@She Wolf means that there's a lot of techniques to the harp, it's similar to the piano in a way, but composers usually only write glissando for harp in symphonic pieces. I think harp is the most misunderstood instrument for the composers as they're really not aware of how if works.
You have to play less pop orchestra stuff and more Italian opera! Puccini, Leoncavallo, Ponchielli & co seldom use glissandi and have the greatest stuff in store for harpists.
+Eamonn If you play a lot of gigs, the harpist is usually the first person there! First, you need to move the instrument into place, and next, you have to tune for the environment you'll be playing in. Humidity, heat or cold can affect the tuning of the instrument significantly, so the harpist needs to be there early to make sure the tuning techniques used allow for proper intonation, and that requires a bit of quiet.
I tune/check my harp before every concert and arrive early because of this. I have found that the top 3/4 of my strings are most sensitive to going out of tune because they are made of gut and the slightest change in temperature will make it go out of tune.
Would it be best then if they were made of something synthetic that would never change in length?
6 ปีที่แล้ว +13
@@dtiydr any substance would be susceptible to heat, I suspect it's physically (as in physics) impossible to design one that isn't. Gut remains popular as a string material because of its unique flexibility and sonic quality.
Y'know, being in several orchestras of different unique instruments myself, I always thought, "Wow. As a string player, I don't thing we have much difficulty. Brass and percussion and woodwinds seem to have it bad." But I watched this video and I think this has to be the most complicated instrument I have seen so far. Pedals? I thought I was confused using three pedals on a piano growing up. The harp has *seven*. Kudos to harp players everywhere.
ꜱᴛᴇᴀᴍɪɴ' ʜᴏᴛ ɢᴀʀʙᴀɢᴇ you have to constantly use the pedals on a piano whilst with the harp only when you change key. It's not the same at all. and the organ has twelve pedals or more and you play on them separate melodic lines whilst your hands are going crazy on the keyboard.
Piano pedals and harp pedals have different functions anyway. Piano pedals are used to control the resonance and other musical qualities, whereas harp pedals are used to modify the pitch of the strings.
The hardest part is to transport the harp if you play in orchestra. You need to buy a car big enough to transport it if your current car is not big enough. Then you need to live on ground floor or live in a house because you want to avoid stairs as much as possible when you move the pedal harp. And then the pedal harp itself cost a lot.
@@Lalulalala824 Sorry but there are some harp pieces I've heard where there are constant key/pitch changes. Piano is marginally easier. It's only three pedals. Try sitting down with a harp and having to bounce between SEVEN pedals.
John Philip Sousa wanted all concert bands to have a harp as part of standard instrumentation (he didn't make a big deal about it, it was common practice in those days) It is not highly used in concert bands today (especially in high school) simply because they are so expensive and extremely difficult to transport.
I think the harp produces one of the most celestial, mysterious and serene type of tone among all instruments in an orchestra. If you tell me the harp was created by angels, I would believe it.
You would never change all the harp strings at once! In fact I've heard repeatedly that it's not good for the harp to be without any strings because they help structurally. They only break when it's inconvenient, lol.
Thanks not only for your clear elucidation of the principles of the harp, but for politely placing your ad for the Orchestra App at the end of your presentation. You are a "class act." Bought a copy of Orchestra. Great app, a perfect gift for practicing and aspiring musicians. Warmest regards, Dorian
I love how John Williams adds harp glissando into battle themes. Normally, you think of celestial moods of peace and harmony when you hear that sound, but there's Williams throwing harp sweeps into life and death struggles. It's epic.
Beautiful instrument! I was told by a friend's daughter, who is a harpist, that a harp is like a grand piano on it's side! I'm Welsh, and still in Wales, the harp, I would say, is our national instrument!
No she didn´t, the lady was talking about writing for orquestras & the Mozart flute & harp is a concertante piece. One rather large omission was that the harp is an incredibly ancient instrument.
At first, 7 pedals sounds QUITE intimidating, but as soon as you said one for each note I saw the simple genius of it. Especially if you can preset/lock all the sharps and flats into position before a given piece. Amazing bit of engineering instead of flipping a lever for every string or retuning and, contrasted with the piano, fewer strings across the same range because the sharps/flats don't have to be separate entities. This is probably the most informative harp video I've seen. Wonderful. Edit/Addendum: "Simple genius" does not mean "easy," by any stretch of English. For clarification though, complex engineering aside, if the pedals go left to right DEFGABC, it is laid out in a pattern that makes sense "to me." If, on the other hand, the pedals go DCBAGFE, I would think it was the worst decision ever made. Still amazing. Now I want to see the hidden mechanisms that were previously unknown.
