Virtual harp

When you are writing music for harp it's hard to keep track of pedal changes. What you need is a reminder so you always know which pedal is where - and therefore what notes are available. A kind of virtual harp...

The picture shows the prototype. Yours will be much posher - see the pdf.

Step 1 Print out the pdf

Instructions

1. Print the pdf onto 160gsm card with p2 on the back
2. With a sharp knife, cut along all the dotted lines

You should now have a half page with seven sets of slots and seven strips marked with note names

3. Take the strip marked Db D D# and slide the top edge (i) into the lowest left hand slot (marked 1)
4. Turn the paper over and slide the top edge of strip D through the next slot up
5. Turn back to the front of the sheet, and slide the top edge of strip D through the next slot up (3)
6. Turn the paper over and slide the top edge of strip D through the next slot up
You should now have a kind of woven effect, with the strip showing at the top and bottom.

The strips should slide up and down and show the letter name in the window.

7. Repeat the process for the remaining strips
Now work through your music, moving the strips as you go along. Now you always know what pedal settings are current, and what notes you can use.

Comments

[djblanch]

Yup, .pdf with directions and its link to the .pdf template both worked for me, too. Thanks for sharing your idea!

[Brackinese]

That's so clever! While I don't write music (yet), I've had to write pedals in on pieces that were obviously not written for harpists - remembering what's where is really painful. Plus, I work at an ensemble, so all the pedal harpists would love this. (Publicity for you!) Just a note on your last page: in general, the reason for playing a chromatic scale would be for jazz. Generally, jazz doesn't require the kind of buzz-free playing that classical music does; pedal slides and pedal kicks are encouraged. Park Stickney (wonderful jazz harpist) actually puts his pedals halfway between one half step and another to purposefully buzz the string. At times, he sounds exactly like a guitar.

[LDW]

Thank you - glad you like it. Feel free to circulate it to any pedal harpists you know. Good point on the jazz style, thanks - and thanks too for putting me on to Park Stickney, who I hadn't heard before. Great stuff!

[Brackinese]

As a side note, your PDF doesn't work. I decided not to mention that in the first comment because it's been awhile since you posted it, so I wasn't sure if Instructables had given up on you or something. xD But it shows two blank pages, and a message comes up that says "An error has occurred. There is a number out of range." And then it says to contact the person who made the PDF. So there you are! Monika Stadler is another good jazz harpist. She's also got more in the way of sheet music for sale.

[LDW]

Odd - it works fine for me.