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Mae, these might possibly be helpful: “Harping with a Handicap” and “Harping with one Hand”, both by Laurie Riley:
https://laurierileymusic.wordpress.com/books-by-laurie-riley/You might email her for more specific information, she loves helping with this sort of thing. She is my teacher; one of her instructional methods is exactly as Janis advised. Place and play with eyes closed.
Another idea might be to look into wire harp technique a little. One biggie there is the concept of an “anchor finger” or fingers. Say for example finger 4 is your anchor on a G; the thumb can reach up to play over an octave of the melody all by itself. Pretty different technique and one to use with discretion, but useful sometimes on gut/nylon.
Why do we only have Turlough O’Carolan’s original melodies and no indication of his own harmony? Some think because he did not do any harmony or only limited – being both blind and playing on wire.
Biagio
Re-reading through this thread, I’m beginning to think that we need to break things down a bit more than just “sight reading” which seems pretty broad. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that we need to develop several skills, one of which is indeed ear training or playing by ear. Not quite the same thing but – OK.
To keep things simple, let’s assume a pretty short folk harp piece, say 24 measures or so that we’ve never heard before and do not have a recording. We have a complete two stave score and we have a lead sheet. What are we gonna need? Here are a few suggestions.
-We will need a few mechanical tools: pencil, possibly white out, metronome, ideally notation software such as Finale or Sibelius. So we can mark up the score, change stuff we don’t like (one of the folks in my harp group is well known for goofy lead sheet chords), and perhaps actually listen to it.
-We need some good grounding in theory, including understanding meter and hopefully the tune’s history. For example, 3/4 is not the same as 6/8 and you can’t play Scottish music appropriately if you don’t know what a snap is.
One excellent theory book (although not written for the harp): The Everything Music Theory Book by Marc Schonbrun; specifically for harpists and chords: 3’s a Chord by Ray Pool.-Ear Training – It’s awfully nice to know what an interval sounds like: 1 2 3 Play also by Ray Pool
-A good book of common harp patterns and arranging: Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for Folk Harp by Sylvia Woods; Arranging for Folk Harp by Kim Robertson.
-A collection of exercises and etudes: Harp Method by Maria Grossi; Exercises for Strength and Agility by Deborah Friou.
Naturally we can’t work on everything at once, so concentrate ore on the weak areas. For myself, those are not using my eyes effectively and being really crummy at recognizing intervals. I suggest though that all the above are needed to sight read well: theory, patterns, good ear training, scales, arpeggios, and some understanding of HOW the piece is arranged.
Whew! They’re weren’t kidding kidding when the Irish bards said it takes 20 years to be a harper – and that was without sheet music:-)
Biagio
A few random thoughts from the harp maker:
I’d rather design a harp than sit down and do the WORK of learning to play well. This has gotten to be such a problem that I’ll sell the band saw so I can’t make any more.
So as a corollary make the “work” into “play”. For me that means going as slowly as is necessary to enjoy it and not get frustrated.
By the same token I’d rather be creative and experiment than practice what the teacher assigns. We’ve come to an agreement: at least one hour per day on the assignment; only then allow myself to fool around (as much as I want then – heh heh).
It’s very embarrassing to go to a retreat and not be able to play along with everyone else on a piece I’ve learned well one way but is scored in another.
I want to be a well rounded musician and figure being better at sight reading and the other things the teacher assigns are a worth while skills to learn for me.
If I wanted to just go my own way – hey no problem with that, but then I wouldn’t shell out $$ for lessons:-)
Biagio
Encouraging words from Meg Robinson…
http://www.megrobinsonmusic.com/all-cows-eat-grass/
Grins,
BiagioMae, this is timely since I stink at sight reading and my teacher, while a brilliant musician, plays by ear. But she can sight read if she has to and there are other really amazing harpists in the area who sight read very well. Here is what all have told me with a few hints thrown in for good measure:
– This skill takes hours and hours of practicing exercises (by which they mean years and years of pattern recognition).
– There are no specific exercises, just as there are none for speed reading but the process is similar. A really good speed reader can scan an entire paragraph and sense it’s meaning – not word by word.
– I can work specifically on sight reading by concentrating on passages rather than an entire piece, boring though it is. So devote 20 minutes in each practice session to that.