The pedals go DCB EFGA The first three are moved by the left hand and the other 4 in the right It’s so they’re easier to move in terms of their position in the circle of fifths. Bb and Eb are the first flats so if they’re in the same position it makes changing to flat keys easier, same with C and F being sharps. I hope that makes sense haha
Wow, so cool B). I have been wondering where on earth all the different sounds in harp music come from and now I know! It's so cool that the video introduces techniques
Just discovered this series and loving it. Thanks Ruth for a really comprehensive explanation of what surely is one of the craziest ever orchestral instuments! Best wishes.
It sings just so beautifully, ,i hope to be able to afford one ,one day..i play the guitar a little, ,that may help for when i do eventually learn the harp..it's one of my top ten instruments. 🎼🎵🎶
There seems to be a lot of confusion about how the harp is tuned and why the strings sound different that she said. Basically she forgot to move the pedals into the right position when she played the C and F so they sounded a semitones low. The probably thought no one would notice so didn't redo it. I'm a harpist and will try to explain the tuning. The pedals control the small pronged disks at the top. Two on each string. The pedals have three positions. With the pedals in the top position none of the disks are engaged and the strings are "open". Conceptually from the perspective of a harpist in this position the strings are lowered a semi tone. In the middle position the top disk is engaged which shortens the vibrating length of the string raising the pitch up a semi tone so the strings all sound natural. In the bottom position both disks are engaged shortening the vibrating length even further and raising the pitch another semi tone.
When you actually tune the harp, which you need to do every time you play, you tune with the strings open (the pedals in the top position). Otherwise the disks bind up the strings making accurate tuning impossible and putting unnecessary wear on the strings (which are rather expensive). So it's true that when the strings are being tuned the red strings are tuned B natural and the black / blue (depending on the brand) strings are tuned to E natural. However this isn't how you play the harp. When you sit at the harp to play the first thing you do is put the pedals into the middle position making the strings natural. From there you adjust the pedals to whatever key you want. But the middle position is the home position. And the home key is C major. And so once the pedals in the home position the red strings sound as C and the black / blue strings sound as F.
So the red strings are capable of sounding as B, C or C# , and the black / blue strings are capable of sounding as E, F or F#. But when in the home position they are C and F, and that's how pedal harpists think of and refer to them. Although the pedal harp can play in any key just like a piano, it is also, like the piano, not transposing instrument as it's home key is C. Now lever harps and other types of harps are another story. Due to their inherent limitations they may be tuned differently depending on the music typically played on them and personal preference of the individual harpists. I keep one leaver harp tuned to C for traditional music and a second tuned to Bb for classic and more modern music. But double action pedal harps such as the one in this video are always tuned so the home key is C.
Wow! That's a lot of good information. What order are the pedals in as far as the notes? I doubt they make it easy on you guys and go from A straight through to G.
Denise Mayosky great question, and you are 100% correct. But, the layout actually makes sense as the keys in music don’t go in alphabetical order either. There are three pedals on the left side and four on the right, like this: D C B E F G A This lets you modulate through the keys alternating between the left and right foot to change the pedals.
A friend plays a folk harp, a folk harp does not have the pedals still for me, he still is able to play most music, is there a limit for the flow harpist that you can do different, not better but just different. Not say one is better over the other. I love to hear the harp it adds so much.
Very informative. Thank you very much. I was drawn to the sound of the heart because I was reading in the King James Bible that King Saul was sad and depressed and one of his servants said there was a boy named David in the village that plays the harp and I think it would soothe you. So David came and played the harp for King Saul and he immediately felt better. Music can lift us up or bring us down. Music has to have a beginning and an ending . This is good music. Anybody who can play the harp it's a gift from above. Thank you very much.
Pdlt + nails sounds so much like a koto! I'm definitely using that technique in addition to the bending in a composition some day. I also had no idea Wurlitzer made harps, I mostly know them for their electric pianos.
I play this as well as the Cor Anglais. I really enjoy playing this at home and it can be confusing with pedals and all! In my opinion, 4:18 makes it sound like a Koto, which I also play.
