Picking up from yesterday –
The most fascinating part were the pedals.
Unlike on the level harps, pedal harps could do naturals, sharps, or flats on every note, because the pedals have 3 positions. You don’t just press down or not, you lock the pedals in place at the highest, or middle, or low position.
(You can change it mid-song as much as you want, but your feet can move while the pedal stays on the note you changed it to.)
The order of the pedals – (I’m gonna write them out to show you where you’re sitting in the middle) are:
D C B. E F G A
*YOU
The reason for the ordering, as you may guess from looking at it is that B and E are the most used flats, so they’re directly to your left and right (with B being most common and E being second most).
And then F and C same deal, only reversed.
So, I guess it’s to keep your mind as sort of the common flat keys are closest to me. Common sharp keys are one away. And then keep your feet in a way that most common of one is to the left, most common of the other is to the right.
And then we got into the theory of it all, and how if your harps was set up one way, instead of trying to move the pedals around, you’d use enharmonics, as much as you could.
[*This is where I want to add an example later. I hope I remember to do this. If you come across this and I haven’t, please remind me xoxoxo]
It was a fun day. I loved learning about the harp! Love music in general! Another birthday in the books!