Now the tips:
Get a book of etudes and exercises such as Friou, or Grossi/Pozzoli. Approach the exercises in short increments: See the measure;
Place both hands; Hear it internally (i.e. imagine it;Play it. If it did not sound as I imagined it, do it again until it does.Read the score wile listening to some one play it over and over and over. Visualize what their hands are doing.
Go to as many “group plays as you can. Don’t try to keep up and get frustrated; look ahead, play what you can, then skip ahead and be ready when it comes around. Do not fake the fingering – use good technique.
Work a lot more on accompaniment by itself. Most of us (they say) are better at melody so the accompaniment is sort of added on later. Do this the other way around with a new piece, particularly an easy one that seems a little out of the ordinary. (Lady Meng Jiang is what I’ve set aside just for that).
Use a metronome.
Sounds like work to me, but what the heck, I really want to get better at this!
Biagio
I would very much agree that it is best to hire (rent) your first harp if at all possible. There are many factors aside from the cost and looks, and personally I think they are more important in the long run. It is difficult to learn good technique on a small (lap) harp for example, some of the larger low priced harps look attractive but are poorly built or just fall apart, the harp should feel comfortable to you since everyone’s body is different, and so on.
With that in mind, I would suggest looking into Teifi of Wales. They have a rental program and their harps have earned a top notch reputation.
http://www.welsh-harps.com/index.php
To lever or not and how many? That’s a matter of debate, considering that a full set of levers may be almost 30% of the cost of the instrument! If you have a choice and are comfortable with music theory and transposing, Cs Fs and either Gs or Bs will be sufficient for a long time. You can always add more later. With a rental of course that is not an issue.
I started one beginner with a Sharpsicle (and a playing stand for it); some other friends use that harp as a rental for their students. Almost all beginners who keep at it soon move up to larger instruments, keeping the Sharpsicle for travel.
Welcome to a wonderful musical adventure!
BiagioOh, and a second thought Mae… I Would NEVER suggest that this saga is “stupid” – quite the contrary, in my book it is brilliant. “Stupid” would be to reject something out of hand because “it’s never been done” or “we just don’t do things that way.”
Trying different things is how we progress, in music as much as any other field.
You’ve also given me incentive to restring one side of a double 23 to be a fifth apart- so that merits huge thanks. I do wonder what Laurie will say when it’s done (she was one of the two who developed the modern double strung and nixed the idea a year or two ago) but what the heck, it’s my harp:-)
B
Hi Mae happy that it’s all good! Craft folks get kind of passionate about our opinions – you should hear some of the debates about sound boards. Or maybe better not, LOL.
About “synthetic gut” – not sure what they mean here. KF means to me fluorocarbon marketed by Savarez Alliance of France. It’s close to gut albeit with slightly greater density and tensile strength (factoid: it’s an improved version of Japanese fishing line).
When I read “synthetic gut” I of think Nylgut, marketed by Aquila of Italy. Different formula but generally speaking the same properties for our purposes; perhaps a mellower tone. You can safely use either in place of gut.
Cheers,
BIt is certainly fun to experiment! Achieving consistent or desired tone and “feel” throughout the range is usually the driving consideration when sitting down to design – which is why designers start with the string band and next the sound board.
“Folk” harp makers also have a lot more latitude and choices than the pedal harp makers. Who, for example, will be playing and with what technique? One can use some South American technique on a pedal harp and vice versa – although using the same strength on a Paraguayan would sound just awful. I can well believe the rubber band story.
I guess my point, if there was one LOL, is that if you over-drive a medium, whether it is a harp string or a speaker membrane, the result will be unpleasing. Here then %TS is is not a particularly good gauge – we don’t look for a smooth curve in the metric – but rather in tension and “stiffness”. The latter is usually represented by the ratio of tension to length – not a perfect metric but better than over-complicating the analysis. But %TS is useful to highlight where the anticipated technique may over or under drive the string, particularly with respect to the adjacent ones.
Speaking of which, it often used to puzzle me when players spoke of the “tremendous tension of wire harp strings.” I’ve come to realize that they are using “tension” to mean “resistance”. As a physicist Tacye will understand what I mean.
They are different variables but suffice it to say here that a wire harp will feel stiffer (and therefore seem to have more tension) than nylon or gut which is far more elastic. But the actual tension may well be the same.
