PSST – did you hear the latest?

Hot off the presses! There’s a new harp in town!

If you have been reading any length of time, you know that I hold my local luthier, Rick Kemper of Sligo Harps, in the greatest esteem. He builds amazing harps, takes impeccable care of all my harps, and teaches me something every time I talk to him (usually about harps, sometimes about curry).

The cool thing – he has designed and built a new harp design. The even cooler thing – you’re the first to read about it as he dished on the new design exclusively with us! He graciously let me play one with it’s rich tone and touchable finish. Yummy!  Even more graciously, he let me ask him some questions.  I’m happy to share our chat:

Rick, what made you decide to develop a new harp design?

It had been a decade since I had fully revisited my Nylon strung designs, and with all the things we have been learning, I decided I should apply those innovations to an updated North American style nylon strung harp.

Take a look at the new Elizabeth in walnut

How is it different from your other models?

We sell a lot of Luchairs which are engineered for the Irish and Scottish style of playing. Talking to customers, some want a taller harp with more tension, a more mellow sound. Many customers are wary of the high cost and frequent breakage of Fluorocarbon strings, they have been asking for an updated Sligo harp that uses reasonably priced nylon strings. I’m really happy with the result, happy enough to mothball two older nylon designs.

The Elizabeth in Walnut

What is the “secret sauce” of it? Why should people consider this new harp?

I like the idea of “Sligo Secret Sauce” – we really ought to trademark that! I think we excel at hand built wooden harps that are about 20-30% lighter than most others in the class, with build quality and innovations that allow us to warranty them for 10 years.

At Sligo, there is not an upcharge for round backs over square backs or staves – they are all the same price. Round backs are lighter by 2-3 lbs, they never crack and look elegant, so the majority of our customers opt for them. We also use double tapered soundboards, finesse the inner string rib, use a screwed batten trim for the sound board edge – and a dozen other build details that deliver great sound, dynamics, and longevity in Sligo harps. I do a brisk business repairing all kinds of harps, and I don’t want my customers dealing with the same structural issues 7, 10, or even 15 years later with a Sligo instrument.

What sort of people would be attracted to it? Who is this harp for?

Harp Players that are looking for a taller American style harp with a large sound. Ones that find the treble ping of Fluorocarbon strung harps too strident for their taste or want to avoid the more frequent breakage and additional cost of Fluorocarbon. Some players have trouble with the even spacing (4 inches per octave) used on the Luchair. This harp has graduated spacing, what many in the industry call “Concert Spacing”, wider at the bass end narrower at the top.

What are you calling the new model harp?

It is called the Elizabeth. Since October, I have had two brothers apprenticing at the shop once a week for a few hours – home school youth who wanted some lessons in woodworking. I had been ruminating on the parameters of a new design, and proposed they help me build a pair of harps to that end. They seized on that opportunity. When I asked who in this family of 10 was most likely to take up the harp, and they thought that was their sister Elizabeth. The provisional moniker stuck.

How much does it weigh? What are the dimensions?

In Walnut or cherry, it is 20.6 lbs, 53 inches tall, 27 inches deep. When people ask about height, they may be trying to figure if the harp will fit in their car. They may be asking because they want to know how it plays against their body. Will this harp rest on my sternum, or will the knee block be up by my ear? A better gauge for the latter is the height of the knee block off the floor. I call this the playing height, and this harp is 51 inches tall at the knee block.

What type of strings?

21 Nylon strings, 5 Nylon wound over nylon transition strings, and 8 steel core bass wires. Some players find the abrupt sound transition on Scotts/Irish style harps, from heavy monofilament to bass wires unsettling. Those 5 Nylon/Nylon wound strings make it a seamless, gradual transition.

What woods will this harp be available in?

I do a lot of harps in Walnut or Cherry. I am happy to maple, custom wood or woods with fancy figure, harpists just need to ask so we can discuss details and purchasing terms for custom work.

How much will it sell for?

$5,600 with a full set of Camac or Loveland levers, and a Cronkhite soft case.

How long will it take to get one?

I try to stay ahead of demand and have 2-3 harps available at any time. That has been harder to do lately as I have committed to complete a score of major repair jobs for clients from the mid Atlantic to Northeast. I deliver a harp in 2-3 months once a customer orders one. I’ve never thought Sligo customers should wait years and years to get their harps. I’ll bring in additional workers and put in an extra 20-30 hours a week to ensure harps are delivered in a reasonable time.

