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Here’s what it looks like on paper. Write out two groups of eighth notes, 3 eighth notes in each group. All the stems should be pointed down, and barred so that the first 3 notes are barred together, and then the second group is barred together. So what you have is two groups of eighth notes, stems down, with the first three barred together, and the second group barred together. Tie the three notes in each group together. If you were to tap this out now, you would count each eighth note, but tap only the eighth note that starts each group. So you’d count 1,2,3,4,5,6, but tap only on 1 and 4.
Now put stems pointing up on eighth notes 1,3, and 5. These will be quarter notes, so don’t bar them. They are not tied together. If you were to tap only the stems up notes, you’d count 1,2,3,4,5,6, but tap only on 1, 3, and 5.
Now count the eighth notes(1,2,3,4,5,6,), and tap the stems down part with one hand, and the stems up part with the other. The stems down part is the two to a beat part, and the stems up part is the three to a beat. Start slowly and once you get the hang of it, speed it up. This is exactly how you have to play the 2 against three in the Debussy. The left hand notes (two to a beat) are played on 1 and 4 when you are counting 6 to the beat, and the right hand notes(3 to a beat) are played on 1,3, and 5 when counting 6 to a beat.
Once you have learned the rhythmic pattern, it will become automatic and you won’t have to count anything.
Ask to talk to the “other vendors” who are doing this for free. If they are, then maybe it is a good marketing opportunity. I know that a lot of harpists play at those weekend wedding shows for free, while all of the other vendors have to pay fees for their booth. If you do play for free, make sure they will let you hand out brochures or cards. As a marketing strategy, you might contact other wedding vendors in your area(florists, caterers, and in particular Justices of the Peace and ministers, etc.) and see if you can get them to include you as a part of their offering. I know a harpist who for years was hooked up with a very pushy Justice of the Peace whose brochures(the Justice’s) offered his services with the harpist. She did many many weddings because of this, often 5 or 6 weddings on a weekend.
I wouldn’t bother having it regulated if it sounds OK. I also wouldn’t bother changing any gut strings if they sound OK. If they get frizzy or sound false, then change that string. Otherwise, leave them alone. I would change wire strings maybe every 4 or 5 years, because they do get dull sounding after a while. Even the tarnish resistant ones. I would also change any nylon strings every 4 or 5 years, mainly because they develop gouges in the string where the prongs of the discs close on them, and that can mess up the regulation and maybe make them sound false. On the larger gut strings in the 4th and 5th octaves, if one of those strings breaks at the very top or very bottom, I patch the string. Sometimes the patched string will last another 2 or 3 years or more, and that saves money! I don’t pay particular attention to the strings, mostly because my sound comes from the way I play the instrument, not from the quality or newness of the strings.
I’ve never heard of this before. But my first reaction is to put into the contract, which is signed before anything else happens, that included in your contracted fee is ONE planning meeting, and the event. If anyone wants a second or third meeting, then it is charged at $X per meeting, and lasts 30 minutes or whatever. If the meeting runs over, then that is charged $X for each 15 minute overrun.
It’s amazing David how you can just spot fraud and scam from how these things are written. As someone who regularly rents harps, I have to go with my gut many times on these things. If an email or phone call just doesn’t sound “right,” then I simply won’t rent to the person.
A couple of years ago I got a call for a rental from a woman who said she was Saudi. She said she was going to Harvard and was studying privately with someone in the Boston area. I didn’t know the teacher’s name. The woman’s English was slightly accented but excellent. But the conversation just didn’t sound like she knew anything about the harp. She said she wanted to come to my house to try the instruments I had available. I agreed and she came a couple of days later. I left her alone with the instruments(as I normally do when someone comes to try out harps). She called me back to the living room about 4 minutes later to tell me which one she wanted. She had not played a single note on any of them(I would have heard). Still wary, I told her I would have to make out a contract and that she would have to give me a check for the first three months in order to take the harp. She said that her bank account was not yet set up and that she could give me cash for the first month and come back in two days to give me cash for the second and third month. I politely said that I was going to stick to my standard format. I told her to come back when she could give me a check for all three months. She left, and only then did I realize that she had a driver and a gigantic SUV waiting to take the instrument. They drove off, and several hours later I received an email from her saying that she wasn’t going to rent from me because “I didn’t trust her.” For all I know, she may have had diplomatic immunity. I’m certain that, had I let her take the harp, it would have been on a plane to Saudi Arabia within a couple of hours.
I’m telling this story because, to everybody reading it, go with your gut if anything sounds fishy, even if you can’t pinpoint exactly what is wrong.
Interesting. I have a Venus Aria listed in the Classifieds here. I just got the following email about it and it looks very fishy to say the least. Has anyone else gotten this email???
