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according to the dates in that link, examples of the extra measure were found before Gounod, so were added by someone in the interim. (but not JS Bach).
there are some graded sightreading books about, though not very many – perhaps they have different steps of things that are meant to help you improve in a more structured way, rather than just lots of examples like you would get just playing loads of random music? (I don’t know if the books do this; I’m still at a low level!). Even if you don’t want to learn to do it specifically because of exams/grades, the books might still give a structure progression. What grade/board are you working on? Not that the skill would be very different, but I think I have seen somewhere something that gives a kind of syllabus on what is increasingly expected at each grade, which then might give you the ‘bits’ that you need to focus on (i.e., what patterns they expect you to recognise first, etc).
There is a series of books for the piano by an Australian company called How to Blitz Sightreading, that focuses on showing you the patterns of various chords and teaching recognition in different inversions etc., teaching rhythm reading exercises separately, and so on. I liked the look of it (pretty sure a full preview is available online) and wondered if it would be adaptable for harp somehow, but a lot of the examples were too specific with piano fingering, I think. But you might be able to find something similar with harp, or perhaps you would be better able to adapt it than I was. It had exercises also on being able to transpose the music, which might fit well with your folk background and playing by ear, because the emphasis was on recognising the shapes and feel of the chords, but then being able to play them in other positions.
I would like a harp version that included three and four note chords with the range often found in harp music (like over a tenth), and also more on chord patterns written as arpeggios/triads – you know like repeated ripply patterns that I can never quite read in time. I can process chord shapes better as solid chords (from piano) than I can when they are written out as semiquavers, for example – it’s just a visual thing, but I find it harder to recognise (beyond simple major chords), especially when you get the same pattern written over several octaves (on different staves, crossing the staves, etc – I always have to look far too closely to verify that it is the same pattern). A similar book to this that taught those patterns in a graduated way would be terrific.
I started learning this piece last year and was interested in the history of it. There are various theories about who inserted the extra measure – for example, see http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/41639775?sid=21105357368921&uid=4&uid=2&uid=3738032
thank you for the advice.
So – the plan sounds like – I should maybe get a microphone of some sort – I mostly just tune at home (quiet) so hadn’t thought I needed one, but maybe it would help with those string that won’t pick up easily (I think I have been told that headphones plugged into an iPhone/iPad will act as a microphone pick-up?). And I should tune the bit immediately after I play, before the decay/ring of the note. And try to play consistently with the same volume/strength. And the strobosoft app with the harp sweetener will give me some approximation of stretch tuning, so that my ear can learn to hear it. And I shouldn’t tune the random harmonics that the tuner shows when it doesn’t pick up a bass note, but instead tune those with some other method (different tuner/microphone/ear). (playing 1st harmonic to deliberately tune it? I don’t really understand how you would do that on the lowest octave?)
And I should muffle lower strings after each time I pluck the note, while I am tuning middle ones? I can’t reach them easily when standing up and am constantly catching my sleeve/clothing on the pins/pegs etc.I sometimes cheat and pluck them from the right side, but then I don’t get the normal attack and it probably has a slightly different sound.
my ear is not great, yet! Hoping that the more I play with the harp in tune, the better it will develop.
The high notes are the ones that I need to play with the fingernails to get them to register; the low ones are the ones that register the harmonics.
I had a regular electronic tuner too, but my teacher was saying how she sharpens the upper octaves etc when she tunes by ear, and I know how much better it sounds when she tunes it for me, so I was hoping that the strobe tuner [because it has the sweetener specifically for harp] would help me get that too. But I have to learn how to tune using it. (Though actually I had the same problem of not knowing which part of the note/decay to tune even with the regular electronic tuner, too). Also, with the other electronic tuner, I just got a light to say whether it was in tune/sharp/flat, not (I think) which note it was actually registering – it’s only with the App that I’ve started using that I realise the lowest 5 or so notes sometimes give me various harmonics. I am not convinced that tuning those actually means the string itself is in tune, because different harmonics often seem differently sharp or flat. They are quite new bass wires, so should be OK. I am trying to learn to do more by ear, but those really low notes are impossible for me to hear yet! I can’t even tell if the octaves are in tune.
