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Exercise for good harp technique?

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Home Forums Forum Archives Amateur Harpists Exercise for good harp technique?

Viewing 8 posts - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)
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  • #155950
    tony-morosco
    Participant

    For that general conditioning exercises would be what you need. Doing regular warm

    #155951
    Tacye
    Participant

    At least as important as absolute strength is ergonomics, posture and efficiency.

    #155952
    tony-morosco
    Participant

    Of course, but good general physical condition will help make sure you not only can play well into your 90’s, but will increase your likelihood of reaching your 90s in the first place :^)

    You might get lucky like my great aunt who smoked and drank until she died at 99, but I don’t like to leave things like that entirely up to luck. Good genes count for a lot, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do what we can to improve the odds.

    #155953
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    If your forearm hurts after 20 to 30 minutes of practice, in fact, if it hurts after any amount of practicing, then you’re doing something wrong. No amount of practicing should cause pain.

    #155954

    The way I use exercises, taking one and doing it thoroughly in four different tempi, they develop strength, coordination, rhythm and tone quality. They have to be played musically. In addition, each hand is developed equally.

    I was raised for a few years on that approach to etudes using the same Bochsa etudes, and while some of them were pleasant, they were very unproductive. Exercises are more efficient because you can focus specifically on one thing only, where etudes involve many more things, even while emphasizing one. Those etudes fail in developing the left hand, which I think is unforgivable. Bochsa’s most advanced etudes are musically worthwhile, but not so much the easier ones, even though he wrote SO many of them. I think it was the Nadermann etudes I was looking at recently, or the Martenot edition of them, that featured equal development of both hands. That is worthwhile.

    If a student is starting very young, they can spend several years playing etudes without too much detriment, but those who start in high school or later don’t really have the time. There are many orchestra parts that serve the purpose of development just as well, the many that focus on arpeggios and chords, for example. Those would include Wagner’s Prelude to der Meistersinger, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Procession of the Nobles, Tchaikovsky’s harp parts, and so on. The advantage is that while using them to develop strength, the parts get learned and one is ahead on that necessary track.

    If you need etudes, I would look at Nadermann, and, well, not much else until the 20th Century. Dizi’s are very pianistic, good for playing his music or that of Godefroid. Bochsa’s are good for playing Bochsa. Hasselmans used Bochsa. So did Salzedo until he composed his magnificent etudes. Damase has very nice etudes that are a very good introduction to his style of writing for the harp. Some of Tournier’s pieces make good etudes. Posse’s etudes are good if you can handle them.

    Other solos that make excellent etudes include Caplet’s Divertissement a la Francaise, Prokofiev’s Prelude, Debussy’s Arabesque, Spohr’s Fantaisie, anything by Busser, and so on.

    One must be careful with etudes to avoid too much repetition of a figure if it leads to any strain, which some will. Posse’s have very wide reaches.

    Nadermann’s solos are basically etudes. Grandjany’s etudes on Bach can be quite useful, musically substantial, and many with even use of the hands.

    I have written a few that should be out relatively soon, but they are tricky, being based on Paganini, that means a lot of chromatic pedalling, and sliding thirds and sixths. What fun!

    While I think it is important to develop one’s strength at the harp, overall conditioning is crucial, particularly to moving one’s harp. Swimming and weight training, dancing, should be essential.

    #155955
    Tim Kelly
    Participant

    I will check both of those out. Thanks much!

    #155956
    Tim Kelly
    Participant

    @ Carl

    I will look into the 40 etudes of Boscha. It sounds like it would be really great practice. Thank you for giving me such a concise explanation. : ) I do in fact have a teacher and her explanation was very similar to yours, and she is being very thorough and making sure I develop good technique. I will make sure to run everything by my teacher so that I don’t practice something wrong.

    @Elizabeth

    I did ask my teacher about this, and she had some good suggestions. However, I didn’t know there was a harp forum, and I wanted to see what kind of suggestions other people had and how they compared to what my teacher said. It is Insightful to hear what different people have to say.

    @Mike

    I was originally asking about exercising at the gym. It sounds like frequent harp practice will also benefit your muscles.

    I wouldn’t say my forearm *hurts* but it does get tired. Maybe I should relax more.

    I learned last week in my lesson that I was going too fast. I was stopping at points and trying to figure out the finger position instead of slowing my pace and keeping the rhythm…kind of off topic but I thought I would share that!

    @Saul Davis

    Thanks much for your post. Some great wisdom that I will apply to my playing. : )

    #155957
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    I agree with Saul that the 40 easy etudes of Bochsa tend to emphasize the right hand. Not all of them, but a lot of them. The answer to that is to play them as written, but also to play them with the left hand playing the right hand part, either where written or an octave lower. You can leave out the right hand all together(eat a sandwich, talk on the phone?) or just make up a right hand part.

Viewing 8 posts - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)
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