your left to your right, and so do the harp strings. Except that the harp strings are turned so that they are coming toward you. It's like looking at the piano keyboard at a horizontal level. Here's a comparison:

(the harp is seen with the sound board to your right.) Here's another picture that may help more. 

Here's a string chart. A 36 string harp compared to a key board. You may be thinking 'well geez, that's helpful, but how on earth do you know which strings are which?' The string chart may already give it away, but I'll tell you in detail anyway. First of all: remember, just like the piano, the harp also has a middle C. You can look to that for reference if you're ever stuck on where you're supposed to play while reading music. It's usually the C that's more in the middle of your vision if you're looking at the strings. Enough said for that. Second of all, as you can see, certain strings are coloured to tell you which is which. The red strings are always C. The blue (or black) strings are always F. The rest you can pretty much figure out. The strings are basically just:

C D E F G A B C

Over and over again. Alright? Good. If I'm not making ANY sense whatsoever, leave a comment! I'm totally cool with questions and 'I don't get it, you're not doing a good job of explaining' comments. And I will try harder. Alright, cool! So now we'll focus on the levers. Those dreaded levers! Whatever do you do with them? Of course, the answer is you change the key of the harp with them, but how? It's okay, I'll explain. Every string has a lever hovering over it. 

Voila, there they are. You see those stickers on some of the levers? The red and blue ones? Sometimes harps will have stickers on the levers, specifically the C and F string levers, to help players quickly find out which levers belong to which string. Having those levers clumped together can be a bit confusing, especially when you have to make a quick lever flip. It's happened to me a couple times when I aim to flip the G lever up, but I accidentally get the F lever instead and not the G lever. Whoops! Oh well, play it cool and no one will notice. Anyway, so if you look up harp levers online you might find some descriptions calling them the 'sharping levers'. Eeeeehhhh, not quite accurate. Yes, they sharpen strings (like going up onto a black key on the piano), but they don't sharpen ALL the strings. Just a few. And only a few can be flattened. Let's look at some keys it can play. Here's the circle of fifths, or the circle of key signatures, if you will:

There we go. Let's start with one key and I'll tell you what the levers look like. The key of C, or C major. No flats, no sharps, nada. All is good. Except that the levers aren't all down. If the levers were all down, it would be in the key of E flat, and if you look at the chart that means that every B, E and A notes (strings) are flat, so the levers to those strings are pushed down. So to make it into C major you push the levers over every B, E, and A string UP, and now they are natural. Now it is in C major. Remember, all levers down: E flat major. B, E, and A levers up: C major. Of course if you wanted to play in the key of F major only the B string levers will be pushed down. To play in the key of B flat major only the B and E string levers would be down, et cetera. Now to play in sharp key signatures. If you wanted to play in the key of G major, you would push all the F string levers up, and now they're sharp. D major, same thing, except now both the F and C string levers are pushed up, making them sharp, and it goes from there. A major, three sharps (F, C and G), E major, four (F, C, G, D), it goes on. Technically, on the lever harp, you can only play the flat keys up to A flat major, and the sharp keys up to E major, without doing something different to accommodate. That means, in place of A sharp, you may have to play B flat, or tune the string so that it goes to A sharp (because the A string lever is already up to make it natural, right?). Everything good so far? I hope so. And oh yes, you have to tune your harp. The harp has tuning pegs, on the right side. If you look you can see the top of the strings are tightly wound around the other ends of the pegs, on the left. (this'll be useful to remember when you have to replace certain strings, but that's for another post.) The harp should come with a tuner, generally looking like this:

Though tuners like this WILL look different in size and shape, depending on what type of harp you get. Different tuners fit for different harps. And you should have one of these bad boys:

Of course maybe not that particular brand, there are lots of good tuning machines out there. I myself have an Intelli Metro Tuner-IMT204 AND a Digital Metronome and Tuner Combo MT-22. Unless you have a REALLY good ear and can tell when a string is too sharp or flat, get one. Or two, as I have. One went missing and I had to find another. Why would strings go sharp or flat, you may ask? It's the same for any string instrument. Sometimes it gets too warm or too cold, or just suddenly a change in temperature or weather, even humidity, and it can wreak havoc with your strings, making them go hay-wire. And then you have to tune each string. It can be tedious work, but once you're done it'll be such a huge accomplishment. What you do with the rubber (or wooden) tuning lever is you push it onto each peg like this:

