HARPYNESS

Why Blog? Well, I'm a bit of a harp nerd, and it's the quirky more unusual side of harping that usually catches my eye and ear! You won't find posts about harp competitions, and the standard harp repertoire here. You will, however, find posts about interesting harp items I have come across on the internet, as well as nerdy stuff like posts about harp strings and blisters etc. I post lots of videos of harpists from around the world and their projects, and finally, I post the very occasional bit of news about me.

Scheherazade

1/7/2019

I've been a fan of Sasha Boldachev for a while, he is simply one of the most astonishing harpists around. His technical prowess is on another level, and he is so musical. Here is his arrangement on themes from Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade. About half way through he starts to use lots of extended techniques to add (even more!) colour to the piece. My eyes and ears may be deceiving me, but I'm absolutely sure he is doing a double harmonic octave glissando in the left hand at one point. Incredible stuff!

From Naples to St. Petersburg

24/6/2019

Another wonderful video from Alexander Rider playing on his beautiful Erard harp, this time playing Rubinstein Romance Op44 arranged by harpist Virgina Ciarlone. Alex also shares some of his research about this Italian harpist who worked in Russia in the late 1890's.

Ishtar

13/6/2019

Having played in a mandolin and harp duo for many years, I absolutely love the sound world that Ishtar make.

French duo, Ishtar, consist of Maëlle Duchemin as harpist and singer and the multi-instrumental skills of Maëlle Coulange on various plucked instruments.

More info about them on their website HERE

This next video is SUBLIME

I can't find a link anywhere online to buy their CD, but their soundcloud is here. I suspect that their CD is only available by emailing them. The contact details are on their website.

Psappha Composing for Harp Scheme

24/5/2019

Scroll down for videos 👇

For the past few years the Manchester based contemporary music group, Psappha, has run a scheme for composers to write a new piece for a specific instrument or group of instruments which is workshopped with a performer from Psappha over a six month period and then recorded. Called "Composing for..." the 2019 scheme has involved new works for Eastern European Clarinets, Piano and Percussion, Solo Bassoon and Solo Harp.

Six composers, who are all at an early stage of their careers are selected for each scheme by Psappha and the overall project is supported by the Arts Council England; Garfield Weston Foundation; Idlewild Trust; PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner scheme; Radcliffe Trust; and RVW Trust

Prepared harp using card, aluminium foil, plastic coils and paper clips. My Aurora harp is affectionally known as my "stunt harp" and I use it regularly for playing contemporary music. It is 32 years old and has had quite a few adventures over the years being played at all sort of venues from H.M.S Invincible to the Royal Albert Hall. However, it's never been quite so 'prepared' as this before now!!

I've written about the project before on this blog HERE. The first of the workshops with the composers started in September 2018 and the pieces have evolved over the whole workshop period. The final pieces have now been completed and the recordings are all finished.

It's been a very interesting project to be involved with and has taken a huge amount of personal commitment as the pieces were all challenging. There was also the practicalities of getting them all ready to record in a very short period of time. Preparing one piece up to recording level standard is hard work never mind preparing six pieces which are then recorded back to back on the same day in one session!

The results are six stylistically very different pieces for solo harp. Two of the pieces are tonal, one utilises quarter tones, one uses a prepared harp, one is for lever harp and effect pedals, and the final one is for lever harp and live electronics. There were lots of technical challenges involved in learning to play these pieces. Apart from what would be considered normal harp techniques, there were many extended technical challenges to overcome, not least learning how to master using plectrums for one of the pieces without them slipping out of my fingers.

It has been a great experience to have been involved with this project and I've very much enjoyed the journey working with the composers on all of these six new pieces for solo harp.

Getting everything packed for the recording session including 3 harps, various effects pedals, my amp, lever harp stand, spare strings for 3 harps (only 1 string broke in the session), card, coils & paperclips for the prepared harp piece, assorted plectrums, iPad and page turning pedal, lots of different cables and then (most importantly) industrial quantities of fresh coffee and chocolate!

The recordings were all produced by Psappha's Artistic Director, Tim Williams. Psappha regularly produces fantastic quality videos of it's live performances as well as these special projects which are all available on their YouTube channel.

Not being used to pedalling with quarter tones I had to write myself a reminder of what the pedal markings should be...

Fortunately I wasn't put off by the rather daunting array of cameras and microphones as once we started recording I had to really fully engage and focus on the music I was playing. Brilliant sound recording by Rob Kelledy and filming by Iain Cash.

