The Steel Guitar Forum

Dear Jay,
Well, I looked at the forum but I don't see any place to answer direct questions. Can you just relay them to me in email? I answered one of them already in that I am no kin to
the other Trotter you mentioned. No, I never worked for Bob Wills. My background was classical traditional piano, then harp starting at 9, and studying in N.y> with a fine teacher. Marriage and 3 children later, I started playing nightly at a hotel restaurant, mostly pop standards that I played from a piano score, since there were not too many harp arrangements. Went to some jazz pop harp workshops in Santa Barbara,CA and learmed about fake books, chord substitutions,etc. and that opened up a whole new world for me! Met a jazz flutist, also a country fiddler and played now and then on one night gigs with them,and learned to improvise. Started going to national harp festivals and meeting other harpists, decided since I was from Texas I would concentrate on country western so it would be different from Celtic, Renaissance,etc. Notice on YouTube the difference in the big concert harp and the smaller lever harp (manual levers up on the neck of the harp to change the pitch half step, instead of pedals with feet that concert harp has). I perform at national harp festivals and always dress western, since being from Texas they sort of expect it, and nobody else seems to play country music in the harp world. I have 13 CD's--check out my website.www.louisetrotter.com. I love playing with a guitar and have made 3 CD's with different guitar players. Country western,Broadway and standard pop, hymns and Xmas.
I use a dolly for transporting in my van. Strings are tuned with wrench and stay in tune pretty well but need adjusting from time to time just like any stringed instrument. All C's are red and all F's are purple, and the rest are white. Tuned diatonically like the piano keys. All accidentals must be set before beginning piece, and changed as the piece progresses while playing. We play harmonics just like guitars. I have a son and daughter who both play guitar for fun! They didn't go for the harp---too much work they said.
That is a basic look at harps. There are 2 main factories in Chicago, one in Italy, and the rest are made by small company harpmakers all by hand. There are lots of webstties full of info and photos. Prices start at $ 1000 and go up to $40,000,depending on size and wood,etc.
Let me know if there are more questions!!

Jay Fagerlie wrote:I am no kin to the other Trotter you mentioned.

Roger Kelly wrote:Do you suppose she played for Spade Cooley in her younger days? Spade used a Harp on Oklahoma Stomp that I remember. Don't remember Bob Wills ever using a Harp?
I like her Style.