Changing technique

[Sylvia]

“It was kind of funny when I went to this french teacher she got me to lower my arms A LOT and to put my wrist out and there was this thing where when you play your fourth finger you kind of roll your whole hand over…Well! in Salzedo these are like serious” bad habits”

Natty, when I read that, I had to laugh.

[Sylvia]

I should have said…primarily a wedding harpist.

[Tacye]

How far do you have have to change how you play before it becomes a different technique?

[carl-swanson]

Your post reminds me of something that an old friend in the Harp Society told me. She had studied with Renie, and we were discussing how you deal with a transfer student who comes from a Salzedo background who want to change over to French technique. This woman said(with a smile),”I don’t say anything to them about lowering their elbows or straightening their wrists. Over time, it just happens on it’s own.” Your post is testimony to this.

[unknown-user]

Ha!! Yes, its really funny I think! And I love your post coz you are right that its all about making a beautiful sound and if you do that..well I think you are fantastic! That is all I want to do to play beautifully and play the music that I love.

[unknown-user]

Maybe you are the Clark method! My current teacher says that in the end you make your own technique,when you start to work and you have to meet the demands of working. She also said there is a lot more to Salzedo and french method than just

[Misty Harrison]

I think you’re being respectful Natty. The problem is that sometimes people who don’t really know a lot about the techniques end ep using the elobows as the only example they can think of … or the most obvious one. A lot of times it takes years of study before you are really ready to think about and read about and understand the method for what it is so when you are taking lessons sometimes you’re learning to play with that method but you’re not always learning that much about the method itself because you’re not ready yet. Sometimes people don’t get beyond that level of thinking about technique. Your teacher’s probably makign sure you know that there are some people out there who have really strong views one way or the other and are not always respectful about the other but most of the people are.

[sherry-lenox]

My teacher was trained extensively in two techniques and uses elements of both.

If she is preparing a student for a university audition she teaches in the style of the school where the audition will take place.

She has the most gorgeous tone I ever heard and I think she has played, really well, some of the demons in the literature, so, I’m pretty convinced that the combination she studied worked really well for her, and from my point of view, for her students as well.

[unknown-user]

My teacher talked to my MOM about it…errr…..and yeh, it was all about people with strong opinions etc etc. Kind of embarrassing, but yeh, she was just looking out for me.

[unknown-user]

Your teacher sounds really fascinating!

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Harpists are nutty. Piano training has many more schools of playing. They have as many schools of playing within France as we might have worldwide. Do they all claim to be superior? Perhaps it is “chacun a son gout.”

Any method is a problem if it isn’t serving a greater goal, to make greater music.

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