Welcome to Lauren Scott's harp blog! I'm a professional harpist based in the UK. Here you will find all sorts of harp musings, in a bid to spread a bit of harpyness. Thanks for visiting!
Saturday, 31 December 2011
summing up
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Merry Kissing aka advanced lever harp rep
Saturday, 19 November 2011
student minor key charts
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Don't you wish you played the piccolo?
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Wicker Harp
Thursday, 20 October 2011
The original strap on harp
Monday, 10 October 2011
alimandolin
Sunday, 9 October 2011
David Snell
Monday, 26 September 2011
student major key & tuning charts
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Monday, 12 September 2011
Internal dialogue
Friday, 9 September 2011
Rainbow harp
Friday, 2 September 2011
The Bad Tempered Flute
A great line up players, flutists Paul Edmund-Davies, Clare Southworth & Andy Findon with guitarist Craig Ogden, & pianists Tim Carey and Peter Lawson all playing the flute music of Andy Scott.
Here is a flute & harp track from the CD - Paquito, which is a pretty fast and fiery salsa!
Andy Scott - Paquito by AstuteMusic
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
sausage fingers

Monday, 22 August 2011
Friday, 5 August 2011
pitch bending harp
Thursday, 4 August 2011
harp congress videos

Wednesday, 27 July 2011
To Pirastro... or not to Pirastro?

Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Harp Summit
It looks like it's going to be an amazing World Harp Congress in Vancouver in a couple of weeks!
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
being calm
- having to sightread a community opera - an unmarked horrendous harp part in open key signature with loads and loads of notes... and accidentals
- having a 3 session day yesterday, enough to make anyone tired and frazzled
- being blocked in the car park at 9.30pm by some silly woman who was refusing to move her car
- being told I could park in a specific space this morning, and then being told by someone else 5 minutes before rehearsal that I had to move my car
- trying to play and watch the monitor at the side of stage so I could follow the conductor for the off stage harp part, only for loads of crew to suddenly stand in front of it and block my view as soon as I start playing
- finding the person who was looking after my harp outside the backstage door whilst I got my car had buggered off by time I got back with the car
Friday, 1 July 2011
Inspiring
Monday, 20 June 2011
Laser harp
Ok, so they aren't actual harps....... but have you noticed how laser harps (that are actually built to look like a harp) seem to be popping up everywhere? With lots of science centres now having one.
I've not actually seen one in the flesh, but wouldn't an encounter with one in a museum be fun, and inspiring?
Glen Hill of Mountain Glen Harps seems to be building some great laser harps. Here he is explaining about one he has built for a children's Hospital.
What an amazing and therapeutic thing it would be in that situation. There is lots of info on Glens website about how they work. Essentially it's much like the midi harp in that each "string" triggers whatever is programmed on the software running it, but in this case of course you break the laser beam to make the trigger. Glen also has a blog with some pretty cool pictures of custom harps he is building.
A more traditional laser harp (without it being in confines of a harp shaped box) is nothing new, but I really like this next YouTube clip. Arpa di Luce is a collaboration between Gianpietro Grossi- Laser Engineer, Francesco Murano-Light Designer and Pietro Pirelli-Musician and visual artist.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Hijab Initiation
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Let there be light
Sorry, not Michael Nyman's theme from The Piano (The Heart ask Pleasure First) on the harp.... though it is played nicely here on the celtic harp by Italian harpist Mario Lipparini..
...but check out the lights on Mario's harp!
They are called "Rebecca Light" and were invented by a lighting engineer who plays the harp and the website where you can buy them is here

But I'm a bit concerned that on the website they sell a pedal switch for "when your harp must be silent for a passage"
Does that mean that they are not silent? ;-(
Hopefully it's just a mis-translation from Italian to English?
At $325 for the starter kit it's a bit too much to pay out if they do make a noise.

