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Topic: The Pedal Harp |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 18 Mar 2018 6:41 pm |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqVaPZABMTg
If you're interested in how the mechanism of the pedal steel guitar works you'll be fascinated with how the pedal harp works.
We've talked about it, but here, Nancy Allen gives one of the best demonstrations of the action that I've seen.
The invention of the pedal steel must have been inspired by the pedal harp. |
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Jeffrey McFadden
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 18 Mar 2018 7:18 pm Re: The Pedal Harp
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqVaPZABMTg
If you're interested in how the mechanism of the pedal steel guitar works you'll be fascinated with how the pedal harp works.
We've talked about it, but here, Nancy Allen gives one of the best demonstrations of the action that I've seen.
The invention of the pedal steel must have been inspired by the pedal harp. |
I play a harp. Not a pedal harp, a lever harp, 33 strings. It's part of why I had such a hard time making peace with finger picks - and part of why I use 4 of them.
There are some very "harp-y" things about the pedal steel. The way we pick our desired notes out of the forest of strings. Pedal steel is part harp, part guitar, and part magic.
And the harp, like the pedal steel, is amazingly flexible. It will do way more than make the "welcome to heaven" sound. Here's one of my teachers. https://youtu.be/pECeohhUBSs
_________________
Well up into mediocrity
I don't play what I'm supposed to.
Home made guitars |
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Chance Wilson
From:
California, USA
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Posted 18 Mar 2018 8:35 pm
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| Those are both interesting videos. I had always assumed the pedaled levers could only be used for changes but in the first video, she picks once and pedals through b/natural/#. So should we start calling “pick + palm blocking etouffee? Cool hand lever b5 in the second clip too. |
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Dale Isakson
From:
Alaska, USA
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Posted 18 Mar 2018 10:43 pm
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| I like the colored string concept! Might help me get my grips right! |
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Richard Stoops
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 4:01 am the pedal harp
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| Do you know if anyone has tried playing country music on a harp? Seems like it might be a unique sound ... might be something to try. |
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manny escobar
From:
portsmouth,r.i. usa
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 4:53 am
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| Gibson Electraharp was identified as a chord changer in the Alvino Rey era. |
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Ken Boi
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 5:13 am
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Very interesting video. Thanks. I had no clue the harp had pedals.
Funny how they call 'muting' as 'muffling', or 'etouffeeing'. Maybe I'll start using that word when around fellow players just to get some funny looks.
For those that complain about hauling around a heavy PSG, well, stay away from the harp. 
This video led to a subsequent one that really applies to all instruments:
https://youtu.be/qbrjgvYO5dI |
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Jeffrey McFadden
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 5:37 am Re: the pedal harp
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| Richard Stoops wrote: |
| Do you know if anyone has tried playing country music on a harp? Seems like it might be a unique sound ... might be something to try. |
I don't know if anyone has, but Deborah Henson-Conant (DHC in the harp world) certainly could if the urge struck her. https://youtu.be/VZNz8IM__9M
_________________
Well up into mediocrity
I don't play what I'm supposed to.
Home made guitars |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 6:16 am
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The parallel with the concert harp is pretty obvious, but how about the French horn? Yes, seriously.
What marks out modern pedal steel playing is the audible movement of the pedals, which was never the intention with the harp or early steel guitars. We have Bud Issacs to thank for breaking the mould, but Beethoven had his own Bud Isaacs. When valves first appeared on horns they were to perform a quick key change which would otherwise need to be done by swapping out different lengths of tubing, the presumption being that they would continue to play the limited range of notes available. But players soon recognised that they could stay mentally in one key and fill in the gaps with the one or two valves they had, just as on the E9 we use the A & B pedals to complete a scale. In the slow movement of Beethoven 9 the 4th horn suddenly executes a scale of Ab – literally unheard of – as it’s on an Eb horn it comes out as B major and is a total surprise in a movement of which the home key is Bb!
So then the technical race was on and just as coathangers were replaced with cranks, so the early leaky valves began the move towards their modern form. As with the pedal steel, horns and trumpets soon acquired a 3rd valve that doesn’t get used much, and the modern orchestral horn is in effect a Bb/F universal!
