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Playing the harp with large hands
Hello everyone. I purchased my first harp at Christmas last year. Despite my best efforts to learn to play it, I’m finding myself struggling with the strings. I’m a rather big guy (6’3″) with very large hands (size XXL gloves). While I have no difficulty holding the harp (a 29-string minstrel harp), I do struggle with sounding strings individually due to the thickness of my fingers. I feel like Buddy the elf trying to make toys in Santa’s workshop. Does anyone have any advice on what I can do to avoid contacting multiple strings at once? I truly love the harp, and I would hate to have to give it up just because I have Sasquatch hands.
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5 Replies
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As a woman, I also have large hands (they look like my dad’s hands…) But I had a Harpsicle and the small string spacing was a constant struggle for me. I bought a new harp with peddle string spacing and it has made a world of difference for my playing!
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Definitely watch the videos from Josh Layne; he too is tall and has fairly large hands. Watching the angle that your hands are coming at the strings might help, though ultimately you might find a full size floor harp to be more suitable for you.
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I too have large hands, but I never had problems. I started with a Harpsicle (distance of strings 1.35 mm), now I have a Dusty Strings FH36 (distance between strings at middle C 1.5 mm, one octave below middle C 1.65 mm, one octave above middle C 1.45 mm). If I return to the Harpsicle, which I take with me during holidays, I notice the difference of the different sting spacing during the first minutes, but I quickly get used to it. I do not know the spacing of the stings of your harp, but I think it is not less than 1.3 mm.
The most important thing is that you only play with the small lateral part of your fingertips, and this works only if your fingers are pointing downwards and your thumb upwards. As mentioned watch the videos of Josh Layne like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOHAHKG1KnA&t=8s
I hope you can manage it on your nice small harp.
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it is not mm, I mean cm! Sorry about that.
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Thank you for your response, Titia. Yes, the harp is a Roosebeck. I didn’t want to invest too much into a harp until I was certain that I would be able to play it. I’ve had the same issue with playing guitar. I’ve learned over my 42 years of guitar playing that I’m restricted to wide-neck guitars such as classicals and certain makes/models of acoustics and electrics.
Thank you also for the recommendation for Josh Layne’s YouTube videos. I will certainly check them out to see if he can offer any additional advice.
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