Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp, 30th Anniversary Edition - Folk Harp Music Book for Adults and Kids - Folk Harp Sheet Music Songbook with Step-by-Step Lessons

I bought three beginner harp books. Harpsicle Harp Method (Darlene Walton) this one came with the Derwent harp which I bought to learn to play. Basic Harp for Beginners (Laurie Riley) and this one, Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp (Sylvia Woods). This one is by far the best. Sylvia gets you playing tunes straight away (ok there are some exercises but you can see the point of them because what they show you is useful in the tunes). She has a nice conversational style and is reassuring and encouraging. She starts you off with the treble clef and one hand at a time. Then you do two hands but both with the treble clef and then later in the book you add in the bass clef. Genius. The instructions are clear and the tunes are ones you probably know. Astonishingly the book has been around since 1978 but still seems fresh and very clear. The book is spiral bound which means it lies flat. The Harpsicle book (Darlene Walton) quickly becomes confusing, you start straight in with both treble and bass clef. At first fingering and note names are indicated and then bracketing but then these are phased out. It does come with a DVD which is quite useful and it is quite 'cheerful'. The Basic Harp for Beginners (Laurie Riley) is awful. I wrote another review about it. Didn't suit me at all. I would recommend Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp by Sylvia Woods very highly.

Personally I dont understand the negative reviews, yes its in black and white and spiral bound and the pictures are old, but the content is as relevant today as it was then, ideal book for the complete beginner with simple exercises and tunes to learn, I highly recommend this for an absolute beginner

Bought this book to help me with my first harp. I also had to start learning how to read music. This book has been invaluable, really helpful and making the journey enjoyable

Very helpful book for beginners. It would be good to have more pieces on a similar level to get more practice before moving on.

Great for sight reading and music practice easy to hard an all round sucsess

I am really enjoying using Sylvia Woods's book. It is clearly written and easy to follow. It takes one through progressive stages in easy steps giving full instructions and a brief resume of the origins of each piece of music. There area few pure exercises but mainly one is playing well known tunes which makes practice more enjoyable.

Sylvia Woods' directions are easy to follow . She gives the impression of enjoying everything about the harp. This helps the pupil to learn. Her teaching is done in a relaxed fashion , though it is obvious that she has been playing a long time and knows what she is doing. After this book I shall move on to the next.

There are quite a few books available for beginners, so I took the lead from others who purchased this book. Brilliant book to get you started on learning to play the harp. Sylvia quite rightly suggests that there is no substitute for a personal tutor to prevent the development of poor technique. Highly recommend and will now look to purchase the supporting CD.

I love this book and use it every day. Despite its title you cannot totally teach yourself the harp from it and the author recommends that for best results a beginner use this book in conjunction with harp lessons from a teacher. There's a bit of music theory throughout the chapters but I think it helps if a student has basic music reading skills. This edition is based on the original from the 1970s and definitely has a vintage feel to it. Sylvia Woods created the book from scratch, typing all the text herself and using stick-on transfers for the notation and some hand-drawn diagrams. It obviously took a long time to make and you can see that it was a labour of love. The lay-out of the book was never updated but this gives it a certain charm. Later editions contained a CD/DVD with samples of the songs which helped to figure out the rhythm and tune but this is no longer available, however, you can easily search for the tunes online to hear an example. This is not a "Learn to Play the Harp in 30 Days" quick fix. You have to practice all the exercises in each lesson over and over before moving on to the next lesson. Each chapter builds on the previous one so no skipping around! I would estimate that a beginner spends about 1 month on each lesson so it would take about a year or so to work through the entire 12 lessons. I love the spiral-bound design of the book which makes it easy to work with. The author Sylvia Woods was a pioneer of the celtic harp back in the 1970s. She promoted the folk harp all over the world and is held in very high regard by traditional musicians everywhere. She won the "All Ireland Harp Championship" in 1980 in Buncrana/Donegal and was only the second American to ever do so - she's the real thing and her teaching is very solid! I can heartily recommend this book but you have to put in the work to get the most out of it.

見たことも触ったこともないアイリッシュハープを習いに行かずに練習しようとして、教則本を探しました。英語が苦手なので最初は除外していたのですが、その時、買おうと思っていた松岡みやび先生の「はじめてのハープ教本」が長い間欠品で予約になってしまいました。それで、日本語で書かれているモルナール先生の「実用ハープ教本」と一緒にこちらを購入。正解でした。弾くのが楽しいです。アイリッシュ感たっぷりです。シーベグ・シーモア、主よ人の望み喜びよが最後の曲です。この本に載っている曲を弾くために必要な弦数ですが、ミドルＣをＣ４として、上はＣ６下はＧ２まであれば弾けます。ハープの種類にもよりますが、29弦以上あれば弾けるのではないでしょうか。弾き始めて（触り始めて？）半年。まだまだ音符に振り回されていますが、早く音に浸れるようになりたいです。

I got this book as a gift and it has been fantastic! I only played trumpet and French horn as a teenager, so minimum-moderate music experience. I have been able to follow this book very easily. After only two weeks of playing: I can play songs with both hands, in all three of my octaves in my harp (Dusty Strings FH-26), and read music (I practice at least every other day, if not daily)! The author is well known in the harp world, and I can see why; the quality of the lessons are great and is well thought out for complete beginners. I would highly recommend!

I was gifted a beautiful harp by my brother- something I have always wanted. I needed a user-friendly 'how to play' book and this is perfect.

Este libro es necesario para principiantes en el harpa y leyendo música. S. Woods explica muy bien y enfoca en frasear y técnicas. Me encanta su presentación y explicación. Os lo recomiendo.