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Thanks Balfour! My teacher let me look over a couple of her books in preparation for this event, and there were some beautiful songs I’d love to learn! I’m definitely going to pick up some of her music. I also have a book of beautiful simple Irish music I’d love to learn as well. It should help me a lot with my sight reading too, which I’ve always struggled with.
Thanks all for your advice! I did end up repeating some music, but overall everyone loved the music and even gave me a round of applause! I learned one new simple song to play, but it will definitely take time to build up a reliable rep to play at functions like this in the future. Just gotta keep at it!
Thanks for the responses! They’ve booked me for an hour, and I’ve got about 40-45 minutes of continuous music to play. I’m currently learning another song that will hopefully add a couple minutes to my performance, but I may have to repeat some songs as I get toward the end. I will make sure not to repeat my music in order, too 😉
Hello!
I have had my L&H Prelude 40 for a little over a year, and I cannot say enough good things about it. The sound is very rich and full-bodied, yet bright. It definitely has the feel of a small pedal harp and the string tension to match. I started out on a Folk Harp and I’ve only ever played at that tension, so it made sense for me to choose this model as my next harp. If anything, I find my Prelude just a little bit higher tension. I really don’t think you can go wrong with it if you’re looking for that pedal look, and it’s reasonably priced too. I found mine used in great condition for $4750 which I thought was incredibly fair. I’ve only had one little issue with it, but overall it’s a fantastic instrument. Like others have mentioned, it doesn’t have levers on the last two B and A strings, but I haven’t found that affecting my playing in the least. Bear in mind, though, that I am just a third year student and don’t think I have ever had to use those strings. But, I can understand how this would be a downside to some.
Hope you are able to find a Hermes to listen to, and please do let us know what you end up going with!
When I started playing (only 2.5 years ago), I had three flats and had to sharp my B,E, and A levers to get to C, and that was just normal for me. I have found that this tuning is typical for many lever harpists. I would suggest getting used to the feeling, as it’s a lot easier to get more keys with that tuning. Especially if you’re playing ensemble or in a session with other musicians. I’d rather sharp my levers than have to retune to flats. It’s a huge pain if you have 34+ strings. It’s not a huge deal if you’re only playing for your own enjoyment, but even still I think you need at least one flat in order to get a better range of musical keys. But that’s just my $0.02 !
Thanks for your response! Actually I wouldn’t mind if people were milling around or chatting, it might take some of the pressure off. My teacher has also said that children’s songs would be welcome in these types of environments, and goodness knows I’ve learned quite a few of them from my early beginner days. I suppose I could revisit some of my earlier music. I guess I just have an idea in my head of what a performance should be, and I don’t think about the fact that most people are simply happy to see and hear a harp in real life. I remember being amazed by the instrument the first time I saw my teacher play.
Balfour you are so right. Reading music is not easy, and takes constant practice. I used to play an instrument in middle school and was able to read music on the treble clef, but when I stopped playing I COMPLETELY forgot how to do it. It wasn’t like riding a bike, I lost the ability pretty much altogether. It’s something I really would like to be able to do better.
Thanks for your insight Philippa, it does sound like you were quite the rogue pupil! I love that you took only the parts of this training that served you. My teacher is very “by the book”, but I was adamant about learning music theory from the start and made that very clear. She’s always assigned me a lot of theory workbooks, flash cards, and sight reading exercises that have all helped me greatly. So it isn’t as if she is telling me never to read any music or something extreme like that. We just never read directly from the Suzuki books. Although, admittedly, I sometimes just read it anyway! (Though I might get my hand slapped if she ever read this thread, LOL)
You’re so right about the lesson content being basically the same, though. After I learn the notes and placements, we refine the techniques until it gets smooth. This is one of the many things I love about my teacher, she really has helped me to dial in my “problem spots”. In that respect, I think she was probably right to focus more on technique at the beginning vs learning the music, since I already had SO much to learn. But I feel like I’m getting to the point where I need to be reading the music out of the book and I will definitely bring that up the next time I see her!
Thanks Balfour!! I found his website and definitely plan to buy them at some point. I watched some YT videos of some of the etudes within that book, and I am so excited to try my hand at them.
Hi again Philippa! I went into playing the harp not being able to read music at all. I don’t think she does that with her students that can already read music though. The ultimate goal was always to read music out of the books eventually. I think it just comes a bit later than with most other methods. I realize that many on this site are against Suzuki for that exact reason, but there are many schools of thought on how to teach. I expressed from the beginning that it was my desire to learn how to understand sheet music, and we always incorporated that as part of my training, but never learned to read music from the Suzuki books.
