The Cornwall Harp Centre is based at Trehawsa, the home of harpist Sarah Deere-Jones LRAM LGSM. Situated in north Cornwall about 5 miles south of Bude, it is an old Victorian house which is set in a secluded valley facing the sea with 11 acres of pasture and mature Oak forest, with poultry sheep and horses. The specially designed green oak framed music room is the setting for the weekend courses.

Regular residential harp weekend courses are held throughout the year for beginners or intermediate standard, there is limited Bed and Breakfast accomodation available at Trehawsa for up to six people, but other nearby B&B establishments provide the rest, a list is supplied on booking. Camping in the fields at Trehawsa is free in the summer and definately not recommended in the winter!

When looking for a harp course or teacher, please check the teachers are properly qualified! Most are, but in some cases they are definately not! Sarah was trained at the Royal Academy of Music where she gained her LRAM and LGSM diplomas in harp performance and won the Julia Leney Prize. She played with professional symphony orchestras and gave solo classical recitals for many years, and has also performed medieval and traditional music for harp on TV and radio. She also performed light music and jazz in the major London hotels and on board the QE2 for many years. Her breadth of knowledge which includes more than 20 years of teaching, explains the particular demand and popularity of her harp courses.

For all students, there is an emphasis on learning the correct technique to produce a relaxed hand, which is very important on the harp. Advice can also be given on buying or renting an instrument, and it is possible to borrow one of Sarah's harps for the duration of a course for those who are harpless, so that you can get an idea if the instrument will suit you, before making a big financial commitment!! Usually it is possible to see and try many other makes and models of harp owned by the other students too, and there are also new harps available to buy or hire from the centre. Sarah's teaching style involves a lot of dry humour, in her opinion the learning process is much easier if the students are enjoying themselves!

By the end of every weekend course, complete beginners are capable of playing a simple tune, & are performing ensemble pieces together. They will have had a great deal of fun and often, made lasting friendships!

Course dates 2008 for harp

Beginners/Intermediate courses are for raw beginners to Intermediates (up to Grade four standard). With specially arranged exercises to keep beginners and more advanced pupils playing together. A number of Harps are available here for loan for those without harps.

March 14th-16th, May 9th-11th, May 30th-1st June,

July 11th-13th , August 8th-10th, October 24th-26th

Smallpipes (instruments provided)- Sep 5th-7th details at end of page

Fees- £115, includes lunches and dinners,

B&B at Trehawsa is £30 per person, per night when available. Camping is free but basic!

The weekends are arranged as a series of group tutorial sessions with workshops on technique, arranging, accompanying, singing with the harp, care and maintenance and lots of ensemble playing. With plenty of time in between for informal questions/sessions and relaxation, there is usually an informal concert on the Saturday night where everyone gets the chance to play! Vegetarian homemade lunches and dinners are provided and included in the fee. Non musical family members are welcome to stay and watch, although will be charged for food if required. This is a well known holiday area with wonderful places such as Bodmin moor, the beautiful coast path, beaches at Bude and the historic villages of Tintagel and Boscastle are all nearby.

The courses are suitable for adults or children alike, who want to improve or have "got stuck", some find it very difficult to have regular lessons or do not have a teacher at all. One of the most popular aspect of the courses is meeting other harpists and comparing notes! The Cornwall Harp centre is best reached by car, about an hour west of Exeter (A30) which is in South West England, directions are supplied on booking. There is a bus from Exeter railway station, which links to London (Paddington). We have two regional airports nearby, Newquay and Exeter.

Lunchtime at the Cornwall Harp Centre, delicious homemade, homegrown vegetarian food is served!

When the fingers start hurting and a little fresh air is required, a tranquil walk around the woods at Trehawsa is good therapy!

Bed and Breakfast is available on site during courses, but this is always booked up well in advance so you need to check on booking if it is still available, and sometimes we have a cancellation. We have two twin rooms (left) and a shepherds hut (right) - the latter is a fun 'rustic' experience but very cosy and comfy! B&B is £30pp per night, the rooms are not en suite and are upstairs. The Shepherds hut is £20 per night for a single only, all prices include full cooked veggie breakfast.

Sarah teaching Jenny Hill in the late 1980's, Jenny went on to be a professional harpist herself!

If you are worried about how you will continue with learning the harp after a course, you have several options. You maybe lucky to have a good qualified teacher nearby who can help. However it is common for people to have problems finding a teacher at all, or sometimes one they can get along with. If this is a problem for you you may want to think about on-line harp lessons from the Cornwall Harp centre. These one to one live lessons are simple to achieve if you have a computer with a camera and headset/microphone, the software which is downloadable free, and a decent broadband connection. Lessons can be fortnightly or monthly and they are backed up by e mail. This teaching method also saves hours of travelling time! Many of Sarah's on-line students have achieved exam passes via these lessons, so it is a perfectly serious form of study. Many students back up their on-line lessons with one or two courses a year, but on-line lessons have enabled many people to successfully progress with the harp when otherwise they would have struggled to do so.

For more information please see the 'on-line lessons' page on this website.

When looking for a harp teacher, you are entitled to ask them for their qualifications, and no properly qualified teacher will mind you asking! Unfortunately in some areas, musicians who have taught themselves the harp, are teaching harp to others, but they know nothing about harp technique and can cause untold damage. So before embarking on what is a long term learning process and one that costs quite a lot of money, please check that your teacher IS qualified specifically in harp!

Friday Sept 5th to Sunday Sept 7th 2008

For people who like the bellows-blown Northumbrian smallpipes, Scottish smallpipes and Uilleann pipes, this beginners course will give you a taste of the instrument, showing that a set of these 'smallpipes' is no harder to play than a penny whistle with bellows! Instruments will be provided by the Bagpipe Society, but those with their own instruments are also welcome (bearing in mind that communal playing will be in the keys of D and G major). The course will be lead by Phil Williams, and is designed to introduce and inspire new players, simple tunes will be learned by ear and from music. Advice on buying and maintaining instruments will be given, and a concert on Saturday night will feature smallpipes among other instruments. Accommodation available on site - see above in 'harp courses'.