Message:
I am okay with the price of this item and the condition of items and we will like to make an outright purchase of this particular item immediately.I’m in need of it and i want to get it as soon
as possible, I anticipate that a cashier check or certified check will be sent to you via express mail or usps or Fedex as the mode of payment, concerning the pickup, i will be responsible for that, where the mover will come for the pick up at your location upon your confirmation of receiving the payment and i want you to remove this item from the ad now. So i will send the payment which will include the pick up charges, in which you will make payable to the mover via there account immediately after you have receive the payment and you will be compensated with $150 extra for your running around to the
Bank outlet to avoid the delay. And I would really love to come
for the viewing but due to my work frame that might not be possible.I will like you to provide the following payment information as
soon as possible:Your Full Name….
Your Full Home Address….
City…..
State…..
Zip code….
Cell Number or Telephone
Best Price..As soon as this is provided i will let you know when payment is mailed out and i will update you on when you will receive the payment and give you instructions on what to do. .l’ll contact my mover to come over to your location for the pick up as soon as you receive payment and we have made some arrangement for the pick up as soon as you email me back that you’ve received the payment,then I will now instruct the shipper to come down to your location with a letter of approval and phone call from me, but never mind, I want you to be rest assured that my shipper will take care of everything on my behalf without giving you any stress. I am not here always your can reach me with your details through my private email which is jasonsamuelseasons@gmail.com
i hope we handle this in good faith.
Jason
What is the point of this kind of scam. Is he just into jerking you around? Make you show up at a venue where there is no event? Or does he somehow get you to pay him money? I don’t get it?
Wil- I have to correct one thing you said in your first post. In America, it is standard to tune a lever harp in E flat, just like in Europe, meaning that when none of the levers are engaging the string, the harp is in E flat. I don’t know anyone who tunes a lever harp in C. If you do that, then you only have sharp keys available to you. The whole point of tuning in E flat is to have a selection of flat and sharp keys available.
I can’t imagine how that edition could have left out the first entrance of the flute in the 3rd movement.
By the way, there is one wrong note in my (Carl Fischer) edition. Kathy Bride discovered it when she was coaching a group at Eastman. The flutist had played it before and asked her about it. She passed the question on to me and sure enough, there was a wrong note! There were three of use proofing the galleys and this was something that we all missed.
It’s in the flute part in measure 161, and concerns the 32nd note E at the end of the third beat. That 32nd note should be an F#, not an E. The E on the first beat is correct. The one on the third beat is wrong.
Carl Swanson
Katrina- I too learned the Zingel version, and it’s excellent. Hans Zingel, by the way, was a musicologist and the principal harpist for the Stuttgart Opera(Katrina, correct me if I’m wrong on that). There is no easy version of the Magic Fire Music. But his version is entirely playable and works well in the orchestra.
Dearest GlissBliss,
What you are describing is exactly what all beginner harpists go through. You are having the problems you describe because you have no muscle memory for the various patterns that come up in even the simplest pieces of music. The result is that you have to hunt for every note you play, and you have to do it each time you play the same piece.
The answer is to play exercises and etudes that will repeat patterns enough times to form muscle memory patterns that are the basis of technique. Go to the 30 day challenge and go down to Day 2. There is a reference to an article I wrote for the Harp Column in 2008 about using etudes to build technique. It appears on page 36 of that magazine. Read that article. It will explain everything you are dealing with. I would suggest, when you do get a harp and start learning the instrument, that you use LaRivierre, which is primarily exercises, and my Bochsa Revisited, published by Carl Fischer Music. The two of those will put you on the right track.
When anyone wants to learn a musical instrument, the teacher has to deal with teaching the student two different things: 1) How to play the instrument, and 2) How to read music. If the student already knows how to read music, then that’s a huge advantage. So if you won’t have a harp to practice on for several months, then use that time to learn to read music. Find a teacher, preferably a solfege teacher, who can teach you music theory and reading lines and spaces efficiently. You don’t need a harp to do that. You don’t need any musical instrument. The better you can read music, the easier it will be to learn to play the harp.
Wire strings are made up of a steel core that is wrapped in silk and wire. When a wire string breaks, it is the core that breaks. The outer wrappings of silk and wire do not. So it looks fine, but is loose and impossible to pull back up to pitch. Usually when a wire string breaks, you have to pull on each wire string just to figure out which one broke.
Rebekah- I’m not aware of the Salzedo version of the Magic Fire Music being required on audition lists. The Magic Fire Music is frequently required on audition lists. But not one particular version of it, and certainly not the Salzedo version. To be honest, I wasn’t aware that he made a version of it, and like you said, it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere.
