How difficult is it to learn to play the harp without knowing how to read music?

Question:i wanna learn to play the harp, frst i need to buy one but for now i was wondering if it was best to learn to read music and understand how to produce the notes or tones i desire. does anybody play the harp? any advice would be great thanks :)

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i wanna learn to play the harp, frst i need to buy one but for now i was wondering if it was best to learn to read music and understand how to produce the notes or tones i desire. does anybody play the harp? any advice would be great thanks :)

I play a celtic harp, that sits on my knee and has 22 strings.It's very easy to sound good, cos you can't really play bum notes, so improvisation is great. Playing actual tunes is a bit harder, cos you have to know where the notes are. I don't read music much,; certainly not on to harp.
Mine was made in the USA by a firm called Stoney End. They are marketed through Hobgoblin Music, who do a number of harps.

Hope this helps.

Talent makes a huge difference in how easy it is for a person to learn to play an instrument. Having said that, everyone agrees that some instruments are harder than others. There are no frets on a harp, and there are an awful lot of strings to keep tuned. The piano is considered one of the easier instruments to learn (although mastery of any instrument is an achievement), as all the notes are laid out in a linear fashion and pianos don't need to be tuned often (never if they are electric). Learning sheet music is an option. It gives you more professional opportunities, but really what you need is a good ear. There have been lots of really good blind musicians.

Learning to play and learning to play music from sheet music are two different things. People learn to play guitar and such without reading music, but they really can't learn to play with an ensemble. You can always learn technique without sheet music.