Can we participate in building one if we want to buy one (like you have with other models)?

I make four slots in my production schedule each year for apprentices to come participate in building a harp. Most applicants fall into two categories:

Some are woodworkers that want to start making their own harps. I’ve had 20 or so over the years. I’m proud to have had Kevin Harrington (Cork, Ireland) and recently Robert O’Connor (County Wexford) through this program. There are a half dozen other active builders (e.g., Tim O’Carroll) that started by building from my plans. I’m a strong believer in open-source practices and my hope is the availability of excellent harps will make for a stronger, more active harp playing community. The goal here is knowledge transfer – share what I have learned from 25 years in the business so they can hit the ground running.

If there are slots left, the second group is musicians that want to participate in the creation of their instrument. We usually write back and forth a bit to make sure our schedules work out and both parties are simpatico with the commitment before beginning their build.

When can we see it?

You can come to the shop in Maryland to try it out today. I will also be at Somerset and expect to have one to show there.

So, there you have it – the latest, newest harp from Sligo Harps! If you’re not nearby, come by to see Rick at Somerset Folk Harp Festival Exhibit Hall!*

*More on Somerset soon – hope you’re coming and participating in my workshops!

As the year comes to an end, it’s time to reflect and ask questions.  I have been writing to you since 2009 (!) and I hope some of those topics have been interesting and informative.  And I hope you know that I genuinely appreciate your taking the time to spend here.

So this week, I’d like to ask you to tell me what you’d like to know more about.  What gives you trouble?  What would you find interesting?  What do you need to learn (or want to learn)?  Anything you don’t want to know?  Please (pretty please!) let me know your thoughts so we can talk about important stuff in the new year!

Just fill in the blanks with your brilliant thoughts and I will be ever so grateful.  And, of course, you’re always welcome to use the comments!

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How to Host a Harp Circle –

Harp Circles are one of those lovely pleasures of playing the harp.  They are the ultimate all-in-one thing because they include socializing, performing, collaborating, sharing, laughter, and snacks.  What is not to love about that?

Harp Circles come in a variety of forms – they can be recitals dressed up as a social event, they can be “additional lessons” driven by your teacher, or they can be a harp party.  In my mind the harp party is the best form because they are just fun – low stress, low anxiety, low prep, and high fun. 

Organizing a harp circle can be pretty simple.  The first two types are the easiest because they are completely organized by the teacher so as an attendee your only real job is to show up and be tuned when everyone’s ready to start.

But not everyone has a teacher.  Not every teacher wants to host these events.  In either of those cases, you might want to host the Harp Circle yourself!  After all, some people just like to host parties.  And some people just want to have an opportunity to share music.  So, what would you need to do? Here are some suggestions:

• Like any (casual) party, select a date.  The date should be far enough in the future so that people can plan for it, but not so far that they can equally easily forget about it.  The date should be convenient for your group – weekend afternoons are often popular.  But as the host, be certain the date works for you and that you have enough time to plan and prepare before inviting everyone!
• Figure out how many people (with harps) can fit in your space.  You probably want to stick relatively closely to the circle arrangement so there’s no “leader” or any kind of implied hierarchy.  If you have a small house (like mine) you might only be able to fit a few (I’ve calculated that if I move furniture and people play my harps (rather than bringing their own), I could get about six to eight people but I have a friend that has a room that is only slightly smaller than a football stadium and she can get a lot more people in!  Safety first – ensure that with those people and harps in the room there is enough space to move around without knocking over anyone’s harp!  Also important – make sure there is an easy way out in case of emergency.
  
• Identify who you’re going to invite.  You could invite all the harp players in your area (or that you know).  You could include a “bring a friend” element to encourage the harp players you do know to bring along someone you don’t know.  If you have a small space, you might include an RSVP so you can manage the throngs that attend.
  
• Decide what you’ll do at the party.  As I said above this can range from a recital to a rave – it’s up to you.  I really enjoy it when there is a little structure.  An example agenda might be:
  • Gather, chat, set up, chat, tune, chat.  Did I mention that this is meant to be social?
    
