Home › Forums › Forum Archives › Professional Harpists › How to keep yor listeners interested??
- This topic has 32 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 9 months ago by mr-s.
-
AuthorPosts
-
January 14, 2009 at 4:04 pm #152078Mel SandbergParticipant
Christian, your explanations are very interesting and convincing.
January 14, 2009 at 4:40 pm #152079Christian FrederickParticipantThank you Mel,
I know my answer was a little overboard for the original question. I just want to encourage Mr. S to use this experience to become the best he can.
I was playing last night and analyzing my playing, and discovered I use more of the reverse 10ths to double melody, which is actually a 6ths. It really is hard to explain art sometimes.
January 17, 2009 at 12:36 am #152080mr-sMemberChristian do you agree with me that we need to keep our selves as a players interested too? can you and every body tell me if you play for a one year continously in a hotel or restaurant how many times you take a break after a one year of working? and how often do you renew your repertoire?
January 18, 2009 at 3:32 pm #152081Christian FrederickParticipantHi… I’m not sure if I totally understand your question, but you speak English better than I speak Russian, so I applaud you.
Do you mean you play seven nights a week? You really need at least one or two days off a week.
Also, how long is your shift? If it is four hours, you can play 40 minutes and take a 20 minute break. When I take a break, I usually walk, get some fresh air, and do little exercises, such as shake or swing my arms a little.
You should definitely play music that works for you. So, if you are a classical player, then play some classical music each set. But, you should also play music the audience recognizes, so I think French love songs are good as you mentioned earlier. I play for a lot of tourists from the Northeast in the USA, and that is the center for Broadway musicals, so I play a lot of Broadway show tunes and the audience loves it. A good bet to start is learn some music from Phantom Of The Opera. Worldwide audiences love that show more than any other! And of course, please try to avoid playing an entire set from printed music. Memorizing is very, very, very important.
I’m ALWAYS working on new music, since I started my first steady gig in 1974. If you play the same old tunes night after night you will become bored.
Hope this helps. Please keep a positive attitude. Be nice to everyone, especially the staff of the hotel.
January 20, 2009 at 4:15 am #152082Jan JenningsParticipantCongratulations for being concerned about your listeners (as well as the staff and yourself!)
January 20, 2009 at 11:36 am #152083mr-sMemberChristian , you play the Phantom of the opera,its a harp arrangement or for piano?
January 20, 2009 at 1:53 pm #152084Christian FrederickParticipantBoth. A lot of the harp I play has evolved from piano. It’s a very similar instrument, except since the harp does not have dampers, the harp usually has less notes in the lower and mid section.
Also, I’ve been thinking about this thread, and in my opinion, simple and easy piano arrangements work best on harp for starters. Then you can change and evolve those arrangements to works best for you. There are a lot of easy piano arrangement books available to purchase on the Internet.
I think easy piano arrangements work much better than harp arrangements. I have fond no harp arrangements that work for me, or that I would recommend. I encourage people to continually add their own ideas and eventually the arrangements become totally theirs. You may want to view other people’s harp arrangements to study, but I do not recommend playing them in public.
January 21, 2009 at 12:09 am #152085mr-sMemberHi Christian i play 6 days and one day off, i am not starter,you know i find diffeculties in easy piano arrangment than in complicated one, and i dont think that easy piano scores are better than harp arrangements,why? you think like that, if the editor was a harpist and gave the music a harpestic soul and character why not, i think will be better than piano……………now i am practicing a music for piano from tv movie (the thorn birds) theme Meggies, i find a lot of diffeculties by playing it on harp than on piano,but if there is a good arranger harpist think how it will be more comfortable on the harp i prefer the harp arrangement then……….
January 21, 2009 at 3:46 pm #152086diane-michaelsSpectatorJan wrote: “Diane said people stopped asking for Phantom.
January 21, 2009 at 5:41 pm #152087Christian FrederickParticipantDiane,
I’m looking for new music to learn. I’ve had requests for Coldplay. Do you think Clocks is a good tune to learn?
The last couple of years I’ve had trouble finding new music.
January 22, 2009 at 2:30 am #152088helen-ruddParticipantI’m learning clocks now. It is quite fun to play and is going to be quick to learn I think. I don’t play in public but my brother was visiting last week and heard me practicing it. He couldn’t believe you could play Clocks on the harp!
January 22, 2009 at 10:45 am #152089liath-hollinsMemberHi there,
I must admit that I can’t stand Coldplay… but learned ‘Fix You’ for a wedding last year. That works very well on harp, if you substitute some arpeggios for all those repeated bass notes.
January 23, 2009 at 11:15 pm #152090mr-sMemberi have an old cassette of Richard Clayderman,was in the 90s a well known light music pianist, and he played a music called (A white shade of pale) i like it so much, but i think no way to get the score,and in the cassette not written the name of the composer,i think this music sounds beautiful on harp, what about Monney Money song by ABBA group? do you play it on harp?
June 22, 2009 at 8:01 pm #152091jeanne-koehlerSpectatorWhat Saul said was not rude at all… it was funny and true.
June 22, 2009 at 9:08 pm #152092sherry-lenoxParticipantChristian I am SO impressed that you can trust yourself to using a song memorized in a week! What a gift….
I think a core of seasonal songs is a useful tool. If you have three or four seasonal/holiday songs for every six weeks to two months, that’s another 20-30 songs that people will like to hear, and you can rotate them and keep them fresh. I always do that when I teach classroom music. Also, people who frequent your venue will come to look forward to hearing them without them getting too predictable.
-
AuthorPosts
- The forum ‘Professional Harpists’ is closed to new topics and replies.