I found colour-coding the music invaluable for quickly recognising different techniques. Here I used yellow for PDLT, green for harmonics, purple for nail and then red & blue for dynamics

Psappha - Composing for Harp Videos

tangible/intimate/half-life by Joss Smith
PREPARED PEDAL HARP More about Joss HERE

Harp-Tronics by Daniel Ehrlich
LEVER HARP WITH EFFECTS PEDALS More about Daniel HERE

Glass Cathedrals by Grace-Evangeline Mason
PEDAL HARP More about Grace-Evangeline HERE

retina by David Nunn
PEDAL HARP (utilising quarter tones) More about David HERE

Distant Dances by Joseph Howard
PEDAL HARP More about Joseph HERE

Splitting Paint by Carmel Smickersgill
LEVER HARP WITH LIVE ELECTRONICS More about Carmel HERE

Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

20/5/2019

Posting about Kety Fusco got me thinking about trance like music and how emotive it can be. I played in a performance of Gavin Bryar's incredibly moving minimalistic piece a few years back with the large version of Psappha Ensemble at Royal Northern College of Music. Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet is a hypnotic piece which seems to connect with people in an extraordinary way. It certainly never fails to give me goosebumps when I listen to it.

I found it quite challenging to play, as it was incredibly difficult to keep the concentration going and for my mind not to start wandering whilst playing this music. As a player and a listener, it sends you into a meditative state and you start to literally hear and feel all sorts of things that make it difficult to play. Quite an incredible piece of music that gets 'under your skin'.

Words from the composer about his piece...

In 1971, when I lived in London, I was working with a friend, Alan Power, on a film about people living rough in the area around Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Station. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song - sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads - and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". This was not ultimately used in the film and I was given all the unused sections of tape, including this one. When I played it at home, I found that his singing was in tune with my piano, and I improvised a simple accompaniment. I noticed, too, that the first section of the song - 13 bars in length - formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way. I took the tape loop to Leicester, where I was working in the Fine Art Department, and copied the loop onto a continuous reel of tape, thinking about perhaps adding an orchestrated accompaniment to this. The door of the recording room opened on to one of the large painting studios and I left the tape copying, with the door open, while I went to have a cup of coffee. When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping. I was puzzled until I realised that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man's singing. This convinced me of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected the tramp's nobility and simple faith. Although he died before he could hear what I had done with his singing, the piece remains as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism. The piece was originally recorded on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975 and a substantially revised and extended version for Point Records in 1993. The version that is played by my ensemble was specially created in 1993 to coincide with this last recording. © Gavin Bryars

About the composer: Gavin Bryars has continually shunned convention, choosing to create his own distinctive and unique path: He studied philosophy at Sheffield University and became a professional jazz bassist and a pioneer of free improvisation working especially with Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. In the late 1960s he worked with John Cage and this influenced his early works. He has formed fruitful collaborations with international artists from across the spectrum, from Merce Cunningham and William Forsyth to Juan Munoz and Robert Wilson. The Gavin Bryars Ensemble and GB Records continue to document his work. Serene, graceful and achingly beautiful, his music is characterized by a sense of contemplation that is revealed through harmony of underlying depth.

http://www.gavinbryars.com/

http://www.psappha.com/

Kety Fusco

8/5/2019

Kety Fusco is an interesting Italian harpist and one to watch out for.

She's on tour in Europe summer 2019 with her project called SPACE HARP.

I'm not a particular fan of electronic trance music but I think her music is very appealing. Check out the bass pedals she uses at 3;10 👇

More about Kety on her website HERE

It's great to see more and more young musicians using harp in all sorts of different musical genres. Long gone are the days when harps were purely used in classical and folk music, and what a great thing that is. More power to the harp becoming a versatile genre busting instrument suitable for any type of music..

My Starfish

6/5/2019

The discerning amongst you might have noticed that my lever harp has an unusual sound and the reason for that is because I have customised the string set up. I've blogged a fair bit on the re-stringing process before here on Harpyness, but I wanted to share what the final string set up is and more importantly WHY I've done this.

I've always been after a very particular sound on lever harp, and I really loved the sound of my little 27 string Camac Bardic, but I wanted a 34 lever harp with a slightly brighter sound then the Bardic, I never really found the sound I heard in my head by any of the main harp makers but I had a feeling that the Starfish Glenelle was the closest. Although it is an absolutely FANTASTIC harp, the sound of it wasn't quite what I was after though.

