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I’m a harp beginner but have played woodwinds professionally in the past.
I can’t imagine how one could achieve technical facility without concentrated attention to scales and arpeggios. My teacher is eclectic in her training and in her teaching methods, so no particular bias on my part.
Should have mentioned- Riu Riu Chiu is a wonderful piece. I think I’ll pull out my copy and get to work on some Christmas music myself!
I would think that you could do something with the piano acc. of a choral version, or add chords and embellishments to the Guildimann version. One of the things I love about those books is that you can personalize some of the wonderful old music that is hard to find elsewhere.
I don’t know where you are, but there’s a Troubadour at Virginia Harp Center that sounds like chocolate and plays like a dream. It isn’t small though.
This is a truly vexing problem because in many instances, general music teachers avoid teaching rhythm reading, either because they don’t fully understand how to read rhythms accurately or because they do know how to read themselves but consider it “too hard” to teach.
The best choice for a music teacher is to accept only students who have had Kodaly training from nursery school through grade 12.
Oh well, there are a couple things that a private teacher can do to make life easier for themselves and their students.
First, at the very beginning of rhythm reading instruction, make a clear distinction between “tempo” and “duration”. Never refer to 16ths as “fast” and whole notes as “slow”. 16ths are “short” and whole notes are long- in fact, sixteen times longer than one 16th note. The reason this is such an important point is because It’s so much harder to know where the notes actually are in the measure if you’re thinking of some as slow and some are fast, instead of knowing that there is an underlying pulse to the music and that the motion of the short and long notes in the measure changes as the tempo changes.
Another thing that helps nonreaders is the association of a word pattern with a rhythm- “pie-pie-apple-apple-huckleberry-huckleberry” chanted over a constant pulse.
if a few minutes of each lesson is devoted to this, it sinks in. Unfortunately, this is loads of fun for 6 year olds but a great big bore to adults, and the fact is that missing out on being able to read reduces the student’s ultimate enjoyment.
This is a truly vexing problem because in many instances, general music teachers avoid teaching rhythm reading, either because they don’t fully understand how to read rhythms accurately or because they do know how to read themselves but consider it “too hard” to teach.
The best choice for a music teacher is to accept only students who have had Kodaly training from nursery school through grade 12.
Oh well, there are a couple things that a private teacher can do to make life easier for themselves and their students.
First, at the very beginning of rhythm reading instruction, make a clear distinction between “tempo” and “duration”. Never refer to 16ths as “fast” and whole notes as “slow”. 16ths are “short” and whole notes are long- in fact, sixteen times longer than one 16th note. The reason this is such an important point is because It’s so much harder to know where the notes actually are in the measure if you’re thinking of some as slow and some are fast, instead of knowing that there is an underlying pulse to the music and that the motion of the short and long notes in the measure changes as the tempo changes.
Another thing that helps nonreaders is the association of a word pattern with a rhythm- “pie-pie-apple-apple-huckleberry-huckleberry” chanted over a constant pulse.
if a few minutes of each lesson is devoted to this, it sinks in. Unfortunately, this is loads of fun for 6 year olds but a great big bore to adults, and the fact is that missing out on being able to read reduces the student’s ultimate enjoyment.
I’m glad someone has stood up for music education programs. My own school was, when I attended, entirely a “teacher’s college”.
We received a rigorous education in our major instruments and were required to take a full liberal arts curriculum at the same time. THis was achieved by under crediting most of the music courses.
For the first two years I was in school I was taking 9 hours of ensembles in addition to 15 credits of academics.
We sometimes shared programs with conservatory schools in the area, and no one ever felt that we were coming in second in terms of performance.
My applied pedagogy courses were very strong, and we ere taught specific techniques that gave us a comfort level in the public school classroom, but most of us also taught private lessons at one time or another and did fine.
I have very mixed feelings about the current music pedagogy programs in our area, but what was expected of us would probably end up in a law suit now!
I’m glad someone has stood up for music education programs. My own school was, when I attended, entirely a “teacher’s college”.
We received a rigorous education in our major instruments and were required to take a full liberal arts curriculum at the same time. THis was achieved by under crediting most of the music courses.
For the first two years I was in school I was taking 9 hours of ensembles in addition to 15 credits of academics.
We sometimes shared programs with conservatory schools in the area, and no one ever felt that we were coming in second in terms of performance.
My applied pedagogy courses were very strong, and we ere taught specific techniques that gave us a comfort level in the public school classroom, but most of us also taught private lessons at one time or another and did fine.
I have very mixed feelings about the current music pedagogy programs in our area, but what was expected of us would probably end up in a law suit now!
Briggsie didn’t you post the link for the organ shoe site? Those shoes look beautiful, are fairly reasonably priced, and come in lots of sizes and at least a couple different colors.
It looks as though they meet the needs of pedal shoes- leather sole, shaped toe, small heel. I haven’t googled for the original link and I don’t know the heading of the original post.
I was playing a Clio at Virginia Harp Center, and made my one pedal change in my Birks- not at all elegant but it worked OK. By the way, I thought that there was plenty of room for the pedals, even in my big ol’sandals.
I hope this doesn’t sound like overstating the obvious, but be certain that your therapist knows that you are a harpist and how your foot needs to move in order to play.
Most therapists will be eager to accomodate specific needs and after going through the injury and all of the doctoring it’s easy to be thinking about other things.
Also, many physical therapists specialize- you might be well suited to someone who worked with injured football place kickers :).
Finally, check around and see if there’s a therapy site accesible to you that specializes in therapy for artists and musicians. There’s a great place in NYC and at least one other that I’ve heard of somewhere in California. I think there’s actually some connection between the one in NY and Juilliard.
Relating to Carl’s post, I think the three months I’ve worked on Bochsa (the book that’s all in Eb) has improved my ability to feel where the strings are a whole lot.
When I began lessons 2 1/2 years ago it drove me crazy that I couldn’t develop finger patterns but the repetition in the Bochsa forces you to do so. It’s not hot fun, but for finger skill acquisition, I love it!
