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was late at night—it was around 11:30. There was aknock on my door at the hotel, and I opened it up toa cheerful harpist, who I’ve known for several years,and she said that she had had an accident with herharp, which she was preparing to bring over to methe next morning. But she had an accident andwanted to know if I would look at it then. Of course,I said yes. She said, “It’s in really bad shape, couldyou just come down?” So I went to the car to look atthe harp, and I found a harp that was in as badshape as possible, because it had slipped when theywere loading it into the car, and had fallen down onsome ice. But the car and the harp were kind of on alittle slope, and the harp sort of slid underneath thecar. The harpist was kind of freaked and panicked, Imean, her harp had just fallen over! And so she wentinto the car to pull the car off of the harp, becausethe harp was below the car, and accidentally shiftsinto reverse…

HC: Oh, no!PW: And proceeded to attempt to move (the car)

off the harp, but was going the wrong direction andbacked the car against the harp, and the crown of theharp hit a dumpster. The harp was basically accor-dioned in the incident. That was the worst conditionI have ever seen a harp. It was basically crushedbetween a car and a dumpster.

HC: I probably shouldn’t laugh, but it’s just irre-sistible. (Laughs.) Tell us a little bit about yourlifestyle. You must spend a large amount of time onthe road.

PW: Yes. I’ve traveled a great deal. Last year I wason the road 184 days, which was the most I have everdone. I was averaging around 150 days a year. So mylifestyle is pretty busy. It’s very hectic, because whenI’m on the road I work long days, and in the eveningmy work isn’t done because then I have to go onlineand communicate with harpists about problems, orset up appointments for my next trip. And when I’mhome, my wife and I are always busy, are alwaysactive, always doing something. We don’t have timeto take each other for granted. Our relationship isvery close—when I’m home, we’re together most ofthe time.

HC: Do you think the average harpist youencounter understands what regulation is all about?

PW: I think the average harpist understands thebasic concept of it, and I think that’s good enough. Ithink they understand that maintenance of their

interview

Self-proclaimed “harp doctor” Peter Wiley loves a challenge.

Diagnosing, troubleshooting, and keeping harps in tip-top

shape for harpists around the globe is his specialty. Now on

his own after working for years as Lyon & Healy’s master harp

regulator, Wiley talks about his behind-the-scenes job as one

of the harp world’s most valuable players.

by Kimberly Rowe

peterwiley

the doctoris in

HARP COLUMN: Why did you decide to becomea harp technician?

PETER WILEY: Well, I started at (Lyon & Healy)making trunks. It was my first job. I really got therebecause a friend of mine who plays bassoon (in highschool, I played bassoon also), married a foreman atLyon & Healy. I met Lyon & Healy through her, andso I started there.

HC: Just like that? Right out of high school?PW: No, actually I was 24 years old at the time. I

had already been going to college for geology, and Iwas back in town in Chicago, basically trying tomake some money—make enough money to go backto college to finish my degree—when I started at theharp company.

HC: Making trunks.PW: Making trunks, yeah. And you know, I

thought it was pretty cool, because I’d studied musicall my life. I thought, “Oh, this is pretty cool, work-ing at a harp company.” I thought, “Well, if I were tostay here, I’d want to be a harp maker,” you know?But as time went by, I saw that the regulation depart-ment was where they really made the harps. Thatwas where they were strung up and took on theirvoice and they became musical instruments.

HC: Okay. So you went from harp trunk makingto regulating.

PW: In a circuitous route, yeah. HC: Do you feel like you know everything there is

to know about harp technician work, or are you stilllearning?

