Re: [Harp-L] racks

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have detested racks since I first started playing in the middle 60's - 
until last year when I started using Vern's Ergonomic Neck Rack.  I love it 
- if music is my life then the ENR is life-changing.  It has added an 
extrordinary new dimension to my music.

I found all my other racks completely unstable.  They were fine for a 
little chording, and some highly simplified licks.  I had to invent licks 
that I could use, and I came up with some nice ones, but I still felt like 
someone else was holding the harp for me - an awful experience.  I'm a harp 
player, guitar is my second.  I did not like the minor role harp had to 
take in my music when using a junk rack.

From the very first time I tried Vern's ENR I experienced the difference 
between a toy piano and a Steinway.

The stability is close to absolute - it's not a whole lot different from 
holding the harp with my own hand.

Now that I can feel comfortable improvising and dropping in high speed 
licks that travel all over the ten holes.  I have had to go back to the 
woodshed to build up my guitar/harp coordination - never a problem before 
because I was so completely limited by junk racks. As some of you know, I'm 
a stickler for solid time, and solid time was never possible for me on the 
junk racks, not while soloing on harp, anyway.

Now, I'm a diatonic guy, but I'm struck by the way Vern's Hands-Free 
Chromatic has opened up new vistas for chromatic players who also play 
guitar.  However, the subtle, beautiful phrasing that people like Enrico 
Granafei are now achieving on the Hands-Free would not be possible if not 
for the Ergonomic Neck Rack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Vmgww-d9o

If you perform with a rack your music will be transformed by this 
extrordinary device.  It is worth every penny and then some.

Ken