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I’ve had some exposure to solfege and have an understanding of how it is useful. In most of my training we used scale degree numbers. This was useful for its direct correlation to analysis, and you become familiar with how various scale degrees tend to resolve. We sang single syllables for each so seven was reduced to “sev”, etc. This has some limitations, but I use it when sightreading and it is quite helpful. When I practice I repeat phrases and passages and get out of the music early on, so by the time a performance comes, it’s familiar on a deeper level. I’ve found that when repeating a passage it takes a few times to get it just right, then if I keep repeating it goes through one more phase where it gets shaky, but if I keep going it solidifies it on a deeper level. For me technical achievement on a passage usually coincides with memorization.
From what I have heard, smaller schools tend to give more scholarship money to students who are academically outstanding or have unique talents, and harp is definitely one of those.
TOO LATE!!!Exercises, etudes are not the only choices, as we already discussed in another thread. Both can be drawn from repertoire exclusively. However, I support the use of both as well. And the biggest question is, how do you get students to actually sign up and pay? How typical of a college to think you can simply work up a plan and implement it. Good luck with your endeavor.
Your approach sounds good. I am working on one myself. I have no idea if there will be a market or not. It helps if you are famous, I’m sure. I don’t know if one person can come up with a “tutor” that would satisfy everyone. I do feel the ones I use are incomplete, but as a group they cover a lot of ground, the books by Lawrence and Salzedo. But I supplement it also. Probably the closest to what you describe would be the Universal Method by Bochsa/Oberthuer.
hola a todos, recib? de herencia un arpa folklorica de 36 cuerdas, no se tocarla y menos como se afina, pero me gustaria aprender, yo toco algo de piano y flauta as? que de m?sica s?. Si alguno de ustedes fuera tan amable de ayudarme se los agradecer?a de todo coraz?n. Mi nonbre es Carolina y soy de Santiago de Chile.
I never had a problem with one of my harps that involved the warranty. I couldn’t say how well the company honors them.
Funny you should mention being in an orhestra without a pedal harp. My first orchestral encounter was about 4 and a half years ago. I auditioned for a summer youth orchestra (on lever harp) and got in. I brought my harp to the first rehearsal, all excited, and to my great disfortune, I found a huge pedal harp in the rehearsal room. My first thought was “what the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?” but after a week, I learned how to use the pedals. It very easy, the only thing you have to memorize is the order of the pedals: DCB EFGA , and after you do that, it’s all very very simple. Pedals are a LOT easier than levers, so the hard part is over!
How are those syllables easier to say than abcdefg? As I said the hoax perpetrated by theory teachers is that they are saying the names of the notes, not doing solfege as we think of it. It’s already in their native tongue. If it were the same as what we go through they would be learning the note names in English. Or were you born speaking French? And what about the whole controversy over si/ti? And sol ends with a consonant. And do you say do or ut?
I just want to say that as a late-comer to this conversation (and a comparatively new harp player) that I don’t think that I have ever seen such a funny and good-humoured thread of conversation on any harp website (although I thought that the bit about making your own gut strings went a bit far)……
I hope that when I submit a question to the forum that I shall receive the same well-considered type of reply…….
Happy harping to you all, and best wishes from Polly (and Binky the cat) in Canberra, Australia………..Quel scandale! Actually, solfege is a great big hoax in America. They are not doing “solfege,” they are naming the notes. Those are the names of the notes for them. The equivalent for us is not learning “solfege” but to merely say out loud the notes we are reading. The opening of the Debussy Danses is DCACDFG etc. But you should know what mode it is, and what the rhythm is just as clearly. What is the rhythm of a Zortzico? It’s in 5/8 and it’s well, I guess I don’t have a vocabulary other than the note values. Hip-pot-a-mus-es. Let’s come up with vocabulary. Ta=quarter note, da=eighth note, ti=sixteenth note/ti-di=two sixteenths, tih=32nd-note/tiddleliddle=4 sixteenths, tay=dotted eighth, etc. Then the zortzico would go da-tay-ti-tay-ti.
The other system I learned is to number notes according to their tonal value, 1 being the tonic, 5 the dominant, like using figured bass. I think the reason why solfege works for Americans is the extra effort required to translate the note names helps burn them in with pain.
