Advice Please! To leaver or not to leaver my harp?

[Keri]

Greetings All!

I recently began having harp lessons and my teacher is suggesting I get some levers put on my 30 string Celtic Folk Harp (nylon strings), as I'm considering doing Grade 3 Trinity College Exam next year. I have been manually tuning Bflats as my harp is tuned to C. Levers are quite costly to get done, I don't know wether to just continue tuning manually, or to get some levers fitted. Bflats, Fsharps and Csharps have been suggested, but in playing folk music, how often are they really used? Advice on this would be wonderful!

Being a brass player I used to transpose a bit, do harpers often do it too?

Thanks,
Bright Blessings,
Keri.

[Paul Mitchell]

Get the levers!

Some pieces will be more accesible to you with levers, as you will be able to change a note as you play. Although I haven't yet mastered it well, watching a proper harpist play is a marvel at the best of times, hands flowing like water across the strings. However, with some lever changes as they play, it becomes even more enticing!

If you like your harp then be aware that any retro fit might change it, even wreck it.

It just so happens i have a rather nice lever harp for sale.......

[skh]

It all depends.

If you ever play with others (other harpers who have levers on their harps, or other instruments) you might find that it is much easier to switch between keys quickly with levers. If you play for dancers, they won't want to wait for you to retune, and in a concert the sets have to be arranged carefully so that you don't have to retune too often. And what Paul said of course, switching keys within a peace is near impossible without levers.

On the other hand, levers are expensive, heavy, and need more maintenance than a plain harp. They should be fitted by someone who has some experience with the particular type of lever you want, but even if they really know what they're doing there might be a situation where you need to adjust them yourself, so if possible, have them show you how that would be done. Ill-fitted levers are just as bad as none at all, and they do get "out of tune" over time. If your harp is not new, it will have already settled, so this might not be a problem for you -- in fact, some harp makers even recommend adding levers only when a harp has been played for a year, for that very reason!

Levers also change the sound of the string. I know that every maker of harp levers claims that they have found a way that they don't, but I'm not convinced (and yes I have seen a lot of them). Every piece of metal between the wood and the string takes away sound, or at least influences its quality. Before you decide, have someone show you a harp with levers on it, sit down in a quiet room with it, and compare the sound and the feeling of the strings with or without levers. It always is a compromise.

If you're playing alone, you can transpose everything as much as you like, and I think many people with lever-less harps do so. You do change the range of a piece by doing that, though (you play it up to half an octave higher or lower than it is usually played) which changes the character of the music. When you want to sing to the harp, this might move song out of your vocal range (or the other way round, you'll need to transpose to some weird key to be able to sing it at all).

I'd say that for folk music, levers on the B, C and F strings are a good compromise. They are useful, but you probably won't need more than these.

not sure that helped

peace /|\
Sonja

[Corwen]

I don't know what your harp is like, but IMO its not worth the expense of fitting lots of levers to a cheap harp, as its best to use really good quality levers and these aren't cheap. Levers on the B, F and C strings allow you to play in all the common folk keys, and would allow you to play all the tunes at any normal folk session and give you a choice of keys for song accompaniment.

If you want to play mostly other types of music, like rock music, blues or jazz, the common keys are different and so a different choice of levers might be appropriate.

That said its possible to get very quick at retuning by a semitone with the tuning key, this will never be as quick as levers, but might be quick enough provided you don't play any songs or tune sets which change key in the middle.

[catlin]

Hi, Keri!

When I had a Celtic harp I started with no levers at all. After maybe half a year I had them added (for all the strings) and made much use of them, not only from one piece to the next but also in the course of e. g. several Carolan tunes. His music does well with leading notes occasionally, whether we can prove their authentic usage or not. And there is enough music modulating or shifting into a B part in a related key. Maybe you get along with partially added levers or hooks. And maybe you wish to give it another thought if you can imagine to transgress into other musical styles later on & don't want to do without harp for another period of time. Another thing you should take into account: If you have to retune often: Do your strings stay in tune or do they need more retuning in between? Levers (usually) nullify this factor.

I don't have hooks any longer (not contemporary to my harp/ neck to narrow), but low tension gut stringing allows me to fret. Sometimes I envy hook harps.

[Keri]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am still tuning manually, sharps and flats. I have decided to keep my harp leverless! LOL! I am exploring nature's music pitch (A = 432Hz) [check out my article in Touchstone, July 2010 for more details], so I thought for now I'd just keep my harp natural too, she has a beautiful tone. Maybe I'll invest in a levered harp with an electric pick up, they sound fun! Though I'm not sure how to play two harps at once.

Bright Blessings,
Keri

[Corwen]

For those of us who don't get Touchstone could you elaborate?

[Keri]

I'll do a new topic on Nature's Music Pitch.

Bright Blessings,
Keri

[celticmodes]

For years I played a 26 string in C and related modes just transposing instead of re-tuning. It worked great 'til I had to play with others. Then I went with a few levers. Now I'm fully levered and tune to Eb to take advantage of as many common keys as I can because I play different styles with different people.

I was more than happy with no levers and I'm more than happy with all of them. The only change was what I was doing with the instrument. If you don't need the levers, don't get them. Only the most expensive ones have minimal change to the quality of the tone when engaged.

Also, since you're looking into the 432 Hz and healing, I would look at other tuning systems. No need to use equal temperament if you are solo and not doing other key signatures.

I would argue that you will get more "magical" vibrations from your playing if you chose an intonation scheme that matches the keys/modes you play. More perfect harmonies for the intervals you tend to emphasize and more harmonic vibrations from un-played strings. The harp will come alive musically.

If you are unfamiliar with the science of it, there is a book called http://www.amazon.com/Equal-Temperament-Ruined-Harmony-Should/dp/0393062279 that discusses the evolution of tunings. It can be a bit dry and mathematical in places but you would be able to play with some of the older ideas used by keyboards to have a more perfected musical sound.