Yeah! Like that. You usually tune it with your right hand and pluck the strings with your left. That's how I usually do it anyway, but sometimes I cheat and tune and pluck with my right hand and hold the tuning machine with my left. Whatever works. Remember, tune the harp when it's in C major, when everything is natural. You remember what levers go up in C major? So your harp is in the key of C, you pluck the strings with the tuning lever on a peg, and the tuning machine tells you if the string is natural, sharp or flat. Let's say it shows you it's flat. Well we can't have that. So how do you make it natural? You take hold of the tuner, and make sure it's ON ALL THE WAY onto the peg. You can't tune it very well if it isn't. What you do is you grasp the tuner and you GENTLY push the peg (with tuner) slightly forward, away from yourself. You're sharpening it that way. Forward=sharp. Keep doing it until it's natural. You'll have to pluck the string several times to know for sure. And now what if you come across a string that's too sharp, or if the string you were trying to sharpen is sharpened too much and you have to correct it again? This time PULL the tuner and peg toward yourself, flattening the string. Backward=flatten. Just a side note: This may get more tricky as you move up onto the smaller, tighter strings. Just moving the tuner a millimeter can throw the string either too flat or too sharp, so be careful with those. Be gentle, always always always. If you don't you could very well snap a string and have to replace it. It's happened to me before, I know. Sometimes, in rare cases, you play the harp and it sounds like only one string is off. That can happen. But then now you'll only have to tune one string. Lucky! Whew! What a whopper, eh? This is a lot to take in. Of course some of these things are true for ALL harps, not just the lever harp. The layout of the strings and tuning the harp is the same for pedal harps too. I've just saved you some explaining for the pedal harp, hooray! Though the pedal harp is complicated on its own. But for now both of us need a break from all this harp mumbo jumbo. I'll look forward to talking to you in my next post. Remember, ask questions if you got em! 

Harp for Beginners: picking your harp part 2

Alright, so we're moving on to the pedal harp now. Before I got my Troubadour my parents and I had thought about whether to get a bigger lever harp or to get a small pedal harp instead. In the end we decided to go for the bigger lever harp, because back then we only really had the money for the lever harp. Pedal harps are considerably more expensive than lever harps. Sometimes you can tell why, many of them are very decorative and ornamental. The small pedal harps can exceed the amount of strings too, more than the larger lever harps do. Here, I'll show you an example. This is a pedal harp from the Lyon & Healy Company:

This harp is a Chicago Petite 40. It's a small pedal harp with 40 strings. That's a lot of strings for a small pedal harp. Every pedal harp, or at least every one that I've seen, is decorative and beautiful in some way or another. This one is 11,000$ (US). 

This guy:

Style 11 Nouveau Concert Grand pedal harp. From the same company. This guy has 47 strings, and costs 39,000$ (US). Now don't worry, not all the harps are this pricey. I know I'm harping a lot on the Lyon and Healy Company (harping, hah hah...that was bad) but there are other harps from that company that have 47 strings and are less expensive, like the Chicago Concertino. 47 strings, costs 15, 500$. Not bad. Now there is a site called the Clive Morley Harps Shop, and if you find that they have a few 40 string pedal harps to choose from. One is called the Cecelia 40 pedal harp, and it's designed for beginners:

The price is about 6,500 GBP each. That would be 10, 790$ in US dollars, and 11,830$ in Canadian dollars. So if you're looking to buy a beginners pedal harp, these would be good to look at, if you're not too troubled to pay an extra buck than you would for a bigger lever harp. If you want to save up a whole bunch of money and get one of the big pedal harps, the big golden ones, hey go for it. But when you're starting out, I recommend getting the smallest, cheapest one first. Especially if you're planning to get paid from playing the harp, then definitely get the smaller one, then you can play and get paid enough money until you decide to get a big one (and be able to carry the smaller one around easier than you would a big one). Thanks so much again for taking the time to read this, I feel honored when you do. I'll try to get these posts out often. Right now I have free time to do that, but when school comes around again they won't come out as often, but I'll try. If you have any questions guys, please, any comments or anything, please let me know, and I'll see you in my next post! That's when I'll be telling you how to work the levers, then the pedals. Whoo!

