Summer 2012

Hi everyone!  I know its been a long time since I've posted. My life is crazy busy at the moment, but I want to take a minute to remind you that's it's never to early to start planning. This summer is filling up fast. I already have several wedding engagements. Weather you're having a birthday tea party, a fine arts performance, or a wedding adding harp music can bring a tasteful touch to the day. Contact me at: arts@fnwusers.com or 616.891.3534 to reserve your date.

Harp Therapy

The world of music therapy is rapidly growing, and many harpist are getting involved. Harp therapy is one of the oldest methods of relaxation and restoration. The Biblical story of the harp being used to soothe an angry king was one the first things that drew my attention to the harp. (1Samuel 16:14) 

Recently, there have been multiple scientific studies on the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of harp music. Here are just a few experts from several different analyses. “Research has shown that music has a profound effect on your body and psyche. Those who practice music therapy are finding a benefit in using music to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others, and even hospitals are beginning to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits that music and music therapy can bring.”


“Music therapy has been shown to reduce anxiety in patients receiving radiation therapy, as well as ease nausea and vomiting resulting from high-dose chemotherapy. It can help people with autism to improve skills in areas such as communication, social skills, sensory issues, behavior, cognition, perceptual/motor skills, and self-reliance or self-determination.”In another research review, results showed that “music listening lowered blood pressure (which can also reduce the risk of stroke and other health problems over time), boost immunity, ease muscle tension, and more.”


Also, "Harp therapy has no undesired side effects which drugs can have, and it is non-intrusive. In a comprehensive study undertaken in San Diego, results show less fear, anxiety, and less pain medication was needed."

Music and More

Harp music is identical to piano music. I took piano lessons for four years before I began playing the harp. This provided me with all the music theory I needed. One major difference between harp and piano is that you never use your pinkie finger to play any notes on the harp. This makes all the fingering, quite different from the piano. Harpists often mark their music with the number of the finger above the note and other signs to help themselves remember the fingering.  I have thoroughly enjoyed playing many of my piano pieces on the harp.

There are many different styles of music including Celtic, Jazz, Classical, and various other cultural styles.  The main two categories are Classical and Celtic. Someone playing classical music is typically considered a harpist. As apposed to a harper - someone who plays celtic music. The type of harp played also distinguishes harpists from harpers. Harpist use pedal harps, and harpers use lever harps. Many harpist play in the symphony or orchestra earning a steady paycheck.  They are extremely strict in their techinque, and play pedals with the largest soundboard to project the most sound and depth of tone as possible.  Harpers, on the other hand, may play as soloist, or with Celtic type group. Their harps are often much smaller and sit on their lap. Technique is not a main focus for them, and their music is much more soulful.  See the differences between this well know classical harpist and a world renowned celtic harper for yourself. Tomoko Sato has played with the Honolulu Symphony and the Pacific Symphony, and Sylvia Woods is a soloist harper who won the All-Ireland Harp Championship in 1980. 

Don't worry I haven't forgotten about jazz harpist, and harp therapy is a whole other category. I'll post some more about them soon. As for now, thanks for reading! Please leave questions and comments!

I finally found some pictures of the Lyon and Healy Harp factory. As you can see, it is a very interesting and complex process. Feel free to leave comments or questions. Enjoy!

   

A Harp's Construction and Care

The harp is made of wood like a guitar. Although the wood of a harp's sound-box is much thicker than that of a guitar, it still needs to be tuned regularly. New harps need to be tuned as frequently as daily while the strings are still stretching to there "comfortable" length. Most pedal harps hold their tune for at least two weeks once the strings are done stretching. Lever harps tend to fluctuate in tone a bit more. This may be because the wood of a lever harp's sound board and body are much thinner than the pedal harp's, allowing temperature and humidity to effect it more easily. The thickness of the wood on a pedal harp's sound board, and body are usually 3/4  to 2 inches. A lever harp, on the other hand, is about 3/4 of an inch at its thickest point. As I said in an earlier post, Lyon & Healy make most of their harps out of maple wood, but many other woods are popular also. Birch, cherry, walnut as well as exotic woods such as, Bubinga, Sapele, and Koa are just a few. The harp can have a body carved from a single piece of wood or precisely constructed from 2000 hand-crafted or machine tooled pieces. As you might have guessed, the type of wood, how it was made, and it's environment all have a major effect on a harp's tone, and predict how it will evolve as it ages.  Some harps grow more rich and full in there tone while others become higher pitched and twangy. A harp's color can also change quite a bit over time.  My harp started off a lovely pale maple and has deepened into a rich amber. Of course, I have not covered all the variables and details involved in harp making, and care. Here's a few links with more information if you're interested: http://www.dustystrings.com/instrumentbuilding/harps/features/woods/tabid/608/Default.aspx,  http://www.celticharper.com/materials.html, http://www.harpspectrum.org/harpworks/francois.shtml

Strings and Tuning

You may have noticed that some strings on the harp are red, others a dull gray, and others a darker blue or black color. This is to help the harpist keep their orientation and find the notes more quickly and accurately.  All the C’s on the harp are red, and all the F’s are black or a dark blue. The strings in-between are not dyed, but they may vary in color due to their composition: approximately 10 of the lowest strings are steel; the majority of the strings in the middle are gut; and the top 10 or so are nylon. A typical pedal harp is tuned so that it is in C major when the pedals are in there natural position, allowing for any key signature to be played with the proper placement of the pedals.

A lever harp, on the other hand, is usually tuned to the key of E flat. All the E, A, and B, levers must be in the sharp position in order to play in the key of C major.

Pedal Harps vs. Lever Harps

Before I get any further, I thought I should do some explaining about the basics. First, there are two main different types of harps: the pedal harp and the lever harp.


The pedal harp has 7 pedals at the base of the harp, one for each note of the octave- C, D, E, F, G, and A. Each pedal has three positions in which it can rest. The first position allows the notes to be flat (a half note lower) the second position places a certain amount of tension on the string bringing the tone of the string up to natural, and the third position places even more tension on the string causing it to be a sharp(a half note higher). Here’s an example of how I would use these pedals when playing. If the song was in the key of D major, which requires C# and F#, I would push the C and the F pedal into the sharp(#) position causing all the C’s and F’s to be sharp. Let’s say that there was one C flat in the song.  Using my feet, I would move the C pedal out of the sharp position into the flat position just before playing the C flat. Then I would move it back into the C sharp position to finish the song. I can explain about the mechanics involved with the pedals and the action later.


The lever harp has a small lever on the neck of the harp for each string. These levers need to be manually pushed up or down to sharp or flat the note. The lever harp is much lighter. One with 40 strings weighs approximately 25 pounds; a pedal harp with 40 strings is 65 pounds.