PW: Oh, no, I’m still learning. I still come acrossthings that I’ve never encountered before. I comeacross noises or problems that I haven’t encountered,and those are always really challenging. The basicsof regulation are not terribly difficult, but when youstart getting into troubleshooting, diagnosing prob-lems, and diagnosing conditions, that’s where it getsto be a real challenge and really interesting. It’s sortof like solving a puzzle. You step on a pedal and youhear a click. Well, you stepped on a pedal and moved10 feet of moving parts, you know, maybe 200 differ-ent pieces just moved. Exactly where did it click? Andis it solvable in the field, or does it need to be rebuilt,repaired, or more extensive work done, like re-rivet-ing? So that’s always a challenge.

HC: Describe for us the worst instrument you’veever encountered.

PW: Oh, my gosh. Well, I was in a town, and it22

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23continued on page 26

photo by Peggy Abrams

strings and theposition of theparts. Not only theposition of the discsand the amount ofgrip and the inter-val control, but thestring’s actual con-dition. The condi-tion of the strings isthe most importantthing a harpist canlook at to maintaintheir intonation onthe harp.

I tell 99 percent of harpists I work with about thestring problem and how important the strings are. Imean, it would create more business for regulators ifthe harpists aren’t told this, if they just go on aheadand think that the pitch is wrong and they need itregulated. I’ve had numerous occasions where I’vejust changed a string, and the pitch is perfect—there’snothing wrong with the regulation.

HC: Do you ever encounter people that are justnever satisfied, that you can’t please?

PW: Yeah, there are some harpists out there whoreally are never satisfied.

HC: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?PW: The bad thing about that is that no harp is

ever completely perfect. And that’s an idiosyncrasy ofthe instrument. That is an idiosyncrasy of almostevery instrument, that there are some notes thatvoice better than other notes. That’s kind of a badthing, and it’s hard to accept that. But that is also thegood thing, too. I’ll tell you, I’ve learned my mostimportant regulation lessons from harpists who werenot satisfied, and who I had to just keep workingwith, and keep working with, and pay attention tohow they were playing and what they were asking.It’s not always as simple as somebody saying, “Makethis pitch right.” I can make it right for one type ofstring attack or articulation, and the pitch might bea little bit different for different harpists who articu-late and play the strings differently. So you have towork with that and learn from that. Some of the mostimportant lessons I ever had in regulation were from

it properly, that you’re not setting the harp down toohard. Also, you want to have your harp serviced reg-ularly by an experienced person, by a qualified tech-nician, somebody who really does it all the time andwho really knows what is going on with your harp.

HC: So what’s the most important thing a harpistcan do to prolong the life of their regulation?

PW: Regulation includes a couple of differentthings. It’s not just about pitch, it’s also taking care ofyour pedal felts, making sure that the pedal springsare moving properly, that the pedals are movingproperly, that the “over-movement” command—some people refer to it as over-motion—from the ped-als to the action is proper. Those have to be coordi-nated together so that the pedals and the actionknow where (the natural position) is. Both of themhave to know where natural is at exactly the sametime, and they don’t. The regulator can make thatadjustment, and over time it changes. Once all thesethings are done, then you can go through and listenfor noises. This is what is done in the process of regu-lation—listening for noises, string positioning, stringcentering. Then I’ll do metering or intonating theharp and check the pitches.

In terms of maintaining your regulation, haveyour pedal felts changed on a regular basis whenthey need to be—you don’t need to have themchanged every year for most harpists. Have yourharp maintained on a regular basis, by a profession-al, and watch your strings. Make sure that yourstrings are good.

Actually, a lot of the harpists I work with are verytired of hearing me talk about strings, but the stringsare the voice of the harp, and they have a great dealto do with the pitch and with the consistency of theintervals. One of the first comments a harpist willmake when they think their harp is out of regulationis that they tune the harp in flat and it’s fine, and innatural it’s pretty good, and in sharp you have somepitches that are just awful— they’re wrong, they’renot close. But your harp’s been regulated and main-tained regularly. Chances are, you don’t really havea big regulation problem, you have a string problem.The strings wear out and get worn by the discs, andwhere they get worn, it changes the pitch of thestring, and the harpist will tend to say, “Well, thepitch is wrong with the second-octave F-sharp.” Ifyou just changed the string, probably 50 percent ofyour intonation problem would be gone. That’s thebig reason why I’m such a stickler on strings. Peopleare demanding correct pitch and high precision, andthat precision is based upon the condition of the

Peter Wiley foundedLyon & Healy’s roadservice program in

1988, making harpregulation readily

available to harpiststhroughout the coun-try; the program kepthim on the road 184

days last year.

