A harp, children and a lot of questions

30th May 2025

Recently, I had the most amazing day visiting Manor Oak, a primary school in Orpington, Kent, with my harp.

My friend, Amanda, teaches music at the school and invited me along. Amanda and I play together in the London City Orchestra. I play the harp; she plays the flute and piccolo.

I’d already been to the school once before to write about the power of music for The Leathersellers’ Foundation. During that visit, I’d been impressed by pupils’ enthusiasm for music and how Amanda runs such interesting classes with minimal resources.

We’d been hoping to arrange this return trip for months, and the stars finally aligned.

It was a gorgeous sunny day. Although the school is in an area of high deprivation, you wouldn’t know that at first sight. The school has a large playground and an idyllic Forest School with tree stumps set around in a circle for children to sit on, little paths of greenery circling around and apple trees full of blossom.

Children crowd around to get a look at the harp

Seeing a harp up close

First of all, we took the harp into the main hall. As children came in for assembly, they pointed at the harp, giggling and gasping, saying, “Look at that!”

I started by playing the Flower Waltz solo from the Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky, which Amanda and I played with our orchestra in a Christmas concert. This is a typical flashy Tchaikovsky showstopper with a series of arpeggiated chords that roam up and down the harp. Then Amanda and I played the Entr’acte for flute and harp from Bizet’s Carmen. We’d never played it together before and hadn’t had time to practise it that morning. Luckily, it all went without a hitch.

Trying out a glissando on the harp

Taking the harp into the music room

Every Wednesday, Amanda goes into the school and teaches a full day of music, with every year group getting a lesson. After assembly, I wheeled the harp on its trolley over to the music room and set it up there for the rest of the day. The youngest children from Reception came in first, followed by Years 1 to 6.

In some of the lessons, I played again for the children. In other lessons, Amanda and I performed the Entr’acte again.

I asked the children to think about how the music felt while they were listening to it. One girl said that Bach’s Prelude in C sounded “like Jesus”, which I loved, taking it to mean heavenly.

Another child said they found the music relaxing. One boy said his favourite bit was before I began playing. (I’m adding that to my list of favourite testimonials.)

A dozen questions about the harp

The children asked lots of questions about the harp. Some were the classic questions I hear all the time; others were more unusual. Here are some of the questions they asked.

  1. What do the pedals do? The pedals change the notes by a semitone at a time, so you can have C flat, C natural and C sharp. Amanda showed the children the glockenspiel and explained how the harp pedals allow me to create the white and black notes.
  2. How do the strings work? The strings are wound around pegs on the mechanism of the harp and anchored underneath the soundboard.
  3. Why are the strings different colours? The red strings are C and the black strings are F, with natural coloured strings in between. If all the strings were the same colour, it would be tricky to work out which string to play.
  4. Is that real gold? Some harps are decorated with gold leaf, which comes in delicate foil sheets and is applied with glue and a brush. On the harp I was playing, the top of the crown is decorated with gold leaf.
  5. How much does a harp cost? First, the children guessed £300. Then £3 million. Then £3 billion. Their eyes popped when I told them the cost of a concert harp starts at around £8,000.
  6. Where does the sound come from? The strings vibrate, the sound resonates through the soundboard and is amplified by the body of the harp.
  7. What would happen if the harp didn’t have a soundboard? All the strings would dangle in the air.
  8. Why is the harp so big? A full-size concert harp has 47 strings. How else will you fit them all in?
  9. How do you move it? You have padded covers to protect the instrument and a trolley to wheel it about. You also need good arm muscles.
  10. What does that writing say? Lyon & Healy. It’s the name of the harpmakers, who are based in Chicago, USA.
  11. Have you ever played in front of a lot of people? The children were surprised to hear that Amanda and I play in front of a lot of people all the time in our concerts.
  12. How many songs do you know? This one stumped me, as I’ve always thought about playing pieces or orchestral parts, rather than songs. I think I disappointed the children by not being able to tell them I knew 15 Disney songs.

 

A young pupil plays the harp in the music room

Children have a go at playing the harp

All the children had a go at playing a glissando, where you run your finger across all the strings from bottom to top, or top to bottom, to create a magical, rippling sound. Like most people who try a glissando for the first time, many of the children played very quietly, not realising it takes a fair amount of welly to create a decent sound. On the other hand, one boy startled himself by playing very loudly, making the lowest strings buzz and vibrate, and then sat down, covering his ears.

The older children picked out Three Blind Mice on the harp, after I’d shown them that the opening phrase of three notes ends on the red Middle C string.

They were fascinated by my bag of spare strings and enjoyed holding the electronic tuner as I played various notes, to check that they were in tune.

Afterwards, I asked Amanda what she thought the children gained from the experience. “They’re learning to play the ukulele, recorder, glockenspiel and djembe drums, so they’ve learned about vibrations and how to create sounds by strumming, hitting, scraping, rattling or blowing an instrument,” she said.

“With the harp, they were trying to work out how you produced the sound. They didn’t take their eyes off your hands and feet. I think they were completely spellbound. They learned how beautiful music can be if you dedicate yourself to learning an instrument.”

The best day

My visit to Manor Oak was one of the best days I spent this year. It was so much fun to introduce the kids to the harp and see their reactions. Very few people get to see a harp close up and it’s always great to share the intricacies of this eccentric and beautiful instrument.

 

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