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I have seen several postings from him over the past few days including one this morning, but they haven’t been in English so I’m not certain what he is saying other than I think he feels the major powers of the world are ignoring what is going on and that he feels that the people of Syria don’t matter to the powers that be. But he appears to be alive and well at least.
Tracey, yes, the term “transcribe” can be used to mean a few things. So what I am gathering from what you wrote is that you are trying to take the music you are writing in your head and while actually sitting at your harp, and notating it down on paper.
You will need some music theory for that. There are several good books out there that might be helpful. You want both basic theory and music arranging. Even though you are already arranging in your head a good book on how to arrange will clarify for you how to notate what you are arranging.
I suggest two books. They are both from The Complete Idiot’s series of books. Unfortunate titles, but they are actually excellent books.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory and The Complete Idiots Guide to Arranging and Orchestration.
I’m assuming you already know how to read notation, but even if not the first book will teach you as it explains the theory.
As a general guideline what I do is I first focus on the melody line only. Write out the melody line note by note. No chords or grace notes or anything extra. Just a line of single notes as you would see with flute music.
Next I figure out the chords. If you are doing this on the harp and already playing the arrangement then just look at the notes in the chords or base line you are playing and figure out what the chords are from that. This is where the music theory starts to become important.
You first need to figure out what key you are in, and the time signature, and you need some basic theory for that. Knowing the key helps you figure out the chords, because certain chords will be more common in certain keys. But you also need theory to be able to recognize when you might be playing a chord in an inversion. Sometimes the chords are a bit tricky to figure out. But once you do everything becomes much clearer.
Also understanding chord leading and common chord progressions will help you figure it out. Knowing what chords often follow other chords can help you figure out what you are actually doing when you figure things out to play on the harp.
And if you haven’t figured out the bass part yet and have just written a melody line then understanding Chord theory will help you figure out what chords will sound best in each measure based on both the key of the piece and the notes in the measure.
Once you know your chords you start filling in everything else. You fill out the treble part by adding in all the other notes you are playing. Just play it measure by measure and write down what you are doing.
Then fill out the bass as well in the same way using the chord progression you figured out already as a guide.
From there you can add tempo markings, dynamic markings, any effect markings, as well as lever or pedal changes if there are any.
They key is to break the music down to it’s parts and start with the simplest version of those parts. Start with just the actual notes in the melody line. Then the chord progression. Then the rest of the notes, and then each set of markings handle by their category one at a time.
Mozart may have been able to hear a whole orchestra in his head and be able to write down every note in each measure as he went along, but most of us mere mortals need to tackle it in manageable chunks.
Oh, and remember, the eraser is your friend. Play what you have put on paper and listen. If it doesn’t sound right at some point you can just erase what you wrote there and fix it.
Although a teacher is always the best way to go, it isn’t the only way to go.
What I would suggest is to find a teacher who understands your situation, and is willing to let you take just one lesson a month or some other workable schedule that you can afford.
Supplement that with self teaching material. There are several good books that can be used as self teaching guides. While not the best situation at least with the occasional lesson with a teacher who can correct any mistakes you may be developing due to learning on your own you can make some decent progress.
Plenty of people have taught themselves to play at least reasonably decently. If you are doing this just for your own enjoyment then there is nothing wrong with that approach.
Another option is to see if you can find a teacher not in your area but who does lessons over the internet, such as by using skype, who may charge less.
I have to agree with what others are saying about preferences in harps changing. Years ago I would have never considered a Dusty Strings harp. Not for quality issues, but I just didn’t care for the tone.
Over the past two years I have developed a real appreciation for them, and if I had to get a new lever harp tomorrow for some reason I would probably go with a Dusty Strings. Just how my taste has changed.
That said, there is something about the Clarsach that I really love too, and I have had the opportunity to play one in the past and they are great harps, so you just can’t go wrong either way.
He was well as of Saturday, last I saw anything from him on Facebook . But a young girl on his street was killed a few days earlier. There is no real safety where he is so all your good thoughts and wishes I’m sure he appreciates.
I sit. I like the idea of strapping on my electric harp and moving around, but I doubt my back would like it. And if it is going to be stationary I’d rather sit than stand, even if I can put it on a stand high enough to stand. I find my posture while playing standing tends to not be so good. Probably just what I’m used to, but sitting I know how I’m supposed to feel in correct position, not so much when standing, so sitting I feel more confident.
For the basics of reading harp music pretty much any book on the subject will do. 90% of what you see in harp music is nothing you won’t see in piano music.
The Kondonasis book already mentioned has a great glossary of harp specific notations and Salzedo effects.
