play from chord symbols?

[Sylvia]

Anyone else play from symbols? I do for church choir things and band (I have to have at least one REAL part to go in…the librarian gives me scores for the other pieces, and I write in the chord symbols). Recently I encountered a situation where (LSS…long story short) the belief was that harpists couldn’t do that. I’m sure other harpists improv from symbols too…right?

[Tacye]

If the person questioning has sufficient musical background you can point out the harp used to be a common continuo instrument.

[kreig-kitts]

Yes, lots of harpists do. When playing hymns in church I generally take the hymn, break it down into chord symbols, then work out an accompaniment. But I can do some basic improvisation and I’m not even a very good harpist. I imagine thousands of harpists improvise around chord symbols quite easily and many gigging harpists do it regularly. I can only guess at the extensive experience playing the harp which formed this person’s opinion.

[Sylvia]

You mean like none? Well, you know a lot of people think harpists play “classical” music, and that we are limited to only certain things. It’s just ignorance.

[Christian Frederick]

…. other than playing strict Classical music notation, I can’t figure out why anyone would ever want to play music without knowing the chord symbols…. but that’s just the way my brain works….

[Jerusha Amado]

Almost everything that I do at gigs is improv. from lead sheets. Improvisation helps me to maintain my pop and jazz skills and also my interest in what I’m playing, primarily because I play each song differently every time. And audiences seem to love it!

[Sylvia]

My personal rep is almost all “free left hand”….as I call it…but I don’t play jazz. I think you get a fuller sound that way anyway than trying to play a picky left hand. Anyway, the question came up when I played with a touring group last week that was here to give a concert, and there was only one part….all glisses.

[katie-buckley]

What a bummer!! There are so many misconceptions about harpists. It probably just comes from having one harpist mention they don’t read chord symbols or don’t have experience with it. Silly to assume, then, that all of us cannot do it.

[Author]

Posts