I was very fortunate to be given some money by my Dad after my Mum passed away, and he wanted me to do something 'harpy' with it. So after much thought I decided to place my order with Starfish for one of their harps as his gift covered the cost.. I asked them if they would make me a Glenelle but use carbon fibre strings instead of the gut strings which they are designed for. Understandably they weren't keen, but after some persuasion made the harp and strung it with carbon fibre strings.

They have a really long waiting list, and eventually the harp arrived which was mega exciting, but it just didn't sound quite right to me with the strings they put on, and some of the strings just kept breaking. I waited about 6 months thinking maybe it would settle in, and the sound would change but it just didn't work. I talked to my Dad about my reservations and that I might experiment with the stringing and he encouraged me to go for it. And so began my re-stringing journey, which I have posted about previously.

It's been a slightly scary journey to undertake, and one that I wouldn't recommend as at times it was down right terrifying to be playing about with what is essentially an amazing instrument. The scariest moment was when I had to take off the levers, plug in the screw holes with filler and re-drill new holes to re-sit the levers to get the correct regulation. I felt physically sick during the entire process with the potentially foolhardiness of the whole undertaking. HOWEVER I am absolutely delighted with the result as it's created, for me the sound I was after.

The sparkle and lightness you get from nylon in the top range...

...but with enough warmth, earthiness and graduation through the lower register to the bass without any of that brightness you can sometimes get with lever bass wires.

...but with enough strength and "guts' in the strings to be able to cope with me not only playing around doing extended techniques, but also being able to 'give it some welly' and go for it.

So WHY do this? This was of course the first question the good people at Starfish asked, what was wrong with the sound of their harp as it was? There isn't anything at all wrong with the sound. The Glenelle is an amazing harp with an incredible sound with gut strings. YES, I could have ordered a Glenelle with their stringing and I would have been really happy with the sound. BUT, and it's a very big but in the equation...

Just after my Dad gave me that money he went a bit off the rails and wasn't quite right. To be honest it was a gradual thing over many years but you just don't notice the slide really so no-one was surprised when eventually he got his Dementia diagnosis. He spent years nursing my Mum through her cancer and the caring he did for her towards the end was extraordinary. After her death he really should have had the chance to recover from his caring role and start a new life, but his dementia robbed him of that. TIME is short and you never know what is round the corner. My dad loves music and has a connection to my harp playing. He has good days and bad days, but always loves to hear me play. He's in a residential home now and with regular medication he's in the best place he can be and as happy as someone with sliding dementia can be.

Yes I ran the risk of damaging a beautiful instrument, but I also ran the risking of forever regretting and wondering "what if". I had this dream of a particular harp sound in my head. My dads gift enabled me to take this gamble to see if I could find that dream. I've never been one to sit around, but since my Mum passed away and my Dad has slid down the dementia road, I'm a great believer in just going for whatever it is that excites you because you never know what's round the corner. He's been thrilled with the Starfish journey and loves hearing me play on it and I just utterly adore the sound of it.

I REALLY don't recommend anyone doing this as I could have ruined the harp. It's been my dream of a sound, and I wouldn't expect it be anyone else's personal taste but my own. So as an aide memoire for me for when I need to order replacement strings here is what I have used.

1st A through to 4th D Nylon Strings for Carmic Bardic harps
then Carbon fibre (all Alliance Savarez) from Matthias Wagner http://www.music-strings.de
4th C - HPK136C
4th A & B - KF140A (you can get 2metre length coil of string)
4th G - KF 145
4th F - HPK145B
5th E - KF160
5th D - KF172
5th C - KF180R
5th B, A, G Folk Multi-filament from Salopian Strings (phone only UK 01386 750631)
5th F-6th C Folk wires (for Starfish) from Salopian Strings

My earlier posts about re-stringing Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Wires

Gluten Free

5/5/2019

I've finally ordered MC & The 7 Pedals album GLUTEN FREE from Bandcamp. I've been meaning to do it for a while,so I'm looking forward to that arriving in the post. I've posted a blog about Maria-Christina a few years back and I absolutely love her playing, the special effects she does on the harp and the way she uses loops.

Check out the cheeky tuning key in the pedal slot to create a consistent buzz, I am SO GOING TO borrow that idea! I had to do a whole load of pedal buzzes recently and I could have done with knowing how to achieve the perfect pedal buzz.

Her website is HERE

Support her music by buying her CD here if you don't already have it.

