Home › Forums › Coffee Break › When do you consider you’re no longer ‘a beginner’?
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April 10, 2013 at 3:07 pm #112422AnonymousInactive
Oh ho, so I was the culprit. Lyn that was funny 🙂 . Life has a way of slowing us up a little, just so that we don’t miss anything. Eventually, I believe life can be an inspiration to what we do, even as harp players.
There is another factor that I feel comes up with us as musicians, is that sometimes we can be our own critic. I will elaborate on that in another blog, so not to take away from this one.
Allison, if anyone says that to you again about “You’ve been having lessons for a long time time now – let’s hear you play”. Play for them! It will be beautiful. Won’t matter how simple or complex the piece is. Please believe that.
Just know you have a lot of harpers, playing beside you, encouraging you to show just how awesome the harp is, and to show the awesome person who plays it 🙂
April 10, 2013 at 4:28 pm #112423andee-craigParticipantDon’t feel pressured to ‘be great’, just be you! When I first started playing I took my harp to the street and did a bit of busking. I had about 6 tunes, but people loved it. I got asked to do gigs and I always told people, ‘Just so you know, I can only play 6 pieces.’ I still got the gigs. It was great for my confidence and I just kept on building on what I had little by little. 6 pieces soon became 16 pieces and that eventually became more.
April 10, 2013 at 7:43 pm #112424Allison StevickParticipantThat’s great advice for all of us, Elizabeth and Andee! A couple years ago I came to the point where I knew it didn’t matter *what* I played as long as I *played*. I still have to remind myself of that before I play, but it isn’t crippling or anything anymore. 🙂
April 11, 2013 at 9:27 am #112425lyn-boundyParticipantThis forum is so great for reassuring me that I’m not the only one who has these problems! I laughed at your heartfelt ‘Amen!’ Allison. I’ve never been somebody who finds it easy to ‘perform’ for others, no matter what I do, but I really do want to be able to play my harp when asked because I want to share the lovely sounds she makes – however, my repertoire is small (minuscule!) and my playing falls to pieces when someone else is listening anyway. Hearing what you all have to say on the subject makes me feel so much better about the whole thing. I guess most people only want a quick demonstration anyway so if I carry on perfecting the Sylvia Woods beginner’s version of Planxty Irwin I might be able to fool them into thinking I can actually play.
Incidentally, does anyone else find that pieces they hear their tutor play sound very impressive at first, but by the time you learn the piece yourself it gets to sound so simple that you’re sure everyone else will think you’re even more of a novice than you really are? Or is that just me?
Elizabeth – how right you are about us being our own worst critics. I expect a perfection from myself that I would never expect from anyone else. I guess that’s the only way you really learn to improve but it can be quite annoying too.
Andee – being asked to perform with only 6 pieces is amazing! I’m guessing you were performing them a lot better than I would be yet but it’s so encouraging to hear something like that. It is all too easy to forget that most of the people who ask us to play would struggle to get Mary Had a Little Lamb out of a harp so I suppose we must sound a lot better to them than we do to ourselves. Thanks to all of you, the next time someone asks me to play I will grit my teeth and get on with it – no more excuses about the harp not being in tune or waiting for the new one to arrive!
April 11, 2013 at 12:15 pm #112426Angela BiggsMemberRe: hearing something that sounds impressive until you learn it: yes! But that’s because it sounds out of reach at first, and once it becomes something within your grasp, it’s less impressive. Most things are like that…. (sigh)
You’ll also find that as you learn more complicated music, the earlier stuff that you really fought for, and were so proud of, and sounded so beautiful and magical, starts to feel “too simple” to be performed in public. I really struggle with that. But if I only played the songs at the top of my current ability, my repertoire would always be just two songs long! lol
April 11, 2013 at 12:40 pm #112427kay-listerMemberAngela,
I find that some of the most simple pieces are the most impressive and I still play them at gigs for background music. I will get compliments on the easy music every time . An example being, when I play “The Water is Wide”, I will just pluck out a slow melody with the right hand (#2 finger only) before I get into the rest of the music. People will comment on that part and how much they liked it.
I think the wonderful magic of the harp IS that very simple things sound just as beautiful as the more complicated music.
Kay
April 11, 2013 at 1:04 pm #112428Angela BiggsMemberKay, you’re farther along than I am, and it’s really encouraging to hear that you’re still benefiting from those early pieces! That simple beauty is a huge selling point for getting people interested in playing the harp; it is so **rewarding**, even at the very start. I use that fact all the time to pitch the study of the instrument to non-musical people, but I tend to forget it when it comes to my own performing. Hence the struggle. 🙂
April 11, 2013 at 1:15 pm #112429kay-listerMemberYes, I know what you mean. We ARE our own worst critics for sure. Just remember though – most (if not all) of the people that we play for have NEVER seen or heard a harp in person. Just one simple pull of a string or two just to show someone the sound will usually get a “WOW” response from them. It’s like pulling the solo voice out from the choir . . . just a VERY sweet sound.
