question for trad irish harpers re. exercises

[samantha-t]

Hello,
I’m curious about how traditional Irish (or even Breton) harp is taught and practiced. By traditional harp I mean (I suppose) something like what I presume is taught at Janet Harbison’s school. I hear trad harp is generally taught by ear, doesn’t use sheet music etc.

I’m specifically wondering if these harpers use something like exercises in their daily practicing – that is, repetitions of patterns like scales or arpeggios that aren’t in themselves meant as pieces of music but are a means to an end of improving, say, dexterity or muscle memory.

Thanks for any insights! Off to post another question about cold hands!
Samantha

[natalie-wagner–2]

Ooh I’ve wondered about this myself. Unfortunately I have no knowledge to share, but I would love to see where this post goes!

[andee-craig]

There is an exercise called Chimes which Janet teaches and one of her former students has taught at a workshop as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5OLUGWYppg

[kathy-chanik]

Here’s the perfect thing: Sue Richards has a great book out called Dexterity Exercises for Celtic Music. You can find it on her website and probably also the major harp retailers.

[samantha-t]

Thanks all. Andee, did you learn to play by reading music, or through an oral/aural method? How do you learn new tunes – do you play them by ear and if so, how do you work out the fingerings?

Kathy, I’ve seen that book on the Sylvia Woods site. It looks useful but as it’s sheet music, it’s sort of geared to people who learn that way. I was wondering what kind of exercises people do who have learned by ear (a process which is alien to me).

I wonder how harpers like O’Carolan learned to play, for example – did they drill themselves with exercises like a modern pedal player would?

[andee-craig]

I learn by ear. I can read music and sometimes use it to help me figure out a tough passage if needed.

After 10 years of lessons and many workshops with people like Janet H, Grainne Hambly and Michael Rooney (and recently Fiana NiChoinaill) the fingering comes naturally to me for the most part.

I believe Janet’s books (as well as some others) have the fingering notated. There isn’t always just one way to do it, if it flows then it’s probably correct.

[mae-mcallister]

As a beginner harpist but not a beginner folk player, I can only assume one learns to play folk on the harp in a similar way to all other instruments i.e by learning tunes by ear off other people in a session. I’ve never heard of anyone practicing exercises (though I’m sure there are some out there) but trad tunes tend to be made up of the same small blocks of familiar patterns of notes, and (at least I have found on the whistle) your fingers learn the little patterns of arpeggios and runs as you learn to play the tunes, and then other tunes become easier to pick up and play and your fingers know how to do it already. So in a way, the tunes themselves are the exercises…

I am really struggling with fingering folk tunes on the harp at the moment, plus also moving fast enough to keep up with tunes Irish-ish based session is near impossible for me right now apart from waltzes (I just do accompanying things…). Any tips? You know, apart from just keep working at it? My normal mode of operation (copying and learning from other players) is useless as I am the only harpist in my session.

Slightly off-topic, I’d also be very interested in learning how all the folk ornaments are done on the harp…i.e. how do you cut, strike, roll, crann on a harp? Or are there other things you do instead and I am thinking too much like a whistle player…

[samantha-t]

Hi everyone,
Sorry I haven’t checked back on this thread for a while. Last time I was on the forum there was no way of subscribing to a thread so I didn’t know there had been more responses.

Thanks Andee for your insights from your extensive experience in trad. music.

Mae, I’ve often wondered about fingering ornamentation myself. Laurie Riley addresses ways to finger some of the celtic ornaments (though not all) in her video (DVD now) “Secrets of Celtic Style”. The thing I find tricky about ornamentation is that you use it to change things up a bit, so it ends up throwing off your carefully worked out fingerings. So you can’t be wedded too strongly to fingering a particular melody a particular way.

As for the speed in session playing, what about for now just using chords or even just notes from the chords to punctuate the rhythm/downbeats/offbeats of the tune instead of trying to keep up with the tune itself?

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