Re: [Harp-L] racks



I have detested racks since I first started playing in the middle 60's - until last year when I started using Vern's Ergonomic Neck Rack. I love it - if music is my life then the ENR is life-changing. It has added an extrordinary new dimension to my music.

I found all my other racks completely unstable. They were fine for a little chording, and some highly simplified licks. I had to invent licks that I could use, and I came up with some nice ones, but I still felt like someone else was holding the harp for me - an awful experience. I'm a harp player, guitar is my second. I did not like the minor role harp had to take in my music when using a junk rack.

From the very first time I tried Vern's ENR I experienced the difference between a toy piano and a Steinway.

The stability is close to absolute - it's not a whole lot different from holding the harp with my own hand.

Now that I can feel comfortable improvising and dropping in high speed licks that travel all over the ten holes. I have had to go back to the woodshed to build up my guitar/harp coordination - never a problem before because I was so completely limited by junk racks. As some of you know, I'm a stickler for solid time, and solid time was never possible for me on the junk racks, not while soloing on harp, anyway.

Now, I'm a diatonic guy, but I'm struck by the way Vern's Hands-Free Chromatic has opened up new vistas for chromatic players who also play guitar. However, the subtle, beautiful phrasing that people like Enrico Granafei are now achieving on the Hands-Free would not be possible if not for the Ergonomic Neck Rack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Vmgww-d9o

If you perform with a rack your music will be transformed by this extrordinary device. It is worth every penny and then some.

Ken




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