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I’ll do that! I have to call them to order the part this afternoon anyway (the lever remains engaged, so I’m taking it over to the luthier to see what part(s) I need). From the other stories here, it sounds like a little tumble it took on the lever side last night is responsible for the break and that it may just be the handle rather than the whole lever, which is very reassuring!
Jennifer, my low C lever handle just snapped off my Christina. Can you tell me more about the case flaw?
Nancy, here is an article I thought you also might find interesting:
:http://www.healingmusic.org/Library/Articles/WhatIsHealingMusic.asp
I found Amrita’s site after hearing her interview on Jonathan Goldman’s Healing Sounds Radio. Her story of healing herself through sound is quite inspiring.
I know there is a good bit of poking fun around healing music, some with good reason, and quite a lot in my very own home from my musician husband who has degrees in physics and sound engineering and is not, shall we say, “cosmically inclined.”
However, even he was pretty enthusiastic about this article and the its guidelines in terms of rhythm, tempo, harmony. Maybe you will also find it helpful in playing for your students!Hi Nancy,
Your yogis and yoginis will totally love it, and so will you!Every single class, at least one person tells me how beautiful it was. Not nice, or great, but beautiful. This is so tremendously gratifying I can hardly put it into words.
I can easily go on and on about live music and yoga for hours, so I will
There are several studios in Montreal offering live music classes:
-Naada Yoga, where the teachers are the musicians (as is your case), and I believe they alternate one playing a class and one teaching a class, with live music only on weekends.
-Equilibrium Yoga, who has house musicians that play in some classes (he is a violinist/guitarist/trained music therapist and she is a singer and flutist). This studio is also home to a huge, awesome gong!
-Luna Yoga, a Jivamukti studio, has live music for special occasions.
-Yoga Sangha has live music for their Yoga Trance Dance about once a month.
Finally, there’s the studio where I have practiced since October 2009, Studio Bliss. This spring, they decided to add live music to 1-2 classes a day, and I asked for an audition, feeling the harp would be such a natural fit.
We are four studio musicians total: one singer who creates Indian-inspired backgrounds using a laptop and sampling software, one multi-instrumentalist (guitar/djembe/looper), one guzhengist (amazing Chinese zither) and me.My experience is so overwhelmingly positive that at this point, playing in my three classes each week (two hatha flow, one restorative) are my favourite parts of the week, and I often feel as relaxed after playing in a class as I do after my own yoga practice!
As a yogini, I LOVE live music classes. I really find they add a tremendous aspect of present-moment awareness and help to relax me while also giving me a great deal of focus.
I blend improvisation with repertoire, mostly less well-known Celtic
and harp therapy-specific collections (I have Cindy Blevins Bedside
Compendium plus Christina Tourin’s Illuminations and Iona Inspirations,
which I draw from heavily, especially for restorative). I stay away
from things that could be very familiar so as not to add too much
“outside world” to their practice. Although sometimes I play a little
classical or medieval before or between classes, as it really helps
quiet down the bustle and get students centered.I follow
their movements, using upward and downward movements with their breath,
using lower tones for their legs and upper tones for the chest and
arms. I position myself in the room so the students are on one side of
the harp and I am on the other, and parallel to the teacher’s mat. This
helps me see the movements via the teacher without “watching” them –
sometimes people can feel self-conscious in yoga class.I like
to use Christina Tourin’s Celtic Circle of Music for the hatha flow
classes (I bought her Creative Harping improv videos, feeling they would be of great help, and they are!) This is
basically starting in Mixolydian, moving to Aeolian, and ending in
Ionian. I often add on Dorian to the beginning of the cycle. I really
notice the students brighten up with Dorian/Mixolydian modes, which are
so mystic and ancient-sounding.I work much more with the sheet
music above in my restorative class. I improvise softly while the
teacher demonstrates the pose, and then play about one piece per pose,
repeating measures as needed for the duration of the pose.I
often do glissandos using enharmonic equivalents during their final
relaxation pose (raising the third and seventh notes of the scale the
harp is tuned to). I occasionally do this during their meditation, and
very, very occasionally when there is a very difficult pose such as an
arm balance and people look frustrated and irritated. Because they now
associate the sound with relaxing, they lighten up. But I
make sure NEVER to “cry wolf” with it.For their relaxation, another thing I like to do play my Reverie harp, strumming with my right hand and creating some “sparkles” with two fairy balls in mesh jewelry bags in my left hand. This also relaxes my hands and wrists after an hour of harp. On Monday nights, when I play two classes in a row, at least one savasana is the Reverie harp and fairy balls.
