Last week we talked about the environment you can set to help assure your harp’s health so this week let’s talk about getting your harp to the Harp Doctor – your luthier. You want to keep your Harp healthy after all!

While many harp maintenance tasks can be performed at home, I prefer to take my harp to my local luthier* just to be sure I don’t break anything!  What do you mean you don’t have a luthier?!?

There are some standard maintenance items you should take care of annually – regulation and restringing.  Regulation is the practice of calibrating your levers so that, when engaged, they raise the pitch of the string one half tone.  Not about a half, not, like a half, not halfish, but a true half tone.  This assures that when you tune and when you play you get the tones you expected and desire. Regulation is a delightful and desirable thing because after you spend all that time tuning, it’s nice to set the levers and be in tune still! But I ask my luthier to do it because regulation is a fiddly business and I don’t have the patience to get it right**.

Restringing is needed because your strings will get dull with age and wear.  You might have a hard time hearing it because you play on them every day. Sometimes the string will let you know it’s time, refusing to hit or hold a pitch for very long or sounding “thuddy”.  Its as if it is saying, “I’m soooooo tired, I just can’t hold this pitch any longer.” Restringing is not difficult but it is time consuming and can be hard on the hands.  Your luthier can do this for you (for a well-deserved price) or you can do it yourself.

Now annually might be a bit of a convention because how often you need to restring or regulate is a function of many things including how much your play your harp, how hard you are on it, how much it travels, how often you tune, and the harp itself.  Use “annual” as an estimate. Keep an eye and an ear on your harp and perform maintenance as needed.

So, take your harp to the Harp Doctor for regular checkups to keep it harp healthy!

*my local luthier is Rick Kemper (http://www.sligoharps.com/misc) and he does excellent work. There are other great luthiers throughout the country and there is likely one near to you – let me know who works on your harp and we’ll give them a shout out here too.

** knowing yourself is important in this – I am not patient, nor do I do well with tedious, repetitious, fine work.  If you are good at this sort of thing (clock repair, zymurgy, or other fine work) you’d probably do a good job.  I’m not like that!

I assume, if you’re reading this, that you have a harp and likely you love it very much – all the joy it brings to your life, the opportunity to share your gift with others, the just plain physical pleasure of playing.  I think we would all say that our existence would be diminished without our harps.

So, the obvious question becomes, are you taking care of your harp?  In this, the bleakest part of the year, you can’t be harp healthy enough!

It is winter – a time when the air is very cold and dry.  Be sure to heat your house enough to keep your harp room warm enough.  Don’t let it get below 55^oF.  Ok, that’s not so much for your harp as for you – below 55^o you will not have enough feeling in your fingers to do the fine work of playing.  You don’t have to keep it excessively warm but I do find that below 65^o it’s a challenge to sit still long enough to get any practice in.

Whether you have electric, gas, or wood heat, the air is being dried – and that’s not good for the wood of your harp. If you get a shock every time you touch something, your house is too dry.  Try to keep the humidity up between 45 – 55%.  I suggest investing in a room hygrometer (inexpensive ones are available at your local ginormous hardware store) so that you will the humidity in your harp room. You can also invest in a humidifier – this could be anything from a pan of water (best if you have a wood stove), a small water fountain (best if you have the room for it), or a humidifier (best solution although the most expensive) for the room.

Take good care of your harp in winter so you can enjoy it year ‘round!

If you have ever contemplated going on a trip with your harp (like HARPA 2015 Scotland?) you will quickly come to realize that you have to get your harp where you are going too! Like air travel isn’t challenging enough! There are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

First, you need to assure you have the right harp for your trip. Are you going to be playing to amuse yourself? Will you be sharing with friends? Will you be performing? Are you taking your only harp? This will help you decide the size harp you’re going to bring.

Second, you’ll have to decide where your harp will make the journey. This will be decided primarily by the size you’re your harp. If your harp is small enough, you can carry on and use our soft case.

Although there are small harps that will fit, typically even small harps are too large to go into the overhead. Be sure before you go if your harp will fit. Do not wait until the day you travel – it would be disappointing to get to the airport assuming you will carry on, learn you will have to check, and have nothing more than the soft case. In addition, while I used to be an advocate for carrying on, nowadays with packed planes and overhead hogs aplenty, it is a bad idea to pack assuming you will get bin space – you should be ready to have to gate check!

Third, if you are going to send your harp as checked luggage, it is essential that you get a hard protective case or crate. In some cases, the case is a crate with a handle! However, a good hard case will protect your harp and allow you to carry your harp through airports, train stations, and hotel lobbies safely and comfortably. And remember that you will need to include the possibility of oversized luggage fees in your planning.

There are a number of case makers available with different approaches so you can select the case that looks to support your budget and style of travel. Consider the following elements – the overall weight (include the harp in your thinking!), the placement of handles (really think about how you’ll move this through the airport, into and out of the car, bus, taxi), and the good sense of including wheels, pockets and identifying marks. All of these things should factor into your decision when selecting your case.

Flying with your harp does require some planning but don’t let that stop you – get out there!

If you’ve been playing for more than about 15 minutes you know that people frequently want you to play in any of a number of places. And there is no limit to where people would like you to play – the tops of mountains, just below the low tide line, or inside the walk-in freezer! This, of course, requires that you get your harp there.

These are exciting opportunities to play and no one want to disappoint their friends (or clients) so you will need to get your harp to the even. But a car can be a very dangerous place for a car. A wise harper* once told me that you should never leave your harp anywhere you wouldn’t leave an infant. And it is wise advice, even though it is unlikely that your harp will toddle off!

But what does that mean? It means you need to remember what your harp is made of and how it’s put together. Harps are (typically) made of wood which is a natural material which is joined by glue (which can soften with heat) and finished (typically) with a finish (which could crack in cold).

• keep it out of the direct sunlight. Remember how much of your car is windows! This is especially important in the summer
• keep it at a comfortable temperature – remember that your harp can’t sweat like you can so keep it temperate
• protect it from bumps, bangs, and potholes.  The soft case will help protect it but be sure you avoid harp points inside the car
• don’t leave your harp in the car (overnight or on the road)

Of course, it’s your harp so you in the end you have to make the decisions. I find that it’s better to make cautious choices than have to get a new harp!

* Kris Snyder told me this the first time in when I was first learning to play!