Scales and arpeggios

[tony-morosco]

Not much of a teacher myself, but I just went and looked through my notes from my earliest lessons and what do I see? The very first thing I have in my notes from my very first lesson was to remember to practice the scale and arpeggios I was shown before practicing the music.

So my teacher, who was the quintessential Salzedo player (she studied with both Salzedo and Lawrence), taught me to play scales and arpeggios before anything else.

It definitely isn’t important for the same reasons as for piano. I play both certainly on piano you simply need to know all the scales because that is the only way you learn how to play in the right key. On harp once you have the levers or pedals set the fingerings are all the same. But I can’t help feel that the facility developed by practicing both, particularly arpeggios, is of great benefit.

There is no better way to learn your way around the harp, and to learn to

[carl-swanson]

Tony- That’s a perfect explanation of why everyone should practice scales and arpeggios on the harp. For the student trying to improve their technique, it’s important to practice both in endless variations: uneven rhythms, accenting one finger out of 4 and changing the accent, practicing arpeggios as block chords, and practicing both looking away from the harp.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Well, yes, you develop certain skills with scales, others with arpeggios, and still more with other patterns. All are essential. However many scales you have practiced, when you hit the scales in Symphonie Fantastique or the Solo and Cadenza from Lucia di Lammermoor, they are suddenly incredibly hard.

I do agree that scales alone are insufficient. One has to practice wider intervals as well. My exercises utilize every possible pattern of note combinations and finger sequences, and every possible interval, up to sixths. Certainly, a harpist who has only ever played scales and arpeggios will not have enough stretch or reach in his hand. Doing wider intervals does stretch and broaden the hand. One of my favorites is to play c-f-b-e, d-g-c-f, etc.

Ten-to-fifteen minutes of scales every day is plenty if you do the same amount of other exercises as well. With Salzedo’s Conditioning Exercises (I was once told that no other instruments has such a complete, simple set of exercises), after doing the 3421 and 2431 exercises, I also do 1423, 4231, 3124, 2134, etc.

Another way to do scales is broken: 4231, 4231 or cedfgbac etc.

[mr-s]

i think we discuss a fact, and dont konw why the harp should be different from whole other instruments form wind instruments to strings to piano to percussions as Dale say harpists want to do as other instruments, scales are

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The difference technically is that other instruments have to change fingerings for every scale and we don’t. Musically, scales have the same importance for us, though we probably use them less often than wind players.

[Tacye]

I assume that the ‘less important’ derives from the fact that different scales on the harp have the same fingering as each other.

[barbara-brundage]

I never said they were UNimportant. But pianists, flutists and such practice scales for more than facility and agility–they also need them to be able to feel at home playing in the various keys, which fortunately, as you say, is not a concern for any but the players of multi-course harps.

On a Pleyel, they would have to take up far more of your practice time than on a pedal or lever harp, wouldn’t they?

Incidentally, I always liked Miss Malone’s preferred way of doing scales: one octave quarter notes, two octaves 8th notes, 3 octaves triplets, four octaves 16th notes, and you don’t bump up the metronome till you can reliably do at least five to ten times up and down with the 16ths with no faults or hesitations.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I would do only three-four octaves of each type. What do you mean by sevenths? Arpeggios or chord sequences?

The kind of practice I describe makes all these things quite natural.

[Mel Sandberg]

I find that harp scales are easier than piano scales in the middle range, because of the identical fingering patterns, but they are not so easy very low down, and very high up, because the whole body position changes, and the stretch around the harp is difficult in the low region.

[Mel Sandberg]

Sorry, the curse of this thread is that one seems to remember something else after you’ve pressed SEND.

Very fast

[unknown-user]

It is also good practice to do scales in various keys on the harp, even if the fingering may not change. And why not change the fingering to provide extra practice? The goal is to build a technique that will allow one to play musical literature with facility and grace. There is no end to working on technique, there is no magical summit that will one day be reached. One can always do better. That said, I do not believe in torturing oneself, either.

[Maria Myers]

What are some good books to buy for a beginner-intermediate harpist in order to learn scales, arpeggios and etudes?

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The Conditioning Exercises by Carlos Salzedo are the best, succinct summation of harp technique building. I have basically used them my whole harp life. There are two scale patterns, two arpeggio patterns and several others to work on. It isn’t so much about what patterns you are playing as it is simply how well you are working in a basic pattern. The only big difference is how you turn around at the top and bottom. LaRiviere gives shorter exercises with more variety, which are good if you extend them or do large numbers of them.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Because there is no real technical difference in working in different keys, other than string tension, the main reason is musical. When you work in a key for a long time, you build a memory of it, and that is a good thing to have, musically. The more distinct keys are to you, the more musically you will play in each one. C-sharp minor is very different sounding from D-minor, for example.

[Maria Myers]

Thank you Saul.

What book of etudes do you recommend?

[Author]

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