Practicing live-music yoga and getting to know other yogi musicians has also gotten me quite addicted to Tibetan bowls, so I sometimes bring mine and strike and sing them along with the ones at the studio, during meditations, pranayama and any chanting.
I look forward to hearing about your experience playing for your students. What style of yoga do you teach?
I would bet money they’re going to be overjoyed, and you will hear a chorus of “beautifuls”!
HannahI would love to discuss this very interesting topic!
I am looking at IHTP or MHTP in 2011 or 2012.
I am leaning towards IHTP because of the creative skills taught, and also because I worry I am overly sensitive as a person to be able do a good job, and I find the psychoemotional aspects of IHTP, some of which could perhaps be construed as spiritual, might best equip me for the emotional challenges that a harp practitioner could face.
Sherry, what programs have you looked into?I have a binder of mostly classical pieces I take to my lessons and work on with my teacher. These are arranged in the order I learned them and by their key signature. (It sounds so lazy not to want to flip levers, but I really love to minimize lever flipping).
I have another binder for music I can already play or sight read easily, divided into classical, Celtic and therapeutic/healing. I also arrange it by key/key signature. I do mix up the order of the pieces in this one, but usually according to the mode they are in and their complementarity to surrounding pieces – not anything remotely as organized and thoughtful as described above 😀Just an update: I bought the backpack straps from Dusty Strings for $30. I bought D rings and mesh from an outdoor store for $5, and my shoe repairman did the retrofitting on my Christina case for $15.
Thank you all for the encouragement and the ideas that made it possible for me to save $120! It is fantastic to be able to carry my Christina on my back, and being able to travel comfortably gives me so many more opportunities to play, which is the best part of all!
HannahHi Helen,
Please do call Thormahlen because they will have information about the shape of your bridge and tuning pins that will be important in helping you solve the problem, and they will know exactly what to tell you to do to fix it.I own a Ravenna 34 and my husband takes cello lessons at a luthier who sells Camac harps, so I have played both, and they are both excellent harps. The Dusty has a whole lot more resonance. You will have to do a good bit of damping in the bass for many classical and Baroque pieces on a Ravenna. Its lower register is dramatic and its upper register is celestial and delicate.
The Camac is very bright and almost classical guitar-like. It’s very nuanced and expressive. It’s a perfect harp for any piece where your fingers really fly!
I have Camac levers on my Christina 25 and they are so light and easy to use!
The Loveland levers on the Ravenna are heavy and sticky, they are definitely no one’s favourite thing about a Ravenna. They are sturdy, though, and my luthier loves regulating them,. and does not care for regulating the Camac levers.
Both types of levers are noiseless. I play classical and Baroque on my Ravenna with plenty of lever changes and don’t find them difficult to use. One thing is for sure, playing Bach on a Ravenna gives you strong hands and fingers from all the damping and lever flipping!
A Camac was out of my budget range when I bought. Had it been similarly priced to the Dusty Strings, it would have been a difficult decision.
Definitely listen to several Youtubes of both to help you decide.
Keep us posted!Armande, in addition to taking breaks and ensuring your posture at the harp is good, have you thought of looking into Alexander Technique or yoga?
Both would help correct any postural problems, help you be aware of any tension that precedes the pain and help you to relax.
Restorative yoga might be particularly wonderful for your upper back pain. Small backbends while supported by a bolster and/or blocks could help release tension, stretch the muscles in the opposite direction from harp playing and help to re-imprint your fascia.
Yolanda Kondonassis has some stretches for harpists in her book that are just wonderful for stretching breaks.
I hope you will be pain-free very soon!
HannahI have had mine since October 2008 and absolutely love it. The tone and projection are beautiful; I’ve had no problems with it. I took it to be regulated this spring (which is a good thing to do with any new lever harp within the first year or 1 1/2 years) and it sounds like a dream all the way around. It’s a sturdy, well-made harp with tremendous resonance and good, middle-of-the-road string tension.
