Tone production

[Mel Sandberg]

In my teaching career, such as it has been so far, I have encountered 2 harp students who have seemed to be completely unable to produce more than a pianissimo on the harp.

[mr-s]

Hi Mel, i am playing the russian way and following the russian method, let me tell you that in russia and so i , practice 10 times Forte, then when play in public we do the real forte, but if you practice mf or P so you cant make the F in public so let the student

[cynthy-johnson]

Mel,

I am not a pedal harp teacher, I teach lever harp.

[Mel Sandberg]

Hi Cynthy

Thanks for the useful information.

[cynthy-johnson]

Hi Mel,

OT is an abbreviation for one that has the education and certification and is licensed as an Occupational Therapist.

[Karen Johns]

I have a student with the same soft tone production. One thing I noticed in our first lesson was she was not holding the thumb up as high or closing her fingers all the way into her palm. I know this is really basic, but I think her playing this way before she took a lesson did not develop her muscles correctly. She has the same model lever harp as I do and I showed her just how big a voice it had. Perhaps some muscle exercises? Have her practice the “baby wave” or knead some play-doh. Sounds silly but it really does work to strengthen hand muscles. I just teach the basics of lever harp, being rather new to this myself, so take my advice for what it is worth to you…

Blessings,

Karen

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I haven’t had too much trouble as I can’t abide poor tone, and have my ways to get results. I tend to compare it to voice production, if that’s any help. There are mental blocks one has to deal with, to be certain. I’ll be happy to help anyone who can get to Philadelphia.

[frances-duffy]

In my school of playing, there is a two step process…first pressing into the string, then releasing it and closing the fingers into the palm.

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