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Hi Biagio,
Thanks for the book suggestions! I love Ray Pool’s arrangements, so I will check out his theory books. Great to find new materials.
Hi Manijeh!
I think your questions are valid and I am happy to share my thoughts. Re: how to teach sight reading, the processes you described are all great tips, and are ones that I have used. I think you should share every little device you can with your students – you never know what’s going to click with them! For example, I was doing note flashcards with a piano student yesterday, and I’ve shared every mnemonic device I know for reading line and space notes in treble and bass clef. She got stuck on one note, so I reminded her of a saying and it wasn’t clicking. She’s quite good at sight reading and note naming, so I asked her how she remembers the note names. She shrugged, and I didn’t question it! Whatever it is, it’s working for her! I know one teacher that never asks his students to name the notes. He thinks the relation between the symbol and where it is on the keyboard is more important – who cares if you know it’s an “A”, as long as you know what note to play on the keyboard. Not my style, but to each their own!
Sight reading, in my opinion, is an accumulative skill and music theory is an important part of developing that skill. I like to do theory and technique away from repertoire, and usually free of any music. These exercises are usually made up and taught by rote, sometimes relevant to the current repertoire (ie same key) which serves as a warm up at the beginning of every lesson. For my harp students, I focus on teaching inversions, arpeggios, and common LH patterns (ie arpeggiated triads) and doing these exercises in every key (teaching circle of 5ths/key signatures). Both piano and harp students learn how to name chords using roman numerals and common cadences. Then we can see how this theory is applied in their music. For example, when we look at the Nutcracker cadenza, they already know what’s going on – chord inversions!
Teaching theory to beginner harp students takes more effort and creativity than piano students, due to the lack of progressive lesson books out there that teach these concepts on the harp. Does anyone know of a beginner harp lesson book that doesn’t slap notes on a staff with a time signature for the first music reading experience? Harp Olympics has a great comprehensive approach, integrating theory very thoroughly even in the first book. Some exercises are specifically for sight reading.
Keep asking and keep sharing, that’s how we all learn!
Hi Amy, my heart sank a little after reading your post! I love teaching young musicians. There is nothing like seeing their excitement for learning an instrument. This is why I think you should continue looking for a teacher that encourages her in a positive way. If lessons are not something she enjoys, she won’t be as willing to practice, which means a stunt in her progression, which leads to frustration and an unhappy harpist! Especially at such a young age, music should be fun 🙂 One solution to teachers that are far away is to maybe just take an in-person lesson once a month, and then do Skype lessons once a week? But it will take some traveling to find the right teacher do this with. But how cool is that?? Your daughter will have a special lesson once a month to really practice for! There are great teachers out there worth finding!
I love, love, love Daniel Burton’s arrangement of The Swan. It doesn’t have the running sixteenth notes, but it is still very effective, and easy. I learned it by request for a wedding processional and now I play it all the time!
If it’s standard harp repertoire, I call and order from Vanderbilt. I’ve always had good experiences with them shipping quickly and friendly/helpful harp staff on the phone. If I’m looking for a current pop song, I usually just google it and find a downloadable version that is often for piano, and tweak it for my needs. And then for teaching, I like to browse through the method and repertoire books in person. It’s so awesome that Virginia Harp Center is so close, but I know it’s rare that people have that luxury! Whenever I attend a harp chapter event or conference, I’m always made aware of new arrangements and usually end up buying a new book or two there as well.
