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I was a Suzuki “light” learner from 9-16. I had a lever harp for 14 months then a concert grand pedal harp. I learnt all the Suzuki repertoire and did my final graduation but also played a lot of other things alongside that and did plenty of orchestral work. Each piece is a major milestone with new things to master and the Suzuki method does really demand mastery before moving on from a work. I find it much easier to keep pupils keen by adding in level appropriate non Suzuki rep. I have also had considerable teaching input from great exponents of the Salzedo and Renie/Grandjany techniques and consider myself a hybrid now I am professional. I was a fluent reader of music in both hands from piano when I started. You really never stop learning but when I finished with my first main teacher I think I had the technical ability to try almost all of the solo repertoire. Although I wouldn’t have wanted to perform it all publicly until I was well into my Conservatorium degree. The most difficult works can take a matter of years with revisiting
to embed to the point of being confident of a truly reliable performance. One of the greatest players in the world told me she worked on a particularly challenging piece for 4 years daily before she recorded it!When an amateur orchestra does not own a harp and a player takes in their own I think they would be very unlikely to turn it away. That harp is a tasteful green in some lights and very purple in others. You really need an extended sound board in orchestra even if you fudge it to avoid bottom notes – what 42 were you thinking of, what do you want to play and who do you want to play for?
One Suzuki book piece a month is definitely very good progress! Well done. A lot of Suzuki pupils only practice about 10- 15 mins a day whereas adults often do much more.
I also would never just have one piece on the go – probably not too early to start pupils preparing for an Xmas ensemble concert! And if you learn something a little easier than the Suzuki piece you are working on then you will feel more encouraged. I am quite partial to Old Tunes for New Harpists by Mildred Dilling.
I was a Suzuki harp pupil originally although I came to it with the full ability to read both staves as I also play the piano. Whilst quite a few pupils started during my 7 years with my Suzuki teacher only I reached the final graduation and only a very select handful before me had ever got that far. This was not exactly “traditional” Suzuki for me where the music reading is introduced variably and rather later – especially for pupils who are pre-reading age. However, I also experienced a number of different methods from early on and I certainly do not solely use Suzuki book 1 to teach from. For anyone Nor do many teachers with Suzuki training that I know (for harp that is). It moves rather too fast early on in my opinion so mastering the techniques required for each piece can take a long time and it becomes rather tedious for both parties unless your pupil is a natural talent, very hard working and has a very keen parent supervising (and is usually rather young). I think a teacher should be flexible enough to combine what they think/know the pupil needs to learn with something of what the pupil aspires to. It’s not that difficult to write something for them or take a slowish song melody (be they Disney, scottish, Irish, 60s, lloyd webber, pop fans) and simplify it or put a few chords with it for them. But lets be honest, we give rather similar harp lessons and advice for some years to most of our pupils! Posture, placing, hand position, closing and relaxing, oscillation…the key concepts take a long time to become second nature and you can’t play more advanced rep well without them. There is quite an attrition rate in harp pupils no matter who your teacher is because it does require patience and ability to celebrate small victories. Fortunately there is a ton of great non-advanced rep out there and the harp sounds lovely from the start which is encouraging. The trick is helping people recognise how they are progressing and persuading them to avoid advanced stuff they are not capable of – because reteaching them is a nightmare once bad habits are engrained unless they are super motivated to improve. How many of us have taken on pupils with their knuckles sticking up like Bunny Ears whilst massacring some overly difficult piece and failed to get them to do the work required to improve their placements?! The one thing I refuse to take on is someone who wants to sing and accompany themselves from the start because they can never seem to concentrate adequately on their harp playing. Trouble is that there are usually so few harp teachers around unless you live in a mega city you are not going to be able to swap around much to find a good match. So you may have to negotiate a solution with whoever you are with.
Definitely try to renegotiate it back in with that explanation Carl. Otherwise I hope they they going to call this “Selections from…” as opposed to titling it as The Suite itself?
That was real life normal at the Summer harp camp I went to I think 9 times where everyone’s harp had moved to a coastal humid location and the result was strings going everywhere. Plus point – you get a lot quicker at changing them the more you do! My worst harp nightmare was it falling off a big stage when the interval stage movers rolled the Steinway into it. That very nearly happened in real life too.
Thank you. Well I didn’t think of strings as that either until my mother told me about the attempted assassination of Hitler story where the perpetrators ended up hanged with piano strings. Which was during a very long examination of my tuner and tuning key at Dubai airport last time we were there changing flights! She asked me if I had any strings with me which I didn’t and said maybe
put them in the real luggage next time and just make sure they were insured.I have taken strings from Australia to Europe and the USA and all around Australia in hand luggage and so far fingers crossed no issues. In fact, the things that tend to get them very interested at the baggage X-ray are the tuner and the Zoom H4. But it’s a risk as they could be deemed dangerous garrottes. I dont think customs will care – its the baggage security that will get you. I didn’t take the wires though as they seemed much more risky. Gather evidence you own a harp, pictures, videos…if you are going to do something harpy a letter confirming what it is…be prepared.
