Overcoming Challenges in Harp Learning: A Comprehensive Guide
The harp, often perceived as an instrument of ethereal beauty and relative simplicity, can present unexpected challenges for aspiring musicians. While it is often cited as one of the easier stringed instruments to begin, compared to instruments like the guitar or violin, beginners may encounter obstacles that require specific attention and tailored solutions. This article explores common difficulties in learning the harp and provides practical guidance to overcome them.
The Perceived Ease of the Harp: A Balanced Perspective
It is a common misconception that the harp is inherently difficult to learn. For thousands of years, people across various cultures have played the harp, from ancient civilizations to modern societies in the Middle East, Ireland, Africa, China, South America, and Mexico. Its accessibility to both the wealthy and the common person suggests a certain inherent ease of learning. The enduring appeal of the harp lies in its accessibility, offering even novice players the opportunity to create beautiful music. Many learn to play independently or through guidance from local harpists. While dedication and effort undoubtedly enhance musical outcomes, the harp uniquely allows even simple compositions to resonate beautifully, even when played by beginners. In fact, it is possible to teach individuals with no prior musical experience to play the beginning of "Joy To The World" in a matter of minutes.
Those with a piano background often find the transition to the harp relatively smooth due to their familiarity with reading treble and bass clef and the similarity in fingering. Like the piano, the harp typically assigns the melody line to the right hand and the chords and bass to the left. Both instruments are also non-handed, meaning that both left- and right-handed individuals play them the same way. For individuals embarking on their musical journey, the harp presents an accessible entry point. Those with piano experience may find themselves playing two-handed tunes from their very first session. Guitar players, on the other hand, will appreciate the absence of fretting, complex hand positions, hammer-ons, and pick-offs, resulting in a simpler technique overall.
Common Hurdles and Solutions
Despite its accessibility, some factors can make learning the harp challenging. These include physical positioning, technical execution, and the development of effective practice habits.
Addressing Physical Positioning Challenges
One of the first hurdles many harp students face is achieving a comfortable and efficient playing posture. One student struggled to pluck the strings of her harp correctly. She knew that she should close her fingers into the palms of her hands when plucking, but she just found it uncomfortable! The following guidelines can help:
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- Hand and Finger Position: Ensure your fingers point downwards and your thumbs point upwards, mimicking a "thumbs up" gesture.
- Wrist Alignment: Maintain a slight dip in your wrists. Find the correct position by relaxing your hand and then lining your thumb up with your forearm.
- Arm Placement: Keep your arms slightly away from your body.
- String Contact Point: Aim to play in the middle of the strings.
The height and angle of the harp relative to the player's body are crucial factors. In the case of the struggling student, the harp was too high compared to her body. When this occurs, playing in the middle of the strings necessitates a forearm position nearly parallel to the strings, causing the player to pluck downwards towards the floor when trying to close their fingers into the palms. Conversely, a harp that is too low can cause the upper arms to feel glued to the sides. Another common issue is the harp leaning heavily on the shoulder.
To rectify these issues:
- Revisit the guidelines above to establish a comfortable and unrestricted arm and hand position. Then, assess the position of your hands in relation to the strings. If your hands are positioned lower than halfway up the strings, the harp is likely too high. Raise your chair with cushions or find a higher chair of appropriate height. If your hands are higher than halfway, the harp may be too low.
- Use a mirror or ask a friend to observe your playing posture. The strings of the harp should appear relatively straight up and down. If they are angled, it may indicate that the harp is leaning too much towards you, potentially indicating that the harp is too high.
- Experiment with different heights and positions to find the most comfortable and efficient setup.
- For lap harp players, stabilizing the instrument can be challenging. Consider using a body strap or a floor stand to maintain stability, allowing you to focus on playing.
If you’re struggling to figure this out on your own, maybe you need some external help.
Mastering Harp Technique
Developing proper harp technique is essential for producing a clear, resonant tone and avoiding physical strain. Harp technique relies on correct form AND relaxation. It takes strength to play the harp, but the strength and resulting rich tone come through relaxation, not through force. One common misconception is that the motion of playing the strings is intuitive. In reality, it is often counter-intuitive, with many beginners mistakenly yanking sideways instead of pulling in with their fingers and pushing away with their thumb.
Adult students who are surprised at the steep learning curve for harp playing and are beginning to wonder if they chose the wrong instrument. It seems like the transfer between harp and piano should not be a difficult one considering the essential similarity between the two. Harp students who don’t have previous musical experience find themselves with a similar challenge. While there is no shortcut to establishing a solid technical foundation, there are ways to circumvent frustration. The key is to speed up your technical development and keep yourself musically interested at the same time. Knowing that your technique will be the limiting factor in your playing should be motivation enough to do some extra technical practice. Naturally, developing your technique is a gradual process, but doubling up on your scales, arpeggios and exercises will speed your way to developing the skill you need to play the pieces you want to play.
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Effective Practice Strategies
Consistent and focused practice is crucial for progress on the harp. If you haven’t practiced an instrument since you were in high school, or if you never really learned to practice, this is the time to bring your practice skills to an adult level. You can bring more focus, intention and direction to your practice now. You are able to take responsibility for your learning, not just for a weekly assignment. Your teacher is an excellent resource for you, so be certain to ask for his or her advice. Here are some tips for maximizing your practice time:
- Set Realistic Goals: Establish achievable practice goals for each session.
- Prioritize Technique: Dedicate time to scales, arpeggios, and exercises to build a solid technical foundation. There is a wealth of basic exercise books to choose from. Levers Up! Metodo per Arpa, M.