GLUTEN FREE

I always like to physically buy albums to support music creators if I can rather than use the streaming services where artists get a pitiful amount like 0.0001 per stream

I also love her collaboration with activist rapper Potent Whisper - brilliant video!

info taken from YouTube ~ Rapper and activist Potent Whisper has teamed up with award-winning Electric Harpist Maria-Christina & The 7 Pedals to release new single 'NOW' "The single is a fusion of Harp and Rap; politically responsive lyricism set to the experimental - non romantic - sounds of the Electric Harp. After hearing a preview of the single, a reviewer asked me how many musicians feature on the track and I had to explain that it's just the two of us. Every sound that you hear on the track was played by Maria-Christina, she has one hundred and one different ways to manipulate her Harp; she's a real innovator in that respect." - Potent Whisper

The South London rapper and BRIT School graduate made the papers in 2015 with his anti-gentrification single 'Brixton First' featuring Lara Lee (star of BBC's The Voice). The single was supported by Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 6, receiving further coverage from The Evening Standard Since winning first place at the Wales International Harp Competition in 2010,

Maria-Christina & The 7 Pedals has gone on to tour Europe and given performances at numerous prestigious venues in the UK, most recently featuring on Later With Jools Holland on BBC2. She is currently undertaking her PhD on the Modern Harp at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London

Maria-Christina Website: http://www.mcandthe7pedals.com
Potent Whisper Website: http://potentwhisper.com/
Download 'Now' - https://amzn.com/B01APVVBFQ

Persian harp ?

1/5/2019

It's been a wonderful month of networking on Instagram thanks to the lovely harpists at @lowpressureharpshare instigating a month of #harpril posts. It's been a great way to find and meet lots of harpists across the world who haven't necessarily met each other online before. (If you haven't done so already, search #harpril on instagram and you will be in for a treat!)

One of the highlights for me, and probably lots of other harpists too, was seeing the posts by @arezoo.amirjamloui and her incredible upside down looking harps - which I must confess to not knowing ANYTHING about prior to seeing them on instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by آرزو اميرجاملويى (@arezoo.amirjamloui) on Apr 21, 2019 at 11:46am PDT

@arezoo.amirjamloui referred to them as Iranian harps, (or table harps?) but the Persian Cheng is more curved and these are very straight. Perhaps these are a new modern interpretation of the Cheng? I know they do play what we consider 'normal shaped' harps in Iran, so I've no idea how popular these particular harps in Iran. I would love to know. If you have a link to more info about these harps please do comment below. I've tried to do a websearch on these harps and these harp players but my lack of knowledge of the Persian language is preventing me from doing basic internet research which is frustrating.

So - in the spirit of sharing what little I could find out - a bit about the Persian Chang in this next video...

and more of these 'table harps" < I wish I knew what there were called!!! >

Video taken from this website HERE <disclaimer I don't know whether this is a legit website or not. This video has been re-shared in good faith. I wanted to share the video but it would only let me download the video rather than the standard embed like we have on YouTube videos. Hence me reposting the source link>

again <disclaimer - this video has been shared in good faith because I don't understand the language on the website to know who to contact for credit. The video has come from HERE >

The Chang is curved so you can reach the upper notes. But it must be hard to comfortably reach the upper notes on these harps? Certainly you couldn't really see them??

More about the CHANG on Wikipedia HERE

24th May 2019 - I've since had some communication with @arezoo.amirjamloui and they are indeed modern interpretations of the Persian Chang and are made (or promoted?) by @shahoo_orchestra www.instagram.com/shahoo_orchestra

FlyByNo

22/4/2019

I love this live performance by Arnaud Roy on harp with Live Painting by Marie Bouchet

Arnaud Roy is a composer and sound designer as well as a harpist. His website is HERE

He writes music for video games - MORE HERE

I first came across his music on midi harp about 10 years ago - really fascinating to watch and listen to his use of midi harp.

Quarter Tones harp pedals

14/4/2019

I'm in the middle of learning a solo harp piece with lots of quarter tones. Despite having many years of experience of learning contemporary music, reading quartertones and knowing which pedal setting it refers to is not in a harpists natural comfort zone.

So this chart is an AIDE MEMOIRE for me... not to confuse a quartertone natural symbol for a flat pedal when marking my pedals in the score.

Hopefully it might be helpful for other harpists working on contemporary music with quartertones?

Mrs M

4/4/2019

During the 90's I was working a lot with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and for over 10 years I always lodged with the same landlady whenever I was in Glasgow. Mrs M was absolutely lovely and I loved staying with her.

