Scales and arpeggios

[steven-todd-miller]

OK, OK, I pulled out the Grossi/Pozzoli to give it another shot, and I actually did like some of the beginning exercises, especially on page 23 #48 – 50. But some of those slide passages– do you really slide your right thumb a whole scale while your left hand goes down 2-3-4-2-3-4????

[carl-swanson]

Yes.

[steven-todd-miller]

I’ll get to work.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I spent quite a few years doing that. It was the only way I could study solo, chamber, concerto and orchestral literature at the same time while in school and for auditions later. Fortunately, you can acquire many standard orchestra parts at little or no cost.

An aspiring professional needs to be familiar with pretty much all the standard literature, and there are a lot of odd works that turn up as well, especially with community orchestras and choral groups. The Seven Last Words by DuBois or Durufle or Dusomething else gets done a lot in Pennsylvania.

I am noticing that English composers tend to write very irregular, assymetrical parts, so it is a good idea to know their music ahead of time. Vaughan-Williams, Bax, Finzi, Britten, etc.

The other great thing about orchestra parts is that they tend to build a lot more strength and tone quality than solo literature. Just knowing you might play with an orchestra makes one play louder, and they tend to have lots of loud passages anyway.

[steven-todd-miller]

Thanks, Saul. This makes a lot of sense.

[Fearghal McCartan]

I agree with you there Saul. Regarding orchestral parts – the IMSLP is a good place to download from for free. Also, who here doesn’t keep even just a photocopy of works that they have played before? It is always good to revise these works just in case you are asked to play them again. They also make a nice change from looking over the same study books every time. Where studies tend to

[carl-swanson]

Fearghal- The point of study books as you call them(etudes) is to develop muscle memory for a particular pattern. If one etude for example has nothing but three note chords in many configurations and in different parts of the instrument, then if you learn it really well, you have implanted that muscle memory pattern into your harp technique. You should never have to play that etude again. If you learn a collection of etudes, like any of the Bochsa, Dizi, etc. and learn them really well, then you should have a whole selection of muscle memory patterns at your disposal and there is no need to keep going back to those etudes. You’ve learned what they had to teach you.

The problem with trying to learn technique and muscle memory patterns from repertoire, orchestra parts, etc. is that no pattern appears often enough nor in various configurations over a large enough range of the instrument to learn it as a point of technique. So, with a lot of practice, you learn your piece or orchestra part, but with no really useable muscle memory patterns that can be transfered to anything else.

I’ve taught numerous students that have transfered over to me from other teachers, and the most common problem I find is that they can play a few pieces fairly well,(which I later found out they had worked on forever) but don’t really play and learn at the technical level of those pieces. So they end up struggling with each new piece they learn. If I then work them through the Bochsa 40 easy Etudes, then they have a whole arsenal of muscle memory patterns and can learn music at their level quickly and accurately.

Again, Etudes are not something that you constantly go back to again and again. They are a vehicle, a means, of raising your technical abilities, and if you learn them well, you never need to go back to them again.

[Fearghal McCartan]

Hi Carl,

Sorry, I hadn’t made that clear enough – I’m not saying to use orchestral repertiore instead of etudes but to use in conjunction with them. I agree that etudes are necessary for muscle memory and should not be ignored. What I was trying to say was to use the repertoire as variety in your practice (and I wasn’t meaning pieces like Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms or Oliver Knussen’s Flourish With Fireworks but those with obvious patterns – as mentioned earlier the Nutcracker & Swan Lake Cadenzas, Chabrier’s Espania etc) and to put the memory patterns you have built up through the etudes to use in pieces you have already played before looking at new ones. (though you should have an ‘arsenal’ of memory patterns at your disposal before attempting most orchestral works)