Since you are a relative beginner you don’t need to focus on anything other than basic notation and perhaps pedal or lever notations. If you are learning on a lever harp then I recommend Sylvia Woods’ Teach Yourself To Play The Folk Harp. Even if you have a teacher it is a good book to have, and it teaches the basics of music reading along with teaching how to play. I was given a free copy when I bought a harp once and my teacher liked the exercises in the book and had me use some of them.
Also Woods’ book Music Theory and Arranging Techniques for Folk Harps is good once you have the basics down because it will teach you not just how to read, but interpret and make use of chord symbols and lead sheets.
From there you can worry about the more advanced notations that don’t often pop up in beginning and early intermediate arrangements for harp.
Thanks for the tip Barbara. You are definitly the master of this stuff. You should write an ‘iPad for Harpists for Dummies’ book or something.
I use dropbox. What I do is create a sub folder in my dropbox folder with my sheet music in PDF format. Anything I put in that folder automatically updates to my dropbox account. It is a bit redundant having two folders, but the advantage is that I can control precisely what gets uploaded to dropbox, and it only has to update those specific changes.
On my ipad I just go to the drop box app, and then go to the folder with my sheet music in it. From there you have the option to open the music in any of the apps that support PDFs.
Once you open a PDF in forscore it remains there even if you remove dropbox from your ipad.
I use dropbox for several reasons. The main one is that with dropbox I can access my sheet music anywhere I have access to a computer with an internet connection.
Because of that I can have access on all of the computers I work from. My main desktop, my laptop, my ipad, and even my iphone. I can even access it from a computer at the public library if I want to, or from my mother’s computer if I want to work on something while I am visiting her.
So access, and ability to keep all the files updated on all my computers and computer like devices is the main reason I do it that way.
Barbara is correct that it is also very easy to upload PDFs directly in itunes. But since I keep all my music in dropbox anyway for ease of access across multiple platforms I just use that since the files are already there anyway.
I also keep my files in other formats for user in other apps and programs as well, including the finale files for anything I am arranging in finale, and MIDI files that are useful for importing things I am working on into various apps such as garageband.
The only thing from Twilight that I play, and it is totally coincidental, is Clair De Lune. I was playing that long before the film came out.
However, I am learning music from Brave and one thing from The Hunger Games, so I have to cop to that much.
I also use Susan Balderston’s arrangement, and it is a lovely arrangement. But unless she had two different arrangements it is for solo harp with no accompaniment for melody instrument. It wasn’t clear from the original post if Roy is looking for an arrangement of this piece for both instruments, or if he just wanted this piece for harp, and other arrangements of pieces for both instruments.
One resource I can recommend for anyone wanting to learn to play to accompany their signing is Verlene Shermer’s book The Sing Along Harper. In this book she approaches accompanying voice (yours or other singers) with harp the same way that a folk guitarist would, by using just chords and simple picking patterns.
I have also read several books by Mary O’Hara, including a book of her arrangements in which she points out that the key to accompanying voice is to keep it simple. The accompaniment should be easy enough for you to play without having to think about it so that the majority of your concentration can be devoted to your voice. If you are distracted by your harp playing then your arrangement is too complicated and you need to simplify it.
I’m not particularly good at guitar, but I use finger picks to play guitar when I need that finger nail sound so I can play harp without nails.
Do people play harp with nails? Sure. Many people who play Latin harp use their nails. Some folks who play on nylon strings use their nails. And of course nails are the perefered way most wire strung harpists play as it is the traditional way.
However, just as you noticed that pads may work on guitar in some genres but not all, same with using nails on harp. You can do it, but with many genres it doesn’t sound right, and will hinder what you can do if you are playing gut strings on a concert harp.
Compromise is in everything. If you really want to persue the concert harp you will probably find at some point you will cut your nails.
When I first got my pedal harp my lever harps got a bit neglected too, but eventually they all reached a nice equilibrium and all get used.
As I always like to say, the right tool for the right job. Sometimes the pedal harp is the right tool, and sometimes the lever harp.
But yes, you will be neglecting the lever harp for a while I have no doubt.
Congratulations and enjoy. It’s very exciting to get a new harp, and your first pedal harp is a big deal.
You are probably tensing them. Like when you see a movie with a proper English woman drinking tea, and she keeps her pinky sticking out. After a few hours of tensing your pinkie I can imagine they would get sore.
Relax the pinkie. Let it just hang. So long as it isn’t getting in the way there is no reason to keep it tense, and for most people it is short enough compared to the other fingers that it won’t get in the way.