Wouldn't they would be cool on a pop gig though, and a really fun thing for solo gigs.
Anyone used them and can say whether they found them noisy or not?
If they are silent maybe someone can have a word with Santa.....Christmas is only 7 months away!!
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Catriona McKay

Andy and I heard them play at the Edinburgh Festival last year and we were so blown away by this really amazing duo! Catriona is an inspiring harpist to see live, and if you live anywhere in the North West please do come along to see them.
Sandbach is just a minutes drive off the M6, there is free car parking and we even have a lovely Italian restaurant which does before and after concert meals for us just opposite the venue!
Full details are on Sandbach Concert Series website and you can buy tickets online here
Friday, 20 May 2011
Cheating
Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony.
Spot the difference between chord symbols and pedal markings on this hire part?
(Double click on image to see closer view)
1. What is that harp part all about then? Pages and pages of badly written arpeggios that go at the speed of light with impossible page turns. The only way to play them is to cheat and read chord symbols instead.
2. Wouldn't it have been great to have been a fly on the wall and seen the confrontation between the first harpists who had to play this piece and Vaughan Williams? (I know what I would have said to him about it!)
3. Why is my own copy of this piece only partially marked up?
I try not to play this piece if I can all help it as it's not a joyous experience to play with it's constant fistfuls of notes, but I've played this three times now in the past year.
So I suppose it's about time I thoroughly marked up my own part rather than relying on scribbled on hire parts, so that I have a fighting chance of being able to actually read all that information on the page whilst playing it at speed..
Monday, 16 May 2011
Linda
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Louis XV Special

Lyon & Healy
Louis XV Special Concert Grand
- 0 octave G to 7th octave C
- Height 74 3/4" (190 cm)
- Soundboard Width 21 5/8" (55 cm)
- Extreme Width 41 1/2" (105 cm)
- Weight 89 lbs (40 Kg)
- Price $179,000 (US)

- 47strings ranging from 1st Octave G to 7th Octave C.
- Height:77”
- Width:43”
- Soundboard Width:21”6’
- Weight:121 lb
- Soundboard material:Mahogany
- Finish:Titanium and Gold coated
- Price ? (would love to know but that bit is all in Chinese)
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Bedbugs
Monday, 18 April 2011
Harp Twins
What an entrance!
That is going to take some beating - plus a challenge to all young harp duos out there to think of a better way of getting on stage without going to the extreme of Lady GaGa and arriving on stage carried in an egg :-)
Identical twins Camille and Kennerly Diebold, playing All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera
Check out the 1927 Wurlitzer pipe organ playing approx 2:50 in.....
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
microphone position
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Jamet exercises
I've recently had another go at doing the 16 exercices journaliers pour harpe by Marie-Claire Jamet as a technical warm up each morning instead of my usual round of Salzedo exercises, and have been doing these now for several months.
I had an aborted attempt at these last year but gave up doing them when I started to get a sore wrist and shooting pains up my arm, something which I have never suffered from before and quite frankly it frightened the life out of me.
This time, I've left out doing all of the series 2 exercises in the book, and hurrah, no pains in the arms, but a satisfying warm-up work out for the fingers.
Funnily enough, I had a chat to a harpist friend about this book of exercises and she told me that she had to stop doing them because they gave her terrible RSI....
So it's not just me.
These are great warm up exercises for the advanced player. But I would recommend skipping series 2 when working through the book and coming back to them at the end when you are seriously warmed up.
quick info about Marie Claire Jamet
quick info about Pierre Jamet
Friday, 1 April 2011
Paris harp shop 2
Back this morning from a tour with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony - 7 concerts in 7 different European cities in 8 days..... including travelling days to and from the UK!
We had a few spare hours in Paris so managed to fit in a visit to the wonderful harp shop near the Arc de Triomphe, Le Magasin de la Harpe.
Yet again, Alexandre Budin very generously gave up his time to show us the amazing historic harps he has in his workshop, a few doors down from his shop. Erards in the front of the photo below, and Pleyel chromatic harp at the back/middle.
And what a great collection of harp music he has to browse through!
He also showed us a couple of Sylvain Blassel's harps which are kept downstairs. His small Erat harp is absolutely stunning to look at and has the most amazing tone.
Here is a video of Sylvain playing Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Tarrega on the Erat.
Check out his fingering of the repeated notes throughout, also his use of the little finger in the left hand. Very interesting!!!
I'm going to see if I can work out using this fingering and whether I can actually use my left hand pinky on my Salvis. I fear the tension on the Salvi will be too much for my little fingers alas!
It's very easy to just repeat what we have been taught and say that we don't play using our little fingers, but as Alexandre said, "why not?"
why not indeed.
Japanese style Erard harp - only around 7 ever built!
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
HARPO AND DALI

