Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hello people,

I've played irish flute for 20 years (Glenn Watson and John Gallagher flutes) and a bit of fiddle. I've lived in Prague for 6 years and my wife and I are moving to Valencia, Spain in January. I would like to purchase a Wire Strung Irish Harp made in the EU. I'm also seeking advice for a way to learn to play it on my own. Any advice as to makers and learning sources? I live in the EU and am an EU citizen and would prefer purchasing by shipment within the EU, I don't want to have to deal with customs and all that.

My interest in such a harp is that (1) i love its otherworldly bell-like sound, (2) I am 63 and looking for something to play as I get older. Of course I will continue playing flute, but feel that the harp is calling me at this point, if only to play by myself.

I'm wondering (1) the difficulty level of a folk harp instrument in general, and (2) will I lose a good bit of the desired sound by not playing it with my fingernails.

Thanks! Jeff Zajac

What is your reason for not wanting to play with your fingernails? My understanding of wire harp is that part of the reason the nails are used is because the strings are more closely spaced than a nylon/gut strung harp-- so using the nails is a bit of a necessity?

I don't see why you couldn't use guitar finger picks instead, though? I'm thinking you will lose volume by playing with the pads of your fingers instead.

Harpcolumn.com has a forum which might be helpful in information; I know some people there play wire harp.

Recently, there has been a series of articles in the Folk Harp Journal (https://folkharpsociety.org/folk-harp-journal/), specifically about playing wire strung harp with the fingertips. The sound will be different, since the release of the string from the fingertip is "slightly" softer than the fingernail release. Derek Bell, of the Chieftains, played both ways.

dave boling

scattering_mud wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:12 am Any advice as to makers and learning sources? ...

I'm wondering (1) the difficulty level of a folk harp instrument in general, and (2) will I lose a good bit of the desired sound by not playing it with my fingernails.

I play harp too. There's quite a range of clarsachs, folk harps (diatonic); regional (Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Pakistan) and European traditional harps.

A wire strung harp will need to withstand the higher tensions than gut string/silk or nylon - so you will need to research the build styles for a solid one. The cheap and ornately carved ones from Pakistan are surprisingly playable; tuning might drift but that is the nature of the harp - it is the string length that vibrates so it's not a issue unlike flutes with fixed tone hole distances ...

There are many primers and self-teaching youtube videos for technique. Victoria Lynn Schultz's "You can play the harp" is a primer for absolute beginners with no grasp of written music. Pamela Bruner's is a bit more focussed on the celtic tradition. Having at least 6 lessons to learn the hand positionings and then cobbling up the rest from self-learning and online resources is the least I'd recommend. One of my students spent months playing wrong from misreading youtubes and it took months to undo the bad habits.

You can play with fingernails and the flesh tips of the fingerpad. We actully use both. You won't get a good sound on a concert bass string no. 35 with a nail - this requires the fingerpad to pluck and resonate the string length. Similarly the flesh pad of the finger won't reach the upper recesses of the highest notes in the apex of the harp - that's what the finger nail does. We dont' tend to wear picks on harp playing, even with concert bass silver wire strings.

It is such a fun instrument - just get a decent 28 - 31 string to 34 string (if you can). I prefer lever harps (chromatic) but the portable diatonic is great for noodling around; or a pick up when you need some fun

scattering_mud wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:12 am
I'm wondering (1) the difficulty level of a folk harp instrument in general, and (2) will I lose a good bit of the desired sound by not playing it with my fingernails.

Thanks! Jeff Zajac

There's some confusion in the replies to you. I play a levered folk harp, which is a gut/nylon & wire strung instrument. The modern folk harp/celtic harp is a descendant of european gut strung instruments from the medieval period. The levers were added to make it chromatic. The clarsach is a purely wire strung instrument that uses very fine wires throughout in very close spacing. It is the traditional instrument of the gaels (Ireland, Scotland etc) and is the only really traditional irish harp. But the folk harp is more popular. The two instruments are barely related other than both being nominally harps. Like all instruments harps have their difficultly. They are easy to get a nice sound from, but as soon as you start playing to speed finger placement and correct technique are what's difficult. Like everything else. With harp you will find the beginning stages progress quite quickly then you hit a plateau at around early intermediate level and things require more fineses with the hands from that point onwards.

The bass strings on a clarsach are not big thick wound strings like they are on a gut/nylon instrument. So the comment about using the pads because they are too thick does not apply to the instrument you are enquiring about.

So whats behind the desire to not use fingernails? It's very easy to do and in fact easier than constantly clipping your nails short as folk harpists need to do. Are you concerned because you don't have good strong nails? Or is it just the unfamiliarity with the technique? The longer sustain of wire strings compared to folk harps means that the technique to play the clarsach is entirely different to the technique of playing folk harps. If the clarsach is the instrument you love then just commit to learning how to play that. It is it's own instrument with it's own technique. You are better off to find a community of clarsach players. That instrument is not typically played by ITM sessions players, so people involved with that won't be able to help you much. It's kind of it's own genre now. I did once want to play a clarsach but decided not to because I would have to learn technique from scratch. You can't transfer many skills from one type of harp to the other because they are so different.