She passed away a while back at the grand age of 92. In researching family history, her daughter went through the Visitors Book that her mum kept and as I was a frequent visitor recently got in touch and has written a lovely post in her blog. I know quite a few musicians lodged with Mrs M at her wonderful apartment in one of those beautiful tenements just off the Byers Road through the 90s-00s. Being able to travel with work and meet wonderful people like Mrs M is the real perk and privilege of being a musician.

Click here to read Mum's Marbles BLOG - All photos from Mum's Marbles BLOG

Over the Mountain

2/4/2019

I've just seen this cracking video of Gwenllian Llyr (harp) playing Haldon Evans: Dros y Mynydd [Over the Mountain].

It's a brilliant piece, brilliantly played by Gwenllian - more about Gwenllian HERE and about the composer Haldon Evans HERE

Harp lesson resources

28/3/2019

Edinburgh based Polish harpist, Zuzanna Olbrys, has excellent resources on her website HERE which are well worth bookmarking to visit regularly. She has written some really interesting articles which I have enjoyed reading.

If you sign up to her newsletter you get a free eBook which I would highly recommend for anyone thinking about learning the harp. It contains very good advice and excellent tips for anyone wanting to learn the harp. Do check it out and sign up for her newsletter HERE

You can hear Zuzanna play on her soundcloud here

Hermes win

19/3/2019

So pleased to hear that the Hermes Experiment, contemporary ensemble with harpist Anne Denholm, has won the mixed ensemble category of the Royal OverSeas League.

It's a prestigious competition and great that they have won it.

Anne Denholm is a lovely person and a great harpist! As well as one quarter of the Hermes Experiment she is of course the Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales - more about Anne here

One Finger Harp

18/3/2019

Having spent a lot of today learning some complex contemporary music full of staccato notes, I can SO relate to this cartoon.

I wish the music I had to learn was more like the music that Daffy Duck is playing!

Teaching - ledger line notes in different clefs

6/3/2019

I've just done this chart for a pupil and posting it here in case it's useful for anyone else.

It's tricky if you are new to learning to read music at the same time as learning to play the harp. Very easy to get confused when the left hand of the music jumps about between bass clef and treble clef and you are reading ledger lines. It can take a while to work out which octave a note is in!

For those new to reading music and harp playing - harpists tend to only use 3-4 ledger lines maximum. Advanced players will read more ledger lines, but 3 is absolutely fine for beginners and intermediate harpists and there is no need to learn to read notes with more ledger lines than that.

Composers - If a note needs more than 3 ledger lines than change to a different clef where there aren't any - or use the 8va or 8vb. If you can avoid using ledger lines by using the 8va or 8vb then it's good practice to do so.

This chart has lots of ledger lines that we wouldn't normally use and are there just for note comparison.

Hopefully this chart will help those new to the harp who are also learning to read music at the same time.

same_notes.pdf
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"Une Châtelaine en sa Tour..." at One- hundred

15/2/2019

I can't believe I haven't done a blog post about this brilliant short film before now on 'Une Chatelaine en sa Tour' by Faure.

Here, Alexander Rider plays this seminal work for harp on an original Erard harp from 1902. Alex also introduces a little of the work's history and that of its creator, the harpist Micheline Kahn (1889-1987).

As well as being a wonderful musician, Alex seems to have an encyclopaedic knowledge on harp history and is also one of the nicest people I know!

When Alex isn't busy performing or researching, he generously shares his knowledge with other harpists as Editor of the UKHA HARP magazine.

Psappha composing for harp

9/2/2019

For the past few six months I have been involved in the 'Composing for Harp' scheme being run by the contemporary music group based in Manchester, Psappha.

Six young composers were selected to write a new 5 minute piece for solo harp and so far I have had three workshops with each of them as they have developed ideas for their compositions.

Each of the works have been very different in style and I was delighted that two of the composers chose to write a piece for lever harp - all the other pieces have been written for pedal harp.

Both pieces for lever harp utilise pedals as my Starfish lever harp has a built in pick-up. One of the pieces uses these pedals, and the other piece uses electronics and a volume pedal.

One of the compositions for the pedal harp utilises a lot of preparation. This is a photo from the first workshop when we were trying out sounds. That piece has now developed into using coils, paperclips, a pencil with rubber grip, lots of card and picks.

One of the compositions is a tricky one to count with interesting sub-divisions and uses clever de-tuning of some strategic notes. The other two pieces for concert harp are (surprisingly) tonal.

They are all very different in compositional style and I have really enjoyed working on them so far.

Having gone through a few drafts, the final versions of the pieces are imminent and due in in a few weeks time. I'll then be recording all of them in a daylong session in May where they will be filmed. The resulting final videos will be uploaded to Psappha's impressive library of compositions that they have supported since they started doing this scheme.