“I must do 10 harpcare classes a year,”says Peter Wiley,whose work as a harptechnician has takenhim around theworld.”I’ve donethem in the UnitedStates, Australia, inKorea, in Japan. I real-ly do think harpistsshould be better edu-cated about theirharps.”

harp is a goodthing. They don’tneed to understandthe ins and outs ofit, like mostmechanical thingsthat need sometype of periodicservice. What I tryto tell people is likewith the piano, if itisn’t maintained,isn’t tuned on aregular basis, thenit goes out of tune

and doesn’t sound well. It’s a similar thing on theharp. It’s not exactly the same, of course, but it’s avery similar thing. I think harpists understand thatneed, but they don’t need to understand exactly whatgoes on. But I’m always happy to tell them what goeson, and let them know about what happens.

HC: I know that a lot of harpists used to regulatetheir own instruments because they didn’t have anychoice, because there weren’t people like you thattraveled around. Is that practical today?

PW: Is it practical? No. Regulation is not anextremely difficult thing to get a grasp of. It is a dif-ficult thing to actually do well. I understand thatthere was a need. I was surprised when I was firstasked to begin my road service program (throughLyon & Healy) in 1988 that there wasn’t a systemthat already existed. I mean, there were some inde-pendent guys in different places, but getting yourharp regulated wasn’t something that harpists could(easily) do. Today it’s not always easy—back then itwas pretty difficult. I mean, there was Dale Barco outof Los Angeles—he traveled a lot of the country; andSam Milligan in New York. Sam pretty much justtook care of the metro area there. And Ed Galchick—he is a master regulator—started traveling, doing hisown independent service the year before, I think itwas 1987.

When harpists were taught to do basic regulation,I think it was a good thing for two reasons: one,necessity, and two, for education and understanding.When you understand better what’s going on with

the harp, what you’re using to create with, I thinkthat’s a good thing.

HC: I was kind of taught the basics of how to doregulation, which I’m happy that I know for emer-gency purposes, but I feel like, personally, I wouldn’twant to spend time doing the whole harp myself. ButI am glad that if I had to fix my F-sharp in a pinch,at least I know how to do it, you know?

PW: Well, yes, and I’m a big proponent on educa-tion for harpists. I give harp care classes all the time.I must do 10 harp care classes a year. I’ve done themall over the place—in the United States, Australia, inKorea, in Japan. I really do think harpists should bebetter educated on their harps. The thing about reg-ulation—what is really difficult for some people tograsp—is that they’re taught (how to) regulate a sec-ond-octave F-natural that is bad. Now, what are yougoing to regulate? The focus is going to be on gettingthe F-natural right. That’s a correct assumption, (but)that is not the approach to regulation I take. Myapproach to regulation is that I want to get the inter-val right. I don’t focus on one end of the line, or onedot along the course. It’s a matter of getting every-thing lined up properly. If the second-octave F-natu-ral is sharp, it’s not a matter of turning the disc sothat the disc makes it less sharp. As a matter of fact,the primary point of regulation is not to even touchthe disc, it’s actually to touch the string nuts. Whenyou get into moving the string nuts, you can reallycause…

HC: You don’t know what you’re doing.PW: You just don’t know what you’re doing; you

can really create a bigger problem than you think.Also, along the way, if you adjust the F-natural discand your F-sharp was fine, well, now you have toadjust the F-sharp also, because you just changed theinterval from F-natural to F-sharp. The intervalmight have been fine from F-natural to F-sharp, butthe interval from F-flat to F-natural was wrong.

