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I think I shall have to be more stern with children after one such gig when I had a enthusiastic 2-3 year old coming up to the harp and climbing onto my little stage to get to the harp, and once I was out of the room she reportedly had quite a good go strumming it and again when I was away from it for a break. She could so easily have rocked it and overbalanced it forwards onto the floor and smashed it – I noticed my A pedal had been depressed, so now i think I will make sure the child and the parents get the message sooner…….. I need to pretend get mad…
I am really protective of my hands, I have an old injury of a strained finger tendon and had many forearm fractures when young and one ankle suffers sprains repeatedly so I’d hate to really damage my hands badly again (avoided skiing too). I think you are bound to injure yourself in fast sports. This also means that rough DIY jobs are out of the question and I use gloves gardening & cutting tools, a little apprehensive this year going sailing and extra careful with the lines and sheets. I choose leeks over onions and prefer them (having once sliced the side of my thumb cutting an orange with a serrated edge, just in that break between rehearsal and concert !!) This year searching for an eraser, my 3rd finger found an unseen pencil sharpener in my baritone case and I hardly felt the long deep slice made by its razor sharp blade.
you will find you are probably missing 2 at the top (0th G+F) and 2 at the bottom (7th D+C) so it’s no big deal, they are probably needed once or twice a year as perhaps for a glissando from the top, or bottom notes in an octave/chord… so even if you are a regular orchestral player hardly at all and for solo, maybe in few advanced pieces (Flothius). – but let’s not try to cite everything !!
oh, well I will look up Chadwick, as never heard of him(?) – they said the harp sounded lovely and was ‘indespensible’ – & I’ve just renewed 25 new strings on it – my reading and playing were accurate and musical, so I guess the best thing about the day was being with friends… perhaps I will get payback unexpectedly.
I think the issue here is that you’re not a child and can’t be led through the simple steps and junior pieces at a child’s pace… guess you want results without the slog, There is a lot to it, so much knowledge and agility to acquire – the fastest way on a single voice instrument is to join a band or orchestra, that way you struggle to begin with but are encouraged by the group and you can ask others what the syntax means. With a harp you really have to know what you are doing before you go out…
well since dancers generally rehearse to a piano version, that might be the best source, although it will probably be too heavily textured for the harp – I am in awe of the pianists who do this work !! they must be terrific sight readers….
I’m with you Kay. I stopped ‘briefly’ in June and then work and holidays took over, so hardly played over the summer, and took a rain check on a bridal fair opp, too unprepared.Now it’s quiet I have renewed a range of lower gut strings before an upcoming service and new wires – so it’s welcome down time – the harp creates self-imposed pressures forever. I took a harp to orchestra last night and my brain and fingers still work, felt like driving a car after a holiday away, feet not entirely instinctive… I have Elgar next week so I will ease back into it as I re-engage.
The key word is TRANSPOSE. If you shift any song from one pitch to another, you are transposing it and usually you would rewrite the key signature and the notes on the stave and reset the chords you are using on the guitar. For elementary tuning and musical keys theory on the lever harp read this thread: http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/coffee-break/posts/61713
you are funny, making more problems than you are solving…!! If the song is in A, I was going to suggest playing it in Ab but you can’t so I suggest you settle for the key of Bb on the lever harp, it will therefore sound a semitone higher. Move the capo up one more fret to get used to the shift, take off B and E levers on the harp and then you should find unison and your voice can manage a semitone higher I hope….However if the song was moved into key of B with the capo, shift the capo down to the first fret, why not compare named notes between instruments Have fun ! Remember that the guitar sounds an octave lower, so you will find which register (octave) you prefer on the harp.. For tuning theory read this thread http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/coffee-break/posts/61713
I can suggest two obvious examples, the first page of Impromptu Caprice and somewhere like the 2nd page of Venus in the Planets… Not too difficult to play, just listen and you will improve….!!
ahem, what is Bursitis, please? I’ve really never heard of this and cannot see any explanation on this page, maybe I missed it…
well she didn’t mention it and coincidentally I have met her twice now, had chips/crisps at the interval and we struggled to finish them quickly once the bell went.. She is a very talented player doing a masters at the RCM. Not sure how I twigged… that’s the new puzzle…!!
Dan De Fry is his name and he toured the US with Sting, he told me this during the interval at a local concert, by coincidence, not having met him before, but the gig in my local church seemed to be an Animal Charity concert and I know the singer/vocalist – her husband plays keyboard and arranges for their ‘band’ and so I think DdF plays with them regularly as I saw him once again in the park, samish group.. and in the concert I mentioned he played the 1st movement of Tournier’s (1ere) Sonatine which I was just becoming familiar aurally with so that was great !!… I know it better now. http://danieldefry.com/biog.html
