Anyone play lever and stick with lever? Options

[RoseRodent]

I'm always reading stuff about people "moving up" from a lever harp, and I wonder if there are people who are playing lever and intend to stick with it. I am still in the looking at harps on websites and making plans to visit places to look at rental harps stage of the game, so I'm by no means even lightly educated in the harp department, but it does seem as if lever harps are very much looked upon as the starter instrument to suffice until you can get a "real one".

There is no such argument for me unless someone wants to invent a really peculiar mechanism for me, I'm in a wheelchair so pedals are a no go! But in any case I don't feel any inclination to "move up". Perhaps I will change my mind as I get started with everything, though like I say there is not a lot I can do about it if I do, but I'm interested to know if there is anyone who plays a lever harp just because that's what they are settled on and genuinely intend to stick with. Maybe it's the nature of the forum, that ABRSM has only relatively recently allowed lever harps to progress through the grades, I know there is a large folk harp community, but I'm not sure if there is a rivalry between them and the people who play "proper harps" or not really.

Is there anyone intending to stick with a lever harp throughout their harping career?

[Collyermum]

I'm always reading stuff about people "moving up" from a lever harp, and I wonder if there are people who are playing lever and intend to stick with it. I am still in the looking at harps on websites and making plans to visit places to look at rental harps stage of the game, so I'm by no means even lightly educated in the harp department, but it does seem as if lever harps are very much looked upon as the starter instrument to suffice until you can get a "real one".

There is no such argument for me unless someone wants to invent a really peculiar mechanism for me, I'm in a wheelchair so pedals are a no go! But in any case I don't feel any inclination to "move up". Perhaps I will change my mind as I get started with everything, though like I say there is not a lot I can do about it if I do, but I'm interested to know if there is anyone who plays a lever harp just because that's what they are settled on and genuinely intend to stick with. Maybe it's the nature of the forum, that ABRSM has only relatively recently allowed lever harps to progress through the grades, I know there is a large folk harp community, but I'm not sure if there is a rivalry between them and the people who play "proper harps" or not really.

Is there anyone intending to stick with a lever harp throughout their harping career?

Hi Rose Rodent

I definitely am sticking with the lever harp! I love it! I thought for a little while about pedal harp and listened to the repertoire, but honestly I didn't like the pedal harp repertoire enough to want to swap! I bought my lever harp over a year ago and did my best to buy an investment harp so that I won't need to "step up" from it later - it has a fantastic tone, sustain and projection and 36 strings so will take me through to grade 8 which I fully intend doing. My teacher has just started me off on the grade 4 pieces with a view to taking it next year as my first harp exam and I am still loving my practice every day!

Lovely to meet another lever harp enthusiast on here!

Collyermum

[erard]

Relatively few players start out on pedal harp because they cost so much. So people who end up playing pedal harp mostly did use lever harps as a student stepping stone, and for those who do change from lever to pedal it is usually considered moving up - if they didn't think it a step up they wouldn't do it. I also have friends who learnt pedal and then abandoned it in favour of levers. Most pedallers do know the lever harp is a lovely (and perfectly proper) instrument in its own right.

[GMc]

Although pedal harps are clearly very expensive (not compared with top-end other string instruments I suppose where the sky is the limit but the thing is that loads of amateurs play exactly the same instruments as the top profesionals do for harp) a lot of harpists keep their lever harps and start "families" of harps. Mildred Dilling (see you tube, what a star) was supposed to have had over 100 in her New York apartment at her death. Different harps for different things. You can carry a small or medium size lever harp on public transport, take it to bedsides, get it up stairs easily, play in a band in a pub, play jazz/celtic and pop them into little cars. If you ever see the top lever harp players in action you know that this is great music in its own right. Anyone seen Deborah Henson Conant or Alan Stivell? And the Celso Duarte family Paraguayan harpists - OMG - amazing. Some trained pedal harpists return to lever predominantly at some stage of their life.

Mind you, if you want chromatic but no pedals you can have that too - double, triple strung etc ...there are lots of complicated harp options.

There is a wealth of classical music transcribed for lever - not only Celtic/folk/jazz etc. But many harpists also get enticed by the pedal repertoire and do end up wanting to play some of the great compositions or transcriptions for it. And/or they want to play in a big orchestra. Which needs pedals. As our lever harp is not seeing much action from DD currently but she wont let it go I was thinking of making a serious attempt to learn myself. So far I have just dabbled and when it got to two hands together I retreated. I need to push on and work at it with more determination. It is not easy and I have played piano and cello to a pretty high level so the music reading is no issue for me.

Our first harp was a old hire lever one from our teacher made locally. I still hear that harp occasionally at Suzuki concerts cranking out Twinkle Twinkle and even though it is hard to think of a harp as ugly that one comes very close at the top end. We bought one within 8 weeks and I remember the total difference in tone. It was lovely (an Andrew Thom - very avant-garde Australian maker). And of course, an Andrew Thom lever harp is a sculpture worthy of the Tate Modern in any colour you like that you can spray a car in that can fall over and come straight back up again - carbon fibre!

