Scales and arppegios?

[Abby Kent]

I am looking to audition at music conservatories next year, and I see that some schools ask for scales and arppegios. My teacher has not taught me this, and I don’t know the standard way of how to do scales on the harp (I do scales on the piano, though). Any insight would be great!

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Have you asked your teacher to show you how he or she plays scales? Scales and arpeggios are part of the foundation of good technique and should be practised every day. Standard fingering is in groups of fours. When you cross the 4th finger under the thumb, note the position that your wrist is in and keep that angle as uniform as possible throughout the scale. You don’t want your wrist wobbling around as you ascend. Some people place both the 4th and 3rd fingers at once when they cross under; others place only the 4th, then place all the rest as soon as possible. If your teacher doesn’t want to teach you scales, is there someone else in your city that could give you some classes on this?

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The last four of Salzedo’s Conditioning Exercises are very suitable for that. They may ask you to play in different keys, which is kind of silly, but you can at least show that you know the pedal settings.

[elinor-niemisto]

They probably want to hear two things:

[zoraida-avila]

Try with Esercizio by Consolini. Scales and arpeggios all possible keys on pedal harp, in 3th, 6th, 8vs, 10th…
Goo luck!

[e-nb]

Hi Abby,

ABRSM publish books of scales and arpegios needed for their exams. Would this be the sort of thing you are looking for?

For example http://www.alawmusic.com/shop_online/publication_detail.php?p=35

[jan-fetty]

You might be interested in this demonstration on YouTube by

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