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That’s odd to me. My inner voice talks about totally unrelated things, or goes on tangents. It is not critical. I think that comes out of anxiety and insecurity, which can be dealt with. A nattering voice that won’t stop may not be controllable. Itzhak Perlman said he has it, even now, and just doesn’t let it disrupt his playing. I suggest three methods. One is to write down the distracting thoughts, which are often things to do. That voice comes from my mother, who might have interrupted my practice saying things like, “you haven’t done the dishes,” and so on. (I never realized that before!) For daydreams, stop for a moment and say to yourself, “wow, I hear you, wouldn’t that be nice,” and take the good feeling and apply it to your music. Acknowledging your feelings as they arise is probably a good way to quiet them. The third method is to see how long you can practice without having a distracting thought, measure in seconds at first, then by minutes. Think of concentration as a muscle you must build up. Gradually, you can build up the length of time you can work without distraction. It is most important to build your ability to concentrate. According to Bette Davis, it is the one skill the great movie stars had, for without it, regardless of their talent, they could not get their work done in the studio. And that is how they could work all day, and then just leave and have a life in the evening. Concentration. This is the hardest of the three, and it doesn’t always work, but it is the most important. However, if it proves impossible, you can function without it. There may be many other sources for inner distractions. I have yet to find a resource to explain it all.
The book “Flow” by Czikczsentmihalyi (sic.) is very helpful. Restoring flow can be accomplished by playing with a ball, stretching a bit, or balancing on one foot or the other, because it engages the part of the brain that connects left and right brain function, or something like that. I also feel like distractions come from unused parts of the brain or self, like the inner child, or perhaps unused executive powers, etc. I never found the Inner Tennis type of books to be helpful. I do not like to compare music to athletics, ever. I do not like to listen to musicians who play athletically. Esthetics, yes, athletics, no.The felt or equivalent that Karen Rokos put on my pedals two years ago has only now packed down and barely affected her regulation. She is the best of the best!
There are a lot of other pieces by Salzedo I would do first, and of the Eight Dance, I would begin with Siciliana and Menuet as well as Tango. There are some beautiful solos in the Art of Modulating that every harpist should know, as well as the Preludes in the Method, and his folk song settings. Grandjany has several pieces at your level, also. Lex Van Delden’s Notturno is excellent. You need to choose pieces (with your teacher) that will develop you technically and musically, as well as inspire you.
First time I heard they provided a harp. Very nice. But I think in the past the recitals were provided by a separate soloist.
It is necessary for the teacher to demonstrate, and most of all, to hold the student’s hand in the correct position, to guide the fingers in and out, so the student can FEEL what it is supposed to feel like, to EXPERIENCE the goal of correct playing. Only by learning to play well from the first, or as early as possible, will a student really have a chance of being competitive. I have been able to fix students with harmful, inadequate or uninformed techniques in three-to-six months by vigilant use of what I described, but having to do that is still a waste of time compared with playing well from the first.
The basics of playing the harp are actually rather simple. But many teachers adopt a piece-meal approach, letting the student do things their own way, apparently, and then trying to fix errors one-by-one. It is inefficient, and results in bad habits becoming permanent fixtures. I have seen too many harpists play with the thumb and second finger while 4 and 5 are curled up in a tense ball. This has to be terrible for the body in the long run. The issue is maintaining the simple basic principles of a good, rounded hand position and the fingers going in and out smoothly. The answer is to not let a single note go by played incorrectly. The more you correct and reinforce good technique, the more ingrained it is. Most musical errors, I have found, are the result of a technical error of some kind. Another technique I find makes me very nervous to watch is when a student is playing in the position of fingers upward, palm on or by the strings. In this position, the fingers should still be relaxed after playing, but I see the fingers pulling away backward, working against the wrist, with the back of the hand tensed and tendons visibly straining. If you are playing octaves, for example, with the flat hand, you should come away from the strings just enough for the fingers to close in and downward to relax. If you close the thumb and fourth finger toward each other, 2 and 3 must stay relaxed and not tense up. I am sure this can cause tendonitis. Any playing the puts pressure on the wrist in EITHER direction is pressing the tendons and I believe will lead to tendonitis.
Unfortunately, there are not enough etudes that teach both hands equally, but there are some. And etudes that are too long, with too much of just one pattern also risk strain. And if you emphasize strength and control over relaxation, those etudes will lead to a muscle-bound kind of hand. Therefore, they must be worked in phrases and sections until thoroughly learned and comfortable, before attempting to play the entire thing.
What is most helpful is creating exercises to reinforce what is being learned in a piece, and to make them interesting enough to tolerate playing. That, and learning to play every possible pattern comfortably, following the logic of LaRiviere, which then equalizes the difficulty of most pieces.The best resource book is one written by Samuel Pratt. You might be able to find it via a library. I don’t remember its title. Otherwise, if you can travel to a master technician and apprentice, and undertake the training program by Lyon & Healy, then you will be fully trained.
I thought you meant which composer? Sibelius and Schoenberg also wrote a Pelleas et Melisande vastly different from the Faure!
One last tip: I do double the loop over the anchor, and that holds it in place much better. With one loop, they do like to fall out as you put them into the harp. I like the idea of the nylon string. I use my old fifth octave strings.
It depends, sometimes, on how you work. If you do a lot one day, you are more likely to do less the next day, unless you are used to working exactly the same amount every day.
Thank you for looking into this. Creating a multi-bar rest is possible in Sibelius, but I have not figured it out. It is a problem in parts. There is also the interrelation between score and parts to take into account.
