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Yes, that’s also a very essential part of teaching – teaching students how to practise/study. My anatomy professors would never have us study flashcards in anatomy lab, but they did suggest we make them! (in addition with other useful study strategies)

I was already aware of the existence of HarpSpectrum – it’s a great website and I hope more articles get added to it!

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I found a recording on Youtube (the soundquality is very bad). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W77F6fIrd0 . Perhaps it’s useful? 🙂

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Mr Zlatkovski, I think that the teaching you refer to, is only available
at college/university level. It seems as though you’ve got to reach a
certain level before more emphasis is placed on musicality instead of
just learning the notes.
Of course, one should be able to know how to
play the harp before such remarks/tips/pointers will be useful, but why
don’t teachers start with emphasis on such points from the very start? I’d love to learn more about music theory, composters, styles of music etc. and while there are many resources on the internet, it’s impossible to look for answers on your own.

As a mere harp student with a private teacher, there’s only so much I can do. I certainly take responsibility for my learning process – as others encouraged me to do – but in the end, you need a teacher who is willing to teach you how to analyse and interpret pieces at the beginner level (compared to their level).
By the way, so far I’m very satisfied with my teachers, as they’re always willing to put up with all of my questions (I prepare a list of questions for every lesson…).

Eventually, I think teachers need to teach students ‘how to learn’ – how to interpret pieces ‘on your own’. After all, most of the work isn’t done during lessons but during practice at home. Such teaching shouldn’t be limited to the lucky few who get into a college… Giving useful pointers and tips during a lesson isn’t very hard, but to teach students how to critically listen to their playing and improve themselves… To me, that seems a major goal in teaching, just as important as telling a student how a piece should be correctly played.

So… Both harp teachers and students need to work together on this, but I definitely agree that the student’s motivation to learn is essential.

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I’m wondering about your remark regarding how long one should study a piece. I’ve had many different teachers (community music school) but none of them liked to spend too much time on one piece.

A while ago, I started learning Nataliana. Now I can ‘play the notes’ but I feel I’m far from mastering it. It’s the most advanced piece I know and I wouldn’t mind spending more time on it, but my teacher was more than happy to let me move on.

So perhaps there’s also a task for the harp teachers? Not everyone wants to aim for the highest goal possible but some people are… and perhaps teachers could be more supportive of that. Not all ‘ambitious’ students are 10 year old prodigies… I’m 20 and it’s my dream to be able to play the Impromptu by Faure during my lifetime (I don’t mind if it takes 20 more years).

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Don’t despair yet… There are several pieces of music which are perfectly playable on the harp. For instance, A window to the Past. Alright, it modulates several times to another key but it isn’t strictly necessary to play those – playing an octave higher or repeating everything a few times also suffices… Double Trouble also sounds rather nice on the harp.
Unfortunately, the sheet music I’ve got is on my other laptop so I can’t look at it right now, but I think I was able to sort of play Hogwarts Hymn as well.

However, I agree with you that you’d probably need a pedal harp for Hedwigs theme… 🙁

@ Anna: Thanks for posting your arrangement, I can’t wait to try it out! I don’t know any violists but it looks as though I could give it a try on the tin whistle…

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Thanks for the information! So there are no lever changes within the pieces themselves?

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This is also related to Bernard Andres so I thought it’s a good idea to post in this topic… I’m wondering: is it possible to play Algues on a lever harp?

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I honestly don’t remember the first time I ever performed in public… I assume it must have been an ‘end of the year’ ‘recital’ at the music school where I was taking lessons. I was 7 or 8 by that time so I don’t think I was that nervous.

The first time I played in church, though, was a total disaster. I had decided to play everything by heart and of course I had a blackout in the middle of the piece… I sort of forced myself to go on and eventually managed to finish it. Most people really liked the harp playing, fortunately.

Other ‘disaster’ story: I had to play a christmas song (my dancing day?) with two other harps. I and the other harpist got confused so both of us sort of stopped at the same time, and the poor third harpist just continued playing the chords – she basically played solo for about 1,5 minutes.

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An elderly gentleman:

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Yes, I’ve got to agree that some replies surprised me – I’d never physically assault someone over potentially damaging the harp (or lying). Fortunately, there are insurances that can take care of that!

But one’s attitude probably depends on what they’ve encountered. If people are really rude and start touching me while playing etc. I probably wouldn’t as accommodating as I am now…

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Wow, that’s awful! I’m always willing to let people try my harp, but usually, I stand very near or help hold the harp for them. If you assume someone’s a harpist and assume they know how to handle it – and they drop it…

I don’t understand why anyone would lie about it, they get discovered in no time and what’s bad about admitting they just want a picture of themselves with the harp? Alright, it might be scary to ask, but I think lying about it is scarier…
Indeed, some people… 🙁

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Andres is awesome indeed! I really like his ‘Automates’ as well, there are few books that contain so many pieces that I love!

If you’re finished with Automates, you might like Danses d’ Automne as well. They are in a different style (I don’t know anything about music theory so I can’t really explain it)

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Wow, it must be pretty serious if they gave you a corticosteroid shot… Good luck and get well soon!

You should always take pain seriously, like the others have said. Also, the pain isn’t necessarily caused by ‘using your fingers too much’ but it could also be caused by bad posture, too much tension in your hands etc. etc. That’s why it’s important to tell your teacher when certain things hurt, they can adjust your technique and usually that helps a lot! You can solve the symptoms by going to the doctor but the root of the problem needs to be solved by a harp teacher…

As for myself, I’ve had ‘RSI’ complaints several times (NaNoWriMo was the cause, for those who know it…) so now I’m very careful with how I strain my hands/wrists. When I feel that something hurts, I make note of it and ask my teacher. So far, that was the best ‘cure’ 🙂

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I’m currently working on:
– Nataliana
– Dances d’ Automne (B. Andres) #1

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Wow, thanks for introducing me to this beautiful piece of music! I looked it up on YouTube and I’m enjoying it very much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAhNDGwMDPQ

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