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Bill C. Buntin
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 7:00 am
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del
Last edited by Bill C. Buntin on 23 Mar 2018 6:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 7:17 am
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| Dale Isakson wrote: |
| I like the colored string concept! Might help me get my grips right! |
I've had a couple of students that had problems like this. I told them to take a sharpie pen and color the 8th string red. That seems to be the most common string to use as a base for the thumb. After a while, they were able to play without the red string.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting. |
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Jeffrey McFadden
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 7:59 am
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| Richard Sinkler wrote: |
| Dale Isakson wrote: |
| I like the colored string concept! Might help me get my grips right! |
I've had a couple of students that had problems like this. I told them to take a sharpie pen and color the 8th string red. That seems to be the most common string to use as a base for the thumb. After a while, they were able to play without the red string. |
As a harper already, I seriously considered this, although I would have colored both my E's - open roots - red.
It hasn't been as hard as I expected to begin to see the strings as themselves, but it is a fairly steep curve right at first.
_________________
Well up into mediocrity
I don't play what I'm supposed to.
Home made guitars |
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Dale Isakson
From:
Alaska, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 10:48 am
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| Richard Sinkler wrote: |
| Dale Isakson wrote: |
| I like the colored string concept! Might help me get my grips right! |
I've had a couple of students that had problems like this. I told them to take a sharpie pen and color the 8th string red. That seems to be the most common string to use as a base for the thumb. After a while, they were able to play without the red string. |
I put a dark piece of cloth under my string just forward of the pick-up. Being able to see the strings has helped a lot! |
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Bill Ford
From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 11:26 am Re: the pedal harp
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| Richard Stoops wrote: |
| Do you know if anyone has tried playing country music on a harp? Seems like it might be a unique sound ... might be something to try. |
Lady does San Antonio Rose also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oj7W8nZ9r0
_________________
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!! |
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Richard Stoops
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 12:21 pm the pedal harp
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| I put a piece of adhesive backed black felt between the fret bar and the pick-up on my Wilcox SD10. It made seeing string #3 much easier. I may do the same thing to my Emmons. |
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Bill Ford
From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 2:30 pm
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Didn't Hank Thompson use a harp in some of the earlier big band western swing recordings?
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Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!! |
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Jeffrey McFadden
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 3:33 pm Re: the pedal harp
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| Bill Ford wrote: |
| Richard Stoops wrote: |
| Do you know if anyone has tried playing country music on a harp? Seems like it might be a unique sound ... might be something to try. |
Lady does San Antonio Rose also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oj7W8nZ9r0 |
I know that lady. She's beyond cool!
_________________
Well up into mediocrity
I don't play what I'm supposed to.
Home made guitars |
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Jeffrey McFadden
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 3:36 pm Re: the pedal harp
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| Richard Stoops wrote: |
| I put a piece of adhesive backed black felt between the fret bar and the pick-up on my Wilcox SD10. It made seeing string #3 much easier. I may do the same thing to my Emmons. |
I think chromed necks are crazy. I'd much prefer a dark color. Took me days to even find my first 3 strings. 'Course, I'm in scheduling for cataract surgery. Cataracts aren't that great for seeing hair-fine steel strings against chrome, either.
_________________
Well up into mediocrity
I don't play what I'm supposed to.
Home made guitars |
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Chance Wilson
From:
California, USA
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 4:29 pm
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| One of the first western swing bands added harpist Spike Featherstone sometime during the war. Dig the Beethoven’s 9 and french horn stuff-I have been listening to that regularly since Kubrick starting using it. The reason why Beethoven had significantly less symphonic output than his big name predecessors is not because of him going deaf, it’s because they had patronage. I’ll take steel over french horn any day-we got it easy. I was in an orchestra once and a rodent came out of the bassoon on stage. Another time, I saw a flautist who kept candy in her case inhale a bunch of ants. |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 19 Mar 2018 11:20 pm
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Chance, that's why I prefer playing brass to woodwinds. No creature would care to live in my trombone 
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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