Crushed Cover Plates?

Most things work in concert in regards to our body. If your hands are relaxed, then your tongue, mouth, neck and back muscles are more likely to be relaxed. Turn your harp around and look at the cover plates. Are they slightly crushed inwards? If so, start working on relaxing your hands and you'll start noticing other parts of your body starting to relax as well.

When approaching a new technique, we tend to tense up and use more of our body than necessary to perform a task. This is understandable at first, but you don't want to stay that way. A relaxed body is faster and more resilient.