I have had several people tell me that this is actually not true; that the
instrument is responding to stiff fingers or slightly flawed technique that
corrects itself with a bit of practice.
I found that the stiff wood theory might actually be the more correct. I
was playing my harp, which had been unused for several days, and found it
unresponsive, tight, and with little sustain. After about half an hour it
began to open up, and sounded great. Then I moved another instrument, which
was in for a repair, to the practice place and started with it. The
repaired harp was just as stiff as mine for a while, but began to open up
with use.
Certainly my fingers didn't change from warmed up to stiff in the two
minutes it took to change harps!
Howard
At 12:02 AM 1/4/97 +0200, you wrote:
>I was detained tonight by my harp. I have tried to play a few times this
>week, but I couldn't "hear" it. It just didn't sound right at all. I
>figured it was because my head has been congested and decided not to play a
>lot. And because every time I tried I felt like that- played a bit of a song
>or two and then got frustrated because it sounded tinny and weird; it went
>out of tune from lack of attention. Tonight it called to me, and I tuned it
>up. I played and it still sounded dull and tinny. I moved it to a new
>place; still weird. I feared I'd "lost the musical soul" of the instrument,
>or something. Then I played my new Telltale Harps c.d. for my harp - it was
>right beside the speakers. I played a couple songs, then turned off the
>stereo. I wasn't consciously playing this for the harp, by the way, in fact
>I was checking a tape I'd made and played the c.d. by chance. Then I tried
>the harp again. You would swear it was a different instrument! Suddenly it
>could sing again. It was the strangest thing!!
>
>Now I want to know- does this happen to anybody else? Could it be something
>in the air? Humidity has dropped 20% in my house in the last week, could
>that do it? Why would it sound so dead until it heard Telltale Harps, and
>then suddenly ring again? I'm not kidding, it was like there was no
>sustain, and then there was...
>
>Ideas?
>
>Shawn
>*******************************************************************************
>sbird@dpts.schdist57.bc.ca
>
> sic transi gloria mundi...
> **********************************************************************
>
>
Howard
hbryan@pipeline.com