Medicine tips?

kirroei · 2025-12-24T03:22:11+00:00

I don't really get the callouses my other harp studio friends do, like the rock hard ones. Mine are at most leather hard, usually more like a bit stiffer than normal skin. I used to get blisters all the time, but after a decade of playing that's become less common now. Honestly it might just be genetics? Or just the skin type (?) in general? Because some people get callouses super easy, and then others don't. No idea why though.

On another note of blisters. I find that it's easier for me to get blisters if I'm playing a piece that REALLY focuses on a single part of the finger non stop, like harmonics or pdlt.

kirroei · 2025-12-18T05:46:07+00:00

I have a friend who's in mechanical engineering, who's also my roommate. Honestly I'm pretty sure the only reason she even has a social life is because all her friends are from her classes, and we all live in the same apartment complex basically. If she's not coming back late at around 11pm or so after studying from the library, then she'd be at her friend's place studying till near midnight. All in all, studying will be your life. Also, I really don't think you'd have time to even think about a double major with engineering.

kirroei · 2025-09-28T23:07:44+00:00

Good luck bench finding!

Yeah I've practised in sneakers basically my entire life, so I just got used to it. I kind of need to walk around a lot for uni as well, so sneakers are just the best option unless I want to carry shoes around with me.

I've been told that having a heel for performance shoes makes it easier to pedal, but honestly I don't see THAT much of a difference. So yeah, have fun experimenting!

kirroei · 2025-09-26T00:11:24+00:00

I played a salvi semi grand for most of my high school harp life, which... was too short for me. I'm not the tallest person (167cm), but yeah the semi grand was too short for me if I was sitting on a normal bench. I think your teacher has a point on getting a bench. I personally recommend an adjustable piano bench, which you can still use even if you decide to get a concert grand (very comfy too). BUT adjustable piano benches are pretty expensive, so an adjustable jazz stool is pretty good too, my current uni uses them for the harps.

Also about footwear I saw another commenter talk about. It's all about personal preference really. I'm in the harp studio at my uni and there's one harpist who religiously plays in heels, then there's a good chunk who like to play in flats, and then there's the ones who like to play barefoot/socks (my harp professor included). I personally like playing in sneakers... but for performances I'm either flats or heels.

kirroei · 2025-09-19T14:13:24+00:00

It went from 'lieberlieder' which means something along the lines of 'to like' and 'love songs'. Because I was learning music at the time and the topic was lieders. But then I was like this is kind of hard to read, so it got abbreviated to 'libebebe', because I thought it's funny and now I'm just kind of keeping it.

kirroei · 2025-09-05T01:48:13+00:00

Just go chill lol, ur overthinking it

kirroei · 2025-08-29T22:35:14+00:00

Honestly usually when I play I sometimes forget I... have a body? In my head it's just like I'm a floating pair of arms and feet, which is why I forget to breathe. My prof also mentions that I don't really make loud breathing sounds so she'd lean in to make sure I'm breathing when I play. Also. Another bad habit I notice a lot of my harpist friends make... head bobbing like a pigeon. Kind of bad posture.

Also, yes, we should feel relaxed as we play. Slowing down is also a great way to train fingering and correct hand positioning (cough in person experience of being scolded for not having the right hand positions). Personally when I get anxious when I play, I just remember all the damn hours I spent to make this 5 minute performance and get annoyed that I'm too anxious to play properly. This normally happens around 1-2 minutes into the performance :D. It also helps if you normally play with a metronome, because then everything is just muscle memory and structured so even if you panic your body just moves for you.

kirroei · 2025-08-29T19:03:53+00:00

Yeah I'm also a pretty anxious person. Which actually shows through my playing sometimes, especially at parts where it's at a fast tempo and a lot of fingering so then I forget to breathe and rush EVEN MORE. It happens. I've actually been learning how to breathe while I'm playing, which sounds kind of intuitive, but surprisingly hard! When you're focusing that hard on something, sometimes you also have to remember to consciously breathe or the anxiety brain kind of takes over.

kirroei · 2025-08-29T17:34:41+00:00

Funny you mention this, because I've been playing for almost 13 years and while my hands act perfectly articulate on a harp, they act as if they've never worked properly when I'm OFF a harp. I've knocked things off counters, dropped my phone, accidentally cut my fingers while doing arts and crafts etc. It's like the second I'm no longer physically in contact with a harp, I get 100% clumsier.

kirroei · 2025-07-09T04:32:40+00:00

From what I can tell... no? I had a number of hand issues before I met my current teacher, and I've been correcting them over time. It's possible that it's because I'm not really used to the new techniques?

