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I played guitar until about 22, when I ended up as a bass player in that metal band. I got competent at it, certainly not brilliant. But keyboards have been with me always, and I picked up Celtic harp about 13 years ago.

I played guitar until about 22, when I ended up as a bass player in that metal band. I got competent at it, certainly not brilliant. But keyboards have been with me always, and I picked up Celtic harp about 13 years ago.

Fascinating. I have wanted to learn to play the piano/keyboard. I will probably take that up with the bass guitar. Then see where it takes me, might move onto a sitar or the oud.

The celtic harp is a strange instrument, it can be very beautiful at times. I would not play it personally, it looks very perplexing. Do you consider yourself very good at it? Also, do you have any recordings I could hear of you playing it?

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

I should probably post a harp composition, since its not on my BandMix profile. Here ya'll go ->

http://www.acidplanet.com/components/em ... 464&T=5944

The celtic harp is a strange instrument, it can be very beautiful at times. I would not play it personally, it looks very perplexing. Do you consider yourself very good at it? Also, do you have any recordings I could hear of you playing it?

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Come on kid where have you been? You post on almost every link out here and you didn't catch the thread with the excellent piece Irminsul is playing the harp on?

Come on man you got youth on your side LOL
The youth of today, you have to do everything for them.

Lmao. Whoops. Thanks for the link Wegman.

Wow. The was an absolutely beautiful piece, Irminsul. *Claps* Every instrument sounded astounding.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

It's eaiser than you think - just a little intimidating looking at first. Piano was my first instrument, so it was a fairly easy walk to the celtic harp which is tuned to a common C major scale. There are sharping levers on most or all strings so you can make your different key scales.

If I were to grade myself on the instrument I'd say I was competent - meaning I pick things up pretty fast, can read a lead sheet and can also sit in on most situations and go with the flow. I created my own technique (I have long nails) because I really hated the "classical" finger technique and body position.

I have a good amount of recordings under my belt on the instrument. As far as whole CDs I could recommend "Alchemy" by Stonecircle (I played harp and keyboard in that band) which can be found on Amazon.com and "Aisling" when I played in a two harp duo called "Dha Chlairseach" (pronounced "Ha Khlar-suh", it's Gaelic for "Two Harps") which can be found on CD Baby. And there are some singles floating around out there, like:

A Turn of The Sun
http://www.acidplanet.com/components/em ... 465&T=1081

Winter Night
http://www.acidplanet.com/components/em ... 468&T=1081

Wild Herd
http://www.acidplanet.com/components/em ... 467&T=1081

There are many more but thats a good sampling.

I created my own technique (I have long nails) because I really hated the "classical" finger technique and body position.

Do you get the weird glares too? I have long nails (just on my right hand) for classical and people look at me like I am mental or something. So I am constantly having to explain why the one hand is short and the other not short.

Do you have to sand? For classical if we want great tone we sand the under side of the nails with like 90 grit sand paper. You have to do that?

Personally, I refuse the long nail thing. And it is because of what you said, the "weird glares." Plus, it would annoy me after a while. Thus, I am keeping my nails short and just finger picking everything. Even if I cannot get the exact sound, I do not care, lol.

EDIT:

Irminsul, great stuff man. You are extremely talented. Your stuff has awesome sounds to it. That is why I must take another instrument, because there is a limit to the sounds you can get on a guitar. Well, I should not say that, there are some cool tricks that can be pulled off. But I rather just go learn another instrument (Be more diversified than one instrument).

You can't play classical without nails.

Check out Andre' Segovias claws sometime.

Speaking of Segovia, Enjoy.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=andre+ ... s&ei=UTF-8

There are so many styles and techniques on guitar that once you become proficient you will find more and more to accomplish.

Rock guitar for the most part is pretty basic stuff.

Check out Flamenco sometime and get back to me on how limiting the guitar is.

You can't play classical without nails.

Check out Andre' Segovias claws sometime.

Speaking of Segovia, Enjoy.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=andre+ ... s&ei=UTF-8

Lol. I have played portions of "Asturias" without nails. *Shrug* It is not impossible. I saw Andre Segovias version that is transcribed from guitar. According to the internet it was written for piano by Isaac Albeniz (Accent over the e). It is not horrible to play on guitar, I have also played other portions of classical pieces on guitar with just finger picking. Such as Estudio En Am by Dionisio Aguado.

EDIT:
I did not see your edit, I tend to respond very fast to what I read without checking, sorry about that.

Yes, I know rock guitar can be basic. But I am not really creeped out by a lot of these flamenco or classical pieces. I took a look at Rodrigo and Gabriela, her part is harder than his. I can play his. I cannot play hers, not because of the chord complexity, but because of all the drumming she does with her hand on the side of the guitar.

