StaffPad features some unique tools for writing for harp.
Some harps feature pedals which are used to alter the pitches of the strings. This means harpists can adjust their tunings to achieve different scales or enharmonics. This is quite unique in the instrument world, and thus requires some special attention from composers.
There's a few quirks of writing harp glissandos in the 21st century; particularly if you're writing for TV/film. In these scenarios, you may want to just specify pedal settings for special effects like glissandos. Often, composers will write just the pedals required to switch into the correct scale for the harp gliss, but omit the full pedal diagrams throughout the piece to save clutter, and allow the harpist to make their own choices.
For this reason, we've split the pedalling into two controls: the Edit Glissando control and the Add Harp Pedal control. StaffPad will also attempt to automatically write harp pedal diagrams for you for the entire harp staff if you turn on "Show Harp Pedals" from the Edit Staff control.
Edit Gliss
To customise the glissando scale for a harp staff, create a glissando mark then long-press on the glissando itself and choose Edit Glissando.
From here, you'll see a pictogram representation of the harp's pedal board. You can use your finger to slide the pedals up and down throughout their 3 positions: flat, neutral and sharp.
You can also quickly choose a scale preset from the list: major, minor, pentatonic, diminished and whole tone are represented here.
Once you press OK, your pedal diagram will be placed on the score. You can move this left or right by dragging it with the pen/Pencil.
Switch Pedal Style
If you prefer the diagram representation of harp pedals vs text, you can long touch on the harp pedal instruction and choose Switch Harp Pedal Style.
The text representation
The diagram representation
Add Harp Pedal
If you want to manually specify harp pedal changes, you can add a harp pedal change at any time. Long touch between the staffs on a harp instrument, and choose Add Harp Pedal. You'll see the pedal interface, as above, and you can choose your setting.
Any notation that becomes impossible to play due to the pedal setting will be rendered in red.
Show Harp Pedals
Finally, you can ask StaffPad to work out all of the pedal change and settings for you, in one tap. To do this, open the mixer for the staff and choose Show Harp Pedals.
This will insert a pedal marking at the start of the piece, to set the initial pedals. From then on, the app will work out which pedals need changing when, and render just that pedal change in the middle of the staff. If there are impossible to play parts, the notation will show in red.
The pedal markings are generated in realtime, and you'll see the harp pedals update as you drag notes around, or add new notation in.