Home  |  Music & Dance  |  Instruments  | 

The Harp for Beginners

The Harp

To properly view this site, javascript must be enabled and Flash version 9 or higher must be installed.
Get the latest Flash player

View Comments (Add Comment)

  • sidhelean Flag

    How to play the harp
    Wonderful videos. I can hardly wait to see more and to be able to download, or buy a DVD or whatever. Sheilia

  • Cynthia Cathcart
    www.cynthiacathcart.net  
    (301) 587-6267

    Cynthia is one of the world's experts on the Clarsach, the wire-strung harp of the Highland and Islands of Scotland and of Ireland. Performing and teaching internationally, she is leading a new wave of interest in the wire-strung harp. Based near Washington, DC, Cynthia represents Ardival Harps of Strathpeffer, Scotland and is their North American Artist in Residence. Cynthia is a recording artist, and the author of several books for the clarsach. She holds a number of prestigious awards, including two-time U.S. National Scottish Harp Master Champion, three time winner of the Clan Lamont Trophy (in Virginia, Texas and Ohio), and holder of the Pennington-Grey Award for service to the wire-strung harp.

  • The Harp

    Cynthia Cathcart introduces newcomers to the wire-strung harp, or clarsach (also sometimes called the early Gaelic harp).

    This series: 7,818 views

    Rate this Video

    • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
    Download to Mobile Device
    Tags:

    Harp

    ,

    Play

    ,

    Instrument

    ,

    Music

    ,

    Perform

    Comments:

    1 (Read Comments) (Add Comment)

  • Transcripts

    Hello! My name is Cynthia Cathcart, and I am a teacher, recording artist, performer, and author about the wire-strung harp, and I am here today to introduce you to this really fine instrument. The defining characteristic of this instrument is probably the fact that it is strung with wire strings, literally strings of metal. These are available from specialty music shops. I use brass. I also use silver. You can use gold, and some people use bronze.

    Sometimes its helpful to know what an instrument is or something is by looking it what it is not. I want to very briefly show you a harp that is a little more common. This is a nylon-strung harp or gut-strung. The strings are made of a different substance than wire. You also see these mechanisms here; these are levers, very rare on a wire-strung harp.

    Let me just play a little piece on this for you so you can hear the contrast between what this harps sounds like and what the wire-strung harp sounds like. [01:55-02:17 Music]. I dont play the nylon-strung harp professionally; its a different technique okay. Let me play a little bit of that same tune with a bigger wire-strung harp. They come in different sizes. [02:41-03:04 Music]. Wire-strung harps tend to be a little smaller than the gut or nylon harp. The strings dont need to be as long to get the same pitch because they are denser. So, they tend to be a little smaller. They tend to be harps that you hold on your lap.

Other Videos