I have heard you a lot when I was a Friend of the Orchestra and you were delighted after one concert when I told you I enjoyed your playing and that I thought (still do) you harp is gorgeous to look at. Fascinating - I often wonder how you manage to play this magic sounding instrument. Thanks for the video.
It's the very same for me; when people ask me why I chose the harp, I don't remember an exact reason either. I just remember that I really wanted to learn it at about the age of six, too. What a funny coincidence. :)
Wonderful and helpful video of a most common misunderstood instrument, like Nelson Riddle said: "Take a Harpist to lunch" to get all the perks... Thank you darling!
+Elim Yang When you say "remember," do you mean the positions of the individual notes themselves, or the octaves, or the notation? I can answer all three: as for the positions of the individual notes, it starts with knowing the color system. All the C's are red, and all the F's black/blue. With merely a glance, you can hone in on the position of the other notes by knowing the intervals around the colored strings. It does, indeed, become second nature. As for the octaves, a harpist learns, early on, where middle C is. That becomes an automatic focal point for the harpist's attention, sort of like muscle memory. From there, the harpist can gauge any octave (the steel strings are also very helpful). As for notation, again, it comes with learning the individual notes, including ledger lines, and practicing them, committing them to memory. The harp has an enormous range, and many of the lowest and highest notes would be fraught with many, many ledger lines, since the bass and treble clefs are the only clefs utilized. Luckily, for the ultra low notes, as well as the ultra high notes, "octava" notation is often used. This notation allows you to easily read the notes, but the instructions are to play, one, two, and sometimes, even three, octaves above or below the written notation. Hope that helps.
Not many harp concertos about. Gilere and Ginastera spring to mind as well as Mozart’s harp and flute. I note that the first movement of Bedrich Smetana’s Ma Vlast, uses in the opening bars , extensive use of the harp.
The color coded strings just make me think - why don't we have pianos like that? It wouldn't look that great, but I think it would help beginners like me...
+rzeka I've actually seen pianos for beginners that had either colored keys or labels. Also, I'm pretty sure the reason harps need these colours is that you have no point of orientation, with pianos you can instantly tell the keys apart thanks to how the black keys are arranged.
+rzeka well, at the piano you guide yourself with the black keys. C 2 black keys E F 3 black keys B C 2 Black keys... you know? haha So de key just left from the 2 black keys is a C : ) With the harp it's the same, the only coloured strings we have are C and F, the rest are white. So the rest of the strings are found thanks to them.
and i wonder how ancient people discovered that they can create a beautiful sound from animals' internals and externals. i have a violin and the strings are made of steel. my teacher said that the original strings are made of guts and they sounded better than the steels.. do they still sell violin gut strings? i want to buy one...
Orchestra is THE most beautiful thing ever invented during the human history.
源无 I presume you’ve never listened to psychedelic rock
Robinson Crusoe word
Ezugo Obuekwe 99.9999% of the time psychedelic rock is listened to completely free of any drugs, it’s just better
Ezugo Obuekwe idk man. Funkadelic is pretty good stuff
Ezugo Obuekwe nah it’s nothing complex like that. But it’s quite groovy nonetheless
To each their own though 😉
Harpist: look at all these incredible skills I’ve developed
Composer: gliss.
@She Wolf means that there's a lot of techniques to the harp, it's similar to the piano in a way, but composers usually only write glissando for harp in symphonic pieces. I think harp is the most misunderstood instrument for the composers as they're really not aware of how if works.
Ryan Alexander Bloom LMFAO that’s a good one 😂 😆
BEETJOVEN: shiny... shiny... shiny surface.
Check you joke repertoire first.
You have to play less pop orchestra stuff and more Italian opera! Puccini, Leoncavallo, Ponchielli & co seldom use glissandi and have the greatest stuff in store for harpists.
Such a mesmerising instrument.
Howw you place la cancion noche de paz in this bowed psaltery
THE HARP CAN TAKE YOU TO A PLACE CALLED THE SECRET GARDEN
I had no idea the Harp was so complex. How often would you have to tune it? It must be a big job.
Thanks for posting!
Eamonn Harps require quite regular tuning, generally they should be tuned every couple of days.
+Eamonn If you play a lot of gigs, the harpist is usually the first person there! First, you need to move the instrument into place, and next, you have to tune for the environment you'll be playing in. Humidity, heat or cold can affect the tuning of the instrument significantly, so the harpist needs to be there early to make sure the tuning techniques used allow for proper intonation, and that requires a bit of quiet.
