Holding the harp

[Sarah]

Hi Jennifer, @jennifer.born As far as I’m aware it is quite ok to rest your right forearm on the soundboard. (Though perhaps not for the purpose of steadying the harp itself.) I gather you’ve probably seen Laurie Riley’s Play Pain Free for a Lifetime – Laurie Riley CME – YouTube which someone else mentioned on this platform and I found to be very helpful. (Thanks to whoever shared – but can’t find that feed just now.) I hope you can settle into a good playing position. I seem to be getting tension in my left shoulder when I play but not sure what I am doing wrong.

Anyway, welcome to the joy and beauty of the harp. I’m loving the experience.

[Jennifer born]

Thank you Sarah 😊 I appreciate your response! I have watched that video and I thought I had it, but then I have found that I don’t have enough leverage to keep playing. I wish I had a harp teacher close by.

Thanks again! 😊

[Sylvia Lim]

Hi Jennifer, Harps have a “balance point.” If you tip the harp back toward you, there should be a place where it can stand fairly easily without tipping forward or backward. That’s where it should be. You then adjust yourself so that you can move to the harp and meet it there at that spot (in other words, you are thinking of yourself going forward to the harp, not leaning your upper body back to become a shelf for the harp to sit on). The harp should be gently resting somewhere between your right clavicle and right shoulder. Once there, you should have a fair amount of freedom of movement for your arms. You can test this by moving your hands to different positions on the strings.

While you can rest your right forearm on the soundboard at times, it shouldn’t really be for the purposes of stabilizing the harp.