Maeve Gilchrist
Celtic technique and improvisation
I hope that these videos excite and inspire you in your journey as a harpist.
I hope that these videos excite and inspire you in your journey as a harpist.
When we first got to know Maeve Gilchrist back in 2007, she had just won the lever harp division of the Lyon & Healy Jazz and Pop Harp Competition. She was fresh out of Berklee College of Music in Boston and finding her way as a musical transplant from Scotland. Her musical creativity and originality blossomed over the last decade as she moved back and forth between New York City and Boston.
Today Gilchrist is fresh off premiering a concerto for harp and orchestra she was commissioned to write, along with composer Luke Benton. And she has recently released an album with bass player Viktor Krauss. Though Gilchrist has done much to validate the Irish harp as an instrument on par both technically and musically with its pedal counterpart, the idea that her instrument wouldn’t be taken as seriously is a foreign concept for Gilchrist, who grew up in a country with a rich and respected folk music tradition.
Perhaps the biggest step for Gilchrist and her Irish harp was her faculty appointment at her alma mater, Berklee College, which marked the first major college program to hire a strictly lever harp player on its faculty.
Read Harp Column’s feature interview with Maeve in our May-June 2017 issue, and find out more about her at www.maevegilchristmusic.com.
Explore lessons with
Maeve Gilchrist
Learn Maeve Gilchrist's technique for accompanying using arpeggios.
Learn Maeve's technique for practicing four-note arpeggios.
Learn to play Maeve Gilchrist's original composition "Catriona's Jig."
Learn Maeve Gilchrist's technique for playing and practicing the Celtic triplet technique.
Maeve Gilchrist teaches how to amp up your practice routine by developing your own creative practice techniques.
Learn Maeve's exercises for playing different rhythms in each hand.
Learn how to play Maeve Gilchrist's original composition "Fin and Sarah's Wedding Waltz."
Maeve Gilchrist teaches her arrangement of "Hogties Reel," by Phil Cunningham.
Maeve Gilchrist teaches the folk tune "Hospitality of Jane" from her collection "Traditional Tune Arrangements and Original Compositions for the Lever Harp, Book 1."
Learn how to create effective ornaments for improvisation and embellishment.
Learn to play Maeve's original composition "Ostinato 4 (Yellow Birds)."
Learn Maeve Gilchrist's ostinato exercises for improvisation.
Learn more of Maeve Gilchrist's finger strengthening and hand coordination exercises.
Take Maeve Gilchrist's ostinato exercises to a more advanced level in part 3 of her series.
Learn Maeve Gilchrist's technique for building right hand independence.
Learn Maeve Gilchrist's "splat" improvisation technique.
Learn Maeve Gilchrist's exercise for perfecting triads.
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