LA Harp Blog: HARPO AND DALI: "Creative pairings between like-minded thinkers is vital, in particular for artists, writers and musicians. The three co-exist splendidly. S..."
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Five Take Fives
Park Stickney - solo harp
Amanda Whiting - solo harp (nice video!)
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Eagle Harps
Holy cow - a whole new world of neurosis for harpists!
47 + 47 strings,double-row strings with pedals
Height: 222 cm
Width: 110 cm
Weight: 53 kgs
Joy Yu Hoffman performing her arrangement of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" on the Kong Hou (Chinese Harp).
Saturday, 12 March 2011
look - no hands!
So, I was playing in a concert with a chamber orchestra tonight and we had just played the Clarinet Concerto by Copland (great piece, loads of harp throughout) and I'm on stage during the interval giving the harp a quick re-tune before the second half starts.
This lady from the audience comes over to the side of the stage and doesn't appear to be visually impaired or drunk.
In all seriousness she calls me over to ask me....
"I've never seen one of those with a projection box on the back before.....
(me - ¿Qué? )
do they all have that?
(me - ¿Qué? )
I had to come over and ask you because I was curious......
do you use your hands to play?
?????
(wait it gets better)
because i can see you were playing with your feet"
?????
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Arianna Savall
Wow - what an amazing harpist and singer!
Not being really up on the early music scene I hadn't come across her before, but stumbled across a video of her on YouTube.
I've recently bought her album Peiwoh from iTunes and it's been played non-stop since in our house.
Arianna is a fascinating musician, being an acclaimed early music opera singer as well as harpist and has an impressive back catalogue of CDs of early music both as a harpist and separately as singer.
However her latest CDs seem to be of her own compositions played with her band, with Arianna playing triple harp, gothic harp and celtic harps as well as singing. The rest of her band are playing various early and folk string instruments (not sure what they are because of the language on the website!) and also hand percussion.
The result is a very tasteful and sublime world music album which gets the thumbs up from everyone in my household - which is quite a feat as we all have very diverse tastes!
Very difficult to pick a favourite track, possibly Aurora as it's a harp only track. Suite Celtic has a more traditional vibe and shows the musical excellence of all the musicians. A "chill out" track with a very wide appeal is El Llenguatge dels ocells. Although every track on this CD is fantastic.
No UK dates in her concert schedule which is a shame, as I would love to see her live.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Mahler 6 Finale

picks or nails?
Started the rehearsals on nails, Petrenko then wanted picks, and on the final rehearsal on the day of the concert wanted nails.
I completely underestimated the time needed to grow my nails for this gig, and to be honest just didn't think about this piece coming up in the diary and just kept them usual short length.
Arghgh!! They were just too short at the start of the week.
So ended up having to get some false gel nails put on so that the nails were long enough to play with. My nails are very short and are slow to grow!
Only lost 3 false nails during the week which was quite a bizarre sight as they flew off as I was playing during rehearsals.
note to self - don't cut nails before Mahler 6 again.
BTW - In case you are wondering - they are definitely not my nails above. Can you imagine trying to do anything with those nails?
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Albeniz paper in strings
Just finished doing some work with RLPO, a pretty full on programme of Spanish music with loads of harp throughout, and one of the pieces was El Albaicin from the Iberia Suite by Albeniz.
I hadn't played that piece before so I wasn't quite sure about the direction on the music Mettez un papier entre les cordes especially as I was playing right up to the last note in the previous piece and there was only a very short pause before the start of this piece. Which didn't leave much time to turn the page, change the pedals and then thread some paper through the harp strings! But checking with the conductor in the rehearsal he definately wanted the paper between the strings.
What a racket!
It makes a really loud, raucous and horrible sound. I was very unconvinced at the start, but actually by the end of the week I quite liked the effect.
However you need to play very quietly because it makes an incredibly loud sound which cuts straight through the orchestra sound. Plus you have to play extremely rhythmically with very full articulation with as much damping as possible.
Sounds a bit like a buzzing mosquito when you get it right and sounds completely rubbish when you don't!
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Farewell to Stromness
I had a really lovely day yesterday. Andy and I were playing at friends wedding, and it was great combination of good company, good food and a fabulous setting.
So feeling rather fuzzy today, it seemed a good time to chill out and video Farewell to Stromness. I was inspired to learn this piece recently after listening to Ruth Wall's CD and especially wanted to play it on lever harp rather than concert harp.
I think the sound of the lever harp is well suited to this piece. Although the middle section is a bit chromatic and it would be a lot easier on the concert harp.