Hi Balfour,
After the write off of a very old Mazda 6 wagon which someone drove into the back of (luckily no harp on board) my Atlantide is now travelling in a 3 year old Subaru Outback. Not quite as easy a load as the Mazda – you have to wriggle it a bit to go around the wheel arches as you slide it up. But its fine. The new Mazdas have a huge lump to do with automatic boot opening that stops it going in one at all. But in Australia it doesn’t fit in a Forester. All the best, Philippa
However you teach them to tune I would make them bring their own harp to their lessons and check it and tune it while there. They are usually woefully out unless the parent is keen in my experience. I ask the parent to do it for the little ones anyway – they just want to play. Get them involved when they ask to do it or need to do it. The simpler the better at the very start so no levers and tune to C as a lot of people do know the C scale and/or have a piano. I give them music in C. White notes! I could tune my 34 string lever harp in any key and kept it in Eb when I was 10 but the pedal one was impossible until I got taller.
I did the Australian system (AMEB) all the way through for piano – perhaps a bit more advanced per level compared with ABRSM with much more theory ( you have to do more theory exams than ABRSM and more advanced stuff) and general knowledge requirements as you go through. Harp had some major issues with AMEB (far, far too difficult – people were going to conservatories with grade 4 whilst every other instrument could achieve a grade per year easily and had diplomas whilst at school). I was a child of the Suzuki system for harp anyway. AMEB has recently revised their harp rep and tech requirements. What did it give me – the necessity of choosing and presenting essentially a recital each time. 4-5 pieces from lists ensuring different styles and eras (almost all “major” composers). Plus technical stuff, sight-reading, aural tests, a viva on the rep. I think it helped me prepare to perform to a deadline, made me go out and test my rep in performances and competitions before exams, made me look at all the choices carefully so I broadened my exposure to many composers, made me learn things I might not have chosen otherwise. It certainly meant that when I left school my general knowledge about classical music and theory was beyond that required for the first year conservatorium classes. I would say now that the Licentiate recital requirements exceeded those required for third year conservatorium performance exams. And were similar to those required for an advanced performance degree. Yes, I think those experiences all help me to perform better today on both instruments and help me to structure my teaching even if q pupil is not doing any
formal exams.I meant jujubee! I am 5ft 8 so imagine Catherine plus 8 inches at her harp. Her right ear is at a perfect height with the lovely Trianon. You can lower your stool to get your head down but then your legs have to be positioned – preferably at 90 degrees from your body but reaching the pedals. It rather depends on your body/leg ratio how you would feel though and how your legs fit in when you are tall with a smaller harp. You can fiddle with your heels too – men tend to wear flats, many women favour heels but you might find flats easier. I don’t remember any major issues playing a Clio – I have a relatively long body and shorter legs. You would really have to sit at one or one of a similar size to see how it felt.
The 7kg and 16 cm height difference between a Trianon and the 47 strings would have to make it somewhat easier to move but its still 28kg, top heavy and 170cm so you would need a big car, a good trolley and be pretty fit to deal with it alone – especially on stairs which are all over the place if you want to gig. I have never played a Trianon but I have played and heard some 44 string Clios with excellent sound. I would love one to gig with one day to keep my Atlantide at home more. 30kg/170cm for one of those. How tall are you by the way?
Well, it can indeed be hard to support yourself financially purely as a harpist, even an advanced one, especially if you are going to incur debt to do more study. Having just got an advanced performance degree I can say that I do think private lessons would absolutely have got me to similar solo playing standards – I had a good knowledge of theory already, perform regularly outside the Con and read a lot about music anyway. I continued piano on the side privately and continued to progress well and get my Licentiate. Presumably you could test the waters and see what gigs you can get now if you have done 5 years already? While keeping your other job going. Maybe you could end up part-time with both eventually. The only thing you would get more of in a degree apart from some research projects, harmony tasks and things like compulsory choir and some very basic history of music are student chamber/orchestral/ensemble opportunities and meeting some people to play with in the future. The chance of being salaried by any orchestra is highly, highly remote if not to say frankly non-existent. You might pick up some casual paid orchestral work occasionally for community or youth orchestras but they often have free volunteers. Building a teaching studio depends rather on your location and how many competitors you have but harp pupils are often not numerous or longlasting! Expensive schools bring forth a trickle for me. Can you play the piano by any chance or sing? Far more pupils and accompanying on offer with that as a side line. I get paid regularly to write classical program notes and had I not done that during my degree I suppose that would never have taken off. Events again depend where you are and how many people are wanting to play them. There is quite a division where I am between “classical” and “folk or celtic” harpers – if you ended up teaching and performing both you could do a bit better I suppose. Still got your lever harp?!
Hasn’t happened to me yet in 5 years and I am clumsy. Used to drop sheet music quite a lot. It doesn’t fall off unless you knock the entire stand over! Too heavy to flutter around like sheet music even with clothes pegs all over it. But I still do take hard copies to any performance just in case it dies a death. You simply can’t beat it for editing and marking up the score easily and for page turns.