I tune/check my harp before every concert and arrive early because of this. I have found that the top 3/4 of my strings are most sensitive to going out of tune because they are made of gut and the slightest change in temperature will make it go out of tune.
Would it be best then if they were made of something synthetic that would never change in length?
@@dtiydr any substance would be susceptible to heat, I suspect it's physically (as in physics) impossible to design one that isn't. Gut remains popular as a string material because of its unique flexibility and sonic quality.
Y'know, being in several orchestras of different unique instruments myself, I always thought, "Wow. As a string player, I don't thing we have much difficulty. Brass and percussion and woodwinds seem to have it bad." But I watched this video and I think this has to be the most complicated instrument I have seen so far. Pedals? I thought I was confused using three pedals on a piano growing up. The harp has *seven*. Kudos to harp players everywhere.
ꜱᴛᴇᴀᴍɪɴ' ʜᴏᴛ ɢᴀʀʙᴀɢᴇ you have to constantly use the pedals on a piano whilst with the harp only when you change key. It's not the same at all. and the organ has twelve pedals or more and you play on them separate melodic lines whilst your hands are going crazy on the keyboard.
Piano pedals and harp pedals have different functions anyway. Piano pedals are used to control the resonance and other musical qualities, whereas harp pedals are used to modify the pitch of the strings.
The hardest part is to transport the harp if you play in orchestra. You need to buy a car big enough to transport it if your current car is not big enough. Then you need to live on ground floor or live in a house because you want to avoid stairs as much as possible when you move the pedal harp. And then the pedal harp itself cost a lot.
Maybe that's why angels are always said to be playing harps. It takes eternity to master it.
@@Lalulalala824 Sorry but there are some harp pieces I've heard where there are constant key/pitch changes.
Piano is marginally easier. It's only three pedals. Try sitting down with a harp and having to bounce between SEVEN pedals.
i thought harps were smaller.......thats gigantic!
Gaven Tran You may have been thinking of a celtic harp which is smaller than an orchestral harp.
Oh i see. Thanks!
Shining Armor I made a joke once by taking a string and just plucking it very lightly and telling my friends, that was the lowest note ever
+Gaven Tran I've seen smaller harps.
That's because it's an ancient Irish instrument
such a majestic instrument. almost every fantasy-themed music have harps in it and it's really calming yet mysterious
Wow! I never knew how amazing the harp sounded! It's beautiful!
Haley H, very beautiful sounding indeed! Thanks for watching.
I had no idea the harp could sound so different because of how you play it! These videos are all so informative
5:31 to 5:41 is amazing
Really interesting thanks. I'm a music teacher and will let my students know about these videos as they provide a great insight into each instrument.
+WillieWagglestick Fantastic! Thanks for sharing with your students!
Meanwhile I'm still learning the notes on the neck of a guitar...
Bart Somerson learning guitar notes is so much harder than harp strings. Anyone with a basic knowledge of how notes work could figure out a harp.
Guiters are hard af too.
You'll get there!
I don’t even know the fret board notes. All I know is the string notes eadgbe and then try and guess what notes come next lol
heR NAIL
I was looking for this comment. I'm so stupidly happy I found itXD
her littlest finger has a super long nail and the others are cut so she can play the harp
Castellamare COKE NAIL
Castellamare omg come nail lmao
Definitely coke nail. 😂
Such a beautiful instrument, wish it could be used for so much more.
John Philip Sousa wanted all concert bands to have a harp as part of standard instrumentation (he didn't make a big deal about it, it was common practice in those days) It is not highly used in concert bands today (especially in high school) simply because they are so expensive and extremely difficult to transport.
David Bussell it could. Listen to Joanna newsom.
imagine cutting a cucumber with it
I want to learn the harp now
+Joe Warman I want to learn every instrument. Life is just too short. :/
Lol
I'm learning harp as u speak and I'm only in 7th grade
Go Brooke!
Start with a lever harp. That's easier.
I think the harp produces one of the most celestial, mysterious and serene type of tone among all instruments in an orchestra. If you tell me the harp was created by angels, I would believe it.
The Harp is one of those instruments that sounds so sweet and inviting but intimidating at the same time!
Harps are super cool. And beautiful.
Imagine changing all those strings. Jesus....
I have a harpsichord, it's less complicated than this!
MsJoeyJody on a harp it's only 47 strings... on a piano it'd be over 200 strings, good luck with that
Yea but with piano, it wouldn't have to be done nearly as often.
