Kinds of Harps

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Briawna Howard, and I'm here today at Summerhays Music Center in Salt Lake City, Utah to talk about the different kinds of harps. There are three main types of harps that we will talk about today, and we will start with the largest, which is a pedal harp. A pedal harp is usually used for symphony and orchestral playing or for concert solo playing, and it has seven pedals on the bottom, which are controlled by the feet. Each pedal has three slots or three positions that it can be in. For the natural note, the flat note, or the sharp note position. That changes the chromatic action on the harp similar to the function of a black key on a piano. The next kind of harp is somewhat smaller, and a little bit simpler to make and to operate, and it's the lever harp. Rather than controlling the chromatic action with pedals and using the feet a lever harp has a small lever attached to each string, which can have only two positions. Either down or up. When the lever is in the up position the pitch of that particular string is raised by a half step. For example, we can have a C or a C sharp. The last kind of harp we have here is also a lever harp, but it is just quite a bit smaller, and it is called a lap harp. It can be usually afixed with a strap to be carried or have a lap bar that can be used to be held on the lap. These are very portable, and good for things like folk playing or music therapy in hospitals or hospice situations. Because is has not quite as many strings as the other two kind you are limited on the amount of solo playing that you can do on a harp like this."