Changing techniques

[carl-swanson]

I think that any harpist who comes to you because of technical problems has to be willing to change something to fix the problem. It’s not necessarily a matter of changing technique or changing methods.

About 10 years ago a professional harpist(and a very good one) came to me and asked me to overhaul her technique. She had had a total of about 5 years harp instruction many years earlier, and irrespective of the fact that she had studied another school of playing, her technique had devolved into an awful mess that bore no resemblance to the method she had initially studied. After consulting with two very fine teachers of French method, I decided that the best solution was to make the major changes necessary. I was afraid that if I only tried to tweek what she was doing, we’d end up with a technique that I didn’t know would work or not. When she came for the first lesson I laid down some rules. I said I would do what she wanted ONLY if she agreed to these rules. I said that she had to promise to come for a weekly lesson no matter what, even if she had not had much or any time to practice, and this would be for a minimum of 6 months. Since she was a busy gig harpist, i told her to go ahead and do her bread-and-butter wedding gigs, but under no circumstances was she to take on difficult orchestra parts, concertos, chamber music, etc. for at least 6 months. And I told her that she had to agree to do exactly what I said.

She was a model student. The core of our work in fixing everything were the 40 easy etudes of Bochsa(on the advice of one of the two teachers I had consulted). She loved working on those etudes and to this day uses them to brush up when she has the time. I gave her a series of easy short pieces to make the transformation, and told her initially to just go through the motions correctly and not worry about anything else(tone, musicianship, etc.) until the new hand and arm position, finger motion etc. felt comfortable.

It took about 3 months for the new way of doing things to settle in, and several more months to apply it to the more advanced repertoire she was used to playing. Her sound became fuller and she had much more control over dynamics. I believe she was in her early 40’s when she did this, so I don’t think there is ever a time when one can’t make changes. But the student has to be willing to make them, and the teacher has to be very careful.

[unknown-user]

Thanks for that. I have to say I agree in most every way, and it does help alot of clarify my attitude to this. And

[unknown-user]

Carl you are right,we need to stop playing when we feel tired and have a rest for

a few minutes or we will get injuried, thats my teacher in Saint Petersburg taught

me, but for me i prefere to start with a student who knows nothing about the harp

to build him up the right positions of body,hands fingers, then technic, but if i need

to change someone bad technic habit , i will do, but it needs patience from me and

him or her to get the right result

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I’m about to perform, then what? I will be bored, probably, so maybe I should change my technique. What should I change it to?

[unknown-user]

The Zlatkovsky method!

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

I think if a harpist is consistently unable to play certain figures, cannot get a piece up to speed, or is developing injuries, then they should take a hard look at their technique and analyze what is holding them back. Athletes take videos and watch them in slow motion to pick apart where the inefficiencies are. Sometimes the problem only arises in certain registers, and the technique has to be adapted only in those instances. I don’t think you are ever too old to change. If

[unknown-user]

Thanks very much Elizabeth, that is really helpful. I have to say I agree with you, but was hesitant to come out and say it to the person involved, as she has a truck load of injuries and all her teachers so far have said it is too late to change. But I know a really

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I watched Karen Thielen give two wonderful master classes this weekend at the Harp Music Festival of Philadelphia. It’s not about method. When you put a hand on the harp, certain angles are required to accomplish certain things. If you are playing scales that go up, if your fingers are angled downward, you will have an easier time placing your fourth finger under your thumb and having more room in your hand makes it easier to place two and three. The more sidewards the fingers, the harder it is for them to make it work easily.

[Author]

Posts