Carlos Salzedo revolutionized prior conceptions of the harp through his compositions, teaching and writing. He developed a new technique for playing this instrument. Today it is known as the Salzedo Technique. In 1930 Salzedo wrote in Overtones (the monthly publication of The Curtis Institute of Music) about the misconceptions associated with the harp. Unfortunately some of them still hold true today.

"There is a paradox as regards the harp. The less that people know about this instrument, the more they tend to express authoritative opinions of its potentialities. A statement generally made by reviewers who hear the harp for the first time is that “the harp is the most ancient of musical instruments”. While this is true historically speaking, it is, musically, a fallacy. For the harp of the Jews, Egyptians, Greeks, Irish, and so forth, bears as much relation to the harp of 1930 as an ox – historically the oldest means of transportation – to an airplane, scientifically the most modern instrument of transportation. The statement quoted above is often followed by the remark that “the harp is a very limited musical instrument.” Another fallacy! There will be less talk of these so-called “limitations” when people become adequately informed concerning the most modern aspects of the instrument."