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Home Forums Teaching the Harp Etudes

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 24 total)
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  • #82392
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Hi everyone- My article on using etudes to build technique just came out in the latest issue of the Harp Column. I’m just curious to know what your own experience is with using etudes either to learn technique yourself or to teach it. What etudes have you used to learn/teach technique? What do you like or not like about them? What do you feel you got out of them? Any other thoughts?

    #82393
    unknown-user
    Participant

    Hi Carl,

    #82394
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    It’s nice to hear that you’ve gotten such a benefit from using etudes. I hope the article inspires more people to start using them.

    #82395
    unknown-user
    Participant

    Aside from Salzedo’s Etudes, I have not found any sufficiently musically rewarding to be worth the precious practice time and be useful, though I might use Bochsa’s most advanced set if they fit my repertoire better. Pianists are awfully lucky to have Chopin and Debussy and so many other composers, but then, those are concert pieces more than etudes, perhaps. We do have repertoire that works well as etudes, such as Caplet’s Divertissement a la Francaise, the Faure Impromptu, concertos,

    #82396
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    I think etudes are most useful at the beginner and intermediate stages. But even at the advanced stage, etudes can give you stamina for very advanced repertoire.

    #82397

    Cynthia, I agree that Pozzoli Intermediate Etudes are very musical, and

    #82398
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Patricia- I’ll have to take a good look at those Pozzoli etudes. I’m really not all that familiar with them. I learned one that I occasionally use on recitals. It was recorded by Lily Laskine and I liked it so much I learned it myself. But I guess there are others too that are worth looking at.

    #82399

    Carl, I enjoyed your article in Harp Column, and it was great to have the examples shown as well. Do you know the Six Etudes by Schmidt? The last one is fantastic for stabilizing the wrist and placing correctly, and also works as a concert piece.

    #82400
    frances-duffy
    Participant

    Hi Carl!

    #82401
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Frances- I LOVE hearing when a teacher uses etudes! I hope you get to read the article, and if you are not familiar with the Bochsa 40 easy etudes, I’d really recommend you take a look at them.

    #82402
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Elizabeth- I’ve never looked at the Schmidt etudes. I always assumed that they were concert etudes. I believe they were edited by Pierre Jamet. I’ll have to take a look at them.

    #82403
    frances-duffy
    Participant

    Thanks Carl.

    #82404
    Kathleen Clark
    Participant

    Ooops, I thought I’d looked for an Etude thread but somehow missed it. So I have copied my experience into this thread. My questions are a lot like Carl’s except I am approaching it from the student’s point of view, so I’ve left them in. I want to thank Trayce for the info that four of the Labarre etudes were at one time on a UK exam syllabus.

    The only thing I want to add at the moment is that my teacher has me play them deliberately and slow, concentrating on tone. He is such a perfectionist. If just one finger is off volume or tone-wise he has me work on it until it is brought into line with all the others. Picky, picky, picky, but that’s why I pay him the big bucks.

    My earlier post on another thread…

    ***********

    In response to Carl’s wonderful article about
    etudes in the current issue of Harp Column magazine

    #82405
    Kathleen Clark
    Participant

    I am glad someone has mentioned Hasselmans “La
    Source” as it is one of my favorite pieces of harp music and was the
    first “big” piece I memorized. I think I shall spend the rest
    of my harp life trying to play each note perfectly, which means I don’t
    play it very fast.

    The foregoing reminds me of something that happened when I
    was warming up with it before my lesson at the harp center one day. A
    well-known professional harpist who was in the store commented to me
    after I was done that she had had to learn “La Source” in university and just
    couldn’t get into it and like it because (and this is a direct quote)

    #82406
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Isn’t that bizarre that the Annie Louise Davids edition leaves out a page??? What was she thinking?

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