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I also use musescore. Go to the website musescore.org, in the help search box type “fingering brackets” and an answer comes up. I haven’t tried it yet, but if I get to it soon, I will let you know If it works. I’m glad you asked because I’m sure I will need this feature before long. 🙂
Hope this helps.
I just watched the TED talks video she posted. It was great! I’m going to ask my 13 year old to watch it. :). I bet Amy Cuddy is an amazing person…more to her than you see from the video.
Does “portable” mean collapsible? I have one collapsible stand that I got a long time ago–probably 10 years. It is sturdy–it can hold a binder full of music. It is usable still, but many of the screws won’t stay tight so it wobbles–I definitely wouldn’t take it anywhere unless I had absolutely no other choice. I don’t know the brand. I do the same as Susan–I don’t fully extend the legs outward so the legs are at a steeper angle and take up less floor space.
I recently replaced it with a Manhasset music stand. It is not really collapsible, but it is lighter and not too bulky. I don’t have a pedal harp so I can’t speak to the non-interference with the d pedal, but the legs holding it up are close to the ground, so I would imagine it would work well. If i sit at my prelude, I can bring the stand close to myself and keep the legs far enough away from where a d pedal would be.
Of course, if you need collapsible, this is no help to you, but I’ll put it out there anyway.
Perhaps if you posted a picture of your problem? That might help with suggestions.
Good luck.
That is the million dollar question for teachers, right?
I am not harp a teacher, but I hope to be one someday. I am, however, a mother, which involves a lot of teaching. So take my comments for what it’s worth.
I agree with the responses so far. Good technique is important from the start, as I am learning with my 7 year old fiddle playing son. 🙂
I often find myself saying, if you don’t want your kids to do something a hundred times, don’t let them do it once. (Do I regret letting my 2 year old have a piece of gum? Sometimes.) jokes aside, I think this concept had application here.
That being said, maybe you have to make some allowances sometimes. If you get too tied up in things being perfect it can be frustrating for the child and they may want to give up.
I think it is somewhat dependent on the age and maturity level of the child, as well as his/her goals with the instrument. When you say young, are we talking 4-5 years or more like 10? Or perhaps even older.
I like Janis’s comment about keeping hand size (and for harp, body size) in mind when choosing pieces.
So my short answer is, don’t let technique suffer too much, don’t let them do it wrong, but some slight deficiencies in technique can perhaps be refined later on, as the child grows and matures.
Have you read anything about suzuki method? It is all about learning correctly from the beginning. I read the book (its title escapes my memory) about how Suzuki developed his method. An interesting read.
If you are looking for game of thrones music, check out musescore.com. There seems to be a lot of that kind of music there. In case you are unfamiliar, it’s a site where you can download free notation software (download not required, unless you wish to make changes to a score, very easy to change the key it’s written in, for example), upload your own scores, and download/print others’ downloaded scores. I have used the software to build a score from scratch…I found it to be very good. I haven’t used any other notation software to compare. But as an amateur musician, it is more than adequate.
Just a thought from a fellow harpist who prefers sheet music. 🙂
I think that finding the reason for the clenching is the first step in fixing the problem. Is it related to the clenching at night? Do you clench when you are concentrating while doing other things? Is it caused by frustration? Or maybe it’s something simple like your seat is too low.
..I’m a relatively new learner of the violin. I find myself biting down on the sides of my tongue while I play (not hard enough to cause damage). I think it might be because I am concentrating on so many other things, I can’t concentrate on that. Or maybe my shoulder rest isn’t properly adjusted–a subconscious effort to raise my head just a tiny bit more. Or maybe my teeth don’t fit together just right when my chin is pressed against the chinrest so my tongue slides in between to make it more comfortable. Or it could be a beginner thing. I am not sure. I tell you all this to give you some ideas and hopefully get your “figure it out” juices flowing.
I’m trying to think of things you can try. Knowing so little about you, it’s hard to know if anything will actually be useful, but I’ll give it a try.
Try not to focus on the tension. Sometimes the anticipation of a thing actually causes it. Try to think about what you are doing well, not what you are doing wrong. Imagine yourself playing perfectly and beautifully in your ideal setting. Focus on the thing you DO want to cause, not the thing you don’t.
Try playing something faster; not a song from a book, but perhaps random notes or a scale or something that just makes you happy. Not too fast though. The idea is to not give yourself time to regain tension between each note. Sometimes I find it freeing to allow myself to play any note I want, which makes it impossible to play a wrong one.
Try playing a note really softly, the softest sound you can possibly play. Keep good hand position of course. Do you still have tension? Gradually play louder and see if the tension stays away.
be kind to yourself. 🙂 Nothing boosts one’s confidence more than a good sense of self worth. And with confidence, hopefully, will come eased tension.
I know I made some assumptions with some of my suggestions….feel free to throw out anything that isn’t helpful. 🙂
Good luck. 😉
The harp is a wonderful instrument! I am also happy to hear you are following your dreams. Too few of us do that.
