Just wondering if there are any harpists out there, what kind of harp you play (style, technique, etc.), and how long.

I've been playing 5 years this June and played piano for 10 years before. I love the harp and have been taught the Salzedo method. I play on a ebony Salvi orchestra pedal harp.

~Haley

I'm using pedal harp technique on a 34-string Salvi Julia lever harp with nylon-gut-wire combination strings. For travel (as now) I have a small Tripplet Zephyr 22-string nylon only. It fits overhead compartments of most airlines, but the sharping blades are a pain and the piano pins are slipping by now. When I come home, I need to have it serviced.

Lessons - for three years on a Camac Blue single action, but then my teacher moved and I have been treading water ever since. I keep up to speed with my memorized pieces, but I never exceeded the Pachelbel Canon in d - I learned it for a friend's wedding, and then it was so windy outside that the harp sang beautifully - but I couldn't play.

So, nothing exciting. There should be one other harpist here, her username is "Harpgal." I think she plays double action pedal harp.
(Oh, do you know of the harp mailing list? The best place to learn anything harp ever invented :-) )

Greetings,

Thea

Yokohama, Japan

Hi! I play harp too. I have been playing since 1991. It was a lifelong dream to play harp. Here is a description of my harp that I cut and pasted from an old thread (hope you don't mind - I figure it would save some time!).

But anyway, I have a Salvi Diana. I have a sort of fun story on how I ended up with it:

I switched teachers in late 1995. My new teacher talked to me about pedal harp (at the time I was playing on a nice folk harp - a Hidden Valley harp from California). But she told me that I would be able to branch out so much musically and play so many more pieces with a pedal harp. So I went ahead and went to Lyon and Healy (they are in Chicago, not too far of a drive from me). Steve Fritzman is the employee who helped me. He was recommended by my teacher and he's a great guy. So I went and was trying out all of these harps.

My teacher had recommended an L&H harp over Salvi, because she likes the brighter sound and the way the sound can cut through an orchestra. So I was only looking at L&H harps at first. But I wasn't inspired by any of the ones I tried. Behind me was this elaborate, wood-inlaid, Salvi Arianna (see it here). The minute I played it, I loved the sound. But with all of that inlaid wood, it was of course, much more expensive.

So I asked Steve if he had a Salvi that was less expensive. He showed me an Aurora, which I tried and like somewhat, but I wasn't entirely crazy about it. I asked him if one could get the decals along the soundboard that some L&H harps have. He said, "No, but take a look at the Diana, it has decals on it already." So I sat down to play the Diana, and I knew it was the harp I wanted. The sound was warm and mellow and everything I wanted. Of course, that Diana was already sold, so I'd have to order.

I ordered, expecting it to take the regulation 9 months to a year, and went home happily dreaming of my future harp. About a week later, Steve called and told me that another harpist had ordered a Diana, but had decided to get an Arianna instead. The Dianas were there, and I could take one of those if I didn't want to wait! (L&H always orders two harps with an order, so you have a choice. Then they just sell the one you don't take in the showroom to people who don't want to wait for an order.)

I talked it over with hubby and we agreed to go ahead. Of course we had to scramble around to arrange the financing right away. My teacher came down to try it out with me. We both liked one over the other, so the choice was easy. I was and am completely delighted with it.


Tea Lady

I play a 22 string lap harp, no levers. I taught myself to play using Sylvia Woods method, and even so I'm sure there's some of the technique that I'm doing wrong, but I love to play so I suppose that's what mattes. :wink:

There's also harpgal (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/member.php?u=952). Check out the pretty in her avatar. *smile