5 pedals??

[Aydenosine]

Pianists: we use pedals
Harpists: introducing manual transmissions

[kousan]

suddenly driving a car seems like child's play

[joshuacooper]

This seriously broke my brain. I thought every note had a separate string.

[HermodOnAir]

You changed my perception of harpists from angelicales talented musicians to some kind of steampunks badasses geniouses.
Love it.

[sergypoooh]

I had no idea. That instantly makes the harp 100x more difficult in my mind

[Amlink]

The harp just went from I’ll never be able to play it to I’m scared to even try

[theone]

Organ players: time to make an entrance..

[raffichen]

This is actually brilliant. I'm dumbfounded by harp technique and this offers a bit of an explanation.

[octocreeper]

"and this pedal starts the engine, this one is the clutch"

[OB-LA]

I can't imagine having to think about seven different pedals (with three positions each!) while reading music and playing all at once. I've always loved the harp, but my respect for harpists has just gone through the roof.

[rexx]

Used to think harps were the easiest instrument because i only see them pluck the strings, now seeing this, i feel respect for all harpists

[TheSkandranon]

I didn't even know a Harp had pedals. I love learning new things

[redwren]

sudden key change horror - i can only imagine.

[hotflashfoto]

I have always admired those who play any instrument. This just adds to my admiration and respect for those who enrich my life with melodies that make me feel good.

[mapurite]

Mind-blowing! I didn't know that! 🤯 I already love classic music and greatly respect musicians, but it takes everything to a new level

[clutteredchicagogarage]

I am an amateur pianist. My daughter is learning the harp. It's a fascinating and very beautiful instrument. She's still playing a lever harp, but her teacher is a professional concert pedal harp player, and my daughter will likely transition to pedal harp within the next couple years.

One thing about playing the harp is that you have to control the humidity in your room very rigorously and tune your harp very frequently. Tuning harps is not trivial. When you play 1 C, 5 other C strings resonate, and if you're using a digital tuner, the tuner will not necessarily correctly isolate which note is being played. For me, it's easiest to isolate each string while tuning by stuffing foam wedges in between them so only 1 string can vibrate, and I tune the strings one-by-one. Professional harpists tune their instruments at least once per day. Stravinsky famously said something like "harpists spend 90% of their lives tuning their harps and 10% of their lives playing out of tune".

Having a good humidifier for winter + dehumidifier for summer with a digital hygrometer definitely helps keep the instrument in tune longer, but keeping it perfectly in tune still requires a lot of work!

In any case, regarding pedals, I went to an incredible concert a few months ago by a professional pedal harpist, and it blew my mind how she had to change pedal positioning in one portion of a piece with 2 feet in between every single note she played. She was basically playing at a vivace tempo and switching pedal positions in between 32nd notes or at least 16th notes in rapid succession. It was akin to playing a trill on the piano with the feet while simultaneously playing rapidly with the fingers. It was visually mind-blowing to witness this in a performance.

[etistyle]

"brain.exe has stopped working"

[avananana]

Yap and my respect for harpists just went through the roof. That's genuinely seriously impressive.

[wlodell]

Thank you! I didn’t know that about the harp! To me that helps explain the beautifully transcended melodies.

[thenoob]

Harpists: One pedal per note

Oragnists: *_One pedal per note_*