There will be many things on my Happy Things July list at the end of this month. One of them will be Skye. I’ve shown her sitting on my seat next to my other harp so you can get a feel for the size comparison. Skye is a 12-string, fully levered, lap harp that arrived from Dublin Ireland exactly 1 week ago. I purchased her from McNeela Music and honestly was somewhat fretful about making such a purchase without playing first. But, that’s what I did with my first harp too and that turned out to be a great purchase.
By comparison, my larger harp has 33 strings. This 12-string harp is the same as the top portion of the other harp. Another difference is that the bigger harp sits on the floor, and this new harp perches on my lap. This presents some interesting challenges, some of which are yet to be solved. Let’s just say that my lap is a bit squishy, and since I am short my knees are almost always lower than my hips when sitting. This is great for a floor harp but doesn’t provide much stability for a lap harp. Also, my lap is rather short so that there isn’t a lot of wiggle room for getting her in the right place. When I played her Sunday at church for the first time I put a small riser under my feet to help even the playing field (pun intended.)
A frequent question so far is about whether this is a lyre or a harp. Skye is a harp. Lyres have a U-shaped frame with strings running over a bridge similar to a guitar or violin. Harps have a more triangular frame and the strings connect directly to the soundbox.
I’ve also been getting questions about the name. In the harp groups I participate in, most people seem to name their harps. I couldn’t decide on a name for the first one (more about that in a minute). When this little green beauty arrived I was tempted to name her “Wicked” but eventually named her Skye after the Isle of Skye in Scotland. True, Skye was purchased from Ireland, but I have a great affinity for Scotland which is a part of my distant heritage, and there is a place on the Isle of Skye called the Fairy Glen. The beauty of the landscape I’ve seen, only in pictures, captured for me the beauty of the harp’s shape, color, and tone.
Since naming Skye I’ve felt more than a little guilty about not having a name for the other hapr I love and adore. Yes, I can even feel guilty about possibly hurting a harp’s feelings. So I’ve played around with names for her too. I’m not 100% settled on a name yet, but I think it is going to be Beannachd. Beannachd (Byan-ahch) is a Scots Gaelic word meaning blessing. Beannachd the harp has been a tremendous blessing to me over the past couple of years and hardly a day goes by when I don’t play just because I love it. The runner up is probably Croia (Cree-ya), which is also a Gaelic word meaning heart. Honestly, Croia is easier for an American like me to pronounce. What about the possibility of Croia Beannachd? A first name and a middle name? Then I’ll only use her middle name when she’s in trouble (lol, that was what happened in my home when I was growing up.” I’ll use her full name when her strings break at inconvenient times.
You can be sure I’ll be posting videos of her soon. I just got a Christmas book of songs for 12-string harp and am eager to get started. I’m also eager to start arranging songs for this tiny harp. It will be a challenge but I’m up for it.