harp tuning

[Ron Koval]

Hi all-

As a dad to a young harpist, I've had some experience with these.  I will 
say that I've heard it said that a harpist spends 90% of their time tuning, 
and 10% of their time playing out of tune. :)

I've lurked on the harp list to get some clues, which range from following a 
Korg, with two other spit camps; pure 5ths and pure 3rds.  Compounding the 
issue, there are many more lever harps out there (each individual note has a 
lever near the top that can adjust the not 1/2 step) than full pedal harps.  
Many lever harps are tuned in the key of Eb, allowing more key signatures to 
be used.

So..... red strings are C, black strings are F.  Pure ET sounds funky (busy) 
to many harpists, but because of the pedal mechanism, like Conrad wrote, 
they're stuck with something real close.

No matter what you do, it will be out of tune by the next day, (you think a 
piano moves with humidity?) so just set it quick, and go over a second time. 
  Minimal stretch, or just playing octaves and doubles will get you close to 
where you want to be.  Figure 10 minutes tops for a few times, if you keep 
moving.

Ron Koval
Chicagoland

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