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Zach- The truth is, different people memorize in different ways and at different rates. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else. Some people memorize naturally and without any special effort while they are learning a piece, and others have to make a specific effort to memorize or it doesn’t happen.
People think that I memorize easily because I perform everything from memory. But the reality is, memorizing is difficult for me and requires a special effort. It doesn’t just happen while I’m learning the piece. I’ve found for myself that the earlier in the learning process that I memorize the better. As soon as I have laid out a piece(pedals and fingerings) and have read through it a couple of times, I then work on memorizing it. If it’s a difficult or long piece, I have it completely memorized long before I can play it up to tempo. I then usually practice the piece from memory until it is at performance level. As part of that memorizing process, I spend time with the music away from the harp just studying and analyzing the music. I learn a lot from that, such as where pedal changes are, what key or keys the piece is modulating to, etc.
My process for memorizing is to start with just a measure or two at a time. maybe only a couple of beats. When that’s memorized, go on to the next few beats or measure and memorize that. Then string the two small memorized bits together. I slowly work my way through a page of music, a few beats at a time. The first stage I get to is what I call the wobbly stage, meaning I can make it through a line or two, or a page, without looking at the music at all but it’s kind of in starts and stops. It’s wobbly. That stage is important because it forces you to think actively about what you are playing, BEFORE you have developed muscle memory for that part. That in fact is why it’s wobbly. You have no muscle memory to rely on, which is very good. At that point I practice that page mostly or entirely from memory to work on the technique, speed, etc. while I use other time to memorize the next page the same way. The important thing is to memorize in very small increments(a few beats or a measure at a time) and then to connect those increments together to form a longer memorized part.
How much agreement is there on this? NOT MUCH!! There were several discussions of this on the HC forums a while back. Here are the links:
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forum/message-view?message_id=13090897
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forum/message-view?message_id=4243756
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forum/message-view?message_id=11901907No matter what your editor does, harpists have so many ways of writing pedals that most of them are going to want to write them in themselves in their own particular way, which is a shame, because it makes a mess of rental parts. The one thing that I would tell your editor is to make the letters as large as possible. One of the main reasons people rewrite printed pedal markings is that they are too small to read. I think that if they are large enough, most harpists will be content to read what’s printed and not feel compelled to rewrite what is already there. I would also suggest that there be pedal diagrams along the way, especially where the pedals have not been in any key for a while. The diagram should reflect the pedal arrangement at the beginning of the measure where it is written. In other words, there may be a pedal change on the second beat of the measure where the diagram is written, but that change is not included in the diagram because the diagram reflects only the pedal arrangement at the beginning of the measure.
I think that the pedal change(i.e. the letter) should be just before the note that requires the change. If for example the note requiring the change has a # in front of it, then the letter should be under the #.
That’s not what I said. I said that I didn’t want to alter my technique, and he agreed with me. I would have been very happy with musical coaching or particularly learning orchestra parts from him. But he was simply nasty and destructive. He would endlessly change fingerings, on the same pieces from week to week no less. He never once listened to what I had prepared. As soon as I started a piece that I had worked hard on all week, he would stop me two measures into it and start changing fingerings, even though he had done the same thing the week before and the week before that.
At the end of my first year(of a two year program) I had to play a “promotional” exam, basically a final exam on the instrument which every student in the school had to do. I was going to play the Hindemith Sonata. He tore it to shreds week after week, and at the last lesson before the exam, stormed out of the room saying, “This is a mess. I don’t know what you are going to do for that exam!” I had three weeks to work on the piece by myself before the exam. When I played the exam, in the main concert hall, the jury was Zighera, Gunther Schuller, and Louise papoutsakis, the other harp teacher at the school. I was so angry with him it helped me overcome my usual nerves and I played it well. 20 minutes later I ran into him and Louise in a hallway. He smiled broadly and said,”That was wonderful. Why didn’t you play it like that in the lessons?” I could have killed him.
He was like that with most of the students who studied with him in his later years. Most of us wanted to spend a summer at Tanglewood in the fellowship orchestra, but he never once picked one of his own students for that. He would pick someone from a tape, and then often end up with someone incapable of playing the parts required and they would have to send a freelance harpist from Boston out to cover the parts. But his nasty behavior went beyond that too. He assaulted a female student at a private lesson. She is a good friend of mine and told me about it. So please, don’t criticize someone when you don’t have all the facts.
