Grand Harp

The normal and typical way to play the Grand Harp is to play it with the fingertips of the first four fingers, but there are a lot more kinds of playing techniques available. In our version of the Grand Harp we concentrated on six different articulations which are:

Plucked: Plucking the strings with the fingers is the principal technique.
Fingernail: That articulations creates a sharp and slightly penetrating sound. You produce that by plucking the strings with fingernails.
Prè de la Table: Prè de la table produces a dry and nasal sound. The sound is sometimes compared to that of the Japanese koto or the guitar. To produce a pré de la table sound the fingers pluck the string in a normal manner but close to the soundboard.
Xylophonique: Xylophonique is a muted sound with a clearly distinguished pitch. It sounds wooden dry and percussive. To produce xylophonic sounds one hand mutes the strings by pressing them with the fingers close to the soundboard. The other hand plays the strings normally.
Prepared: This prepared articulation produces a dissonant and percussive sounds which is best suitable to produce avant-garde or experimental sounds and noises. We prepared all the the strings with brackets and paper which had the effect that the sound was muted as well as a weird vibrating noise was added to it.
Harmonics: The Harmonics (flageolet) gives a very warm and gentle sound. It is a popular effect in harp music.