DerSibbe i never change my piano strings cuz i have a KEYBOARD
You would never change all the harp strings at once! In fact I've heard repeatedly that it's not good for the harp to be without any strings because they help structurally. They only break when it's inconvenient, lol.
She goes all calm and polite, untill...
08:22 Loading...
08:23 F*c* ! I love this!!!
Thanks not only for your clear elucidation of the principles of the harp, but for politely placing your ad for the Orchestra App at the end of your presentation. You are a "class act." Bought a copy of Orchestra. Great app, a perfect gift for practicing and aspiring musicians. Warmest regards, Dorian
Thank you so much! That's wonderful feedback and we're so happy you downloaded the app. Enjoy!
I love how John Williams adds harp glissando into battle themes. Normally, you think of celestial moods of peace and harmony when you hear that sound, but there's Williams throwing harp sweeps into life and death struggles. It's epic.
I effectively love the harp's sound, from the bottom of the heart
Beautiful instrument! I was told by a friend's daughter, who is a harpist, that a harp is like a grand piano on it's side! I'm Welsh, and still in Wales, the harp, I would say, is our national instrument!
Oh my god playing the harp seems so complex! Kudos to her, what a gorgeous instruments.
never realised how much mechanics were inside the harp they must be very expensive, thank you Ruth for the post
Love the Harp!❤
She is the most appropriate instrument to accompany the Violin and the Viola.
That's the most beautiful instrument I've ever seen in my entire life. You are an amazing, very talented person. Thank you for making this video!
You're most welcome! Thanks for spending time with us on the channel.
This is so helpful! I play the lever harp and I really enjoy it!
New favorite video! Ruth and the Harp are both Amazing.
6:25 Mozart concerto for flute and harp.
Odd she forgot to mention this exception
No she didn´t, the lady was talking about writing for orquestras & the Mozart flute & harp is a concertante piece. One rather large omission was that the harp is an incredibly ancient instrument.
KV 299
4:17 did she just turn a harp into a koto
One of my favorite instruments! Always wanted to play and own one.
I LOVE the harp. It is such a beautiful instrument.
At first, 7 pedals sounds QUITE intimidating, but as soon as you said one for each note I saw the simple genius of it. Especially if you can preset/lock all the sharps and flats into position before a given piece. Amazing bit of engineering instead of flipping a lever for every string or retuning and, contrasted with the piano, fewer strings across the same range because the sharps/flats don't have to be separate entities. This is probably the most informative harp video I've seen. Wonderful.
Edit/Addendum: "Simple genius" does not mean "easy," by any stretch of English. For clarification though, complex engineering aside, if the pedals go left to right DEFGABC, it is laid out in a pattern that makes sense "to me." If, on the other hand, the pedals go DCBAGFE, I would think it was the worst decision ever made. Still amazing. Now I want to see the hidden mechanisms that were previously unknown.
The pedals go DCB EFGA
The first three are moved by the left hand and the other 4 in the right
It’s so they’re easier to move in terms of their position in the circle of fifths. Bb and Eb are the first flats so if they’re in the same position it makes changing to flat keys easier, same with C and F being sharps. I hope that makes sense haha
This very useful to see the harp player's perspective and to learn about the instrument. Very useful information from an orchestrator's point of view.
Wow, so cool B). I have been wondering where on earth all the different sounds in harp music come from and now I know! It's so cool that the video introduces techniques
Just discovered this series and loving it. Thanks Ruth for a really comprehensive explanation of what surely is one of the craziest ever orchestral instuments! Best wishes.
Glad you enjoy it!
Outstanding! Thank you Mrs. Holden!❤
It sings just so beautifully, ,i hope to be able to afford one ,one day..i play the guitar a little, ,that may help for when i do eventually learn the harp..it's one of my top ten instruments. 🎼🎵🎶
Great video and presentation. Thanks for doing this.
Wow what a beautiful sounding instrument!
THE HARP IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL INSTRUMENTS IN THE WORLD
Great thanks for all the info!!
I have no idea why this video was recommended to me by TH-cam, but I absolutely loved it
Hopefully I'm gonna have an instrument like this one day
Un instrumento espectacular.
