For years, harpcolumn.com users have been asking each other "what's on your music stand?" We decided to re-invent harpcolumn.com so that sharing information about the pieces you're working on, instruments you play, and concerts you give is the central focus. Of course we still have discussion forums where you can discuss pretty much anything harp related (or not!), along with a host of other new features, like blogs and practice journals, that we think you're going to love! Read on for an in-depth look at how to use the new site.
MusicStand is an online harp networking space where you can keep a personal record of instruments you play, concerts you give, and pieces you're working on using our user-generated library. You can make practice journal entries on any of your items, and connect them to each other. Your information can be private, or shared with other members of the community. Your MusicStand page can also include a photo ("Gravatar") and basic information about you such as your bio, contact info, and who your teachers and students are. Every member also has a personal "blog" space. You can comment on other users public items, as well as post in the forums.
Practice Journal is an online diary where you can keep notes about your experiences playing the harp. Use it to map your progress and set goals. You can have a practice journal entry associated with a particular piece, a particular harp, or a particular concert. Or you can write a practice journal entry about nothing in particular. Your practice journal can be private or public, or visible only to a certain group like your teacher or your students.
"Pieces" is our library of harp repertoire built by you, the users! Once a piece is in the library, you can put it on your music stand, comment on it, and talk about it with other users. You can give it your own personal difficulty rating, and you can even upload pictures and audio samples (adhering to copyright laws, of course). We've seeded the library with some common pieces to get things rolling, but you can create a "piece" for just about anything you're working on.
Hester Musicologist is our librarian who oversees all the pieces and also acts as a site moderator. Everyone can create pieces and even edit others, but if disputes should arise, Hester has the final say. Hester may also send you messages from time to time about site improvements or other issues.
We've built our new site from the ground up, and as you can imagine, there's a lot going on! During our soft launch, we'll continue to test all the site features, build the library, work on our design, and get rid of bugs that we know are going to arise. While we're in our soft launch phase, the current harpcolumn.com will remain active and will continue to house our subscription management and classified ad services. Forums will be active on both sites, and advertisers will receive free advertising on our new site.
When we're done with the soft launch, the current harpcolumn.com forums will no longer be active, however you'll still be able to access and read old threads on the new site.
During our soft launch, we'll be maintaining a "bugs" forum where you can bring to our attention any issues you're having with the site or any obvious bugs you notice. For more serious issues, please contact us directly at webmaster@harpcolumn.com.