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I use the Larivi?re Exercices et Etudes on a daily basis, and all my serious students use
them. I like how there are so many patterns condensed into a single book. I also use
Salzedo’s Conditioning Exercises, Pathfinder to the Harp and Method for the Harp, and
yes, Bochsa. Judy Loman also made up some superb exercises to get rid of buzzing, which
I teach to all my students. The only danger is the repetitive nature of ?tudes; too much
repetitive motion can lead to injury. Absolutely one should do technical work every day,
but vary it; i.e. arpeggios, scales, trills, octaves, thirds, etc.
Try Fun From the First (Volumes 1 and 2) by Sam Milligan, for young students. Also,
Susann MacDonald’s Harp Olympics is very thorough, and definitely designed for little kids
(pictures of teddy bears throughout).
Hi! I’m the harpist in the Vancouver Symphony in BC. I play on a Style 11 that I bought
second-hand from Erica Goodman about 25 years ago, and a gold Style 23. I also play a
beautiful Ron Wall folk harp. Ron Wall lives in Alberta right now, I believe, but he comes
into Vancouver from time to time to sell his harps through Celtic Creations. Each of his
harps is different, since he experiments with woods. Mine has a gorgeous, deep, tone, but
is rather heavy to carry. Still, it’s a lot lighter than a pedal harp!I have two gold harps, which are about 25 – 30 years old. The gold has been scraped here
and there by the vicissitudes of harp moving, but I figure there’s not much point in getting
them re-finished since they’re just going to get dinged again. Oh, well! The “distressed
look” is very trendy right now in furniture, so my harps are right in style. They do both
have gorgeous sound production. And, from a distance, they still look good.Nancy Allen, the fabulous solo recording artist, plays a Horngacher. I played on one, many
years ago when the company was called Obermeyer, and I was very impressed by the true
harmonics and the smooth sound from one note to the next. I didn’t notice any false
sounds or buzzes.When I was studying flamenco, my teacher suggested “strawberry strawberry” for
sextuplets. For sevenths, what about “happy hippopotamus”? For fives, I usually use
“university”.
I have an absolutely divine-sounding Ron Wall harp. I recollect that he said he was using a
different wood in the soundboard now. I think he said it was alder. If you really need to
know, you could try contacting him.Be sure to show them how the pedals work! They always find this fascinating. Tell them
about the 2,000 moving parts. Do different glissandi and show how the pedals change the
sound. Show them harmonics and explain the physics behind them (cutting the string in
half, then another half, etc.). Go through Salzedo’s Method for the Harp and show them all
the special effects, then maybe play “La D?sirade” or “Chanson dans la Nuit”. Throw in the
famous cadenza from Nutcracker, since many of them may have heard it in “Fantasia”. If
you have some arrangements of popular tunes that they might know, use those. Leave
time for questions. They will ask how many strings it has, how much it costs, where you
can buy harps, how do you move it, etc. Have some quips and jokes ready, and have fun!
Pictures are great, but keep in mind that Salzedo’s hands may be bigger than yours, so
they won’t look exactly the same. Also, thumbs vary enormously in height, so don’t try to
stretch your thumb if it’s not as high as his.
The triplets at the end of the bar must be quarter notes with a 3 written underneath them,
right? If you divide each of the 4 usual quarter notes into 3, that makes 12. Count all of
the eighth notes triplets (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12). You will find that your last
triplet falls on
My favourite song is “The Mist-Covered Mountains of Home”. It is featured in the movie
“Local Hero”, which is a wonderful film set in a small village in Scotland. I had a heck of a
time finding the music. I finally got a digitalized version off the net and made my own
arrangement.
