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Thanks so much for all the lengthy replies. This has been really helpful.
My teacher gives me exersizes to work on my handposition, fingering, ect. LOTS of scales, ect. So that’s good.
Trouble spots – how do you go about working on those? You said
Well honestly Saul, it does sound as though your natural ability made
your development unique. To teach well we need to have a good plan
to fill in every small step along the way, but be willing to modify
this plan to match the natural flow of each individual learner. Most
students do not develop
continually at the same rate. They have intellectual growth spurts,
just like physical growth spurts. There has been some research to
assist students with learning disabilities, but very little research
and support for gifted students. That is starting to change. In the
past there have been far too many instances of gifted students getting
beaten down to be normal.In the
field of education the term gifted applies to natural ability and talent refers
to a learned ability. A gifted student has some capacity to self
teach, and can absorb multiple steps simultaneously. This make teaching
them effectively as challenging as teaching the learning disabled
student, but for opposite reasons. Both
require tailoring the curriculum to best fit their atypical learning
needs. It takes wisdom and judgment, and the process is never perfect. Attentive awareness of the student
can clue us in to the correct pacing. The most important thing is to
respect each student’s individuality, allowing them to feel it is okay to progress at their natural pace, and be whoever they really are.Well, it seems to me the problem is a bit obvious. You are expecting too much progress for the relatively small amount of time you are practicing. If you are really serious, I think you will eliminate some of your other commitments so you can spend at least two-and-a-half hours a day with the harp. Then I think you will find your fingers will land on the right notes and your memory bank will grow. Not to scare you, but the harp simply needs more time and attention from you to develop as you wish. Do choose pieces you want to perform. There are plenty that will develop your technique and musicianship, especially if you use exercises profitably. Five songs-I mean pieces-is quite a few to do at the same time. Three are enough, with half-an-hour on exercises. I suggest something like one Dussek Sonatina, Pavane from Solos for the Harp Player or one of the Rameau or Corelli pieces, and something by Handel or Salzedo; or Grandjany’s Frere Jacques.
As Oliver Hardy might say, “you certainly can!” I would check the resale value carefully on the Prelude. If you lose a thousand dollars between buying it and selling it a year later, you could just rent one, no? If you’re going into debt anyway, why not go whole hog? But then, it’s your money.
Wow Calista, what a good idea! I did not think of this. That is a very diplomatic way of approaching such a scenario. Thank you.
Hi Carla, I’m sorry you are feeling discouraged. You did mention that
your teacher is one of the best players in your area. I have studied music with
many teachers, and have generally found that it is healthy and useful
to adapt to the teacher’s style as much as possible, and when teaching
to adapt to the student’s learning style as much as possible. “When is
a piece finished?” This is a difficult question to answer, but if your
teacher is giving you good information, take what he/she has to offer.
Two ideas come to mind that might alleviate some frustration: first, it
would be useful to play pieces of varying levels, so that everything is
not challenging you to the extreme. Always have at least one or two
pieces that are a focused challenge, then some that are a moderate
challenge, and finally, some that are relaxing. This way you can start
your lesson with the easier pieces to warm up. A second idea is to make
a recording of yourself practicing, so you can let your teacher hear
when you are able to play your best. The majority of students,
including me, have felt some frustration at playing a little below
their potential at lessons. I used to ride the train three hours into Chicago for
lessons and felt stiff and nervous, put my whole heart
into it, but always felt a little disappointed in my performance. Such
is life, never a perfect process.When you have a technically superb teacher, the only reason I would
suggest switching is if there is a negative emotional dynamic that
cannot resolve because this can burden the learning process. If you can
honestly say your teacher wants the best for you and is expert in
playing, then I would suggest doing what you can to adapt to his/her
method of teaching because it is thought out, and you have not been
able to see the whole picture until years of experience. You sound so
dedicated, and I deeply hope you will find encouragement. btw you
should certainly plan to perform all the pieces you work hard on. There
is no reason not to set a goal of a solo recital to play at a school or
church by the time you graduate high school. It will give more meaning
to your efforts! Good luck!!If you are looking at buying a full-size lever harp or pedal harp, since a lever harp is as much as 50% of a small pedal harp, I don’t think they are worth it if you want the range and flexibility of a pedal harp. If you can get a lever harp for under $2,000 then it is reasonable, but if you’re spending $5,000, why not go for 9 or 10 thousand and get pedals? It’s kind of like spending on a fancy bike or buying a car, except it’s not. But then, what do you want from it? For a child who wants to spend their life playing, it makes more sense to invest in a harp that will always be useful such as a smaller pedal harp, than a lever harp they will outgrow musically in two or three years, if they want to play classically or commercially. I am not putting down lever harps, so please don’t be riled up.
I don’t know of any specific articles on harp and health, but there are a lot of suggestions and problems here and there in the forums. I’m not aware of any health problems except physical injuries and conditions, or emotionally induced states.
I used PrintMusic in my college music theory classes, and liked it very much. It is sort of a “baby” version of Finale, and since it didn’t have as many features as Finale, it was a lot less expensive. (although it looks like the price has gone up). It was also NOT overwhelming to learn how to do what I needed to do.
http://www.finalemusic.com/store/productoverview.aspx
There is also a product that Finale makes called NotePad, which is free. (Free is good). You might want to try that out first, to see if it will meet your needs.
Shannon
I’ve decided how to handle this particular scenario. It is clear that
my student intends to continue teaching. I felt encouraged this week
with her hand position, but it will take more time for her to be
consistent. At least she has a desire to play correctly, so she can
pass that on to her student. Since we are in a city, I will direct both
her and her student to workshops and other presentations with expert
harpists.It is important to say for anyone reading, that it does require
experience to teach beginners. Even though you do not deal with
musically complex issues regarding formal structure and stylistic
analysis, teaching beginners requires expert knowlege of the structure
and movement of the hand and learning styles. You are faced with many problems when a student struggles to
learn a concept. When communicating any information about technique it
is important to be able to explain why it is healthy to maintain a
certain hand position, thumb position, play relaxed,
which muscles are used, which ones are not, etc. Every hand is
different, so a deep understanding of the principles of healthy playing
are necessary to apply it to each student’s specific hand structure.I have had many transfer students from inexperienced/self taught
teachers, come to me with tangled, tense, little fingers, which takes
much effort to help them untangle. Informed
guidance is important on all instruments, but especially harp
because
it requires the development and strenghtening of certain muscles. I
have a doctoral minor in piano pedagogy and a masters in harp. On piano
there are certainly
important, efficient ways of playing, but as long as you stay relaxed
and let gravity do much of the work, you aren’t going to get injured.
This is not the case with harp. It requires more tension to initially
pluck a string, it requires a learned hand position, and much care in
establishing correct posture while balancing the instrument correctly.
Minimizing
tension is a much bigger deal on harp, and the potential for physical
damage is greater. Anyone considering teaching harp please understand
that even though the concepts of half notes, quarter notes, and middle
C seem simplistic, the learning process is not.I have good news. After many years of frustrating searches for a
solution to playing the fugue in Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra,
Lucile Lawrence found the elegant, simple solution. You can exchange
notes between the right hand and left hand so instead of reaching up
for a thumb note, you reach down for a note from the left hand, which
easily takes a right hand note. You will soon see where this helps, in
more than one spot. It makes it smooth and relatively easy. She also
taught playing with placing one note ahead, especially in passages like
this, and called “like walking on eggshells.” But she used placing
ahead very creatively to create phrasing and illustrates notes that
belong to each other by placing them together.