So I would just encourage you NOT to look at what you play as simple or not advanced enough, but sweet and elegant with confidence, finishing with that “There, wasn’t that BEAUTIFUL” assurance in YOURSELF!
Kay 🙂
April 11, 2013 at 2:33 pm #112430andee-craigParticipantI find that some of the most simple pieces are the most impressive and I still play them at gigs for background music. I will get compliments on the easy music every time
I agree with this. I have tunes in my repertoire that I play the same as I did when I first learned them. But then as I’ve gained more experience I have chosen to update other pieces with a more difficult left hand, etc.
And as far as pieces sounding really impressive until you learn them, well, you know the old saying ‘It’s easy when you know how’!
April 11, 2013 at 2:38 pm #112431Jerusha AmadoParticipantHi Kay,
I agree with you totally! The best compliments I receive on gigs are inevitably for simple music. One time a woman started crying when I played “She Moved through the Fair”. It really touched my heart that the she was moved by that song, and it was a rather simple improvisation.April 13, 2013 at 12:36 am #112432jeffrey-mcfaddenParticipantAs a seriously rank rookie here – way less than a year of serious effort – I have enjoyed the postings very much. But to me the most important point was posted by Kay when she wrote,
“…I think the wonderful magic of the harp IS that very simple things sound just as beautiful as the more complicated music…”
I used to play guitar and sing at parties, bars, and churches, and never got all that good at it in over 35 years, but NEVER APOLOGIZE! Most of them won’t catch your mistakes, and of those who do, most will be too polite to point it out, and the ones who do don’t count anyway. So there. If you’re out there putting your work in the public eye you deserve thousands of points for courage, plus whatever you get for skill.
I’ve mentioned before on this board that my life with music started in grade school as a flute player. All treble clef. To this day I can sight read treble clef pretty well, although not as well as when I was in constant practice. I’m really stumbling with reading the bass clef so far, though. Just really got after it late this past winter. But one thing the years with the guitar, flute et al gave me: I can improvise for hours without getting repetitive. And I really enjoy it.
Andee, I’ve been thinking of going busking this summer. Heck, what have I got to lose?
April 14, 2013 at 3:00 pm #112433phill-wParticipantGoing busking is ace!! I did it and loved it, and as I made quite a bit of money, people seemed to love it too!!
I think people pressure themselves far too much, especially when you start playing as an adult. Speaking as someone who was on a fast tracked musical career as a teen…. “you will become a star and be amazing” and then I realised just how unhappy this was making me, it’s absolutely fine to go as fast or as slow as you want. After all, beginner/intermediate/expert etc… they’re all just labels. One thing I have learned is that it’s okay to do music on any level, as long as it makes YOU happy.
April 14, 2013 at 5:54 pm #112434deb-lParticipantI’ve been playing for 6 years, 3 were on again off again, I consider myself an adult beginner, and always a student. I considered myself a harper when I was first able to play a song fluidly. I’m self taught and stopped working on teaching pieces when I felt my skillset was where I needed it to be to play the music I wanted to play. Not being driven to learn teaching pieces for that next lesson, and only for my own amusement, I’ve developed a plethora of bad technique that would probably always place me as a beginner. That doesn’t really matter to me because it’s a journey and it’s not really linear, and my goal has only been to play for my pleasure and the pleasure of others (on a good day!). If I could share my music publicly in a hospital or social setting for people I don’t know, and have them feel relaxed or uplifted from hearing it, I would consider myself more than a beginner. That’s not necessary for my enjoyment of the harp, and some comments from family members make me beam with pride. Learning the harp is enjoyable every step of the way, from when I first played the harp, including those days I really struggle, to those days when it really clicks and I don’t have to focus on the notes I need to play and it sounds just like how I want it too.. as long as my harp makes that beautiful sustaned hum that I can listen to with satisfaction until I dampen the strings at the end of a song.. it’s a good day for playing the harp.
April 18, 2013 at 11:05 pm #112435Anja GParticipantKay – could you tell me which arrangement of “The water is wide” you play? I would be grateful, thanks! Anja
April 22, 2013 at 12:19 pm #112436kay-listerMemberAngela,
The version is my own and I’d LOVE to share it with you, but I don’t have it written out – sorry.
🙁 Kay
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