THREE RIVERS AREA — The harp leaned against her shoulder as Ellen Jordan of Judsonia effortlessly plucked its strings to release a hypnotic melody.
She explained that about 20 years ago, she and her husband, Gene, were at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville when she heard a man playing a harp.
“The sound is so beautiful and soothing, and it caught my attention,” Jordan said about the sound of the harp.
At that moment, she decided she wanted to learn how to play the harp, too, she said. So Gene made her a harp from a walnut tree, but he left it to her to string.
“We had it, and I said, ‘Now what do we do with it?’” Jordan said about her harp. “I went to Little Rock for lessons, but I had it strung wrong.”
But her instructor fixed the harp and tuned it for her, and she began to learn how to play.
“I knew how to read music,” she said, “and I had had piano lessons when I was a kid.”
She still takes lessons, too, but not in the traditional sense. At 4:30 every Thursday afternoon, her instructor from Carona, Calif., rings her up via Skype. Jordan sits where she and her harp can be seen and heard by the instructor.
Jordan joined an instrumental group at her church and played her harp.
That gave her some practice playing in front of an audience, and she now plays at nursing homes and hospitals. She recently played at White County Medical Center in Searcy.
“I play mostly hymns,” she said as she sat down and began playing “The Longer I Serve Him.”
“At nursing homes, that’s what they want to hear.”
She said something just keeps pushing her to play the big stringed instrument, and it makes her feel good to play for the people in the nursing homes.
It’s easy to travel with her harp, she said as she removed the small wheeled platform from underneath one of her harps.
“This one we made from a kit,” she said as she unzipped the soft red case that covered the harp.
Another harp in her collection is a smaller version that sits on her lap. She also explained that she and her husband discovered a need for harp levers, which are attached to the strings to change their pitch.
Her interest in playing the harp led to something else as well - a harp manufacturing company. Jordan Manufacturing is located behind the Jordans’ home in Judsonia. Ellen and Gene started the company about seven years ago to fill a void in the harp market. The company manufactures plastic and metal levers that are sold worldwide.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.
Three Rivers, Pages 119 on 07/29/2012