You can't play classical without nails.

Check out Andre' Segovias claws sometime.

Speaking of Segovia, Enjoy.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=andre+ ... s&ei=UTF-8

Lol. I have played portions of "Asturias" without nails. *Shrug* It is not impossible. I saw Andre Segovias version that is transcribed from guitar. According to the internet it was written for piano by Isaac Albeniz (Accent over the e). It is not horrible to play on guitar, I have also played other portions of classical pieces on guitar with just finger picking. Such as Estudio En Am by Dionisio Aguado.

Go study classical guitar under a teacher and get back to me on the nails thing.

Suffice to say you will take better care of your nails then most women.

I cannot play hers, not because of the chord complexity, but because of all the drumming she does with her hand on the side of the guitar.

Exactly my friend. That is extremely difficult.

Next check out Paco Delucia. He makes her look like a beginner.

You can't play classical without nails.

Check out Andre' Segovias claws sometime.

Speaking of Segovia, Enjoy.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=andre+ ... s&ei=UTF-8

Lol. I have played portions of "Asturias" without nails. *Shrug* It is not impossible. I saw Andre Segovias version that is transcribed from guitar. According to the internet it was written for piano by Isaac Albeniz (Accent over the e). It is not horrible to play on guitar, I have also played other portions of classical pieces on guitar with just finger picking. Such as Estudio En Am by Dionisio Aguado.

Go study classical guitar under a teacher and get back to me on the nails thing.

Suffice to say you will take better care of your nails then most women.

Lmao. I do not want to take care of my nails that good. I already am very picky about them. Yeah, I know under a teacher I would be doomed. But I am breaking the rules for personal comfort.

I will stick to playing it the best way I feel I can. It sounds good if that helps, it also has increased my speed in finger picking to where lots of these arpeggio pieces online come easy to me now.

I created my own technique (I have long nails) because I really hated the "classical" finger technique and body position.

Do you get the weird glares too? I have long nails (just on my right hand) for classical and people look at me like I am mental or something. So I am constantly having to explain why the one hand is short and the other not short.

Do you have to sand? For classical if we want great tone we sand the under side of the nails with like 90 grit sand paper. You have to do that?

Weird stares...dude, look at my picture. Except for the glowy eyes, that's how I look. I have put up with weird stares all my life and by now I don't even notice them anymore!

Having long nails is a hard choice. It's a real pain in the ass. As you know I'm sure, Wegman, you have to watch how you grab things, how you open doors etc. to make sure you don't bust them right before a gig. I can quickly glue on fakeys but I hate their feel. Nothing like your own caratin grabbing them strings.

As for the grit, I've never tried that. The usual harpers trick is to put cellophane tape on your finger tips so that your skin doesn't catch the string and it goes right to the nail. I dont use that but some harpers swear by it. I guess it all depends on the sound you like to get. I had some harpers ask me why I put up with "fingernail noise" on the strings in recordings. To me its all part of the sound, like that signature finger slide sound you get on guitar when you move your fingers over the roundwound strings.

On of the worst arguments I got into with a harper was a classical trained one, who saw me at a performance and all she could do was criticize my stance and my hand position (I also play standing up, propping the harp on a pedestal. I can't stand sitting down to play it). She wasn't even paying attention to the actual music, all she could do was bitch about my technique because it wasn't "right". I ended the conversation by telling her that I play the way I do because it actually HURTS to play the "correct" way - and music should never hurt to play.

Irminsul,

Oh yea the nails thing I know where you are coming from. To alot of people out her it probably sounds weird but breaking a nail sucks. It throws everything off. I never giged doing classical so I could just imagine the stress of breaking one before a gig. It sucks to do it when your practicing.

My teacher made me sand. Using very fine grit sand paper you would sand the underside of the nail. The nail would then slide more then grab the string and you could get a nice clean tone and pluck. It also kept the nails clean of burrs and thus from cracking/breaking.

No it should never hurt to play and many players alter there approach because it works better for them. I know nothing about harping, but I would think standing up or sitting down wouldn't make much difference. Classsical guitar is supposed to be played sitting down, but there are some guys who actually play it standing up. Rik Emmet was one.

As far as getting into it with the classically trained person I pretty much know what was going on there. She probably studied and learned in the perfect anal way of playing and wasn't half as good. So in her mind that bothered her. One should learn the proper technique when learning and then alter it if it suits them.

This is why I always say you have to learn the rules before breaking them. Once you learn them you know how breaking them helps instead of hinders.