Anyone with experience with harp?

[ClockworkBlue]

Dd is 7 and has been begging to learn to play the harp after seeing another pupil perform in school assembly 2 years ago.

Both Dh and I are musical but have never played the harp. How difficult is it to learn to play the harp, any pros and cons, obviously logistically might be a challenge. Any advice welcome. Thanks!

Great age and great instrument to start with - they begin on a lever harp (clarsach). It sounds nice from the start not like the hellish experience of listening to violin students or recorders 🤣.
Only downside is the expense of it but you can rent an instrument to start with from Pilgrim Harps, the Clarsach society or similar.

My daughter is 6 and started playing the harp at 4. She's preparing for her grade 3 exams at present. She found it easy to learn and enjoys her lessons with her teacher. She has a Salvi 27 string lever harp, we started with a hire harp for the first year to ensure commitment (as she was so young). Now she has her own harp. Logistically having to transport it to performances is interesting, but a decent boot space in the car helps.

It's a lovely instrument and the neighbours can't get enough of hearing it every evening lol.

Beautiful to listen to, great instrument to learn. Terrible instrument when you need to transport it.

You'll need a new car

And she can earn decent money playing in weddings/receptions etc

Definitely good to start with hiring to see if she can commit, but when buying I would recommend getting at least 34 strings as she'll grow out of anything smaller very quickly.

Mine is also working on grade 3 but we moved onto a 34 string as most if not all pieces need lower strings. Can I ask which exam board your daughter is taking?

Thanks for your recommendations. She's a very petite 6 year old and therefore the 34 strings was way too big for her then and she wasn't comfortable. Definitely something we're looking at after her grades as she's grown a lot more recently.

We're taking the exam with ABRSM. How about you?

Yes, I understand about the size. They are very big instruments for small children!

We are doing ABRSM too. Just wondered when you said she's working on grade 3 with her 27 stringed harp as on their website it says "The pieces from Grade 3 are generally for instruments with E- tuning and with a minimum of 34 strings (pitch of bottom string: C two octaves below middle C, or lower)."

Nevertheless harp is a beautiful instrument to look at and listen to

Practicalities of such a large instrument mainly. I opted for a lyre instead, though considered a lap harp.

My sister played - great advantage is that you can't make a horrible noise on it! As others have said, if you get good at it you can make good money playing functions, cruises etc

You will need an estate car or similar to move around, and possibly a wheely upright trolley thing as well.

Thanks all for your advice and recommendations. We'll look into renting one first and get in touch with someone teaching locally. Luckily I drive an estate so should be ok 🤞 we've been listening to lots of harp on YouTube lately!