It's been an interesting project working with 6 composers at one time and I'm very much looking forward to recording all of these pieces.

photo credit - Chris Payne and Psappha

Luna harp

2/2/2019

A new harp to add to my wish list... a 32 string travel harp built by Alexander Tremer in Germany. Technically it's not a harp because the strings feed to the side, but it's strung and played as one. It only weighs 3.3 kg and it can be carried in a specially designed back pack. I suspect it will also fit into a large suitcase. For a small harp the sound is HUGE as you can hear on this video played by harpist, Amélie Guiboux playing a cover of Get Lucky by Daft Punk on her Luna harp.

You can get a good idea about the size comparison with a normal 34 string harp with this picture from the Luna harp website.

I've had a quick play on one and despite it looking a little odd (and it not technically being a harp) I'm really impressed. It's well worth having a good look on their website which has lots of info about this harp.

Bertie bonus - it's now comes with Camac levers as standard!

https://www.travel-harp.com/

Queen of Sheba

20/1/2019

I've been making a concerted effort of late to sort out all the arrangements I have done over the years and to start publishing them. The latest of which is my arrangement of The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba for two pedal harps.

I arranged this back in 2013 for some duo gigs I was doing with my good friend and wonderful harpist, Eleanor Hudson. The idea behind the arrangement was to split the melody line up so that it worked stereophonically between the two harps. The Queen of Sheba is an often requested piece for wedding ceremonies and the melody line is quite tricky to play solo. So the inspiration of splitting the melody line was so that it could be played at a much faster speed than one would normally be used to playing it as a solo.

It's great fun to play, but you have to be careful to work hard as an ensemble to make sure the melody line sounds like one harp.

A list of all my published arrangements is here and I'll update it as and when I have new harp arrangements ready.

It's available to purchase as a download from my online shop on this website and hard copies can be purchased direct from the publisher here.

Blissing me

8/1/2019

The world would be a such a dull place without Björk - and the incomparable Tara Minton on harp...

JaNEWary challenge

3/1/2019

Happy 2019!

I'm delighted that the good people at Harps North West are using my arrangements of Pure Imagination for lever harp as part of their JaNEWary challenge. They are using two versions of my arrangements for lever harp. The first version is a more straight forward version with no lever changes, and the second version is more complex with lever changes. The pieces are broken up into small sections and they have special teaching videos and play-along videos presented by the very brilliant and inspiring Mary Dunsford.

If you want to join in and learn the arrangements as part of this months challenge you can head over to their website or their facebook page.

I'm looking forward to giving a workshop on extended techniques at the Harps North West summer camp later this year.

I started publishing my harp arrangements last year and Pure Imagination from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is available as one PDF containing all three versions which is perfect for teaching all levels of harpists. For beginner to intermediate harpists complete with carefully thought through lever markings and pedalling. 1. Easy lever harp with no lever changes 2. intermediate lever harp with lever changes 3. intermediate pedal harp.

Pure Imagination is available here and you can see all my other published arrangements here

My One & Only Love & Ravel

28/7/2018

I was just re-visiting a lovely video of the great jazz standard, 'My One & Only Love' by the bass guitar & harp duo 2tone, when I came across this jazz harp duo version of Ravel's Introduction & Allegro by Cindy Hortsman. I wasn't quite sure at first what to expect when I saw it was a harp duo jazz arrangement of such a well known and well loved seminal piece in the harp repertoire. But, I really quite like it!

The sheet music is available from Cindy's website here

I think I may have posted this following video of 2tone playing My One and Only Love on this blog before. But it's well worth posting again as it's a really beautiful rendition, with an equally beautifully filmed video of Cindy Hortsman on harp & Michael Medina on bass guitar.

Down the rabbit hole...

2/6/2018

Sometimes you can end up down the strangest paths when looking on the internet, and during a late night browse, just by chance I came upon the harp maker Otto Zangerle and his harps.

Your eyes are not deceiving you it's a 6x6 chromatic Tyrolean harp. But he builds even more curious harps...

He is patenting a double neck harp design... details here

But the harp that makes my mind boggle the most is this one where you can have the option of all the pedals on one side (?) so that you can change the pedals when playing the harp standing up with one foot (?)

If anyone has seen any of these harps in real life, or has heard them being played I would LOVE to know more about them.

If you haven't had a good browse around the website then buckle up and have a good browse at these innovative Austrian harps.