If you can’t find 12 string music, you may have to write your own (if you have musical abilities already) or adapt 22 string music. If you pm me with a few songs you would like to learn, I would be happy to write some for you.
As for lessons…I know it can be hard to find and/or afford lessons. It is worth it to be sure you are doing things correctly from the beginning. Many people offer lessons over Skype, and you may be able to find someone willing to do a lesson once monthly, or even quarterly, instead of weekly, to cut the cost down a little. If that is not doable, there are some great tutorial videos on youtube. There is also a book called “teach yourself to play the folk harp” by Sylvia Woods. All of those are good resources for you to look into. I have recently discovered Josh Layne’s Harp Tuesday video series, and I think he is good at explaining things.
I looked at the waring harps that Allison suggested. I am intrigued! At the very least, you could use it to learn on, for proper hand position, etc. while you are saving up for your “dream harp,” whatever that may be. 🙂 I think it would be fun to get one to take to schools or just to the park, or whatever.
Sonya,
I was a little nervous at first too, since I had never changed them either. :). There are a few good youtube videos that show how to change the wire strings. Watching them a few times helped me feel more confident. Changing them was actually not as hard as I thought.
Be sure to cut off the top end of the old string (after it is unwound) so you aren’t trying to pull the bent part through the soundboard. You will need more than plain scissors to cut them. The guy who does “harp Tuesday” has a fancy tool he uses but I just used something like this: http://t.harborfreight.com/7-inch-diagonal-cutter-40699.html
Good luck, And let us know how it goes. 🙂
Congratulations!!!!! I am so happy for you. I can’t wait to see a picture. 🙂 you two will spend many happy hours together.
Thank you for your replies. I have ordered new strings and will be changing them ASAP. Hopefully it doesn’t adversely affect the sound.
Thanks for your suggestion, Patricia. I will look for it. 🙂 I have always loved Clair de Lune (I do have a lever harp arrangement, I don’t remember who it’s by. I was thinking about pulling it out the other day). I am listening to En Bateau for the first time as I type this (gotta love youtube!) and it is absolutely beautiful! Although I wonder how playable it is on a lever harp. 🙂 Sounds like there are lots of accidentals. I can’t wait to try it.
Hearing such beautiful music reminds me how much I want a pedal harp. Oh, yeah, and the talent to go with it. Someday.
I see value in being able to sit down at a new piece and at least be able to get through it. It is mostly useful if you want to play with others. If you play solo only, you will be able to get away with minimal sight reading skills.
I had an experience this week…I was handed a brand new piece of music and my two violinist friends and I played through it. I probably got half the notes right, and kept my place in the music. It wasn’t perfect but I got by. 🙂
I take more a middle of the road approach. If sight reading makes playing no longer enjoyable and fulfilling, by all means, do just enough to get by, and no more. As someone good at improvising and playing by ear and from memory, you probably need it less than I do. I am not so good at improvising. But then, I’m not all that great at sight reading either. But I have improved. How? Just by doing it. In order to be good at playing harp, you have to practice (and do it often), and any other skill is no different. If you stop doing it you lose that skill to some degree. Like all talents, to some it comes more naturally than others.
After all that, If you still want to improve sight reading, this is my suggestion. First, start with very simple lines, with only one note at a time, practicing with each hand separately. Then play lines that have hands together, one note in each hand. Start with a slow tempo, so slow that you almost can’t miss a note. You may have to start very slow. Gradually you will be able to increase tempo and difficulty. If you have a helper, have that person cover up the measure (or note, depending on speed and skill level) you are playing so it forces you to look ahead in the music.
The thing I think a lot of people don’t realize about sight reading is that it is technically only sight reading the first time you play it. After that it’s not really sight reading, as you have some memory of it. (Your goal here is not to learn the music like you would a performance piece. ) The hard part is having enough material that you haven’t seen before to have something new every day. Perhaps your teacher will be able to provide some simple sight reading exercises, or maybe there are books you can buy. If you play something once and wait a week or two before playing it again, it might be as good as new. 🙂 If you do as little as one or two eight (or sixteen) measure passages a day (5-10 min, max) you may be surprised by the amount of progress you make in such a small block of time. So you learn to sight read without feeling like you spent hours and hours.
Another help is learning music theory. Understanding what chords look like (tonic, dominant, subdominant, seventh, etc.) can help you find the right notes of a chord, seeing “chunks” of notes instead of individual ones. I would guess this is more intuitive for someone who plays by ear.
I hope this is helpful.
Please clarify: you find them being sharp/flat after tuning, or you have to continually bring the lower octaves up and the upper octaves down when you begin tuning? And how dramatically sharp or flat are you finding it to be? I wonder if it has something to do with temperature or humidity changes that can affect the harp’s shape. Is it also true with the bass wires? My bass wires tend to stay in tune. They are not as affected by temp. As the gut strings.
What sizes of harps do you have? Are we talking pedal, lever, or both?
If you are tuning mostly by ear, I suggest reading a recent harp column post about stretch tuning (if you haven’t already). I found it very interesting.
The tuning of strings in one register can affect the tuning of strings in another, as Sylvia more eloquently said.
