Stures Schottis

Här jag sitter och spelar "Stures Schottis" för trädormbunkarna. Älskar akustiken i växthuset.
Here i am, playing "Stures Schottis" (trad. Swedish) for the treeferns. This is actually where i work, so pleeeeeezz don't tell my boss about it.

[@weltsauerstoff]

Lyckliga ormbunkar! :)

[@d3xd3ath]

hi, I'm admiring so much your style and skills!! where did you study playing the cross harp? who is the builder of the instrument?

[@saitenwurstchen8072]

Thank you so much for your comment! I started playing the cross-strung harp in the beginning of 2015, but I had been playing the diatonic harp for more than 20 years before that. There are not so many teachers for the cross-strung harp around, so I simply taught myself and developed my own technique, which is very much inspired by the classical technique for the pedal harp with the thumbs always pointing upwards. I built that harp myself in a course organised by the Klangwerkstatt ( www.klangwerkstatt.de) in Germany. Their courses are excellent and open to everyone, no previous knowledge needed. I had already built my Irish harp and my Bohemian harp at their workshops before I made the cross-strung harp. Do you also play the harp?

[@d3xd3ath]

wow, you also are an harp builder, my congratulations!! yes I heard about klangwerkstatt about 4 years ago, when I was investigating about the double /triple & cross harp techniques , from Vanessa D'aversa - a Italian jazz cross harp player. I'm an electric diatonic harp amateur, studying the harp therapy in Milano, but sometimes I feel like having a dejavu when I watch/listen to chromatic harp players, especially 6x6 cross, and a little scared about a new difficult beginning, of its merits and limits but also it's charming me marvelously. May I ask you if you feel complete playing the cross harp, or still have fun turning back to pedal/levers harp? thanks a lot, have a good harp time!!

[@saitenwurstchen8072]

Wow, you play the electric harp! That is fantastic! I watch a lot of folks playing the electric harp on KZbin and I find it amazing how versatile that instrument is and with how much creativity people use all its features. I must admit that I have been neglecting my other harps a bit since I started playing the 6/6 harp. It took me some time to get used to the massive huddle of strings in the beginning, but the logic of this system with the two complementary whole tone scales is just marvellous. The pattern for any scale or chord is always the same, whatever your base note is. That makes improvising so easy. Are you considering taking up the cross strung harp?

[@d3xd3ath]

well well well... it would be fantastic having some experience on cross 6x6 o even 5x7 till buying one, but as you know there are almost nobody that plays it in north Italy. Also the last 5 years were very intense about job/family/health, and honesty I'm not ready to exchange my electric with a chromatic one yet, I mean having both economically it's impossible now. Above all I'm still dreaming to build an unconventional polyphonic chromatic harp and learn to play it. Even for future harp therapy job I might have more a double parallel strings harp than an electric ordinary or fully chromatic one. Well the 6x6 remains an admirable instrument that momentarily for me is in stand by. Have a nice time!! Cheers!! p.s. also I always thought about 432kHz harp 😜

[@saitenwurstchen8072]

Well, it is a good thing that you already have the electric harp, so you can make great music with that one while looking around and trying out other types of harps over the years or building your own experimental harps at home. There might not be many cross-strung harpists in northern Italy right now, but those harps keep spreading. There are also lots of harp gatherings taking place everywhere in Europe every year. I am sure you will get lots of occasions to play on cross-strung harps and double-strung harps and other types of harps. And I will hopefully get to try out an electric harp one day! Good luck to you! And please let me know if you plan to come to any harp gathering one day.