[Una Ni Fhlannagain]

thanks everyone – all these comments have been really helpful. Will work on this project for the next few weeks in my harp practice and share my results! Beannachtaí

[Una Ni Fhlannagain]

Hey, Patricia –

this method is really tickling my brain.

How did your teacher/Mom structure your learning? E.g. did you just recite the pitch names, or did you sing them? Did you do it away from the instrument, or with the instrument?

As for the syllables, how do you know the difference between A sharp and A flat.. they’re both ‘As’?

You’re right, I wouldn’t need all the flat alphabet…my harp is tuned in A flat, so I’m just staying within 4 flats/three sharps for the moment. I was thinking in the future, though, that I could just develop familiarity with enharmonics. Here’s to sailing merrily through the murky ocean of D flat major!

Do you know if there’s any publications on this method?

Looking forward to your response,

Úna.

[Una Ni Fhlannagain]

PS i meant ‘hey, Cynthy and Patricia’ I’m getting loads of thought out of both replies, thank you!

[Una Ni Fhlannagain]

Hey, Cynthy –

thanks a million for your comments. I was thinking about a method like you propose myself. It strikes me that in order to reproduce a monotonal melody, you need 2 mental ‘links’: 1. a mental link between the pitch you heard and the pitch name/position in the key, and 2. a mental link between pitch names/position in the key and the appropriate string. Hopefully these mental links, when practiced, will become so strong that it will be an immediate reflex to know how to reproduce a melody.

However, when you get into the land of accidentals, or bitonal melodies, it all becomes a bit more complicated. I think you need a third mental link: 3. a mental link between a pitch which has been sharpened/flattened and the action of raising/lowering a lever.

So how do you create mental link 1? It makes sense for me that one would try naming each note/key position in the heard melody, as you suggest. How would you do this – just orally, as you sing the melody back to yourself? Or maybe transcribing would help here? Other suggestions welcome.

As for creating mental link 2, it makes sense to me that saying the pitch name, i.e. G, or key position, i.e. 5, out loud as the string is plucked would, over time, create the mental link in one’s head. Once again, exactly how would you structure this activity? Should you just do this as you’re trying to reproduce the melody, or should you play scales, naming each pitch? Suggestions welcome.

As for creating mental link 3, I like the idea of saying ‘G sharp’ as one is setting the lever – I think this would encourage your brain to realise that the accidental needs the extra action of lever raising. I also like the idea of saying ‘Gis’ instead of ‘G sharp’; both ideas seem very intuitive and practical. What syllables do people recommend? I like the ‘is’ ending for sharp, because ‘i’ feels sharp to me and ‘s’ is the first letter of ‘sharp’… so ‘Cis, Dis, Es, Fis, Gis, As, Bis’?

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