What is it that happens to your older harp covers that you have to get rid of them? Are they torn? Just dirty? If the old covers are still useable I might be interested in buying them from you. With over 20 rental harps, I’m always scrounging for covers.
I think that an outdoor heater could do more harm than good. The heat is going to be very uneven, with the side of the harp towards the heater being too hot and the side away being very cold. So that’s not a solution. If it’s 40 or 50 degrees out, it won’t hurt the harp to get that cold or colder. The problem is if you bring a very cold instrument back into a warm room, you may get condensation forming all over the instrument: inside the action and body and god knows where else. As far as playing a pedal harp outdoors is concerned, there is probably a lot of dirt and dust just normally being blown around. And a beach is worse. Do you really want sand blown up into the action? I think I would write into the contract that for any beach wedding pedal harp is not an option. You will only use a lever harp.
Joyce- You’re experience with him was a lot better than mine. I studied with him for two years after having studied with Pierre Jamet. I only did it because I wanted to get my Masters degree out of the way. I told him, diplomatically, that I didn’t want to change anything about my technique, which I had learned from Jamet. He watched me play something and then said “Your technique is set. There is nothing to change.”
But he was very negative and destructive with me. Most of the other people who studied with him in his last years had similar problems. I will say though that he was a wonderful musician and played beautifully at Symphony Hall. I think that those who studied with him earlier in his career fared better.
Christian- Unfortunately there are a lot of people like this in the world. It is not an uncommon personality type. It’s particularly destructive when it’s a family member, and worse when it’s a parent. The damage they do is catastrophic and permanent.
David- Your post illustrates two of the core symptoms of narcissists. First, they are always egregious liars. The truth to a narcissist is whatever is convenient at the moment. You can see this all the time in criminal trials. Just look at the Casey Anthony case. This woman is the ultimate narcissist. Secondly, as you mention, narcissists perceive the world in a completely different way from a mentally healthy person. When they blow up with no obvious provocation, it’s because in their warped minds you did something, on purpose no less, to hurt them. They always assume that everyone is trying to hurt them. So really there is no winning with them. You did the right thing blowing up, in a very articulate way, at that woman. That blow up on your part notified her that there’s a limit to what you will tolerate from her. Being a narcissist, she still thinks that she did nothing wrong. But standing up to her at least made her put the brakes on her behavior.
Laura- You have to understand that the thought processes of a narcissist are very bizarre when compared to a mentally healthy person. In every situation they are in, they perceive themselves to be the victim, when in fact just the opposite is true.
Christian-Your last sentence sums it up nicely. The fact is, narcissists are consumed with measuring themselves against other people and are in an endless struggle to prove that they are “better” than everyone else. I consider myself an expert on narcissism. I had a mother who was a brutal narcissist. I’ve read several books on the subject, and each book lists the behaviors and symptoms that narcissists exhibit to one degree or another. It’s like these people all operate from the same script. I did learn, much too late in my life, that if you stand up to them, if you raise the bar high enough, they will back down. But it’s not a pleasant experience. The thing that I most resent about all narcissists is that they force ME into the position of defining limits on THEIR behavior. Because if you let them, they will walk all over you.
David- What you describe in this woman is the classic Narcissistic personality. One of their many behaviioral patterns is to magnify all their own achievements enormously and at the same time demean and criticize everyone else’s. They also twist everything around so that they are never to blame for anything. Not anything. So it’s pointless to respond to someone like that because they will only rewrite the whole scene when they tell other people what happened and how rude you were.
You’re asking for trouble by putting thicker strings on the instrument. It’s going to increase the tension and will have a direct effect on the longevity of the soundboard.
I was under the impression from another post that strings have actually been getting thicker over the years. Current string diameters, when put on older harps, are causing them to pull up and split open. And don’t even think of putting modern strings on 19th century instruments.
I’ve actually tried, over the last several years, putting thinner strings on full size harps and I prefer the sound. The strings feel slightly springier, but they are perfectly playable and the sound is clearer, especially the initial attack. I use Bow Brand lever gauge gut strings for that. I did that to the Wurlitzer DDX which I have for sale on my web site, and it sounds better than it did with standard gauge strings. That harp by the way just sold.
Obviously the man brought a lot of skills with him to his study of the flute. He could read and analyze music really well, and he had the advanced finger coordination that comes from playing any musical instrument at a fairly advanced level. In addition, he knew very well the process and effort it takes to build a good technical foundation. These are huge advantages over the average adult beginner who has never studied a musical instrument. So I’m not really surprised at the progress he made.
