harp question scales thank u

[javismiles]

dear all
finally I managed to make the harp data packets work, so its all working perfect now the glissando harp with the data packets etc,

one quick question, i see that in some of them , ok , I play a glissando with the white keys, then put the packet and yes it sounds what the packet says, but sometimes some notes are repeated in different parts of the glissando, is this because of the harp stuff with the pedals, meaning that some notes sometimes have to be necessarily repeated? sorry Im no expert in the harp so I have to ask so as I say in some of the packets if u play a total white keys glissando u get beautiful scale but some notes repeated throughout it , and I was wondering if this is just because of the way the harp works, I know the stuff about the pedals to make the sharps etc etc, but I thought u could still create a scale without having to repeat notes in the middle

thank u for any help

Jav

[stmain]

Hi Jav, though Gary, who's a harpist, could easily answer this for you, let me jump in and say that, yes, you're essentially correct, the repeated notes are a result of enharmonic tunings created by the harp pedals.

Most harp glisses that people hear DON'T involve a straight scale of any kind, but in fact CHORDS of different kinds. So, if you wanted to end a piece in C major, say, you'd tune your harp pedals to the following notes: C, D, E, Fflat, G, A, Bsharp. That combination makes the traditional "harpy" sounding pentatonic chord that the ear expects (there are many other glissando chords in the harpist's repertory -- that's just a basic one). But notice that there will be two "repeated" notes in each octave: the E/Fflat, and the Bsharp/C. When the harpist plays the gliss really quickly, the ear doesn't hear it as repeated notes.

Make sense? Hope that helps.

Steve Main

[javismiles]

dear Steve, beautiful explanation, thanks a lot
so I understand now, thats also what I thought , that once u play it real fast , like at least in 1/32 they dont really sound repeated and only when played slower u can see the repetitions, very very interesting
thanks a lot
Jav

Hi Jav, though Gary, who's a harpist, could easily answer this for you, let me jump in and say that, yes, you're essentially correct, the repeated notes are a result of enharmonic tunings created by the harp pedals.

Most harp glisses that people hear DON'T involve a straight scale of any kind, but in fact CHORDS of different kinds. So, if you wanted to end a piece in C major, say, you'd tune your harp pedals to the following notes: C, D, E, Fflat, G, A, Bsharp. That combination makes the traditional "harpy" sounding pentatonic chord that the ear expects (there are many other glissando chords in the harpist's repertory -- that's just a basic one). But notice that there will be two "repeated" notes in each octave: the E/Fflat, and the Bsharp/C. When the harpist plays the gliss really quickly, the ear doesn't hear it as repeated notes.

Make sense? Hope that helps.

Steve Main