Play the Harp Today

Taught by professional harpist and harp instructor Laurie Riley, Play the Harp Today features an unfortunate and all too familiar combination: excellent instruction and mediocre production values. Riley provides the former as she guides viewers through tuning, sitting positions, hand placement and plucking, understanding harmony, and working with chords. Viewers will learn the song "Simple Gifts," and get a good start toward Riley's aim of having students learn the principles behind arranging their own music. Although the program uses close-ups of Riley's hands on the harp, the image is washed-out looking and the upper portion of the shot not as focused as the rest. With a better camera, this would have been a very good introduction to the harp. As it is, however, this is an optional purchase--it can be used to fill a request, but it's not the optimum harp instruction video. (R. Pitman)