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You’re welcome. My teacher studied with Susann MacDonald. She had to sing solfeg a lot when she played. She said it really helped.
I love reading these posts…..they are helpful to me. My teacher tells me once you sit down to play the piece, you should sing along with it in your head. It helps — sometimes — when I remember to do that.
I like your idea of looking ahead, Curls. I will try that.
Briggs
I know that looking through the strings thing can get confusing, but I also work really hard at trying to “play blind” — that is get the actual feel of the strings so I don’t have to watch my hands so much. I’m not saying I can actually do that all the time, but I work at it.
Briggs
I know there can be problems with the way some (youngish maybe) people present themselves….maybe they just don’t understand the pitfalls of wearing a skirt that exposes their undies on stage. And as a voice teacher there are things that just need to be taught to young people learning their craft so that they will present themselves in the most professional way possible. Things like, “You know if you don’t pull your hair off your face more (bangs over the eyes) the stage lighting won’t catch your facial expressions as well,” or “Be careful when you bow that you have a blouse that won’t expose too much.”
However, NO ONE is going to tell me not to wear slacks when I play the harp. Good God Almighty! Moving that thing from place to place in the first place just about requires movers’ overalls in the first place, and with all the accoutrements which need to be hauled and lugged along with the harp on the dolly, I’m not hauling outfits to change into. I have some very pretty flowy black slacks. I can put all manner of very pretty tops, sparkly sweaters, jackets, etc. with them and look very formal and nice, and still move my stuff around. Geez, it’s bad enough that you have to get the harp in, undressed from it’s travel wraps, and tuned, then stash all the dolly and covers somewhere, set up the chair/stand/light, warm up and get ready. I can’t even imagine having to then haul in a dress bag with a gown and divert my brain away from the music while changing.
I seriously think that some people who get a name in their line of work think they can just bully other women instead of kindly suggesting appropriate stage dress and helping people to get where they need to be. No slacks, indeed!
Briggs
My tuner won’t hear them either. I just listen for beats. You can hear the oscillations when two strings are out of tune. Listen for them. When they stop beating, it’s a perfect silence of beats.
My teacher and I were talking about solfege a couple of lessons ago. She sings fixed Do and told me to just sing (I was a singer before I began harp) while I played once I learned something pretty well. She told me they had to study solfeg while working on her degree at Indiana U. When she told me they learned fixed Do, suddenly the idea of singing solfeg became sooooooooooooo easy!!! I learned moveable Do, and to me that always made sense, but fixed Do seems so much easier to me. I don’t want to get into a debate about fixed vs. moveable Do — that one’s been done to death…..but I did want to say that fixed Do on harp just makes a world of good sense to me while moveable always made a world of good sense when singing in different keys…..curious that.
Anyway, singing even lalala makes phrasing better to me, but singing solfeg locks in the actual notes you are playing, and say you have a memory lapse……it seems to me that if you know it in solfeg, you could get out of it a little easier…..kind of one more way to add to memorization skills, maybe. My only problem is to stop worrying about how I sound technique-wise when singing and focus on the harp technique. 🙂
YES, Laura. I would definitely want to live somewhere where ogres wouldn’t complain about beautiful harp music. That’s nuts! And if they are complaining about that, they must be just delightful to live with otherwise (NOT).
You got lots of good suggestions, so I can’t add anything except to comment. I can’t believe someone would whine about a harp with all the noise pollution currently EVERYWHERE……I can hardly stop at a red light without hearing blasting boombox crap coming out of cars around me.
Complaining about a harp?????? please!
One of those neck wraps that you put in the freezer or microwave and then wrap around your neck and shoulders to ease muscle tension. 🙂
Harp, dolly, string bag (with tools) — and it’s small but holds a complete set of spares my tuner and tuning key
I am almost 6′ tall. I don’t have that problem (even with a smaller harp), but I would if I pulled it up too close to me. Have you tried moving farther away from the harp and then finding the balance point?
Briggs
I think a couple times during the school year, I would have a harp class. All the students come together — there are a couple of harps (a pedal and a lever) and each student plays one or two pieces, as if it is a master class. Then YOU work with each in the others’ presence — keeping the whole thing in a positive light. It would even be better if this could be somewhere where afterwards there would be snacks, and if you could give a little presentation at the beginning…..maybe about the history of the harp with pictures or something that would advance their knowledge….but keeping it geared for their age and with visuals. And during their lessons, remind them that harp class day is approaching and they want to have a piece ready!! My teacher does this, and she gears it for ALL ages because her students range in age from 7 to 56. It works really well. Everyone dresses in a nice outfit (like something you might wear to church) and plays.
Briggs
