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Dear Mel,
I am sorry I didn’t read post #7 carefully enough. I understand now what you mean. I have another alternate fingering for that one: Take the first four sixteenths with 4,3,2,1 in the left hand, then the next three as 4,3,2, of the right hand and then the chord also in the right hand. In the second half of the bar, I take the last three sixteenths as 3,2,1 in the right hand. That means the thumb just replaces on the same note in the next bar. This won’t suit everyone, of course, and I am always changing my mind about fingerings myself. In the third bar, I keep all the sixteenths in the left hand. I think it’s good that the student should practice it as an exercise with all the running sixteenths in the left hand, but try the other way as well for a “Plan B”.Dear Mel,
I just pulled out my copy of Tiny Beon’s edition of the Passacaille, and I see Var. IX as the one I think you must be referring to. Mine does not have any fingerings printed in it, so I think that gives us carte blanche to do as we see fit. My two cents’ worth: I take the first three notes in the bass as 4, 2, 1 in my left hand, and then the next four notes in my right, then the top quarter note (crotchet?) in my left hand.Dear Mel,
I think it is always best to use a fingering which has a 100% success rate over one that has a 50% rate. Besides, we all have different hands, so it only makes sense that we have to design our own fingerings for tricky passages. Now, if there is an international competition in which there is a standard fingering that everyone is expected to use, that would be one circumstance in which it is worth the extra effort to use it. But if it isn’t working, I think it would still be smarter to use one that guarantees the best performance.I haven’t given out forms before, but if a situation arises, then I deal with it. However, I do like this idea of giving a page of guidelines (especially on practice habits!) and expectations to new students. I do recommend certain books on how to practice, and I put up those titles and also my own articles on my web site so that they can download and print them. The books I like are Philip Johnston’s The Practice Revolution, or for younger students, Not Until You’ve Done Your Practice.
Thanks so much, Bonnie! I went to my Lyra edition and put in bar numbers so that I could find all these errors.
Island Mountain Arts in Wells, BC, has a Celtic Harp Week every August. The instructors this summer are Lori Pappajohn, Sharlene Wallace and Sunita Staneslow. Everyone always has a great time, and it is a beautiful setting.
The most complete book is the dave Daniels Book of Orchestration, but it lists all orchestrations, not just the ones with harp.
Oh, dear. I didn’t mean to diminish anyone. Just that no person, no matter how worthy and venerable, is 100% right all the time.
Just while practising an orchestra part now, I had to erase a pedal diagram that was at the bottom of the page and re-write it above the staff, simply because my pencil, eraser and felt picks sit on the music stand shelf and get in the way of anything written too low on the page. Maybe that is another reason why people are writing them in above the staff.
I agree with Carl about the legibility factor: I hate seeing diagrams all aslant or floating around in space so that it is not clear which bar they refer to. Most of the
I figured out Xavier’s strumming trill after you posted his fingering in the previous thread, but I have not mastered it. I understand how it works, so I show it to my students, as an option. I am used to 2, 1, 2, 1 fingering for my one-handed trills, but I am sure they are not as fast as those played by the virtuosi who have a special knack for these things. I am just glad that orchestra repertoire doesn’t frequently require one-handed trills.