The power/resonance/tone is enticing on a good pedal harp. I remember standing near DD when she first played a really good one and feeling the sound waves emanating from it and literally hitting me. Never mind the sound which was amazing too. She was only 8 and finishing Suzuki book 1 at the time but it was truly amazing to hear and feel even at that age and with that repertoire. She herself must have felt it even more intensely. I thought then that we would come under pressure for one soon and we did.

No musical parent apart from someone with harp in the house already really wants to hear that their child wants to play the harp. You have visions of expense, strings, tuning and cartage that are all true. But what a pleasure it is to listen to the practice - even pre-grade one as long as the harp is tuned and not a total dog! This is the compensation I guess to all the downsides. And you get exposed to a totally new repertoire. How many people have ever heard Flight or Idyllic poem by Salzedo who dont know a harpist? Or the Suite for Harp by Britten? Or pretty much any harp stuff apart from the Handel and Mozart concerti and the opera/ballet bits? I certainly hadnt until I got a harpist in the family. Now we have ipods full of harp of different genres and amazing CDs from amazing performers. Before DD started I'd heard marisa Robles play the Mozart once with james galway when I was about 7 and a few ballet solos from the pit. It has been a revelation to hear so many new things. I should have let her start earlier really (I said no to begin with and that she should learn piano for a few years and see if she was still keen - she was).

[RoseRodent]

did my best to buy an investment harp so that I won't need to "step up" from it later - it has a fantastic tone, sustain and projection and 36 strings so will take me through to grade 8 which I fully intend doing.

Which harp did you pick? Did you try a variety of harps in person before making your decision? Just because I'm going to have to hit the road and start looking at harps, it's so tempting to buy the first one just because one 200 mile drive is quite enough!

[Collyermum]

did my best to buy an investment harp so that I won't need to "step up" from it later - it has a fantastic tone, sustain and projection and 36 strings so will take me through to grade 8 which I fully intend doing.

Which harp did you pick? Did you try a variety of harps in person before making your decision? Just because I'm going to have to hit the road and start looking at harps, it's so tempting to buy the first one just because one 200 mile drive is quite enough!

Hi

I tried lots of lever harps. I didn't manage to try the Ravennas but tried lots of the others. I ended up buying a Triplett Signature 36, although the Teifi Eos was a close runner up, but ergonomically it wasn't for me.

I wouldn't recommend buying without playing first if you can help it, they are all so different. I never expected to buy a Triplett, on paper and in the photos I expected not to like them but was very surprised!

Best of luck in your searching!

Collyermum

[RoseRodent]

The master plan is to hold off until Edinburgh. Although renting seems likely to save money, it's also troublesome as you spend money on harps you don't eventually buy (if you didn't take any that you later find you don't like as part of the rental process you may as well have bought straight off) and mainly it's delivery and return of the hire instrument. I'm hoping I can find out what everyone intends to bring to Edinburgh and maybe cheekily avoid some of the fees of getting it sent out to me, if there is a harp already there that I'm interested in renting then at least I only need worry about the rental cost and deposit, not ?90 each way just to get it to me. Everything I spend on a rental that I don't eventually buy is money off the total budget.

Of course, I may not be entirely able to contain myself till then, so I might take a rental and see if I can arrange to give it back at Edinburgh if they have someone else interested in taking it, again that saves me arranging a load of transport for it if they are transporting harps anyway. We'll see how it all turns out, I definitely dont' intend purchasing anything before EIHF unless I'm really secure that it suits me, and why travel all over the country when I have a date that people are bringing harps to my front door?

[GMc]

We were lucky as although we live in a small Australian city with no second hand harp market to speak of dd was able to play a fair number of different lever harps owned by other people. Ideally you should play the actual harp before you buy it yourself but that is not always easy. Def wait til you can compare them side by side if possible.

Teacher was keen for a Lyon and Healy troubadour or prelude. She liked the trade in aspect and concert spacing/tension if we went to pedal but I suspected dd would want to keep her lever harp no matter what. I asked her to consider a local maker as i didn't fancy paying the import costs of a foreign lever harp and wanted to support a profession that struggles to make money here. I was suspicious that she would be looking at a pedal harp soonish and that that would probably have to come from overseas. She liked Tim Gusters and Andrew Thoms and finally picked an Olwen by andrew. I liked both. He kindly made and sent 2 over from tasmania for her to pick from and the other went to a local dealer. Since then she has played a lot of US lever harps but none from the UK so difficult to comment on your local makers. I love the light weight of the 36 string Olsen. So easy to move. Helps if it goes in the car too.

[Norway]

I play a Pilgrim Clarsach lever harp (my playing is lousy, but the harp is very well made and sounds lovely - I've had it for years and have never had any problems with levers slipping or anything). I'm sticking with lever as I like playing folk songs.