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You MUST have Maria Grossi’s “Metodo Per Arpa.” Every fingering combination ever invented is in here. Lever or pedal harp – you want your students to meditate upon relaxed, tension-free movement, and to contemplate comfort, freedom of motion and flexibility. Like miniature gymnasts, harpers & harpists must turn the complex movements of their fingers into automatic motor (muscle) memory through relentless repetition, but it has to be intelligent relentless repetition with a view to paying attention to tension and getting rid of it. (paraphrase on Rick Gore’s 9/02 National Geographic Magazine comments on Russian gymnasts in his article “How Fast Can I Go?”)
The toughest thing to convince students to do, is that, like professional, multi-million dollar pitchers, they must go through their fingering combinations and patterns in super slow motion to “feel the pace of those movements and develop a muscle memory of what feels right and what doesn’t.” Like the Zen master for the pitchers, I have my students memorize the exercises, and try some with their eyes closed to gain deeper understanding of their body movements.
I tell them that they must value themselves as if they were worth a million bucks, and they are worthy to take the time to do these things thoroughly with utmost attention to learn comfort into every measure; that injury to the hand, fingers & wrist is not caused by a single trauma, but by the slow wear and tear of repeating a slightly inefficient motion. By maximizing efficiency, harpers & harpists can prevent injury with solid bio-mechanics. (paraphrase of Tom McNichol’s comments in his 6/04 Wired magazine article on motion-capture analysis, “The Ultimate Pitching Machine.”)
Think of it as harp yoga.
Well, I doubt if too many people have a story like mine. . . . About three years ago a guy came to our church and after the service was praying for individual people.
Thanks for the advice!
I probably should consider changing the wire strings once a year, or at least with some sort of regularity so I don’t have strings exploding unexpectedly. Although, I don’t think my parents would let me…..harp strings are certainly not cheap!
Thanks again,
Clare
Saul,
If you are interested it looks like Ruth Berman’s CD is still available at the Sylvia Woods Harp Center.
Listen to Dorothy Ashby. She set the standard for playing jazz harp.
She never won world acclaim and was primarily a gigging musician in
Detroit, but her talent is truly exceptional. I don’t believe there are
any arrangements, but it is always advisable to listen to the best.Of course Park Stickney is an excellent source as well. I bought just
about all his CD’s as well as Dorothy’s. If you get a chance it is
worth attending his masterclasses, performances, and lessons.Those are the two most hard-core jazz harpists that come to my mind.
There is a difference between pop-jazz and the hard core authentic
jazz. I also enjoy Alice Coltrane, but she was primarily a pianist, but
her music is very authentic.I need to update – I still love my Hyundai Sante Fe – but in rereading
the posts I realize I made a mistake in reading and replying – I don’t
load my harp it’s column, it lies on its SOUND BOX when it is in its
case.Like many harpists of my generation, I began playing on a troubador harp with Sam Milligan’s books. I couldn’t wait to get to a pedal harp and play classical music too. I continued to play early music as well. I went on to study voice, dance, and have become a composer and writer as well, but it is all harp-centered. I have done some historical research and begun publishing music. The one continuous theme is that the harp is expensive and constantly wants to be fed strings, parts, new music, more music, new music, old music, more music, more, more. He is very greedy, and hard to put to sleep at night. He’s a little more quiecent since I bought him a gold crown, but what a superiority complex he has.
I would like the advice of the young men here for a writing project I am working on about playing the harp, starting out. Please let me know about your experiences.
I think that some of the best harp players i’ve ever watched or listened to are Dan Yu, Elizabeth Remy, Xavier de Maistre and Judy Lomen. Dan Yu is amazing to watch and listen to and her dynamics are beautiful. She does a wonderful job playing Bachs
How many people would want harp trays like I described and how much would you pay for them? I thought of someone who could build them.
The moisture balm I use doesn’t have that kind of scent. It has the wolly scent mixed with that of vaseline. I don’t notice any other. Perhaps it has less hydroquinoline sulfate in it.
P.S. Prokofiev used harp quite extensively in his orchestral music. While certain works of his are well-known, he wrote many more which are not and bear investigating. I have found his music to be exquisite, and unique in style. The more I listen to, the more I appreciate his unique approach and his rich colors. It has helped clarify the style of the Piece for harp very much, as it is so different from the Prelude in C. He was one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century, and in terms of continuous growth, I would dare say more so than Stravinsky, whose music became more and more arid and devoid of interest overall, to my taste. If I were to say Prokofiev was the greatest of the Soviet composers, it would not be to detract any from Shostakovich, whose music I love, so perhaps I won’t say it, but they are certainly equals. But who wrote more for harp? Prokofiev. No solos from Shostakovich.
My druggist carries a generic version called moisture balm. The other ingredient besides petroleum jelly and lanolin is hydroquinoline sulfate. The smell is from the lanolin. Hydroquinoline sulfate has a certain effect, I don’t remember what, but you can search it and find information.
One more suggestion for the fellow with the chemical exposure and severe skin problems is to try clay or mud packs on your skin. It draws out whatever is in there, and draws to the surface the natural moisturizers and compounds in your deep skin.
