Basic Harp For Beginners Kindle Edition

I should say firstly, that this book is best described as a beginner’s reference guide only and not a first choice of how to learn to play the harp. While you will learn a great deal from this book, I can only cite it as good reference material, in addition to a good primary syllabus. If you wish to learn; I can highly recommend the Sylvia Woods tutorial “Teach yourself to play the folk harp”. While I am certain there are other good tutorials out there, I am still learning from the Sylvia Woods program series and know firsthand it works.

This is the book you NEED if you want to learn harp by yourself. It shows it all, from hand postions, finger placement, and how to read music. Harp music is more or less the same as piano music. Purchased this for my wife to learn how to play the Harp like she has always wanted. Learning how to read music is defeniatly part of that process. Very Glad that its in this book.

I find learning from this book to be somewhat frustrating. Part of the problem is that it seems to be written for a young person who needs firm guidance. For example emphatic directives like "DO NOT PLAY YET" and "OOPS! Did you look at your fingers play? Probably." As an older student who has written a number of tutorials, I find it much more motivating to work from guidance that simply tells me what I need to do.The book also falls short in the use of photographs. For example, page 26 includes a picture of hand placement that seems critically important. The image is so faint and washed out that I can barely tell where the harp strings are in relation to her fingers. Similar photos on pages 14, 15 and 17 are nearly as bad.If this book were improved, it would play a much more central role in my journey to learn the folk harp. As it stands, I am making better progress watching youtube videos that provide harp instruction. They allow me to study hand placement and technique much more easily.That doesn't mean I'm giving up on Riley's lessons though. I think that her music samples and notations will be more useful once I have gotten further along.

And I am a beginner. A 65 year old beginner. I often find beginner's books on things tend to talk down to me, but this one treats the student with respect. I am very happy with this book, working my way through it, and happy with my progress as guided by the book. Five stars without a doubt.

Basic practice.

This book is dreadful. I can't believe it's published by a reputable company like Mel Bay. I have no idea how anyone can learn to play the harp from this book. I can play guitar and ukulele so understand music and have experience with stringed instruments, but am frustrated with this book. It's not well thought out. You have to add your own notations to everything - the ones provided are confusing and not easy to follow along. Do yourself a favor - don't waste your money on this one. Instead buy Sylvia Woods Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp. I'm focusing on that one and progressing very well. I'm already playing real music thanks to the Sylvia Woods book!

It’s a great book, easy to follow and really helps. However, it doesn’t consider smaller harps (mine is a 12-string) and that’s why it gets 4 stars instead of 5

Bought a harp for my son. Was a random purchase. Glad to find this basic beginner music book for the new harp.

The photos are printed so faintly they are almost impossible to to make sense of . The rest of the book is good.

This Harp teaching book feels really dated and the photographs in it are of appalling quality, like very poor photocopies. There are better harp teaching books on the market. Not worth the money.

Absolutely wonderful for the beginner. The tunes you can achieve does depend on the number of strings on you harp. I've started with 12 which is a baby and a lot of tunes are out of its range. Ideally a 22 string would be best. That said this book is easy to understand and a definite necessity for the beginner.

A gift for my sister who has just got her first harp with no musical training whatsoever and this book is very helpful.

It's a very thin book, although its contents are somewhat useful. We got this book because my wife wanted to know more about harps before making a purchase. Bear in mind that this is a very basic book. I think (taking my wife's case) a trip to talk to those nice people in the Hobgoblin shop would have proved more valuable. Still, the book is nicely written.