  • Pick someone to start. You can draw lots, select playing cards, roll dice, flick a spinner, ask for a volunteer, it’s up to you.  From that person, go around the circle with each person starting a tune that all can join in.  These tunes are for fun.  You want to hold “party pieces” in reserve for later!  This is a good time to ensure everyone is included – if you have less experienced people, play fun tunes slowly so they can join in.  You can increase speed with each repetition, but you don’t people to feel excluded or abandoned by playing everything too fast! 
  • Ensemble (either by sight reading or playing something that everyone has already worked on).
    
  • Party pieces – those “show off” tunes that everyone has worked on.  This can also be the time to play things in various states of repair – someone might be just learning a tune while someone else might be in the polishing phase (and everything in between!). The point is to share the music and to encourage one another to play and enjoy.  ENCOURAGEMENT ONLY!
  • Snacks and Chats – the social part of the party!
  • Return to play some more!
• Plan your menu.  One of the best parts of a Harp Circle is the social time!  That’s because we are a community of harpers.  Community is important and requires care and feeding and snacks and beverages are an excellent way to do so!  Do you want to cater it yourself?  Do you want to invite people to do a desert potluck?  A meal potluck?  An ice cream social?  I’d suggest you only serve food that isn’t too messy (because you don’t want to have a line to wash hands when it’s time to return to the harp…and you don’t want to have to steam clean your house when it’s over!).  I also suggest that you provide the beverages – then you’ll know how many cups, glasses, spoons you’ll need to have on hand.  Fun and/or seasonable drinks typically go over well.
• Prep.  On the day, clear out the furniture you need to move, set up your snacks area, and make sure there’s enough light in your playing space.
• Bring in your circle and enjoy!
• When the party’s over – of course, you’ll need to clean up but first, make some notes to capture what you enjoyed and how much fun you had!  You can also write down what you might want to change or what didn’t work (e.g., serving chocolate lava cake might have been a masterful culinary stroke but then everyone had “lava” on their fingers and there was a line for the kitchen sink).
• Start planning the next one (or start helping someone else plan the next one – there’s no need for you to host every party).

Have you hosted a Harp Circle before?  Did I leave anything out? If not, are you motivated to schedule one (maybe after the holidays)?  Was this list comprehensive enough to start your own planning?  Let me know in the comments!

1. Pumpkin Spice Everything

Remember when Pumpkin Spice was an autumn thing? It originated with holiday pies and then after hundreds of years (somehow, I’m not going to pretend to understand the mechanics of food fashion) it moved to coffee.  Then it migrated to other foods like cereal, donuts, yogurt, snack chips, etc.

This is wonderful – if you’re a pumpkin spice fan.  You get more opportunities to enjoy your treat in many forms.  If you wanted to, you could be awash in pumpkin spice (literally – there’s pumpkin spice body wash).  You could take your freshly washed pumpkin spice self to chase your pumpkin spice donut with a pumpkin spice coffee.  Pumpkin Spice Everything!

But there’s a dark side to Pumpkin Spice Everything (PSE).  When PSE is all the time for everything, it’s easy to get burned out on pumpkin spice.  With enough exposure you can become tired of it and PSE loses its attraction.  You see a PSE item and think, “ugh” or worse, “yuk”.

What does this have to do with playing the harp? Well – everything, of course!  Instead of coffee, donuts, and body wash, think air, jig, march and instead of pumpkin spice insert broken triads, boom chucks, or octaves.

When you introduce a left-hand pattern in a tune, it might be exciting and captivating – dare I say it – perfect.  But if it appears everywhere in everything you play, it will lose that special quality that made it perfect to begin with.  Not only will perhaps get bored with playing it, your listeners might lose that flare of interest they looked forward to and drew them to the music.

Don’t misunderstand – I’m not talking about how complicated the left-hand pattern is, only that it should not be used to inundate the listener (like with an overactive shake of pumpkin spice!).

If you are new to arranging your tunes, it might be uncomfortable to branch out from stuff that works and with which you feel comfortable.  If you’re less experienced with playing, you may doubt your ability to play different patterns.  Believe me, you will get there!