Hope that makes things a tad clearer

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The types of excerpts I am using or thinking of do cover the range of the harp and thoroughly teach note patterns. Starting practice by playing a piece through has been, for me, a very bad habit. Reading through a piece is not good for the brain or the fingers. It is very simple what I do, take one exercise, as I’ve said before, something like one of Salzedo’s Conditioning Exercises, particuarly numbers 1, 7,8,9,10 and do it in four to six tempi. For note patterns, you can’t really beat LaRiviere for covering nearly all possible patterns. Etudes DO NOT do that. They emphasize the right hand over the left. They result in very uneven development and I suspect over-development of the short muscles and muscle fibers resulting in stiff hands and a lot of mental control but not very good sound. I hear this consistently from most European players. I think you are just wrong on this, Carl, especially in pushing Bochsa so much. His etudes can be re-written to be more useful, but they are really useless as is. So are Dizi. There are far better ways to use one’s time. Parts are far better for developing strength. What is really important is to learn to create comprehensive exercises for one’s self based on what one encounters in a piece or part. For example, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture has a famous solo of descending chords. You can practice that as is endlessly, but you can also do other chords on the same pattern, or other inversions, and all of those in at least four tempi. Etudes will not teach you that.

Symphonie Fantastique is fantastic as a source of exercises. Virtually every phrase suggests (and requires) a new exercise. Eventually, I should be able to share/publish these for your-all’s use. Right now, I have some other huge projects to finish. I accept commissions, however, which go to the top of the pile.

[steven-todd-miller]

I forgot to post- guess what I got for Christmas? BOTH volumes of the Bochsa etudes! I already love playing them. It’s funny to see how the drills are incorporated into such musical little pieces. Thanks for the recommendation, Carl. (I also have become completely addicted to those Grossi/Pozzoli exercises starting on page 24. I hadn’t played Debussy’s “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” in a while and was stunned at how effortless I was playing… ETUDES ROCK!)

[carl-swanson]

Steven- You’re playing my transcription of Gradus ad Parnaqssum? Good for you! That’s not an easy piece.

[carl-swanson]

Steven- I’m assuming when you say you got both volumes, that you’re referring to the last set of 50 etudes(25 in each volume). Those are wonderful etudes and I worked on almost all of them with Jamet the first year I studied with him. I remember when I got to etude number 7 or 8(the one with the relentless FF arpeggios in the right hand and octaves in the left), he told me that when he did that one with Hasselmans, Hasselmans made him work on it until he could play it through beginning to end three times with no break. As soon as he told me that of course I made that my goal as well and I got so I could do it.

[catherine-rogers]

Carl, I’m confused. I have Bochsa’s “Forty Progressive Studies” which is, according to the front cover, published in two books. The L&H catalog lists for Bochsa: two volumes of 50 Lecons Progressives, two volumes of 50 Studies (arr. Hasselmans) and two volumes of 40 Easy Studies.

My book has the No. 7 etude that sounds like the one you described with the big chords. So which of these are the books Steven is using, which do you prefer, and what do I have? Has the name of my book changed? I inherited it and it’s pretty old–the price was $1 from Carl Fischer!

[steven-todd-miller]

Carl and Catherine, I have the opus 318 edition. The etude with the descending eighths in mine is number 9. I LOVE THEM! I also have to further rescind my negative vibes about the Grossi. I now am completely addicted to pages 17 -25, and began working on all of those slide patterns (thumb sliding, 2, 3, & 4th fingers sequencing down). I wish I had started these years ago! (Being a lone-wolf-self-taught-maverick has its downside…)

[carl-swanson]

Catherine- I think the Forty Progressive Studies is the op. 318. The first 20 etudes are mostly one page long, then etudes 21 through 40 are mostly 2 pages. I also think these same etudes were printed as part of a larger “Methode” and maybe called something else. The 50 studies are the most advanced and are usually available in two volumes of 25 each. They are all 2 to 5 pages long and are not killer-difficult but are excellent for really learning patterns and endurance.

For anyone at any level of playing who has technical problems or bad habits that need to be changed, I would recommend the 40 easy etudes, op. 318 as a starter. They provide an excellent format for stabilizing a student’s hand position and getting the fingers working consistently.

[Author]

Posts