The #1 Rule of Placing: The One Direction Rule

One of the most important aspects of our harp technique is placing. Proper placing lets us play securely, accurately and quickly. It’s obvious if you give it a little thought. When your fingers are on the right strings before they have to play, they will play with a better sound and without fumbling. 

Placing is also important because we harpists do all the amazing things we do in mid-air. To play a string we need to be on the right string in advance, but then we have to let go of it as we play. This means that, unlike most instrumentalists, we are constantly repositioning our hands and fingers on our instrument, diving to the strings from the air almost like a swooping bird or a trapeze artist. No wonder harp playing is so challenging!

There are many components to proper finger placement, but the first rule of placing is probably this one: place everything that plays in the same direction, but not over a change of direction. All this means is to place all the fingers that will play in the same direction, either going up the harp, or going down. Placing the fingers this way allows you to place them all at once, then play them in order as they are needed. 

Placing fingers across a change of direction is usually not a good idea. For instance if fourth, third and thumb all play going up, then second finger plays going down, you wouldn’t place all four fingers, but only 4, 3, and 1. Then you would place 2 before the thumb plays. 

As with all rules there are exceptions, but the One Direction Rule is applied in most cases. Look at the fingering in one of the pieces you are playing now and see how many examples of One Direction placing you can find!