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Kreig- I think you’re absolutely right and actually that fits well within the theory that I posted. What you describe is the pressure that is put on these kids when they are most salable. It seems to me that the child should be the one to decide the pace and intensity of his/her musical studies. If the kid is really talented, the talent will be there and waiting when the kid gets older and makes the decision to pursue music seriously.
Sam- Nice post, and it was great seeing you at the conference BTW. I have a slightly different theory about why many prodigies fizzle out. There are many skills that are needed to play a musical instrument and a prodigy has many or all of them built into his or her system. A natural manual dexterity, an extraordinary memory, incredible hand/eye coordination, a natural ability at sight reading, with all these skills being naturally far above the normal student. So the prodigy, when he or she practices, achieves far more in the same amount of practice time than the rest of us mortals.
But having all of these skills doesn’t necessarily mean that the prodigy loves music or making music. They can have the skills, but the love of music that is the engine that drives a performer just isn’t there. So as child prodigies, they may bask in the attention that their abilities give them. Or they may play the instrument just because there is a lot of pressure to do it. When they reach adulthood, they realize that they just don’t enjoy it and are not self-driven to pursue music and that’s when they fizzle out. They may also enter adulthood realizing that music deprived them of a childhood and be very resentful. I can name a half dozen harp child prodigies that I knew who were incredibly talented and then, around the age of 20 or 21, gave up the harp, got married to the first guy that came along, and sold the harp. Several of them, years later, came back to it as amateurs or semi-professionals, a mere shadow of what their potential had been as children. The most recent case of this is the young Russian woman who won Israel several years ago. She sold her harp and entered a convent.
Excuse me, but something sounds fishy about this original post. You’re a senior in college and a music major and you have never figured out how to practice? In addition, your own appraisal of your ability is that you are “very skilled and talented?” Something here just doesn’t add up.
If she is really doing all of the things you say, then she is building her business not by promoting herself, but by demeaning and denigrating everyone else, which is very narcissistic and downright evil. I’d be tempted to return the favor. When you get a gig for a certain date, have a friend call her and say he or she needs a harpist for the exact same date, and have your friend say that the gig pays X amount(more than your gig pays). Have him or her string her along until your contract is signed and a done deal. Then your friend can back out.
You talked about some place where reviews appear about her. So put a review up yourself. Be very specific as to what’s wrong. She says she has this huge repertoire but only plays a few songs. So say in the review how many songs you heard her play, etc. In fact, maybe you should just copy and paste you post into the review.
It may also be that with that rare gullible person who talks to them, they are able to elicit all kind of personal or banking information.
Nina- Those are all good pieces. But the Hasselmans and the Godefroid are the same period, French, and were probably written within a few years of each other. You might want to change one of them and instead play something that is stylistically different. Maybe a Baroque transcription, or something 20th century. A Tournier piece might be a good substitute.
I agree with Saul that the 40 easy etudes of Bochsa tend to emphasize the right hand. Not all of them, but a lot of them. The answer to that is to play them as written, but also to play them with the left hand playing the right hand part, either where written or an octave lower. You can leave out the right hand all together(eat a sandwich, talk on the phone?) or just make up a right hand part.
Just wanted to let everyone know that if FINALLY got a new page up on my web site (www.swansonharp.com) for the harp covers. Nice pictures and description. My web designer set it up so they can be ordered right there on line. I’d love to hear some feedback from you about it so I can make improvements to the page, the ordering process, etc. Email me privately at: swan harp@earthlink.net. Thanks all.
Sam- I’m going to be an exhibitor. So I’ll look for you in the exhibit room. Everybody else, come and say hi.
I should have also asked you if it broke each time in the same place. Are you replacing the string each time with gut or nylon? If it’s with gut, and always from the same multiple length string, then maybe the string is defective.
If your forearm hurts after 20 to 30 minutes of practice, in fact, if it hurts after any amount of practicing, then you’re doing something wrong. No amount of practicing should cause pain.