There seems to be a lot of confusion about how the harp is tuned and why the strings sound different that she said. Basically she forgot to move the pedals into the right position when she played the C and F so they sounded a semitones low. The probably thought no one would notice so didn't redo it. I'm a harpist and will try to explain the tuning. The pedals control the small pronged disks at the top. Two on each string. The pedals have three positions. With the pedals in the top position none of the disks are engaged and the strings are "open". Conceptually from the perspective of a harpist in this position the strings are lowered a semi tone. In the middle position the top disk is engaged which shortens the vibrating length of the string raising the pitch up a semi tone so the strings all sound natural. In the bottom position both disks are engaged shortening the vibrating length even further and raising the pitch another semi tone.
When you actually tune the harp, which you need to do every time you play, you tune with the strings open (the pedals in the top position). Otherwise the disks bind up the strings making accurate tuning impossible and putting unnecessary wear on the strings (which are rather expensive).
So it's true that when the strings are being tuned the red strings are tuned B natural and the black / blue (depending on the brand) strings are tuned to E natural.
However this isn't how you play the harp. When you sit at the harp to play the first thing you do is put the pedals into the middle position making the strings natural. From there you adjust the pedals to whatever key you want. But the middle position is the home position. And the home key is C major. And so once the pedals in the home position the red strings sound as C and the black / blue strings sound as F.
So the red strings are capable of sounding as B, C or C# , and the black / blue strings are capable of sounding as E, F or F#. But when in the home position they are C and F, and that's how pedal harpists think of and refer to them. Although the pedal harp can play in any key just like a piano, it is also, like the piano, not transposing instrument as it's home key is C.
Now lever harps and other types of harps are another story. Due to their inherent limitations they may be tuned differently depending on the music typically played on them and personal preference of the individual harpists. I keep one leaver harp tuned to C for traditional music and a second tuned to Bb for classic and more modern music. But double action pedal harps such as the one in this video are always tuned so the home key is C.
Wow! That's a lot of good information. What order are the pedals in as far as the notes? I doubt they make it easy on you guys and go from A straight through to G.
Denise Mayosky great question, and you are 100% correct. But, the layout actually makes sense as the keys in music don’t go in alphabetical order either.
There are three pedals on the left side and four on the right, like this:
D C B E F G A
This lets you modulate through the keys alternating between the left and right foot to change the pedals.
Wow...that is beautiful.. i may take a life time to master this.
Make the app Android friendly please!!!
Yes
Thanx for expounding so lucidly
This channel has proven exceedingly useful on more than many occasions. Thank you so much !
You're most welcome!
Love these videos, thanks!
We're glad to hear it! Thank you for joining us on our channel. Please subscribe to keep up with all of our content!
what beautiful music🎼🎵🎶
thank you for all your work!
Best intro to harps! Thanks!
Beautiful.
I didn't take particular notice of the Harp in an orchestra. That is until I watched this video. Now I have a greater appreciation of it's role.
As a composer, I thank you for this.
pretty cool how the strings are color coded for different notes!
Great video, thank you!!
Isn’t every instrument a unique one? That’s what makes them worth listening to!
such a fasinating instrument
I love the sound of a harp. To me, its like a guitar built for an orchestral setting
very nice instrument
I love the harp of the heavans
A friend plays a folk harp, a folk harp does not have the pedals still for me, he still is able to play most music, is there a limit for the flow harpist that you can do different, not better but just different. Not say one is better over the other. I love to hear the harp it adds so much.
Very informative. Thank you very much. I was drawn to the sound of the heart because I was reading in the King James Bible that King Saul was sad and depressed and one of his servants said there was a boy named David in the village that plays the harp and I think it would soothe you. So David came and played the harp for King Saul and he immediately felt better. Music can lift us up or bring us down. Music has to have a beginning and an ending . This is good music. Anybody who can play the harp it's a gift from above. Thank you very much.
Hats off to the you, you played very well
Good luck, god bless👍😘
Ruth Holden is an amazing harpist.
Just wow.
Pdlt + nails sounds so much like a koto! I'm definitely using that technique in addition to the bending in a composition some day. I also had no idea Wurlitzer made harps, I mostly know them for their electric pianos.
Well done video, very informative. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
My Harp has Disks on all the strings cause it's a bit bigger, it's a Prototype 50 string Harp (7 Octaves).
Enjoyed your instructive video very much thanks!
Cheryl Calac, thanks for watching!
God I'm in love with music n all the instruments
I play this as well as the Cor Anglais. I really enjoy playing this at home and it can be confusing with pedals and all! In my opinion, 4:18 makes it sound like a Koto, which I also play.
