harp lessons Posture and placement for hands and fingers

1: Good left hand. The wrist is straight and not bent inwards or outwards.

The fingers are relaxed and all the knuckle joints are relaxed. The fingers and the back of the wrist form a smooth curve. You may rest your fingers on the strings for stability if desired. This is called "placement". Often used by Celtic harp players. The fingers rest on the strings until the note is played.
Paraguayan players usually keep their fingers just a small distance away from the strings. This allows you to play in a more fluid way, for fast chord changes etc

1: Good Left Hand

2: Good Right Hand. The wrist is straight and not bent inwards or outwards.

The fingers and all the knuckle joints are relaxed. The fingers form a smooth curve. The fingers can be rested on the strings for stability if desired. The thumb is straight and relaxed with no bending of the first knuckle. Beginners can gain added benefit from  placing all three fingers and the thumb on the strings as shown  and squeezing the strings until the fingers come off the strings.

2: Good Right Hand

3: Locked Knuckles. This hand is locked up with tension! The whole hand is stiff.

See how the first knuckle on each finger is sharply bent. This also causes the knuckles on the back of the hand to bulge out slightly. The whole hand is tight. Note the fifth finger is sticking straight out. All this makes playing difficult and can cause pain and tendon problems. If your hand looks like this take it off the strings and shake it gently to loosen it up. Keep your attention on your hands. It could take a while to acquire the habit of having a relaxed hand. Allow the fifth finger to rest next to the fourth finger. Refer to pictures 1 and 2.

3:Locked Knuckles

4: The Bent thumb syndrome. This can make playing the harp very difficult!

Notice how the thumb has a nasty kink in it. If your hand is like this feel how much tension it causes in your hand. It completely locks the hand up. Shake your hand gently to loosen it. Refer to pictures 1 and 2 to see how the thumb should

4: Bent Thumb

5: Tense right hand. This is a more mild version of that shown in picture 3.

In this photo the thumb is OK. The wrist is straight  but the fingers look a bit "klunky". They have tension in them which is causing the klunky look. Relax the fingers so they look like those shown in pictures 1 and 2. Relaxed fingers make the best sound.

5: Tense Fingers

6: The Elbow is stuck out too far causing the wrist to be bent.

Allow the arm to hang naturally. You do not need to hold it out like this picture shows. You will get a tired shoulder holding the elbow out like this. Refer to general posture page to see how the shoulders and arms are held.

6: Elbow stuck out

7: Showing a wrist which is not straight. This locks  hand and finger movements

The fingers are moved by muscles in your forearm. The tendons connect the muscles to your fingers. Tendons are like ropes. If the wrist is not relaxed and straight the tendons cannot move freely and severely restrict the movement of the fingers.  Your hand and your arm should form a straight line. See posture page

7: wrist bent