I started playing on my little Pixie Harp, Linette. That's her in the video below. She’s a small, sweet harp and was given to me, by my daughter, several years ago. I just love playing her! I made this video last year to share with my class during lockdown, and I thought I would share it with you, here. I made it before I ever watched a harp tutorial and was totally self-taught. One day, I saw a video about the mistakes made by self-taught harpists. I was doing it all! I had been playing with incorrect technique for years and didn’t know it! This recording is part of the harp line of a piece I wrote. In addition to the very noticeable mistakes, there are two places where the left hand drops out. That's because, being left-handed, I'm holding the harp backwards, and those are parts where I need to flip up the levers, but I can’t do it from the wrong side. My plan was to record this, without those parts, then flip up the levers, and record another track with just those parts, then edit them in. Sounds convenient, doesn't it!
I really just wanted to play well enough to accompany my singing and, so far, I’ve been able to do that, but a harp challenge I was made aware of was too enticing and changed everything. I plunged into it with great enthusiasm and just accompanying myself was no longer enough. I’ve fallen in love with playing the harp and want to be able to express myself with it as fully as possible. I wake up each morning with excitement, anticipating the moment when I’ll embrace my harp and feel her strings vibrate to the touch of my fingers. That vibration goes straight to my heart!
In December, I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a larger and much more resonant harp. She’s an absolutely beautiful Dusty Strings Crescendo 36. Her name is Luscinia (pronounced Lu'-shee-nia), and I’m learning how to play her correctly. I've worked hard on playing on the right side and using my right hand for the melody lines. This has been super challenging, which is strange to me because I play several instruments, including piano, and have no problem with it. For some reason, it was absolutely paralyzing on the harp, but I'm doing it! It only took a little reorganization of my brain! Hopefully, I'll feel confident enough soon to share a recent video on my new harp, but I hope you’ll enjoy this video, mistakes and all, for now.
As always, thank you so much for stopping by!
From the Purple House,
Jodi DiLiberto