Saul Davis Zlatkovski

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  • in reply to: Changing techniques #87857

    I watched Karen Thielen give two wonderful master classes this weekend at the Harp Music Festival of Philadelphia. It’s not about method. When you put a hand on the harp, certain angles are required to accomplish certain things. If you are playing scales that go up, if your fingers are angled downward, you will have an easier time placing your fourth finger under your thumb and having more room in your hand makes it easier to place two and three. The more sidewards the fingers, the harder it is for them to make it work easily.

    in reply to: Venus vs Lyon & Healy #74137

    Having recently heard a comparison of several harps in the same space, the best 23s came out on tops, as well as a Salzedo, then the 85s, and last place to the Salvi, which was also so so so much harder to play on.

    in reply to: Changing techniques #87853

    I’m about to perform, then what? I will be bored, probably, so maybe I should change my technique. What should I change it to?

    in reply to: Practice Suggestions… #87867

    I remember you now. The Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory is the closest, best summer program I know of that you might get to. You definitely need to study intensively in the summers. If you are up to the orchestral parts, you could try Chautauqua Institution. If your teacher is unavailable in the summer, then you might try Ellen Ritscher in Dallas for lessons just for over the summer. You will definitely want to go into graduate harp study for as long as possible, a diploma, then a masters, then professional studies or doctoral program.

    in reply to: Practice Suggestions… #87866

    It would help to know your age and where you study now. It almost always comes back to maintaining good hand position and keeping your fingers low, bringing them in without forcing, and replacing with as little movement as possible. Look at the photos in the method, and constantly compare your position to Miss Lawrence’s, since you are studying that. No matter how advanced you get, the issues remain position, finger action, efficiency of movement, lack of tension/stress. Oscillation is mainly for clean replacement until you are completely steady. What you may need for the control you desire is a lot more repetition. Re-read the instructions in the method: do each exercise AT LEAST ten times, and as Miss L. would say, that is ten times perfectly, a bad one doesn’t count, so you have to start over each time you make a mistake. Forget about the boredom of the same notes, it’s about noticing how what you feel changes, how after seven repetitions it begins to feel secure and your fingers move more easily and feel more supple. Repeat the exercises in more octaves. Make up variations on them. I don’t use the chord progression in LaRiviere, I use the same principles but use the chord progression in the Conditioning Exercises. Train your mind like a muscle to concentrate and be strong in focus. Follow each thought to its ultimate conclusion. If you can ever come to Philadelphia, you sound like someone I would enjoy working with.

    in reply to: What is the best type of chair for a harpist? #87780

    Whatever one you get, it should look appropriate, unlike a drummers stool.

    in reply to: Auditioning: What’s YOUR strategy? #166695

    Forget about taking time to get into the music. They will probably tell you to get started already. I tried doing that. You have to condense that into about five seconds. If you feel the music, you only need a moment to slip into it. What you need is to be secure enough to forget about yourself and focus on the music alone.

    in reply to: What shoes to wear for pedal harps #157420

    Ballet slippers have no heel and no leverage with that soft sole. A ballerina flat would make more sense, only it would be better to have a 1/2-inch or higher heel on it. Character shoes are sturdy, with a good shank, but not always made as well as they once were, and will not look good for long. I saw a harpist play in stilettos once, and she laid the heel down on the floor, and the sole was flexible enough for her to pedal everything. They also had clear plastic slip-on tops with dice cubes on them, which she bought on 42nd Street. It was pretty funny, but they looked good on stage and didn’t get in her way, unbelievably. It was quite a stunt.

    in reply to: Regulations (not Rules) #71863

    A side question to this is, how much do you think you should have to pay for a regulation? I am used to paying under $300 for a house call, yet some regulators charge more, plus add on an extra huge surcharge for a house call. I don’t think I should have to pay extra. It’s a convenience if the harps are all brought to one place for the regulator, but I don’t think they should expect it to always be so. I’m sure there are many besides me who can’t or don’t want to do that.

    in reply to: Regulations (not Rules) #71854

    Yes, Mike Lewis, I meant, and of course, Carl.

    in reply to: fingering #87903

    That reminds me of one of the more amusing sides of life at Tanglewood. We were all housed on one campus, Berkshire Christian College. Miss Lawrence and the other faculty were housed in a motel-like building adjacent to our dormitory. Our dorm had, literally, plywood walls with shag carpeting on them, which meant you could hear virtually everything that went on next door, which was sometimes embarassing at night.

    in reply to: fingering #87899

    I think you can emphasize individual finger strength and independence through exercises, and then you won’t need to favor one fingering over the other after the first couple of years. The biggest challenge is getting them to do productive practice. Ideally, they would practice under your supervision each day. Maybe I should offer daily lessons for $10!

    in reply to: Teaching students to tune #87771

    Having tried it for about a week now, I have been progressively lessening the amount of stretch, so that it is about 10 cents maximum in the bass, which makes the harp sound terrific, and only about 5 in the first octave, and maybe 10 on the 0 octave only. The reason we tend to go by the tuner, is that there is no authority to correct the ear’s desire to go sharp, sharp, sharp. This also affects our regulation. There is a spot in each direction in which the overtones line up

    in reply to: Teaching students to tune #87764

    After two days of using stretch tuning, I can certainly say it is a success. The harp rings differently, but the pitches seem to last much longer and the bass is much stronger and more powerful. I can provide a chart of how much I am raising and lowering the pitches.

    in reply to: fingering #87897

    Not everyone knows this technique: When a chord has a fifth on the bottom between 4 and 3, don’t place the 2 and 1; play 4 and as you play 3, pivot toward your thumb and then place 2 and 1, or place one at a time, or jump up.

Viewing 15 posts - 2,611 through 2,625 (of 2,761 total)