student major key & tuning charts

Just remembered I said I was going to do this for some students tomorrow.

Here goes - for lever harps tuned in E flat major

Enjoy :-)

click on image for larger view - feel free to print off and stick on the wall near the harp!

any requests?

Internal dialogue

Ah - that internal dialogue..... and internal arguing when you are trying to concentrate on playing... I know it well.

Very interesting short video by Dr Carrol McLaughlin about letting go of the internal dialogue to help with better performance.

Her book looks very interesting and well worth a read!

Rainbow harp

How exciting is this?

This isn't just an electro-accoustic harp........ it's a rainbow coloured electro-accoustic harp.

And I see Salvi have just brought out a new Iris, minus the gold. Cunningly called the Iris Natural Concert Grand it is cleverly in the price range between the Apollo and the Arianna. 

Now if only I wasn't already paying off for my wonderful gold Iris...  

Suffering serious harp lust..... a rainbow harp.... genius idea.

The Bad Tempered Flute

I'm very excited to be part of this project and there will be an official launch of the CD in November at the Forge Venue in London - details to follow. The CD is now available to buy on Amazon but not on iTunes just yet....hopefully soon!

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

sausage fingers

Ben Creighton Griffiths is a total star, and there doesn't seem to be much he can't do... including teaching sporting legend and ex Wales Rugby captain, Gareth Thomas, to play the harp for ITV's Born to Shine programme.

I particularly liked the way Gareth said it "was hard to play the harp when you have finger's like cumberland sausages."

Above is a short trailer clip for the show, but you can see a video of Gareth and Ben playing by clicking on this link scroll down the page and click on "Gareth Thomas"

Well done Gareth & Ben !!

Ben has been doing amazing things for charity for years and is a brilliant ambassador for the harp, as well as being a really great harp player.

After a crazy summer where there has been rioting on the streets in the UK, isn't it great to see a positive role model on TV for a young male teenager?

bad gliss notation

Nice typesetting!!!!!

(double click on image for closer view if you really want to...)

So that'll just be 7 bars of hollywood glisses then??

pitch bending harp

Mariano Gonzalez is a very interesting musician playing on what seems to be (his own design) a unique custom made electric pitch bending paraguayan midi harp!

A great video on his website here

Plus a YouTube clip playing with Pianist Bob Rozario and Percussionist Alfredo Albarenga. El Cumbanchero composed by Rafael Hernadez.

check out about 2'20 in after the percussion solo for the pitch bending.

No pitch bending here - but a lovely YouTube of Mariano playing the Recuerdos de la Alhambra

harp congress videos

Trust Camac to come up with the great idea of doing a series of interviews during the world harp congress in Vancouver and posting them on YouTube!

They have a series of interviews with harpists during the congress which can be viewed on their YouTube channel here

A great way to give those of us who couldn't go a flavour of the congress!!

Just one here - Florence Sitruk explaining about her fascinating talk about the Hindemith Sonata

To Pirastro... or not to Pirastro?

I've finally finished my run of operas last night and Billy (the harp doctor) has been round today and just finished servicing my harps and putting on some new bass wires.

I've always used Pirastro wires, but the last few sets of Pirastro I've had on my harps I've been really unhappy with. It's been really disappointing as you use to be able to put on a set of Pirastro and know you were getting really good strings.

When I got my new Iris, it came strung with nylon top two octaves - YUK - I changed those to gut straight away. Plus it had Bow Brand standard nickel wires.

I did keep the nickel wires on the Iris for a while thinking that maybe they would get better, or it was the harp settling in, but in the end changed over to Pirastro wires. The Pirastros were a great improvement for a while, but less than a year on they sounded dead.

For the price a set of Pirastro cost, you would have thought you'd get at least 18 months to two years out of them!

So today Billy has put on new silver wires which he has re-designed with Bow Brand only a couple of months ago, (so not the usual silver wires, super new ones!!!).

I'll see how they settle in and sound in a few weeks....

....at £195 for a set of these new silvers, I don't mind if I only get a years use out of them.

After a lifetime of only ever using Pirastro wires, it will be interesting to see if these new Bow Brand silvers change my mind about using Pirastro.