Re: [Harp-L] Changing the Way You Hold the Harp



I'm glad Drori Hammer mentioned Phil Wiggins in this context... he and
Allen Holmes and Dennis Gruenling all emphasize basically the same grip,
with some variation (Phil, for one, has huge hands), nicely described as
the water-scooping grip. They can all get a very tight seal around the
harp; it takes some work to get, but basically it seems to be a
combination of sealing the side of the right hand against the right
cheek and making sure the groove in the bottom of the cup, where your
hands meet above the wrists, is sealed against your chin. When tightly
sealed, Phil's grip allows a very small opening in the front, just a wee
bit escapes. Phil's grip is a bit different also in that the fingers of
his left hand lie on top of the right hand, whereas in the usual
sandwich grip (twixt left index finger and thumb), the right hand (the
wah-wah hand) overlaps the left. I hope you can picture this but there's
bound to be a photo somewhere on the web... 
 
And you don't have to have large hands to do it; Allen Holmes' hands are
fairly small, actually. You have to work at it to make it comfortable
for your own hands in a relaxed way, so that you don't exacerbate any
existing problems. 
 
Howard Parks




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