Sacred and Profane Dances by Debussy is a great piece to showcase the harp's capabilities. One of my favorites.
Lovely explanation
Interesting, thanks so much!!! Beautiful!!!!
I have heard you a lot when I was a Friend of the Orchestra and you were delighted after one concert when I told you I enjoyed your playing and that I thought (still do) you harp is gorgeous to look at. Fascinating - I often wonder how you manage to play this magic sounding instrument. Thanks for the video.
Thank you for your support and for spending time with us on the TH-cam channel!
Lovely video, insightful and informative
Thanks for the feedback. We're glad you enjoyed it.
why isn't the app available for Android? :(
John Williams' "Ballet for divers" from Jaws 2 features some beautiful use of the harp
Sounds beautiful
All them strings that could snap at any moment shudders.
And sharpening and flattening was the James Bond theme.
Thanks again for the video.
It's the very same for me; when people ask me why I chose the harp, I don't remember an exact reason either. I just remember that I really wanted to learn it at about the age of six, too. What a funny coincidence. :)
Nice. I always wondered how you play the accdentals on this instrument. Thanks
Wonderful and helpful video of a most common misunderstood instrument, like Nelson Riddle said: "Take a Harpist to lunch" to get all the perks... Thank you darling!
The harp is very cool. Can you explain how you remember all the notes on the harp? (I know it comes naturally, but how?)
+Elim Yang When you say "remember," do you mean the positions of the individual notes themselves, or the octaves, or the notation? I can answer all three: as for the positions of the individual notes, it starts with knowing the color system. All the C's are red, and all the F's black/blue. With merely a glance, you can hone in on the position of the other notes by knowing the intervals around the colored strings. It does, indeed, become second nature. As for the octaves, a harpist learns, early on, where middle C is. That becomes an automatic focal point for the harpist's attention, sort of like muscle memory. From there, the harpist can gauge any octave (the steel strings are also very helpful). As for notation, again, it comes with learning the individual notes, including ledger lines, and practicing them, committing them to memory. The harp has an enormous range, and many of the lowest and highest notes would be fraught with many, many ledger lines, since the bass and treble clefs are the only clefs utilized. Luckily, for the ultra low notes, as well as the ultra high notes, "octava" notation is often used. This notation allows you to easily read the notes, but the instructions are to play, one, two, and sometimes, even three, octaves above or below the written notation. Hope that helps.
Wow! Thank you so much for answering my question so detailed!!
+Elim Yang No problem, at all!:)
Very informative, thank you
Thanks for watching!
Not many harp concertos about. Gilere and Ginastera spring to mind as well as Mozart’s harp and flute. I note that the first movement of Bedrich Smetana’s Ma Vlast, uses in the opening bars , extensive use of the harp.
Firebird!!!!! I love it
Absolutely wonderful,never knew it was so complex, but worth it for sound
Psalm 150 definitely has been at the forefront of my mind as I've watched these informative videos concerning these various orchestra instruments.
Great introduction. Thank you Madam.
Lovely instrument but must be very cumbersome to carry.
The color coded strings just make me think - why don't we have pianos like that? It wouldn't look that great, but I think it would help beginners like me...
i use tape
+rzeka I've actually seen pianos for beginners that had either colored keys or labels. Also, I'm pretty sure the reason harps need these colours is that you have no point of orientation, with pianos you can instantly tell the keys apart thanks to how the black keys are arranged.
+rzeka well, at the piano you guide yourself with the black keys. C 2 black keys E F 3 black keys B C 2 Black keys... you know? haha
So de key just left from the 2 black keys is a C : )
With the harp it's the same, the only coloured strings we have are C and F, the rest are white. So the rest of the strings are found thanks to them.
bruh you a pleb
Pianos have the black keys to help guide.
What are the higher strings made of????? It sounded like she said GUT
They are. Many old instruments use the muscle strings from animals' guts.
The gut that came from what your profile pic is..
+Carlo Marasigan lol
+Carlo Marasigan
Actually, catgut is just a name for what is really just sheep or cow gut.
and i wonder how ancient people discovered that they can create a beautiful sound from animals' internals and externals. i have a violin and the strings are made of steel. my teacher said that the original strings are made of guts and they sounded better than the steels..
do they still sell violin gut strings? i want to buy one...
You can also tap on the soundboard for a percussion feel as we play, depending on the music itself 😉
Fascinating.