Some haunting music for you

Alas for my digital recorder. I cannot find the bloody thing and so cannot regale you with one of my favorite jigs, "I Buried My Wife And Danced On Top of Her," which I thought would be perfectly appropriate for Hallowe'en. So instead I'll leave you with a performance from Emilie Autumn, who is not a harp player (thank heavens, because she'd probably be brilliant and then I'd have to roll over and give up), but who is nevertheless a wonderfully gifted and experimental artist. She does some rather nifty things with electric violin, and this piece is an example of that. It's an instrumental entitled "Face the Wall" and is haunting in every sense of the word.



Have a lovely Samhain, everyone!

Of gothy harps and other curiosities

Big news for plucky people: Amy Lee of Evanescence appeared on The Tonight Show armed with a harp in addition to her usual piano to help out in her rendition of "Sally's Song" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Her cover of this song appears on the new album Nightmare Revisited.



Interesting, even though the harp plays a pretty minor role. I'm not sure what make it is, but it seems to be a pedal (makes sense, she played piano first) and looks like it's got a black finish (of course). That said, her playing isn't all that impressive. As you can see, she doesn't really grab it until the very end, and it looks like mostly basic double-handed chords.

But to be fair, she's just beginning, so maybe we'll be seeing more complex things further down the road. And hey, it's a still a harp on TV, right?

Pedals and levers and electrics, oh my!

Before I go any further, I thought I should give an explanation about the different kinds of harps so you can know what I’m going on about. (If you already know, I apologize. Feel free to scroll on past.)

Basically, there are lever harps (sometimes referred to as Celtic harps) and pedal harps (also called concert harps). Lever harps are more often played by folk or traditional musicians, and pedal harps are usually associated with classical musicians. However, I don’t claim to be an expert and there are exceptions to every rule. For instance: Joanna Newsom, who I talked about in the entry below, is usually categorized as a folk musician… but she plays a pedal harp. In fact, she started out on Celtic harp but has explained in interviews that she couldn’t use it for her songs because it didn’t allow her to change keys easily.

So how will you know if you’re looking at a pedal harp or a lever harp? Well, for one thing, the pedal harp is going to be bigger. If you’re standing in front of it and it seems to be towering over you in an intimidating fashion, chances are you’re standing in front of a pedal harp. Chances are even greater if said harp happens to be in the middle of an orchestra pit. On the other hand, if you’re sitting in the middle of a session at an Irish pub, the thing you’re looking at is more likely to be a lever harp. Lever harps also tend to be quite a bit smaller—I’m about five feet tall and mine reaches just to my shoulder when I stand next to it.

These two types differ in range and as well as in size. Pedal harps can cover over six octaves and usually have 46 or 47 strings, while lever harps generally range from 34 to 38 strings (though this varies—I’ve seen some with less and some with more) and cover about four octaves. The major difference between these two types, though, is how you change keys. On a lever harp, there are usually sharping levers on each string (hence the name) so you can play either sharps or naturals. If you push the lever upwards, it shortens the sounding length of the string and raises the pitch. So if I want to change my F to an F-sharp in the middle of a song, I have to reach up and flip the lever. (This drives me bonkers when I want to learn a song that has a key change in the middle.) With pedal harps, there are metal discs at the top of the strings which are connected to the pedals. If you press the pedals, the discs can be moved up or down to shorten or lengthen the sounding length to play sharps, naturals, or flats. Obviously, pedal harps are a lot better for changing keys on the fly. So if you’re thinking about taking up harp, think about the kind of music you’ll want to play—it’s something I wish I’d considered a little more carefully when I started.

To add even more confusion, there are also the divisions of acoustic harps, electric harps, and harps capable of creating both sounds. There still seems to be a lot of experimentation going on with the electric versions, although Deborah Henson-Conant is pretty well known for her use of the Camac Electroharp.

Pedal players, feel free to jump in and correct me on anything in this post if I've said anything glaringly wrong.

A brief insight

I can never seem to make up my mind about Joanna Newsom. I feel like I should be rooting for her because she's a female songwriter who plays the harp instead of guitar or piano. She's obviously a talented musician (look at those fingers go) and she seems like an interesting person.

So, every so often I get stern with myself and decide that I'm really going to listen to her music and give it a fair chance this time. But I never get more than a minute or so into a song before giving up. I once saw an iTunes reviewer describe her singing as sounding exactly like Lisa Simpson, and I have to admit the comparison is an apt one. Her lyrics might be good, but it becomes irrelevant because the sound prevents me from really concentrating on them. So I turn the song off and vow I will never listen to her again. But something always keeps me coming back, which in this case was lucky, because a few days ago I ran across this live performance of "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie":



Quite honestly, I love this video. Her voice seems to have been toned down somehow. The childlike quality of it now seems endearing rather than irritating, and the breaks and cracks sound like they come from emotion rather than lack of skill. And since I'm not distracted by her singing, I can actually focus on her playing and listen to the words, which manage to be both quirky and poignant at the same time.

I still don't plan on listening to Joanna full-time, simply because her voice just isn't my cup of tea, but I still respect what she's doing. She certainly has her own style and isn't afraid to pursue it, and that's something to be admired.

Introduction

I've been a musician ever since I was a kid. I play harp now, but it wasn't my first instrument. I started taking lessons from a classical flutist when I was ten and kept up with it for several years. However, I wouldn't say I'm classically trained, as I can't sight read for beans. Truth be told, I don't even know what key I'm playing in most of the time. (I flip levers up and down until it sounds right.)

I discovered Celtic harp entirely by accident. I heard of a teacher in the area and it seemed like a good idea at the time. I ended up loving it partly because it's just a beautiful instrument and partly because of the teaching method. My struggles with reading sheet music played a large part in my eventually dropping the flute, but in the Irish tradition, whether it's harp, tinwhistle, pipes, what have you - you learn by ear, and for whatever reason, that works best for me.

I'm finishing up college this year and can no longer afford lessons, so I'm embarking on the exciting (and somewhat frightening) prospect of teaching myself. This blog will be, in part, a record of my progress. It's probably going to be harp-focused much of the time, but I hope it won't be limited to that. Most of what I currently play is Irish trad, but it's not all I listen to - not by a long shot. I'm interested in all kinds of stuff. It makes me very happy when someone asks me, "So what kind of music does (insert artist here) play?" and I can't come up with an easy definition.

I'm fascinated by musicians who aren't afraid to experiment and mix up genres, even in the cases where it's clear the experiment didn't quite work, and I'd like to do something similar. I feel like I've reached the limit of what I can do with jigs and reels. Not that I don't still enjoy playing them, but I want to do something different. I've been playing for about five years, but I still feel like a beginner in the sense that I'm only just starting to comprehend the range of things you can do with this instrument.

So you can expect grumblings about arrangements that won't cooperate with me, videos of musicians or performances that I find inspiring, drooling over harps that I covet and cannot afford, my thoughts on discussions posted on other musicians' blogs or message boards... and anything else I can come up with! I'm writing this mostly for myself, but if anyone's reading, I hope you get something interesting out of it - and comments and suggestions are always welcome.