Learning to play the harp

[Anonymous]

I have recently rented a harp and signed up for online lessons. I am thoroughly enjoying it, I love the harp and would recommend the small school it’s Handsonharps in Gloucester.

[DowrgiParticipant]

That sounds fun, Angela. I am glad you’re enjoying the experience. Harps are rather expensive instruments, so being able to rent one makes it much more accessible for a beginner. Have you ever played any other instruments?

Bennathow
/|\

[Anonymous]

Hi Dowrgi, I think renting a musical instrument to try it is a very good idea. With Handsonharps there is the option to buy the harp at a later date which is what I will probably do. As for playing other musical instruments, not really. I played the recorder in junior school which I used to enjoy and in my mature years I had a clarinet but struggled to get a note out of it and gave up.

[GreywolfKeymaster]

My latest eccentricity is trying to make a 12th century style Welsh bardic harp out of a block of oak from an old tree that fell a few years ago. This despite my dubious woodworking skills. In woodwork at school the only thing I remember making successfully was a garden dibber!
Meanwhile, I have my trusty Stoney End harp that I bought from the makers in the USA and had shipped over because it worked out about £150 cheaper than buying it here in the UK. It plays beautifully and holds its tuning very well. Not being a brilliant musician, one of the things I love about harps is that it’s really hard to make them sound anything other than lovely, even when you’re striking notes more or less randomly!
Have you heard the thing about holding a harp up to the wind and listening for its secret name in the sound of the wind through the strings?
Many blessings,
Greywolf /|\

[Anonymous]

That’s a nice notion Greywolf, holding the harp in the wind to listen to its secret name. Lovely!

[Anonymous]

I have been looking for Irish or equivalent Ceile de Spiritual chant unaccompanied and have discovered Seanl nos singing. However I haven’t found a spiritual element to it on the internet the songs seem to be about mundane topics. So I think I will teach myself irish and music and try and write them for the harp. Next few years sorted.Lol| I’m looking for something very soulful but can’t find it.
I’m wondering if ceile de is the mystical body of the church of England with King Charles wearing his kilt and having Scottish reverends attending to the spiritual needs of the military. That would explain the annimosity or underlying annimosity I experienced in Yorkshire.

[Anonymous]

I think the Scottish Celtic spirituality originated in Ireland anyway, the fore bears so to speak.

[DowrgiParticipant]

Morning Angela,

Tapping into the tradition of the Scots and Irish Sean-nós singing, there are the traditional (Scots) Gaelic psalms as they are still sung in congregations around Gàidhealtachd and certain highland and island areas of Scotland. You might find this interesting to check out. Just look up ‘traditional Gaelic psalm singing Scotland’, and you’ll find plenty of material online.

I think the Scottish Celtic spirituality originated in Ireland anyway, the fore bears so to speak.

Indeed, the Gaelic language, and thus much Gaelic culture, traces its origins to Ireland, but don’t forget that large swathes of Scotland were populated by the Picts and the Britons, and later by Norsemen and Anglo-Saxons. This is still remembered in the various histories of Scottish clans to this day. The Brittonic kingdoms of Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North) included parts of what is now southern Scotland. Norn, a language descended from Old Norse, was spoken in the Orkneys and Shetlands until the mid-19th century.

Bennathow
/|\

[Anonymous]

Morning Dowrgi,

thanks for your reply, I’ll look into that later. I hope you are well, the forum seems very quiet.

[Author]

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