H66 - On Playing the Harp

My harp lessons

I have played lever harp for almost 10 years, and very soon I may be adding pedal harp to my play cycle.Realizing Yolanda's book as a great reference source, I bought it years ago, flipped through it, and read very useful tips - her writing style is brief, and to the point. Many of her chapters consist of only a page or two, but that's good. Her choices to 'chapterize' learning of this instrument by addressing particular issues unique to harp was a fine choice. I am now reading it cover to cover to absorb everything I can from it.I am beginning to teach my own students, and use Yolanda's book as a reference source. I believe every harp player needs to have this in his/her collection as a resource - if you cannot afford it, try your local public library. The photography illustrating hand positions is very clear and useful, and the suggested exercises for finger strengthening top-notch.I read some of the other reviews of this title, and I do take issue with one reviewer who states that the harp is the most difficult instrument to play. Perhaps this person was referring to the pedal harp, and it certainly does require a lot more concentration and the use of all four limbs to play strings and pedals, but I have found playing the lever harp to be perhaps one of the easiest instruments to play - I find instruments like the piano much more formidable, because of the shape of the black keys - my hands are not the right shape to play.I have found harp a delightful instrument, and a good one for a person entering the study of instrumental music. One cannot get a more pure sound with any other instrument as easily. The reason I have made this observation of another reviewer's comments here is to reach out to a potential harp player who might be reading reviews of this book and would be put off by the "difficult-to-play" statement. All of us can play music of some sort - we just have to put in the time to feel it, experience it, and have it come from within.I wish Ms. Kondonassis the best of luck in her career, and look forward to any other publications she may create and share with us.

Fundamentals fundamentals fundamentals. This book has wonderful commentary to support your study with a teacher OR for beginning the harp on your own. It is all exercises, so a supplementary repertoire book will be needed if you want to play music, however this book can be used for your whole career in keeping chops up to snuff.

A new standard for harp playing technique. My teacher insisted I get this book( more of a textbook really). It’s of the Carlos Salzedo school of harp technique and is very thorough. My only criticisms are it needs additional pictures in some of the early chapters for clarification and visualization of basic bodily positions and please offer a spiral bound version that’s friendly on a music stand. I had mine spiral bound later for ease of use but when will this be the standard for music text publishing?

Yolanda Kondonassis is a masterful musician on what is considered the most difficult instrument to play. This is an excellant companion book to lessons with a music instructor. Her explanations are clear, the pictures illustrate the points well and the book has a progression of easy to more difficult practice patterns. Definitely recommend that it be added to the serious harp student's library.

This is by far the best book I've gotten with good information on learning to play the harp. It has all sorts of helpful exercises for strengthening your fingers as well and placement, and reading the music.

This is a great book of exercises for harpers and harpists of all levels of experience. It has helped me get back into playing my harp in a relatively painless manner.

This book is very informative for beginners to advance.

I was a bit worried about this as I thought it might relate only to pedal harpists (and while I play pedal harp, I do not teach it.) However, it has only a few exercises that are not applicable to lever harps, so I am happy to recommend it to my folk harp students. The warm up drills are especially useful. Kind of wish I had had it when I was starting out!