Harp for Beginners: Picking your harp part 1

Hey again! So let's just say you're interested in the harp and you want to learn to play it. And that's good! But what harp do you choose? There's about two different types of harp to choose from: lever and pedal harp. So what's the difference? Both the levers and pedals are different in design but the same in function, which is to change the key. If you're already a musician you'd know, at least vaguely if not completely, about C major, B flat major, A major, et. cetera et. cetera. If you don't know anything about that, well I'd recommend learning about them first before moving onto the harp, because it can get difficult. I'll let you know why in another post. Alright, let's take a look at the lever harp. Levers on a lever harp basically look like this: 

There's a lever for every string. I'll explain in the next blog how to work them. Now the pedal harp on the other hand has these:

The top of the pedal harp looks like this:

We'll talk about lever harps for now. My first harp was a 29 stringed Ron Wall lever harp, made in Vancouver. From a friend, we paid 500$ for it. Right now I'll warn you, if you're going to buy a (lever or pedal) harp, better save up a lot of money first. Harps in general are freaky expensive, even the small ones. But once you get one, it's totally worth it, since their sound is really beautiful. Anyway, 500$ is pretty reasonable for a small lever harp. Not a bargain per say, but reasonable. In most popular harp companies you see, like Lyon & Healy, Harpsicle Harps and Dusty Strings Harps, 26 to 29 string lever harps are usually in the middle to late hundred dollar range. The harp I have now is also a used lever harp. I got it in BC when a friendly lady decided to sell it. Its brand name is Troubadour Four, 36 stringed. It was made by the Lyon & Healy company in Chicago. The woman who owned it gave it to us for 2000$. Now that is a bargain, because a new Troubadour Four is 4000$, easily. Of course the more beautiful harps have much higher prices, like the Louis 15 Special is 189,000$ in the Lyon & Healy store. That would be the gold harp with the transport cover set. For beginners, perhaps like yourself, I'd recommend starting off with a 29 string lever harp. Yes, you could get a 26 string harp, but for the 29 string you'd get a bit more for about the same price.The lever harp is good for beginners because the sort of songs you'll start out with will keep the same key throughout the piece from start to finish.  If you have more intermediate or advanced songs that have a sudden sharp or flat or just generally a key change then you'd have to flip levers. It works if you're quick to flip them, and with practice you can get good at it, but only if there's only one key change with a note or in the whole song, in my experience. Jazz songs are tricky with the lever harp. And that's a subject for another post! I'll tell you about how to work a lever harp, and if you do then look forward to my post about the pedal harp next and how they usually cost. I'm doing this in small parts so you don't get tired of reading these extremely long posts. See you in my next one. Ask questions if you have em!

Introduction to Harp: a free way to learn about the harp!

Hi, how're you doing? So I got interested in the harp at an early age. Maybe not as early as I would've liked, like maybe around five years old or so, but it'll do. When I was seven I first got interested when I saw one of those really big golden harps at the Courtenay Youth Music Centre. When I was nine or so, my mom took me to these Winter Harp Concerts, as I remember them. The musicians were made up of harpists, a flute player, and a few other people, I can't remember what they would play. I think some of the instruments were medieval style. And when they weren't playing there was a narrator guy on the side who would tell beautiful poems or stories, and then the musicians would play. The lighting was dark except for the stage, there was beautiful colour, and OMG, the music was fantastic. The harps sounded absolutely beautiful. I think one of the harpists was Lori Pappajohn. 
Anyway, being a kid, it all seemed wonderful, and being a cute little brat I told mom 'I wanna play the harp.' She said, 'ok', and I got my first harp when I was ten. The harp came from a friend of mom's, and we spent, I think, 500$ for it. The harp was small, like as tall as a nine year old child, but that worked for me. Now I have a bigger harp that's as tall as I am, about 5'6" and I don't have the smaller one with me anymore, so I don't have the name for it nor the brand. BUT once I start my blog for beginner harpists, such as yourself perhaps, I'll give you the name and my experience with it. 
Well, to sum it up, I treated it like it was my baby. Heck, it WAS my baby, metaphorically. I started lessons when I was eleven, and I'm seventeen now so I have been playing the harp for seven years now. So that's how the harp came into my life, hooray! And NOW I'm here to tell you anything you need to know about it, how to play, what kind of harp you may want, how harps function, all the good stuff. And all for free! I'm gonna tell you right now, learning the harp may be hard as heck, but it isn't really. I promise. So if you have any questions for me, the history, brands of harp to look for if you want one, what you'll expect to spend for one, even what goes on when you get paid to play the harp, anything. And in time, I shall answer. Look forward to my next blog, Harp for Beginners. (I apologise that the text is not all in one colour, I've tried to change it but it simply will not update.)