Are you maybe in a comfortable rut? Not sure?  Just observe your playing.  If you always use your “go to” patterns, you’re probably in a rut.  You might be at the PSE stage where everything is the same all the time.  But how do you keep the specialness of your left-hand patterns and make them something that captures attention?  Here are a couple of ideas –

Copy/Paste! I’m sure you have books and recordings of your harp heroes.  If you’re at a complete loss about where to start, listen to their recordings and read their books of arrangements.  What patterns do they choose?  How do those patterns mate to the melody? (and if there are patterns you don’t like, you can not do those!).  You can also copy/paste from more than one harp hero.

Cheat Sheet. Put all the left-hand patterns you can think of on a single page – a cheat sheet.  Keep it nearby your practice space so you can try options in different places in each of your pieces.  Start with something you know well so you’re not struggling to play the tune and have smooth sailing to try something fresh (PS – if adding something in sends the melody into a tailspin – go back to learning the melody, you don’t know it as well as you think you do).

Make up your own – there’s no rule that says, “these are the sanctioned left-hand patterns, all others are forbidden”! (some might argue this point, but why are you listening to them?)  Try your ideas.  Some will work.  Some won’t. Remember Edison? There were loads of failed attempts before there were light bulbs!  Better still, record your ideas – because your ideas will dissipate into the ether whether they’re good or bad.  If you’re recording, when serendipity strikes, you’ll be able to recreate it.

Have you fallen into the Pumpkin Spice Everything season with your music?  Had you noticed if you had? Did you try any of these ideas?  Do you have other ideas to keepbthe excitement?  Let me know in the comments!

I got to be at the Scotland Connecticut Highland Games this weekend – and I had a fantastic time!  There were loads of harpers there and we got to spend the entire day doing harp-y things.  As usual – although I promised myself that I’d take loads of pictures – at the end of the day, I fell asleep that night thinking, “oh phooey, I never took my camera out!” (again). 

One of the things I enjoyed so much about being there was the wonderful energy that everyone brought.  Some people came to compete again.  Some came to compete for the first time.  Some came to be part of the group, enjoy the time, learn a tune, and share in a beautiful event. All that good stuff got me thinking about our harps events as the celebrations they are.

Celebrations?  Yes – we really were celebrating nearly continuously – we learned, we played, we shared music – all of those are celebrations of sorts.  But we don’t normally think about it like that – and we probably should.  We make advances (large and small) each day that we get to spend time at the harp.  We need to find a way to celebrate each of those achievements! 

What kind of achievements do I mean?  Well, how about:

• Learned a new tune
• F-i-n-a-l-l-y got a technique element we were learning (or we “ironed it out”)
• Practiced one hundred days in a row
• Or, practiced five days this week
• Remembered to trim our nails – before we started practicing!
  
• Accomplished all our weekly practice goals
• Performed in public (for the first time?)
• Conquered a tune that had been resisting being played (or am I the only one that sometimes feels like that?)
• Actually remembered to use dynamics while playing
  

So, how should we celebrate? How about:

• Tell your closest “harp friend”
• Play a fanfare to your success…on your kazoo
• Post a video to Facedegram
• Make yourself a sticker chart (like when you were a kid)
• Wear a tiara or crown while practicing the next day
• Have a cookie!
• Go to a harp event (and have a great time)

It doesn’t really matter how you celebrate – as long as you DO celebrate your little wins.  It will help keep you motivated and remind you that you get to play the harp!  What could be better than that?   

I am sure you have more/better achievements!  What would you like to celebrate?  What would you choose as your reward?  Let me know in the comments!

It has to be more than a crush – It must be love.  This feeling has lasted through good and bad.  Through great lessons and broken strings.  You love your harp!  What else could explain it?!

Maybe more importantly, how do you stay in love with your harp?  Well, like any relationship, you have to nurture and care for it!  After all, you want to feel that exhilaration of being in love, but you also just want to have that connection that stems from a love that lasts.