HC: I have two questions for you. I’m going to askthem both at the same time, and then you cananswer one at a time. The first is: what is the singlebiggest thing a harpist can do to prolong the life oftheir regulation? And secondly, what is the singlemost important thing a harpist can do to prolong thelife of their harp?

PW: Okay. Well, let’s take the second questionfirst. The most important thing that you can do is totreat your harp with love and care. In doing that,you’re not going to, you know, bang your harp intodoorways. You’re not going to drop your harp. You’regoing to be sure that you’re loading it and unloading

26

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continued from page 23

“When you understand better what’s going

on with the harp, what you’re using to

create with, I think that’s a good thing.”

“A lot of the harpists I work with are very tired

of hearing me talk about strings, but the

strings are the voice of the harp…” Ha

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service program—well, it didn’t exist. EdGalchick had done some trips for Lyon &Healy, but it wasn’t a full-fledged pro-gram, and when they asked me to do it, Iwanted to make it my full-time job. I did!It took me a couple of months, but Iturned it into my full-time job. I shouldn’tsay that, it wasn’t my full-time job, it wasthree-quarters of my job. I mean, half myjob was traveling, a quarter of it was get-ting ready to travel, and a quarter of itwas still working in the factory.

When I first started (the program], Ihad to do solicitation, because harpistsdidn’t know about it. So I would send out300 letters to Philadelphia, and I wouldget 12 harps. Twelve harpists would reply.I would get the American Harp Societydirectory and call harpists directly to solic-it work so I could get enough.

When I started the road service pro-gram, I also started to date Rosalie, who ismy wife now. We started dating as I begantraveling. I was traveling so much that wedidn’t have a whole lot of time together.So she put her foot down. She gave me one

of those “listen here” talks.She said she wanted to spendmore time with me, and Isaid, “Well, do you want tocome over to my apartmentand stuff envelopes?” And shedid. There were manyevenings where we would sitin my little studio apartment.We’d sit on the floor, and wewould fold letters—hundredsof letters—and stuff them inenvelopes. That was how wespent evenings—talking andstuffing envelopes so that wecould go on my next trip, whenever thatwas. So Rosalie was with me since thebeginning of that.

Probably the most frustrating thingabout the road service program was thefact that we couldn’t get to everybody thatcalled. I hated to come into town and thengo away and then get a letter or a phonecall or an e-mail that said, “Well, howcome you didn’t work on my harp?” Andit was never anything personal. Honestly,

29

harpists who had such a perfect sense ofwhat they wanted, and I wanted to pleasethem and I wanted to work hard, that Iactually learned a great deal from them.

There are some harpists who I’veworked with, and I’ve worked with, andI’ve worked with, and who I still can’t sat-isfy enough. That honestly doesn’t botherme, except for the fact that I really want tomake it right, I want to make it the waythat they want it. I want to please them.

My job is to take the instrument out of theway. I don’t want to take it out of theirhands, but I want to take it out of the way.When I’m working on an instrument, Iwant to optimize the instrument’s “per-formability.” I want to make it so thatsomeone can sit down and push the enve-lope with the instrument. I wish regula-tion were an act of perfection, but it’s real-ly not. I look at it as being an act of opti-mization. That’s what I try to do, I try to

optimize the instrument’s ability to playthe way that is needed.

HC: You have clients that love you,and will only have you regulate theirharps. Is it useful to have the same persondo your harp time after time? I mean, doyou know exactly what to do for certainpeople when you go in because you’vebeen working with them for a long time?

PW: Yes. I’m a strong believer thatwhen a harpist is working with a techni-cian, if they have a good rapport with thattechnician and a good level of confidencewith that technician, that they stay withthat person. I like to work with the samepeople over and over, because then Idevelop a relationship with them and withtheir instrument, and I do get to learnabout how the instrument’s being used.And I do get familiar with certain idiosyn-crasies an instrument might have andwork to control those so that it’s operatingin a way that the harpist is comfortable.

