Singer-Songwriters who self-accompany on the harp

[tony-morosco]

One resource I can recommend for anyone wanting to learn to play to accompany their signing is Verlene Shermer’s book The Sing Along Harper. In this book she approaches accompanying voice (yours or other singers) with harp the same way that a folk guitarist would, by using just chords and simple picking patterns.

I have also read several books by Mary O’Hara, including a book of her arrangements in which she points out that the key to accompanying voice is to keep it simple. The accompaniment should be easy enough for you to play without having to think about it so that the majority of your concentration can be devoted to your voice. If you are distracted by your harp playing then your arrangement is too complicated and you need to simplify it.

[michael-rockowitz]

Avital, I hope, if you do a youtube video of your song, you include the lyrics in Hebrew, and their English translation. I enjoyed the videos you posted – was that you playing the harp, with the flute player, for “Can’t help falling in love?”

I generally need my glasses to see the strings clearly. Lately, I’ve found that I can play just fine without them – the strings look fuzzy, but that doesn’t stop me from hitting them accurately. Playing without wearing glasses provides the advantage of not having to turn my head so much, and of not having to look downwards so much to see the strings – the strings can be more easily viewed using peripheral vision.

Another thing I do is to practice singing with the camera pointing at me, but not on. In this fashion, I sing to the camera, and become comfortable with its presence. I still require more than 40 takes sometimes to perform a song without obvious errors, in either playing or voice. With practicing with the camera pointing, the errors that occur when you record are not due to nervousness – they’re just errors. I just stay calm and keep going – I take my cue from professional actors I once worked with – they were filming for TV, and when they made a mistake, they just calmly proceeded again and again until they got it right (although I grant that they didn’t usually require 40 takes!)

I intersperse singing with improvisation of lines played on the harp – but I work to keep my attentional focus most strongly on my singing. I try to sing relatively accurately and expressively; I acknowledge that professional singers don’t have to be too concerned about competition from me! – yet I’m not aware of any other men out there singing with their harp as they play. Can someone post some youtube videos of men self-accompanying voice on harp?

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