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I just spent the past half hour IM’ing Basel. he recently went to Lebanon and tried to get a visa to come to the US, but was denied. Things are getting worse for him and his parents and sister, both weather-wise and with the violence. I wish there was something that we could do.
Ben- Most of the suggestions and explanations here are on target. A false string is one that is impossible to tune, and which always sounds too high or too low. Strings get old and worn, and the diameter over the length of the string gets uneven, causing it to vibrate unevenly and sound false. Also, over time, the place where the disc closes on the string can create a gouge or hollow. This is particularly true with old nylon strings. So I would suggest that you change the strings in the 1st and 2nd octaves, and maybe the 3rd octave if you can as well. And do it well before the harp is regulated. In order to regulate the harp, all the strings have to be holding pitch. So make sure you change the strings a week or more before having it regulated, and tune and play the harp during that week before the regulation so it is stable by the time the regulator works on it.
Cathy- Thank you so much. He emailed me on Tuesday and asked me the same question, but didn’t say that he needed it scanned and sent to him. Just that he wanted to know if his name appeared in the 2010 Harp Directory. So I didn’t know that he needed an image of the page. I hope you were able to scan it for him.
Dear Harp Lady- You said “when a student is just learning…” so I’m assuming you are talking about a beginner or advanced beginner student. The important technical point here is to be able to make the shape of the chord with the hand in the air, off the strings, and then to place all of the fingers in the chord at the same time. If you are having difficulty learning this, then start with 3 note chords, and play a C major triad up and down the harp playing root position, first inversion, second inversion, etc. up and down maybe 3 octaves until it comes easily. For each chord, form the shape of the chord in the air and then place the three fingers together on the appropriate notes. The finger tips should land exactly where they are going to play and there should be no adjustment after the fingers have touched the strings. Practice this hands separately, hands together, hands playing different positions together, hands going in opposite directions together, etc. When this is going well and there are no mistakes, do the same thing with 4 note chords. Do it on a major chord, but also on a 5-7 chord so that you learn all of the positions for that chord.
In the actual playing of chords-for example the opening of the Faure Impromptu, or the cadenza to Britten’s Young Persons Guide…- you in fact will place sequentially from the bottom to the top, placing only one or two notes ahead of the one that is being played. You do this so that you don’t muffle strings that were just played, and also to minimize buzzing. BUT, you cannot place one note at a time, bottom to top, because it is easier, or because you haven’t learned the technique of placing all the fingers at once. If you do that, you will always struggle with playing chords and it will sound labored and lumpy. It’s rather like the difference between typing using good typing technique or using the hunt-and-peck technique with two fingers.
I agree with all of Kim’s bullet points if she is talking about a beginner who has not learned to place chords the correct way first.
Gretchen and Sam- I agree with both of you that time is not the only consideration when practicing. If it is not focused, or if the practice techniques are flawed, you may as well not practice at all. I remember a friend of mine telling me years ago that there was a pianist in the apartment above him who was preparing a recital. For 8 months he practiced 4 or 5 hours a day, and made the same mistakes in the same places in the same pieces for 8 months, never figuring out how to fix them! So poor practice techniques will result in poor results.
People come to music with different abilities and strengths, and so everyone’s practice techniques will vary somewhat. Gretchen, your friend who practices enormous amounts of time just before a performance is displaying a classic symptom of Attention Deficit Disorder. But if that works for him, then what the heck.
Kreig- Very nice post, and right on the money. I’m not suggesting for a second that the purpose of learning a lot of technique is to cram as many notes as possible into a piece. But if you simply want to make a 2 octave jump in your improvisation, you need to be able to get around the instrument easily. I would think that having an abundance of technique would free you to play as fast or as slow, as simple or as complicated as you wanted. Inadequate technique will sound inadequate and will severely limit the player’s imagination, since he can only think within the confines of his (limited) technique.
I would lance the blister and drain it. I’ve done that many times over the years. Be sure to sterilize the needle and your fingertip. You may have to bandage it for a couple of days but that is the quickest way to get it to heal.
Daniele- This may seem to be off topic, but it’s not. You said you’re a beginner to intermediate player. Focus on technique along with the blues and jazz you want to learn. Technique is technique, no matter what type of music you want to play. The same technique works for classical, pop, jazz, blues, etc.
Your ability to play blues or jazz and what kind of things you do with the music will be directly correlated to the level of your technique, i.e., your ability to get around the instrument easily. So make sure you are working with a good classical teacher who can teach you solid technique, preferably with etudes. I would also suggest you take a course in music theory, since so much jazz in particular is very theory oriented.
Deborah and Park Stickney are the best jazz players on harp that I know, and they both have very solid classical training. Park has a Master’s degree from Juilliard, and Deborah has at least an undergraduate degree in classical harp. Also, at the Berklee School in Boston, which is entirely geared to learning all aspects of popular music, jazz, movie score writing, etc. the students there learn classical repertoire in their private lessons, because, as one of the students said to me, “That’s how you learn to play your instrument.”
What is this piece anyway? I’ve never seen it. I would tend to agree with Tacye that the right hand is a harmonic on the upper note and the lower one is plucked. But I’ve never seen this before.
David- When you are done for the night there, and you will be leaving the harp for several days before you play again, why don’t you switch middle C with the B string right next to it. Just leave it that way until you come back again.
My dear friend Eleanor Fell told me that one time she was answering the phone at Vanderbilt when a woman called and said that she needed to replace the “learner” strings on her harp with regular strings. Mystified, Eleanor asked the woman what she meant by “learner” strings. “Well” the woman said,”I have red C’s and blue F’s, and those are just for while I was learning to play. I need to replace them with clear strings now.”