HC: You’ve basically worked with Lyon& Healy for 20 years and have recentlydecided to strike out on your own. Tell usabout that.

PW: I worked with Lyon & Healy for 20years, a little bit over 20 years, and lastyear my wife and I relocated to NewMexico in pursuit of life’s dreams andenjoyment. I had 20 years at Lyon &Healy where I really grew in a lot of ways.I really think my career blossomed withthem, and I’m very, very grateful for that.It was just a wonderful, wonderful jour-ney. Now I’m starting a new chapter in mylife with my wife. I also want to start myown company—to grow this companyand watch it grow and bear fruit.

My goal with my company, HarpDoctor, is to primarily service harps nearwhere I live, from southern California toTexas. There are a few places outside ofthat zone that I’ll go every year. I’m notagainst going to other places, but I have alot of harpists in that area that will bringin work for me, and I want to keep grow-ing those relationships.

HC: Tell us about the road service pro-gram you started with Lyon & Healy.

PW: When I first started to do the road

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“I worked with Lyon & Healy for a littlebit over 20 years,” says Wiley (right), pic-tured with colleagues at the Lyon &Healy factory in Chicago. “I really thinkmy career blossomed with them, and I’mvery, very grateful for that.”

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appreciate that. People respect that. I’llsay to some customers, “I don’t want to seeyour harp for three years,” and they say,“But, but…,” and I say, “Look, I reallydon’t need to see your harp for threeyears.” If it’s in really good shape and theregulation is holding really well, the typeof material they’re playing and theamount they’re playing the instrumentjust don’t call for it.

HC: I’ve always been told, “Every year,every year, every year,” but when I readthe information on your Web site, you sayto calculate the hours your harp is spentin use, and base your regulation needs onthat. So you might not need to have a reg-ulation every year.

PW: Right. HC: Has the world of harp regulating

changed in the 20 years you’ve been doingthis? Harps haven’t really changed.

PW: Oh, yes! By far they’ve changed.Being a technician is not an easy thing,because, like I said before, the basics arefairly simple. If I gave you a one-week

intensive course, I could show you justabout all the basics about how to do a reg-ulation. But that would be the equivalentof me coming to a harpist and taking harplessons for a few months. I might have ahalf-hour of repertoire or something, but itby no means makes me qualified to playthe Ginastera concerto. And it’s kind of thesame thing with regulators. You can learnall the basics—you can learn how to useyour fingers, your hands, how to use thetools, and how to do stuff, but it’s experi-ence that really gets you there.

I’ve often told people this, and I forgetwhere I learned it, but the first 75 percentof all of your work takes 25 percent of yourtime. It’s the last 25 percent of the workthat takes more and more time, and moreand more skill. So the closer you get tomaking a harp function in the 90th per-centile or the 95th percentile range of itsability to work, it’s tougher and tougher,and it takes more and more time, and itreally takes more and more experienceand skill to get there. •

31

it’s never been anything personal. I havenever avoided even my toughest harpists.I believe in the idea that the toughest crit-ics you have and the toughest situationsand the most difficult things that happento your life are the things that are themost rewarding in the end. They’re hardto go through, they’re difficult to weatherduring that time, but in the end, those arethe things we grow the most from ashuman beings.

HC: How does somebody get anappointment with you, because I’vetried… You swoop into town and don’t tellanyone you’re coming, and you duck out,and…

PW: Well, go to www.harpdoc.com,that’s my Web site. Harpdoc.com will havemy schedule and where I’m going. Andalso on the Web site will be informationand FAQs—basic questions like, “When doI need to have my harp regulated?” “Howdo I know I need to have my harp regu-lated?” “How often?” That stuff.

HC: You’ve probably had a lot of reallyinteresting things that have happened toyou on these trips. You’ve gone into con-cert halls, you’ve gone to schools. Where’sthe weirdest or strangest place you’ve everhad to regulate a harp?