OK that’s enough for one morning:-)
And I should apologize for my grumpy response! Put it down to an elderly gentleman with an aching back today. Reviewing the previous posts I do indeed think we were probably writing at cross purpose. If your point is that TEN% (below a practical maximum of say 95% for a concert harp) is not a particularly useful metric compared to others for a well designed harp I do emphatically agree.
But let’s stay within the context of the thread. I think it is pretty cool that Mae has taken this challenge and come up with something workable. But with all very sincere respect I’d venture to say that Gary’s small harp INTENTIONALLY strung to the low C range as here would not fall in the category of well designed. This is not to say that it can not be done but there will be trouble areas if we keep within the designed tension limits and string materials. Where are those trouble areas likely to be on that “C” side?
From what I have read of your writing I think you could have predicted them; my prediction would have been some of the bass strings which would be too thick to be comfortable and some in the mid with nylon mono filaments where (here we go) %TEN drops down below 20%. And the “why” of that is that we will experience some wow and flutter, or to be more “scientific” the signal starts to become chaotic. That is actually one of the techniques for voice encryption/decryption but I better not say more in that regard:-)
That analysis gets extremely complex and as a practical matter why bother? If we as harp designers set some heuristics AND test them we’ll come up with designs that work with a lot less effort:-)
But let us not deny that there will still be effort. Last year I designed a double strung for Laurie Riley – we went through at least five iterations before she liked it; and then we decided to make a different one in walnut. One of our “problems” during these iterations is exactly what we are discussing here. She wanted a particular tone and a particular size (which translates to string lengths) and a limit to the weight. Despite one of the Fs being within my heuristic, it still was too “woody” as Mae describes it (i.e. low TEN% )for her extremely acute ear. The only solution to that without using wound strings (which she did not want in that range) was to beef up the weight of the neck (which helped to absorb those excessive vibrations).
Of course she is also my friend and my teacher so I didn’t mind, but it does illustrate the joys and frustrations of custom design. The salient point being that theory is useful and helps me avoid some pitfalls but I don’t really KNOW how it will sound until I’ve built it…and quite possibly not completely know for several years:-)
Anyhow, I trust we are on the same page now. I am curious though, what physics training you had as a psychologist – or was it ancillary as was mine? I’ve found the harp to be a fascinating adventure and really do enjoy exploring design questions; I wish more musicians did!
Biagio
Tacye, since you ask, my familiarity with acoustics includes some eighteen years as a signals intelligence officer, and with respect to physics studies they were required as a graduate student in marine ecology. What then is your own? Frankly I rather think that comparing notes in this regard is pretty childish, as is your automobile example. I could as readily ask you how many harps you have made and for whom but I am really not interested.
I have previously pointed out that – in layman’s terms – when a string is too loose for the frequency the vibrations are unstable. That can be calculated for a given material length or frequency. Personally I don’t know any experienced harp maker who does. But the physics is undeniable, As I said, I am not going to sit here and waste my time performing a calculation to prove the point.
I’m done with this, it is too irritating to debate an obvious and self evident observation.
You are correct Tacye that I do not “get” your point. This is because, if I understand your post, you are saying that the string’s tension with respect it’s breaking point is irrelevant. If that is not your meaning, I stand confused. If it is your meaning I stand here amazed. I am not interested in going to the trouble of providing support for my discussion of vibrational physics here. You can look that up on your own, it has been very well studied.
I have no idea what you mean by “doctoring a string” so let me give you a rule of thumb: if you design a harp string such that %TS is below about 15% it will sound like sh*te. On the whole, after over 10 years of designing harps, from therapy to concert tension, I rarely allow anything under 30%. How bad will depend in part on it’s length but it will not be good, I guarantee you.
If you disagree that is fine, but I would not want to buy your harp.
%TS is probably not a useful metric if we are discussing gut strings on a higher tension instrument. If we are talking about a lower tension harp, as is the case here, it is very relevant for the reasons I outlined. If you wish to convince yourself, replace your pedal gut 4th octave A string with a nylon one of let us say 0.8mm.
Biagio
Here we go with another US source (sorry I don’t know of any over the pond). For Z pins with enlarged holes:
I too am really looking forward to hearing the final result!
Biagio
