minstrel: Beginning harp books

[Janet Parish-Whittaker]

Message text written by INTERNET:yarrowp at mscd.edu
>I would specifically
recommend a combination of Alison Kinnaird's _Small Harp Tutor_ and Ann
Heymann's _A Gaelic Harper's First Tunes_, which is essentially the first
half of her _Secrets of the Gaelic Harp_.<

Absolutely!  Especially for the beginning wire harpist-  Alison's stuff
translates well to the wire harp.  For more wire harp stuff, Ann's new
book, Coupled Hands for Harpers presents a powerful technique that most
beginners should find fairly doable.  I should mention I sometimes study
with Ann (yeah, its a bit of a commute!), so take that as the biased
recommendation it is...

Get a teacher, any teacher.  I started under a pedal harpist who puzzled
along with me on wire harp technique-  sure, eventually I had to find a
wire teacher, but musically it still helped a great deal.  Consider the
dangers of bad posture, if nothing else.  Tendonitis is no fun.

"Toggen with his nayles sharpe"-  King Horn, 13th century English version

-David Parish-Whittaker
Solana Beach, CA
www.thegoliards.com