- Focus and Intention: Bring focus, intention, and direction to your practice sessions.
- Seek Guidance: Consult with your teacher for advice and feedback.
- Utilize Resources: Explore helpful resources such as "Scientific Practice" by Jane Weidensaul.
Dispelling Common Misconceptions
Several misconceptions surround harp playing, which can lead to unnecessary anxiety and frustration.
- Prior Piano Experience: While piano experience can be beneficial, it is not a prerequisite for learning the harp. If you’ve played piano before, then you have experience playing notes with both hands and reading the grand staff. That will give you a leg up, but is certainly not required for starting harp.
- Calluses: Unlike some stringed instruments, harp playing typically does not result in significant calluses. I got some small calluses when I was playing pedal harp, which has strings that are generally more tense to pull on than lever harp strings, causing more abrasion. Those calluses were barely noticeable. Since playing lever harp, I have not developed any calluses.
- Tuning: You are responsible for tuning your own harp. Strings go out of tune if the temperature changes, when they’re new, when the harp is new, or if the harp is not well made. You probably won’t have to tune it every time you play.
- Music Theory: Learning music theory, reading music, or memorizing songs is not mandatory unless it aligns with your personal goals. I’m a big fan of knowing why you are learning what your teacher wants to teach you. I do not teach things just because they are in some method, or because my teacher taught me that way. I teach what you need to reach the goals you have. If you don’t have any goals that can be reached by learning theory, or how to read music, or memorizing, then I will not make you learn those. (I do have a list of music theory resources that might show you that it’s not as scary as you think, but I won’t force you to use any of them.) Find out more about setting your music goals.
- Harp Ownership: While owning or renting a harp is ideal for consistent practice, alternative arrangements may be possible. You have to be able to practice. I don’t demand that you practice a lot. Try for 5 minutes a day. If you don’t have a harp available to you, this becomes difficult. The harder it is for you to get to the harp, the less likely it is that you will practice today. Instead, you will put it off until tomorrow. Suddenly tomorrow is the lesson, and you have not practiced.
- Nail Length: The technique taught by many instructors utilizes the pads of the fingers, requiring short nails. If you do not want to cut your nails, you have two choices for learning to play with nails: make it up as we go along, or learn from a teacher who teaches the technique of playing with nails. Nails are used on the Paraguayan harp (right hand), in wire-strung technique, and in some Celtic and Early music technique. If you stick with me, I will do my best to help you maintain a comfortable hand position, but I do not have experience teaching or playing with nails.
Finding Support and Resources
Many self-taught harp players exist or have had only a very a few lessons to get themselves started. Others are more comfortable learning from an established teacher either in person or YouTube or Skype. If you think you would like to teach yourself but are wanting some support, our favorite simple book and DVD is published by Mel Bay and written by Darlene Walton, “The Harpsicle® Harp Method Book and DVD.” This set covers everything from how to tune and change a string to all the basics of beginning technique. There are, of course, several other beginning books and we always have a selection available in stock and on the web.
The lever harp community and all of the various ethnic harp communities, are open and welcoming. Harpers love to meet other harpers and enjoy the opportunity to support one another. From small, local harp gatherings to the several annual regional gathering to the major international harp conferences, you will find that the participants are a generous and warm group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions and answers that I’m frequently asked about playing and learning to play the harp.
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- Is harp more difficult than piano? About the same: harder at first, but easier in the long run. You can sit down at a harp and instantly sound harp-like. The sound is welcoming and special. It’s very difficult to make a harp sound bad. The harder part in this comparison is how intuitive the piano-playing motion is versus harp playing. Playing piano keys is like typing or finger painting. If you ask anyone to mime piano playing, they will likely do the correct moves. For harps, not only is the motion of playing the strings un-intuitive, it’s also counter-intuitive: most people think you yank sideways instead of pulling in (fingers) and pushing away (thumb). Both instruments require you to use two hands to play two sets of notes. Usually your right hand is the melody and your left hand the accompaniment. This is a different concept from using one hand to place notes and the other to play them, like in guitar or violin, or both hands to place notes while your breath plays them, like flute or clarinet. Piano uses all 10 fingers, and harp only uses 8. On piano, you have to understand more theory about when to use the black keys than you do on harp, which uses levers or pedals that often don’t change through an entire song. These two aspects make harp easier in the long run.
- How long will it take until I’m any good? Somewhere between immediately and never. I can show you in one lesson how to impress your friends-after all, you’ve picked an impressive instrument. But usually when people are looking to be “any good,” they want to be a virtuoso. And sometimes even virtuosos still aren’t “good enough” in their opinion. I will help you pick music that you like and that is easy enough for you to play well. I will help you overcome any stage fright. I will teach you to maximize your practice time. I will give you techniques for working through trouble spots and to improvise through a memory block. Adults usually think they should progress much faster than they will because, as an adult, you feel that you should be able to do things, well, faster. Learning an instrument is a new skill. How long before you were “any good” at penmanship, skiing, or cooking? You didn’t start out perfectly, but you got by, and eventually you became “good enough.”
- Is a double-strung harp like a double-strung guitar? No. A double-strung guitar has each string that a normal guitar has, paired with those same notes an octave higher. A double-strung harp has exactly the same strings on both sides. On a double-strung guitar, when you play a “string,” you strike both the regular and higher octave strings at the same time. On a double-strung harp, you use a different hand on each row of strings, and there is no connection between the rows. There is a lovely double-strung technique you can use to echo the same notes on both sides, or a technique to play the same notes in unison, but you don’t have to do this. Learn more about the double-strung harp.
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