Linda-Rose Hembreiker enjoys watching her harp students get a little instant gratification when they pluck a string and make music fast.

Hembreiker, a teaching fellow at the UNT College of Music, is finishing her doc­torate in music at the university. And in short, once-a-week lessons, she’s evangelizing for the harp through the college’s Com­munity Music School.

Courtesy photo

Linda-Rose Hembreiker teaches others how to play the harp through the University of North Texas Community Music School, a program that offers private instruction for about a dozen instruments. The lessons, at $16 per session, are taught by teaching assistants and teaching fellows at the university.

The school is an outreach of the university; a real town-and-gown endeavor that brings what might not be available to aspiring students — private studio music lessons. When students come to the community music school, they typically get one-on-one training for half an hour each week. They pay about $16 per session.

“To me, the concept is to give the quality of teaching you’d get at the university for people who aren’t at the university,” Hem­breiker said.

Hembreiker teaches six students — all female — who range in age from 8 to older than 60. Young students usually start with a lever harp, which are smaller harps (also called folk or troubadour harps) that can change string pitch through the movement of a lever. A lot of harpists graduate to the classical pedal harp, the tall, elegant instrument seen in orchestral and solo con­cert performances. The pedal harp, larger and louder than its smaller cousins, changes string pitch through the use of foot pedals. Brand new concert harps can cost upward of $25,000. The price goes higher — much higher — when gold is applied to the instrument.

The music school gives students a chance to play the harp before sinking a lot of money into an instrument, although some of Hembreiker’s students have taken the plunge.

The lesson space itself is not fancy. In fact, Hembreiker teaches out of a tiny re­hearsal studio in the main music building. A lever harp sits in one corner, but a stately Lyon and Healy — the Steinway of harp makers — commands the most attention, even though there are scratches and nicks in the gold paint. About three benches are crammed into the studio to accommodate the players’ different heights.

Hembreiker said her students take up the harp because of its beauty — either the way it sounds or the way it looks. 

Lib Harris, 15, of Aubrey, said she loved the instrument and her studies so much that she got her own pedal harp. She’s been studying for seven years.

“Well, I was at the Texas Christian Col­lege and I saw some harpists performing and I was hooked,” said Lib, who is a homeschool student. “We prayed about it, then two years later, got a harp. I’d have to say what hooked me was the really pretty pedal harp. The way they looked and the way they sounded.”

Hembreiker said public schools don’t of­ten include harp instruction in their music programs, both because of the expense of the instruments and the relative rarity of harp literature. That makes private lessons the only option for a lot of school-age students.

Harris is already performing. She’s competed three times in the Dallas chapter of the American Harp Society Competition. She’s also playing in public venues. She is among a cellist, two violinists and a violist in her household.

“All of my family is pretty musical, so I’ve been playing with them for about six years,” she said. “We play at banquets and weddings, and nursing homes, too, sometimes at family reunions and sometimes at church. I didn’t know how much work went into playing the harp. I was 8 years old — I didn’t know about the commitment, you know. I really like practicing now. I strive for 12 hours but usually get about 10 hours a week.”

Hembreiker said she breaks students in slowly and naturally. With children, she’ll introduce them to the instrument by tea­ching them “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” without sheet music. That way, they are play­ing music from the first lesson. Hem­breiker said that feeds the need for instant gratification for some.

“Except for maybe a guitar, there is no other instrument where your touch makes a sound,” Hembreiker said.

Technique is taught little by little. She never teaches by saying: “I’ll just show you what I do.”

“I think it’s important to be able to communicate how to do something, and let the student try it,” she said. “I will put their fingers where they need to go or reposition a student’s arms. But I don’t like to show them what I mean when I teach.”

Malana Wilson, 8, of Denton, is Hem­breiker’s youngest student. She said she’s wanted to play the harp since she was little.

“The first time I saw or heard the harp? I think when I was 3, because I have wanted to play it since I was 3. I think I heard it on TV, or maybe on a little CD,” Malana said. “I’m using my harp teacher’s very first harp that she’s letting me use. Right now, I’m playing ‘Part of Your World’ from The Little Mermaid.”

At the moment, she’d like to master another Disney tune, “Once Upon a Dream,” written for Sleeping Beauty. Ma­lana has gone from taking half-hour lessons to a full hour each week.

“I’m excited about that,” she said.

She hopes to play the concert harp soon, too.

“I would probably want to mostly play the pedal harp because I think you can maybe add things onto songs, like make them sound different when you use the pedals,” she said. “You can make it like your own version of the song.”

Claire Mulchrone, of Denton, said the community school gave her the chance to play harp again.

“I fell in love with the harp when I saw it in the orchestra pit at The Nutcracker when I was 4 years old,” Mulchrone said in an e-mail, while traveling Spain. “Ever since then, I have wanted to play. I started taking lessons when I was in the fourth grade and took lessons on and off throughout middle school.”

She hadn’t taken lessons in a while when she came to UNT.

“I had this strong urge to take up harp again. I went into the College of Music to see if they had lessons for non-majors. At the time they didn’t. Within a week I was on the phone with Linda-Rose and I have been taking lessons ever since, almost three years now, I believe.”

Hembreiker said the harp can be compared to the piano — you can see all of the keys you play. The strings, which are made of wire-wrapped string for the lower notes and gut for the higher notes, have a distinct sound. The higher notes can sound like a piano, and when plucked close to the soundboard, the harp mimics the guitar.

What should prospective students think about? Adults need to consider whether they can make weekly lessons, and if they can practice during the week, or think about the instrument and the music they are studying if they won’t have a harp at home. Par­ents should gauge their child’s in­terest and commitment to practice and studying, and parents should know that some children think they’ll love an instrument, but change their minds after trying it out. 

Harp students learn to appreciate music and musicians, and they grow into educated listeners even if they don’t pursue the harp professionally, Hembreiker said.

“I’ve grown to love listening to music a lot more, especially harp music,” Harris said. “I’ve started listening to their tone and smoothness, and thinking about making that sound too. I like practicing more. My teacher has really help­ed me grow into learning the mu­sic; learning what the composer wanted to be said with the music. I’m learning to play the pieces the way they wanted it play.”

ABOUT THE HARP

The harp has probably been around as long as humankind, harpist Linda-Rose Hembreiker said. It is thought to have evolved from the bow and arrow — the instrument is seen in Babylonian art in the second millennium B.C. and in first millennium B.C. Assyrian art. The western harp is thought to have moved west from Egypt in ancient times. In the United States, the folk harp and pedal harps are the most likely harps to be found in recitals and symphony halls.

The harp looks simple, but is made up of moving parts. The concert pedal harp has 47 strings that are strung from a soundboard to the action, also called the mechanism, which is attached to the neck of the harp — the curved piece at the top of the instrument. The column is the hollow, perpendicular post that weights the instrument when it’s upright. Seven pedals with three positions each change the string so that it, when plucked, sounds a natural, sharp or flat note. The harpist plays seated, with the body of the harp leaning into the right shoulder.

UNT COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL

Who: Teaching assistants and teaching
fellows at the University of North Texas College of Music

What: Affordable music lessons for all ages

When: Lessons are generally for half an hour once a week

Where: UNT College of Music