Practice harps
Hi Winslow,
I stumbled across something that has impressed me in my harp practice that I wanted to share, and I wanted to run it by you as well. I purchased a set of Hoodoo Blues harps by Horner (C,D,G) plus a case for $10.00. They were bought as a novelty....a $3.00 harp, junk, right... Well, they don't sound totally horrible. Someone with skill could go to the local pub and chord along with the band and most would probably think it good jam. The harps do sound a little thin and they are not air-tight. But, the point is that it is very difficult to get these harps to respond. This doesn't seem to be a bad thing, in a way. Your embochure has to be more sure to get these things to respond. Breathing has to be well regulated to even play half a song without getting winded and they take more power to make sound. After playing one of these for about an hour and then grabbing an 1896 or any half-way decent harp, its like walking on air. In other words; It's like strength and posture and cardio training for the harpist. At least it seems this way to me. I know they are helping regulate my breathing and definetly adding power. I know they will never put out great sound, but, they do seem like a worth-while practice tool. Let me know what you think.
Thanks
Thanks for the input, Winslow. You make some very good points that are definetly worth consideration. I didn't mean too imply that these harps were starter harps, merely supplements. I took "beginners" out of my original title.
Happy harpin'
I've always been on the fence about what you're talking about. I agree that you can develop your skill by trying to get something good out of a bad harp. And I've sometimes been amused at the way really good players will complain about a crappy harp even while they get a great sound out of it.
But I think you already need to have good basic skills for that work and not hurt your technique.
For instance, if a beginner started on leaky, unresponsive harps, they might develop habits of hiting too hard just to get a sound out of them, and then have a hard time dialing back that approach once they got hold of decent harps.