Philippa, can I ask when in your studies you learned to read music? Were you already “fluent” before you began learning Suzuki? I’m not really sure when you’re supposed to start reading out of the books, I will have to ask my teacher about this too!
Just wanted to pop in and say that I taught myself a new song by reading the music! I did have an audio recording so I knew what it was supposed to sound like, but I learned the notes and bracketing 100% by reading the sheet music! I practiced each section until I could play the notes from memory, did repetitions until smooth, and then moved on to the next section. All in all, it took me about 2-3 weeks to play through the whole song somewhat smoothly. It was just one page of music, but I do feel very proud that I was able to do this on my own!
I think I’m going to pick more pieces and etudes to read and teach myself, in hopes that it will make me a faster sight reader. I’m not able to play as I’m reading yet, but I am confident that skill will come to me with more practice.
Thanks everyone for your advice!!
Wow, thank you for your thorough explanation of etudes and how they help to learn patterns and techniques. That is very cool you spoke on the subject at AHS conference, hopefully I will have the chance to learn from your wealth of knowledge at future events! Etudes sound sort of similar to the pieces I am learning, as they each have different patterns and fingerings that build on one another and revisit in more advanced pieces. Maybe not quite as deliberate of study, but I do get a similar vibe to what you’re talking about. In each piece I’m doing many repetitions of phrases until it becomes muscle memory. But I’m not sure that it’s very intentional, i.e. I don’t always know or identify specific patterns I’m learning. I don’t really know how to name what I am doing; I only know that I can learn it 😂 For instance, the last song I learned was all about rolled chords and inversions of them. My brain was in a knot for a few weeks with that one, ha ha! The next song I learned was the same chords, but playing them in arpeggios with key changes. Together, these two songs make a duet and it’s actually very cool!
I will have to look more into etudes and add them into my daily practices. This will definitely help me to get up to speed with my technical issues so I’m not fighting against it as I learn repertoire. I’m curious to hear my teacher’s perspective on this subject too!
Carl, what you are saying makes so much sense. I do feel like I am learning technique at the same time I am learning new music. But this may just be part of the Suzuki learning method. I started playing by learning small little tunes that taught me different techniques and have gotten consistently more challenging. I am still playing relatively short pieces, but they are actual repertoire by classical composers like Haydn and Bach. It is encouraging because I do have something to show for my efforts, instead of just practicing exercises. But, at times, I do feel like the repertoire goes a bit too fast for where I am at. There’s upsides and downsides to learning this way.
But I do think that it would be helpful for me to have more practice exercises that help me with my technique. Admittedly, I do not know what an etude is or what its function is. Is it similar to arpeggios, scales, that type of thing?
I was just about to suggest the L&H Ogden as well. When I rented one, I had a carrying case with a shoulder strap that was pretty easy to tote around.
Wow, this is all very enlightening!
Thankfully, my teacher started me on music theory from the beginning of my studies, doing music note & key signature flashcards, workbooks, etc, as well as some sight reading pieces. But for the Suzuki training she has asked me not to sight read out of the book which is the majority of my learning. I may start reading it anyway just so I am not handicapping myself in the future.
I would like to be able to pick up a piece of sheet music and be able to play it. That I think was my ultimate goal when I started, so I could play any music I liked proficiently. But I also realize that there is some celtic and Welsh harp music that is 100% passed down and taught without any music and that’s a 100% valid way to learn as well. But, my goal is to become well-rounded as a musician so I don’t pigeonhole myself into just one thing.
Thanks Carl! Your advice makes a lot of sense. It is actually opposite from what my teacher has said to do! The Suzuki method is taught by ear, so she wants me to sound out the music and try to figure things out that way. The idea is for the music to become intuitive, but it’s really not that easy to do with more complex pieces of music.
I do read music, albeit very slowly, and glance at the book from time to time to confirm what notes I am playing. I’m almost 2 years in so I feel like I should be sight reading more. I have learned 2 non-Suzuki pieces with my teacher’s support, where I actually read the music. I very much enjoyed that way of learning a new piece of music.
I do have a sight reading book my teacher recommended, so I will start to practice with that a bit more. I obviously want to respect the Suzuki process as it has benefited me this past 2 years, and is good for me to have another perspective rather than just reading music and playing off a sheet. But, right now I really do need that guidepost rather than just pulling a melody out of thin air. I think there’s a fine line of that method being helpful vs. handicapping you from progressing
