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Because there always seem to be too many of them, I never do glisses at this time of year with bare fingers. Sylvia Woods’ rubber picks are good but I also use felt picks at times. Definitely drill a hole and put them on a cord to hang around your neck. You’ll either never grab them off your stand in time or you will knock them on the floor.
I found that working with an instructor of the Alexander Technique made a world of difference in my harp playing. See http://www.alexandertechnique.com/ for more information. Hopefully you can find an instructor in that or the Feldenkrais Method (http://www.feldenkrais.com/) near you.
— Alice in windy Wyoming
Mitch Landy has a whole book of “Spooky Tunes – Suite for Lever Harp, Opus 18” that are cute effects, but not familiar melodies. (http://www.harpguy.com/comp.html) — written for intermediate players
— Alice from windy Wyoming
Tony is right. You’re not too old — I have several students who started in their 60s and another who started at 77. He is also right that you should not listen to your partner about playing the mandolin or guitar. Listen to your heart and find a harp for yourself. In addition Tony’s right that a beginning piano or violin player sounds like a beginner. A beginning harp player can sound wonderful from the first week.
It’s important though to find a teacher to start with so you do not have to “unlearn” bad technical habits later.
Hiring a harp is not always a bad idea for two reasons. I know it feels like throwing money away but some stores in the US have “Rent-to-Own” programs and will apply your rental payments to the purchase price of a harp. It certainly never hurts to ask. Secondly, what you know now about which harp you’d like to purchase may be VERY different from what you would purchase in 6 months or a year from now. Knowing what type of music you would like to play definitely is an influence on what model harp you might want to own. And some teachers have harps for hire and will help you decide what to buy.
While you continue to save your money, search the Internet for FREE “how to read music” and “music theory” opportunities. There are many out there and they will help you start building the foundation for playing a harp. I have one student who learns entirely by ear, but I think in the long run there are more doors opened for you if you eventually learn to read music.
There are teachers who teach many harp players over the Internet using Skype or Oovoo. Sarah Deere-Jones in Cornwall comes to mind. She’s pretty far away from you physically, but she does take beginning students and I have a US friend studying with her who highly recommends her.
This is not an impossible task. Hold on to your dream and take little steps at a time. Just don’t buy a really cheap harp to get started (<200 pounds). When you buy a harp, get as many strings and levers as you can afford.
And keep asking questions. This group is friendly and loves to encourage new players.
Best wishes, Alice in windy Wyoming (USA)
Jennifer is absolutely right — make sure that by volunteering you are not undercutting paid performers. I live in a very small town and was not thinking about the bigger picture in my previous post.
As far as music, Deb, you’re right, Angie Bemiss has some great books of mostly sight-readable arrangements (for some people). You might also pick up “Favorites of the 40s” or “Favorites of the 50s” fake books and see what you can do to develop some easy arrangements of things like ‘Tennessee Waltz’ and other old-time tunes. Remember that these residents will love music of their teen and young-adult years. Irish music like ‘My Wild Irish Rose’ and ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling’ are always well received. Sylvia Woods has two good books of familiar Scottish and familiar Irish music. Ray Pool, Frank Voltz and Verlene Schermer are all
I, too, use an iPad and ForScore for most of my gigs now. Thanks, Tony for the suggestions for a CD backup of PDF files and storing them in the “Cloud.” Both are good ideas.
As far as organizing music, I use this naming convention for my PDF files:
Tune Name – (Composer/Arranger) – Key – InstrumentI make the Tune Name as complete as possible. I add the Composer/Arranger sometimes because I may make a medley of several different arrangements of the same tune. The Key is for setting pedals or levers, representing a Key Signature, not the relative minor or mode for a piece. I put PH (pedal harp only), CH (lever harp only) or AH (any harp) as the designated
Lots of nursing homes and assisted living centers are always looking for free entertainment, either in the lobby or as little “concerts” for their residents. Call the facility and ask to speak to their Activities Director.
Ask if your local hospital has a PlaneTree Program and Coordinator. They also have an Entertainment component and are often looking for free music in the lobby and hallways.
You don’t need any therapeutic musician training to do this kind of volunteer entertainment — just the chops to perform in public.
— Alice in windy Wyoming
Yes, Susan, either program will give you good training and a recognized certification to work as a therapeutic musician. You just need to carefully read the information on the IHTP
I am certified in both of the programs you are interested in, Susan, so I think I’m qualified to compare the two.
Tony is absolutely right. As he said, there is a major difference between a “music therapist” (College degree, etc.) and a “therapeutic musician” (certification by a training program), which is where I think you are interested.
Tina Tourin’s International Harp Therapy Program is available as an online training program (no traveling) or in modules taught in various geographic locations. As the name implies, her graduates are closer to behaving like music therapists because the training encourages you to hand your harp
I wouldn’t respond at all. These scammers are VERY HARD to get rid of if they ever think they have your interest. Not a chance I would want to take.
— Alice in windy Wyoming
Hi Lisa
I played it with the University symphony when I had only completed 2 years of harp lessons. The harmonics are tricky but you can fake them by playing quietly an octave higher. There are 5-finger chords in each hand, but just pick the notes that you want to play.
— Alice in windy Wyoming
I use Adobe Acrobat X Pro to scan paper music on my HP Photosmart All-in-One printer. I also crop off all the white margins before I save the PDF so only the music displays on the iPad. This takes a minute or so for each tune. I can also save PDFs from my music notation program Sibelius, but I still use Acrobat to crop the margins.
To copy the PDFs from my computer to the iPad, I use iTunes.
I use ForScore to display the music on the iPad. Then I easily organize my
