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It used to be that you could only have one or two “great” teachers, they didn’t allow muddling around from this one to that one. It gave us stylistic purity. These days, with fewer authority figures, it is hard to make that stick. Nevertheless, if you have found a teacher who can take you through all your advanced training, stay put, I say. It is different with the harp than with piano or flute, for example. If you are learning a complete, systematic approach, then going on to teachers who are completely different will compromise what you have developed, not likely add to it, in that line of thinking. If you find a teacher who can improve what you are doing, then you should be completely open-minded to what he or she offers, which may mean completely renovating your approach. A student who feels, I am finished to this point, I need no technical help, for example, is merely shutting off growth and access for the teacher. A great student is like a sponge. The reason for this, I find, is that all musical problems are generally solved technically.
On the harp, if you are not able to clearly play the musical ideas, it is usually do to a fault in your position or finger technique. The technique gives you the ability and freedom of expression of what is in the score. That gives you something to interpret. In my experience, anyway, musical insight came part and parcel with technical training. If there is an inner voice in the music to be brought out, well, you can do it if your 234 are balanced with your thumb, but if they are weak or one of them is weak, then it is doesn’t come out clearly, and you notice it. But you may think it is a musical problem when it is actually muscular.
Sometimes it is not in the hand but in the ear. Do you hear clearly what you are actually doing? Most of the time, we hear what we wish to hear, what we are attempting to do and not the actual result. A student whose technique is polished may have only this problem and musical styles to learn. So, I contradict myself. In this case, you need the teacher who will help you to be the best artist. Most of us have not reached this stage. But, if you haven’t learned musicality by this stage, something else may be wrong?
What I was told at the factory is that the Chicago harps are made out of solid pieces of wood rather than laminated layers. It is less labor-intensive that
Did you tape the pedals to each other or to the wood? I wouldn’t take a chance on tape on the wood. Could you tape the levers to the baseboard? It’s definitely a struggle. The ones that I get aligned, I put into natural to help hold the base. I’m sure you do that, too.
This is specific to your hand position and strength. Only a teacher can help you fix it. Your description isn’t clear. Your fingers should be rounded when playing, generally speaking. It is a strength issue. If you poke it from underneath with a chopstick or knitting needle, the joint will quickly get used to playing in the right position. It is possible that you are not in the right position and it is making it worse. You can do exercises to increase your grip strength. You may have your fingertip too high on the string relative to your other fingers and that is forcing the knuckle to misbehave. If you are learning anything like Salzedo technique, re-read the Method and study the photos closely.
Do not use white-out, it will ruin your strings. It just takes time to get them. There are no shortcuts to playing well. If Mr. Grandjany used something, it was long before white-out was invented, perhaps white grease pencil.
I think that is the difference between new and old strings. The tension is the same on an Ogden as on a pedal harp. I highly doubt Ogdens do anything by themselves to break strings. Maybe the harp elves do it at night.
You need to lift weights to play any harp, it seems! By shimmy, I hope you mean walking it from foot to foot. You don’t need to keep it covered except maybe when moving it.
One of the middle symphonies of Shostakovich, 6 or 7 perhaps, has a very extensive harp part that may be two harps or multiples.
It is unfortunate that his teaching was largely limited to North American students and has thus been slow to spread abroad.
It is unfortunate that his teaching was largely limited to North American students and has thus been slow to spread abroad.
It is unfortunate that his teaching was largely limited to North American students and has thus been slow to spread abroad.