How?  Well, the same ways you’d be sure to stay connected to any other love in your life!  Here are five things that might help:

1. Focus on it – a lot!  Make sure you spend a little time with your harp every day.  Some days you will have more time than you know what to do with – and woohoo, those are great days full of practicing and playing!  Other days, you might only have time to gaze longingly and possibly run your hand over the column.  Value both of those types of time (just try to keep the very short days infrequent!).  We all know that while absence may make the heart grow fonder, long-distance relationships are hard.
2. Make (and keep) regular “dates” …and show up!  Ok, that might seem corny, but you know that you need to spend time together. One way to fit that time into the rest of your busy life is to make a date (or a meeting if you’re not romantical (not a typo, I meant romantical)).  And when you’re on your date – be present.  If you have time to spend with your harp – be there!  And pay attention to it while you’re playing.
3. Actually listen.  It can be easy to listen without hearing. Like being present when you’re spending time with your harp, be sure to hear what your harp is telling you – whether it’s that you need to practice more or that your strings are getting old or that tuning might be in order – or whatever it wants to say to you.
4. Go away together.  It’s amazing what a weekend getaway can do for your relationship!  There are loads of events all over the world, opportunities to take part in workshops and other events.  These are really helpful, so be sure to take them!  You’ll learn something and the time away can sweeten your relationship with your harp!
5. 5. Be explicit about your needs – good relationships are built on caring for each other and meeting needs. Your harp has needs – to be maintained (and maybe occasionally dusted?) and you do too. So be clear what your needs are – whether it’s more practice time, more emphasis on a particular technique, changing up your approach to your music, better lighting, taking regular lessons, setting a goal for yourself, whatever else you need – make sure you know what you need – so your harp can help you get there.

If you’ve been feeling like your harp love is slipping away, try some of these to rekindle that romance.  Remember that all loves take some effort and work – but it’s worth it.  Do you have other ways to keep the love alive?  Share them in the comments!

(I probably should have written this last week for Valentine’s Day – but honestly, it didn’t occur to me in time!)

Cheetahs are really fast.  They are purportedly the fastest animal on the earth, running faster than 100 MPH.  They are sleek and optimized to go fast.  They are amazing to watch.

However, with great speed come great speed bumps!  Cheetahs actually catch less than half of what they hunt because they are too fast!  Since hunted things are motivated to get out of the way – they do! And worse, even if the cheetah does catch what they’re aiming for, they are often so spent that other, slower but stronger players often swoop in and steal the cheetah’s meal.  And the cheetah couldn’t do much about it even if they weren’t exhausted because, while they’re fast, they don’t have sharp claws and they’re relatively weak.  Yikes.

You might wonder why we are on this gentle (ha!) walk through the Wild Kingdom?  Because we can learn a lot from the cheetah.

To be successful hunters (and to have well fed bellies) cheetahs actually depend more on agility than they do on their speed.  Stated baldly, a successful cheetah relies on great technique NOT speed.

They use that technique – even though they could rely on their speed – because even the cheetah knows that speed doesn’t lead to success – great technique does!

Further, the cheetah – and the smart harper – knows that carefully honing one’s technique will lay the groundwork for all the speed to be used masterfully rather than letting speed run the show.

The cheetah is a rare creature, beautiful to behold.  Harpers are like that too.

Unlike the cheetah, who uses technique for hunting but doesn’t have a lot of tasks, we harpers need to develop a wide range of skills to perform all the tasks of playing our instruments and our music.  The development of these techniques requires time and attention and practice which can be time consuming (and sometimes can be a little dispiriting).

Speed, on the other hand, is seductive.  It whispers in your ear

“we could go even faster…if you’d just sacrifice a few, teensy-weensy details…like fingering, placing, tone, articulation, dynamics, posture, and planning. Whadaya say?”

And it’s very easy to fall prey to that silver tongued devil.  Here in the secret privacy of our own private practice spaces – we can succumb and go faster – faster – faster.  So what if we missed a note?  So what if we dropped part of the phrase?  Did we already play the repeat?  Is that actually how it goes?  It sounds perfect with no left hand, right?  There was no gap while I tried to remember what came next, right?   So what if it wasn’t completely smooth?

But eventually comes the time when we venture out and prepare to play – for a lesson or in front of others – and then the scales fall from our eyes as we learn that our sacrifices for speed have resulted in a haphazard, poorly played tune.  And we feel it keenly. *

So, don’t be fast like the hungry cheetah.  Rather, be precise and agile like the fed cheetah.  Focus on tamping down your speed to instead let your technique take over.  Ignore the seductive voice urging you play faster and instead heed the call to the dulcet tones of articulated, tempered, dynamic music.  Be all the best qualities of the cheetah – without the spots!

* Don’t ask me how I know this.