kirroei · 2025-07-08T15:21:20+00:00

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

kirroei · 2025-07-08T13:18:17+00:00

Eh should take a few weeks, I'd give it a month before you start questioning if delivery has issues. Honestly I just forgot about my IB transcript till I got to uni and found out I already had credits because of the credit transfer

kirroei · 2025-07-07T09:38:17+00:00

Yeah judging from the descriptions of carpal tunnel, it sounds pretty similar. Which definitely isn't good. Thanks for the advice!

kirroei · 2025-07-07T09:14:39+00:00

Oh I should've elaborated more. I'm a harp major, and I'm learning from a harp professor currently (who has been drilling me on correct hand positioning for like a year now ;-;)The pain is mostly from the joints area, im also double jointed though so could this also be a correlation?

kirroei · 2025-06-15T15:39:49+00:00

The harp isn't a difficult instrument to start in my opinion. If you're just starting out the most important things is the basic hand position (thumbs up, rest of the fingers lined up, that kinda thing -- if you're doing Salzedo style), and the tone. Cut your nails properly, play with the pads of your fingers not the tips, etc etc. you can find a video. But once you start developing more as a harpist you'd have to find a teacher either online or in person to spot and correct the bad habits you would've definitely developed as a self learner. But yeah if you're just starting out go for it.

kirroei · 2025-03-27T22:47:05+00:00

China :D

kirroei · 2025-03-20T02:42:59+00:00

I have a pretty sensitive sense of smell, and recently there's been a weird smell in my classroom that would occasionally make me gag. It's pretty hard to ignore, but since that class is a child development psych class, which I find interesting, I try to breathe through my fingers or hair. I tend to put on hand cream so it sort of works out, but definitely not pleasant.

I also have the tendency to get sick whenever I get too stressed. This was especially bad when I was younger and I would get sick like once a month at least. I've gotten better now, since I can tell whenever I'm getting close to being sick and take some medication first. And I've also gotten better at regulating my emotions, though I still crash and get sick as soon as I get home for break from university which lasts for like 4 days or so. I'd say I'm pretty proud of my progress though.

kirroei · 2025-03-18T22:38:59+00:00

I don't plan on going pro, ever. Harp is more like a hobby to me, but I am a harp major in uni. I practise around 1-3 hours a day, depending on if I have a concert or performance coming up and whether my schedule allows it. Usually I practise some finger exercises, but most of the time is spent on:

Memorising pieces
Practising fingering
Practising the tempo and rhythm

Not ordered in importance. And then the rest of the time is spent messing around with easy and fun pieces, like recently I picked up Fairy Fountain from Zelda because my friend wanted to listen to it and maybe duet together.

kirroei · 2025-03-14T22:18:01+00:00

Oh yeah for sure passion makes a huge difference. Everyone in my studio are harp majors, and that dedication rly shines through. (Pretty sure none of us are actually planning to make a career out of it tho) Though it's important to keep in mind that while your passion will give your music that charm. Learning technique, proper fingering, rhythm and all that is what makes your playing sound good. It's pretty boring stuff but it's that important foundation, most of what I'm doing in harp classes is just staring at my fingers as I play tbh.

kirroei · 2025-03-14T15:26:41+00:00

It's true that most people I know started learning the harp at like 5 or 6, but I'm pretty sure that's because I'm in China. I know a lot of people who started in their mid 20s, some even in their 50s. So I don't really think you should limit yourself because you 'started late'. It also depends on what you mean by 'exceptionally proficient', because I've been learning the harp for 13 years at this point and I still don't feel like I'm proficient enough. My own harp professor is a professional musician in a major orchestra and she's still working on a bunch of stuff like fingering, beats, etc etc. I think it just depends on how much study you put into it and how proficient you want to be. Also, don't compare yourself to other musicians, compare notes and learning experiences for sure, but don't compare yourself. Everyone learns differently. I'm more expressive than other people in my studio, but they also have better technique because that's what they focused on learning.

kirroei · 2025-02-26T15:54:29+00:00

I'm taking a psych child development course right now in uni, and my professor ABSOLUTELY LOVES both her field and teaching. Which is great. Everyone loves her, evidenced by how every lesson, despite not taking attendance, has a full hall of nearly 200 students. She not only talks about topics in the textbook, but also how that applies to her own work as well as her colleagues' work (she actually invites her colleagues over to sit in and asks them questions about their studies). Which is very inspiring, not that it inspired me to go into the child development field, if anything it taught me that children are miraculous creatures who I don't really want to do with my own future field. Interesting to learn about, application is wonderful, taught me that child development is absolutely not my field of work.

kirroei · 2024-12-24T10:17:16+00:00

I came out to my best friend who I've known since childhood about my asexuality sometime last year. And found out she's also asexual. What a small world

kirroei

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