How do people learn the Harp in 2022

The harp is an ancient instrument that might make you think of Bible times, angels, or old paintings. But, does that apply to the way we learn to play the harp?

As little as ten years ago, your options were learning from a teacher in person or teaching yourself from a book. There wasn’t much available online, so students were often limited to what was offered in their area.

The harp is gaining popularity online

But, in the past few years, there has been more interest in the harp online. This includes social media like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

With the harp’s growing popularity and the prolonged lockdowns in 2020, people had more time on their hands and were excited to learn how to play!

Harp sales increased

With this increased interest, harp makers have seen their order numbers skyrocket!

An article by the New York Times detailed the revival of ancient hobbies like the harp and even referred to someone buying their harp online. After this mention, the harp maker of Fireside Harps saw a sudden jump in sales. They sold over 300 harps in 2020 through Etsy alone!

Harp events went online

Harp events that used to take place in person were forced to adapt. They put in extra effort to embrace the online space so that people from all over the world could attend.

Harp players also missed playing together, so they started creating music by combining their personal videos! How beautiful?

The creativity was endless, with harp performers playing concerts online and harp teachers moving their lessons to Zoom.

Harp players started learning online

Many harp players have embraced online learning too. They’ve either taught themselves through YouTube or benefited from online video courses.

Here are some personal stories from online harp students:

Jasmin (34, from the Czech Republic)

Jasmin taught herself how to play the harp during her parental leave in August 2019. She didn’t want to learn from a teacher as she didn’t want to put time pressure on her learning. She learned exclusively through YouTube videos and online courses. After only two years, she’s already incorporated her harp into her teaching at an elementary school. The children love it!

Watch Jasmin learning to play her harp here!

Caroline (53, from the United Kingdom)

Caroline has carpal tunnel syndrome which meant she had to stop playing the instruments she’d learned. During lockdown, she found harp players on YouTube who inspired her to give it a try! She spent the extra time at home learning exclusively from online courses, and thankfully her carpal tunnel doesn’t affect her harp playing. “This has allowed me to carry on making music, which makes me happy”.

Watch Caroline play her harp here!

Brandy (43, from the USA)

Brandy had almost no musical background when she started to play the harp in August 2020. She learned from online courses and documented her journey by making videos of the first ten songs she learned online. It was amazing to see how she went from an absolute beginner to an intermediate player in the space of a year!

Watch Brandy play her first ten songs here!

Miriam (10, from the USA)

Miriam plays the harp beautifully! You’d assume she started learning with a classical harp teacher at 5-years-old, but that wasn’t the case. She got her first harp for Christmas when she was only 9-years-old and started learning from YouTube videos before progressing to online courses. After ten months, she started one-to-one harp lessons. Her teacher was so impressed with the great harp technique that she’d learned exclusively online!

Watch Miriam’s beautiful cover of Beauty & the Beast here!

Christy-Lyn’s harp story

As a harp teacher, Christy-Lyn from Learning the Harp started creating online courses in 2018 because people on her YouTube channel were asking her for help with their playing.

The demand for harp courses only increased, and she needed to keep up. In 2021, she launched the Learning the Harp membership platform and immediately had over 1000 people sign up for monthly courses!

Since then, she’s been in a bit of a frenzy creating courses and hiring employees (including us!) to keep up with the influx of harp students. It’s been incredibly exciting for us to watch you all progress!

With that in mind, we’re continuously working to improve the content and courses. Here are a few things you can look forward to in the future:

  • New harp teachers! With the extra help, we’ll be able to create more courses at different levels and include more genres of music.
  • Courses on harp-related topics, not just song learning.
  • Zoom workshops where you can learn together LIVE!

It’s so exciting to share this with you as we want to make your harp learning as easy as possible!

The world has embraced moving online, and we’re so happy that we’re able to provide these learning tools! As long as you have the internet, you’ll be able to learn to play the harp no matter where you are in the world.

If you’ve been dreaming of learning to play the harp, maybe now’s the time to give it a try. We’ve just launched our new free 30-day trial! It’s great for those who are interested in our video courses but want to give them a try first. I can’t wait to get you started and continue alongside you during your harp journey.

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Eyesight problems? 10 tips for harp

Learning the harp can be quite a challenging and frustrating thing at times. When you’ve got the added complication of eyesight issues, it can be really discouraging. I’ve asked a few from my membership community what kind of tips they have tried that have worked and helped them – so this advice has already been tried-and-tested.

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  1. So true for the times. A beautiful video Christy-Lyn. Your new venture with teachers and personal attention is so needed. I think your approach has been a bench mark in the world of harp.

  2. I’m very pleased to have been a part of your program since 2021 and I salute you for your new endeavors to grow! May God bless and accompany you on the way, as well as all of us who have– and will–benefit greatly from your work!