One of my goals was to tune more often this year! I find it physically awkward with short arms, figuring out how to stand so that I can reach over to pluck the strings relatively normally, and still reach the tuning pegs, and sometimes try to muffle the all the bass strings after each note too (as I presume that makes a difference to the tuner hearing the right note). But I know it is better for the harp to tune it regularly.
I am a beginner, and not that good at tuning yet, certainly not by ear, so I am using my iPad and the iStrobosoft app, with the ‘harp sweetener’ selected as described above.
I find that when I play the note several times (without adjustment), the tuning is slightly different each time, and I don’t know how to play consistently enough to know that the tuning is accurate. If I play it loud, that seems to change things – but yet sometimes, I have to play it really loud so that it registers on the tuner. Someone once suggested I play the highest notes with my fingernails, in order to get them to register (on any electronic tuner), but that seem to change it slightly too. Is this sort of thing enough of a difference in tuning to matter?
Almost as soon as I play the note, the strobe pattern changes (usually going to flat, though not always). Which bit of time is the bit that I am trying to get dead on the note – the sound immediately after playing it, or the sound as it starts to ring?
On the lower notes, sometimes the machine registers a different note than I’m playing (I guess this is a harmonic – it is often something in the chord, anyway). Various different notes will appear on the tuner, and only rarely the note of the actual string I’m playing, for the bottom 5 or so strings. Sometimes I can get the right note if I play it really loudly, but then again I’m not sure that’s accurate anyway. So, what I was wondering was – does this matter? If one of the other notes is some kind of harmonic of the string, and I tune that to be properly in tune with the tuner, would that mean that the actual string is in tune? (providing that it is a good quality, newish string). I do try to tune some of them by ear, in octaves, which I can sometimes hear for the higher octaves, but when it’s that low, I can’t really seem to tell whether it’s in tune or not.
On rare occasions when my teacher has tuned my harp, it sounds much better, and I know she does it by ear, presumably doing some stretch tuning – so I thought the app with the sweetener might replicate how she can do it. But I have to be able to tune it accurately enough to the app for it to help, and to know which part of the note/decay I am listening for and trying to tune.
I like the RAT stand, which folds and is very lightweight, but the sturdiest compared to many of the lightweight ones I’ve seen, as it has extra reinforcements connecting the tripod legs.
It might also be worth looking at the studies and exercises book for the Trinity board exams, as it is the same book for both lever and pedal harp exams, from Initial grade up to Grade 8. I think most of the exercises are for both types, with some that have alternative versions.
The clarsach society London and Southeast branch covers East Anglia – if you go to their website, they show ‘local branches’ within it, and it looks like there are some regular meetings in both Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as various concerts and workshops both in East Anglia and London – so doesn’t have to be as far away as Hampshire.
In case you are still looking, I happened to notice on another of the websites today that there is a second hand Salvi Livia for sale. It’s on the Affairs of the Harp website, and I think it says it’s located in north wales somewhere. I remembered this thread when I saw it listed!
Good luck. I hope it’s still there! (I have to say, that site is the one that seems to be updated least frequently, but you never know. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you)
You can email some of the shops and see if they have people who are like mini show-rooms around the country, who have one or two of their harps for people to try.
No idea about how any of the other harps compare, but when you mentioned Livia, I remembered that I had seen one of those listed on one of the second-hand sites I’d been watching a while back, and it’s still there. No idea what your budget might be though. http://www.musicalinstrumentsales.co.uk/harpsales.html
oh I see, thank you! I was imagining somehow these things that would keep it tilted somehow, and couldn’t figure out when that would be used. (your explanation makes a lot more sense than the one on the website!)
