Home › Forums › Teaching the Harp › More current Pop Repertoire
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May 8, 2009 at 6:08 pm #85853
unknown-user
ParticipantHello
May 8, 2009 at 6:40 pm #85854Jerusha Amado
ParticipantTisha,
I am not a harp teacher, but I play pop and jazz professionally.
May 8, 2009 at 6:41 pm #85855Stephanie
SpectatorHello,
May 9, 2009 at 1:11 am #85856helen-rudd
ParticipantYour best bet may be to let them tell you what current pop tunes they like, take a look at some piano versions and see if they might work for the harp. Even if they don’t work at first look you may be able to arrange them in a “harpy” way or have your students work on it as an excercise in arranging. Most pop piano stuff works well on the harp. I’ve been playing Evanesence (my immortal), several Joanna Newsom songs (although I guess she’s more indie than pop), a few Linkin park songs, Bella’s Lullaby (the official version and the Yiruma unofficial version) etc. Depending on what your student is interested in the skys the limit. I have also been playing songs from some of the movies I love, Twilight, Piano, all of the Jane Austin movies (amazon.com has 2 great books that contain pretty much all of the music from these movies including My father’s favorite which plays like it was made for the harp!), etc.
Oh and speaking of clocks, check out this great harp video on youtube-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ZJ2TIjSaEMay 9, 2009 at 4:42 am #85857Misty Harrison
ParticipantSince you transcribed those Brahms pieces you probably have no problem adapting piano music for harp but if you want arrangements for harp then the ones above are good and they are by Paul Baker. He has others too some are older and some are more contemporary and you can just search his name at http://www.harp.com so they all come up. I’ve had a couple students with this kind of issue so I try all kinds of things that are interesting for them. Sometimes contemporary pop music works well if it’s not too hard for them and also sometimes music from commercials too. Remember the airline commercial with Rhapsody in Blue? That is a great one if the student recognizes it or the Ravel Pavane for a Dead Spanish Princess. One student really liked contemporary Christian music and got excited about arranging her own solos for church from piano music and she kinda got more interested in standard harp literature after that because she had a better understanding of the choices the composer made. Students are all different but a lot of the time they lose interest because it becomes work and not fun because they aren’t sure they can really do it. Anything that shows them they can will peak their interest. You could take a pop song and get them playing a left hand or right hand alberti bass figure. Then get them to put the melody in there. Maybe you write it all out, so they don’t have to find it on their own, but the key is they get excited at trying and accomplishing this thing that seems hard but is easy enough to do
May 9, 2009 at 4:47 am #85858ParticipantAnd if you are having trouble finding the pop repertoire you need see if the student has someone else who likes a special song. My mom always loved some older pop songs that I didn’t know but I learned them because she liked them and it was good for me because I got reinforcement by being able to play something someone else really wanted to hear.
May 11, 2009 at 3:15 pm #85859tony-morosco
ParticipantThis might be a good time to teach this student how to play from a fake book. Fully done arrangements of contemporary pop tunes for harp are rare, but there are lots of lead sheets and fake books out there full of contemporary pop music.
Playing from a fake book is a totally different approach to playing that can be rewarding and very, very fun once you start to get the hang of it. It might be not only an infusion of new repertoire to keep them interested, but a different approach to playing that might help them look at playing differently.
I remember taking piano lessons when I was younger and hating playing the pieces from the books I had to use.
May 11, 2009 at 4:52 pm #85860ParticipantThanks for all the great suggestions. I guess I am looking for something “ready-made.”
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