PW: What comes to mind when yousay that—it’s not a weird place, but it’s avery interesting place, because it is verycool. I was in Hawaii, and I flew to the bigisland to help a harpist out, and shepicked me up at the airport; She was tak-ing me to her house and we were drivingalong the roads and through a neighbor-hood, and then we took a little road thatlooked kind of like I was going to the backof somebody’s property more or less. Andthere was a calf tied on a rope in this littledirt road and we shooed the calf out of theway and proceeded on up to a dead end.

But there was a gate going into a farm

field, and we opened the gate up and wentthrough the farm field up this bouncy,bouncy road. We were on the side of a vol-cano now, you have to understand, andwe’re bouncing around, and we go up toanother gate. I don’t see any house. Weopen up another gate, we drive throughanother field, we finally see a house, butwe have to go through another field, andin this field there’s a bunch of steer, so wehave to shoo the steer out of the way. Wego through that, and then we make ourway up to the house that was solar-pow-ered—had no electricity, but they hadplenty of sun. To me that was just the mostinteresting place.

HC: What kind of harp did this personhave once you got there?

PW: Oh, she had a Salvi electric harpand, I forget the model, but a Lyon &Healy acoustic harp.

HC: Are there any other crazy storiesyou’ve gathered that you’d like to tell usabout?

PW: I remember one time I had to go toCarnegie Hall for the ViennaPhilharmonic back in 1988 or 1989. I hadjust finished a 27-day road trip, and I gotback to the Lyon & Healy office and myboss handed me some airline tickets. I fig-ured they were for my next trip, which wasin another two weeks or something. Shesaid, “Please look at those tickets.” Ilooked at the tickets and they were flightsto New York that day and back that day!So I flew to New York and rendezvoused atCarnegie Hall with the ViennaPhilharmonic. I had to sit and wait andwait and wait for the union to bring methe harp. I was standing on the stage,looking down into the pit (at the harp].But they told me I needed to work on it onstage left and no place else—that was theonly place I could work on it. I had to waitfor almost two hours for a union stage

hand to pick the harp up, move it threefeet, and place it on stage left where Icould work on it. Then, to top it off, thereal problem I was there for was they hadbroken a bass wire, and the bass wire hadgotten stuck in the soundboard, and intrying to get it out they clipped it flushwith the soundboard on the top. And thelittle bit they could grab onto on the insidehad broken off. So the bass wire was stuckin the soundboard, and they hired me tocome out and remove it which, since I hadthe right tools, took me about five min-utes.

HC: So you got it out?PW: Yeah, and then I wrote them a bill

for a little over a thousand dollars for fiveminutes of work. I felt guilty, so I set up myStrobe tuner and I did a regulation. Butthey really just hired me to come get thebass wire out.

HC: There are more harp techniciansavailable today than there used to be.There are several people out there whocome to my mind that are highly skilled,but you are sought after by everybody.Why is that? How did you get that reputa-tion?

PW: Well, I’m very flattered by this.There are some excellent technicians outthere. I’m very happy that people arehappy with my work. I hope people likemy work, that I do good work and that I’mdoing it in a way that is making them feelmore comfortable on their harp. I’veworked really hard at that. I hope one ofthe other reasons, too, is that I try to be ashonest and sincere as possible with myadvice about their harp.

I think it’s really, really important thata harpist gets advice that suits them intheir situation. (For example,] what is thetimeline for having a repair? When is itnecessary and when is it really not neces-sary? That is always a matter of opinionfrom one technician to another. But Ialways try to take into account theharpist’s personal situation, not just someflat idea. I have never told a harpist flatout that you have to have your harp reg-ulated every year, because it doesn’t suiteveryone’s situation. And I think people

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“I have never told a harpist flat out that you have to

have your harp regulated every year, because it

doesn’t suit everyone’s situation.”