Question for Harp Teachers about a certain kind of Student Frustration

[Victoria]

Alyson is absolutely right. Playing your own harp can also feel different in a different setting. Everytime I play in a concert or orchestra rehearsal, it always feels a bit weird even though I bring my own harp. Good news is, it does get better the more you do it. I have also had instances where I have to play on different harps and now I find that I can adjust to them quite quickly.

I still cannot play as well as I do at home, of course and I also have the same problem as you. I can play fine at home, but in front of the teacher, it’s a disaster. But dont be stressed and give up right away, usually the 2nd or 3rd go of the piece during the lesson is better, as you adjust to the harp 🙂

So you are definitely not the only one with that problem, and I hope that is somewhat helpful.

[Tacye]

While for the nuances of how to play a solo on the harp it is easiest to go to a harp teacher, at the end of the day this is music. Do you have any good local orchestras which hold open rehearsals? Why is the conductor asking for what he does? Or join a choir that is good enough to concentrate on details rather than note learning.

You may already be doing this, but find the score of a piece and follow it as you listen to lots of recordings. What different choices have the performers made? Why do you like some better than others? If you could pick and mix a bit from each what would you choose? How is the transcription to another instrument different?

And as Alyson says, don’t be surprised that you play worse in lessons, even on your own harp.

[andy-b]

I’ve had frustrations with trying to play a teacher’s harp and doing poorly in lessons because of the difference in harps. At the time, I only played lever harp, so was practicing doing lever changes during the week, and then in my lessons on her pedal harp, was trying to figure out on the fly how to make the accidentals. I couldn’t play the lever harp she had available as it was so drastically different (lighter) in tension and closer in spacing than my own harp, it always had a couple of strings missing in the upper register she didn’t replace, and the wires were all so tarnished you couldn’t tell where the C’s and F’s were.

[Gretchen Cover]

Andy, can’t you bring your harp to lessons? A lever harp is certainly more transportable than a pedal harp. It disturbs me greatly to read that harp instructors are not taking care of their harps. There is absolutely no excuse IMHO for missing strings and wires that bad. Yes, I know how expensive strings are. I just bought a set of gut strings and the price went up. I can understand a teacher not wanting a student to use his/her best harp for lessons, but part of teaching is also showing students how to maintain a harp – and part of that is by example. OK, my rant is over.

[andy-b]

Hi, Gretchen – I’m actually not currently taking lessons, and this was about 18 years ago and in a different city than I now live. I was just trying to show that sometimes there can be reasons that a teacher’s harps may not be the best for a particular student to take lessons on – they do have to be maintained and the lever vs. pedal issue is something for teachers to consider as well. You’re right, it would have been better for me to take my own to my lessons!

Cheers,
Andy

[Aria]

All excellent suggestions! Thanks for the reminder about Josh Layne’s You Tube videos. I saw one a while ago and thought it was really great. He’s definitely someone I would take a Skype lesson from if I can. I’ve also been reviewing Marta Cook’s You Tube technique videos. I would love to learn more about what Ann Sullivan offers. I think it would be fabulous if more teachers offered video teaching demos. It opens a whole world I don’t have access to normally. Currently I’m enrolled in Deborah Henson Conant’s online courses. She doesn’t teach technique specifically. But what she does teach has been so amazingly invaluable for learning other things about music that I never understood before! Very exciting!

[Author]

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