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59 and still no solution in sight for cracking fingers and thumbs. You would think, wouldn’t you, that having split the atom, sent men to the moon on a computer with as much power as a hand held calculator and now being able to look into the deepest space, that someone medical would have recognised that this splitting digit problem is EXTREMELY widespread and would have realised that this could, just maybe, be a great money earner if they invented a solution to the problem. But no, my doc just says “Oh, I have that problem as well, hurts, doesn’t it”. I am delighted to have found this site and will try some of the remedies. To be honest I would on a daily basis plunge my hands into a cow-pat if I knew it would stop my fingers and thumbs splitting. Will report back on what worked best. – So far only New Skin and plasters seem to mitigate the problem temporarily. I live in hope. Thanks for this site.
Just in response to a comment about Webster’s String Instruments, I did a little google search, and while they do sell beautiful large harps which look like pedal harps… when you look closer they are lever harps. Certainly very beautiful, but I would listen before you buy. After you’ve played the harp for a while you’ll know what kind of tone you’re looking for. I’m assuming you have played for a while, because you said you’ve been dreaming of a pedal harp, not just any harp.
Umm.. cheap for a pedal harp seems to be $8,000… which is not cheap unless you’re Bill Gates or something….
Where to begin…You people have too many cats! It’s not healthy to have more than two. Yes I have seen them climb covers, and Sunita had a cat that loved to sit on top of the column. They want attention. Bark at them and they should go away. An old string is a pretty good toy, and they are tough enough that they can’t eat them. But my cat got tired of it. She didn’t like music very much. I tried to teach her to play, but she just wanted to pluck it with her claws. When I played the piano, she would jump up and sit on the music, or walk across the keyboard. She was so clever. And when the recorder group played, oh did she wail like only a siamese cat can!
Now, don’t start rumors. Salzedo and Grandjany never had a fistfight, ever. Not even a catfight. Here’s an anecdote. When Susann McDonald was giving her debut recital in New York, she had the harp set up facing straight out at the audience. Well, at intermission, as a group, Grandjany, Salzedo and Mildred Dilling walked right up on stage and turned it to an angle, as they all performed. Susann must have been surprised when she walked back on stage. Did she ever know who did it? Does anyone know why Grandjany decided to emigrate to the United States?
And don’t question your elders about their hours. Us old people have trouble sleeping and find typing on the Harp Column to be oh, so soothing. Sweet dreams.Hi! My name is Andie. I’m 12( 13 in August)and I’ve been playing the harp for 2 1/2 years also. I’d love to make some harp friends! My email adress is aggiegirl2013@houston.rr.com and my sn is aNdI3bOoO22 . IM or email me anytime!
-Andie
As a student and teacher I have worked with Grossi, Pozzoli, Friou’s Exercise book, and Kondonassis’ book, and others. I have also developed teaching materials for adult beginners. There is an age old struggle of trying to get students to apply the technique they learn in exercises, to their repertoire. For each new concept the student needs a simple exercise, and etude that places the technic in an expressive, but somewhat repetative context, and repertoire that reinforces the concept. I also encourage students of all levels to create additional exercises from their repertoire. This way that middle ground between technique and repertoire is filled in. The advanced student needs etudes as well, but at that level the need for concert quality etudes becomes greater. In your opinion (anyone’s opinon), what are the most musical etudes available for the advanced student?
Hi! My name is Andie. I’m 12 (13 in August) and I’ve been playing the harp for 2 1/2 years now! It’s nice to know that there are more young harpists out there! You can e-mail me at aggiegirl2013@houston.rr.com.
-Andie R.
Oh my gosh yes! I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go or not cause it’s $5,000, but I just got a letter saying that I got a $3,500 scholarship, which means I get to go! WOO-EEE!!!
Thank you very much. Who’d you hear it from? I have tried your approach, but find the only way I can sustain it is if I literally cover up all the other music so all I can see is the one or two measures I am working on. I haven’t been able to sustain it. My mind is too restless. I would think that with your approach it would be difficult to rethink fingering and interpretation, or is it easier? I can’t commit to something till I have worked out every detail of fingering and my overall interpretive approach. Then it is hard to change once it’s cemented. After some months or years pass I can relearn it another way, and after many years I can play a piece like the Prokofiev Prelude with three different sets of fingerings. But only that piece.
Miss Lawrence talked about the role of experience and personal history in the act of remembering a piece. I have been exploring that avenue with some interesting results, which bore fruit in my recital. I am experiencing repertoire differently now. I don’t want to reveal more until it is completely worked out, and then I will probably put it in my forthcoming book, Harpnotes. So far, the first article, How to Play the Harp Expressively, has grown to at least 20 pages.
Salzedo harpists are the larger harp world now. I think it is reasonable to say that there are more harpists with over 50% Salzedo training than not. For example, the Philadelphia Harp Conference had the largest attendance in years, and it was Salzedo harpists primariy, and within that, Chalifoux students primarily. She produced an incredible number of students. Did you know that certain people actually had the nerve to write to the Philadelphia chapter and threaten that if it was an All-Salzedo conference they would not attend-we would never do that. We do not impose our views, we only present them and hope that they are of positive value-that is how we were raised.
It would be a different story, if the etudes composed by harpists were worthy of the concert stage, and well-planned. Too many are not worth the time it takes to learn them, go on for too long, and fail to develop both hands evenly. I wish Salzedo had composed more etudes.
The ones he did compose show, within his idiom, the creative possiblities presented by harp etudes. I was please to find that Bochsa did write at least one set of substantial etudes. They are better-sounding than Schuecker or Posse. There is a big difference, too, between playing for other harpists, and playing for the public.
If a student is putting in four to five hours a day practicing, they have time to spend half an hour on an etude. If they have started late, they are better off using repertoire they will have to know. Salzedo worked primarily with late-starting students that he had to train fully in five or so years, so forgive him his methods.
Exercises build control, strength and coordination. Etudes are supposed to link those to a musical context. If only we had some by Chopin, but then Miss Lawrence used to say that Salzedo was the Chopin of the harp. Not literally. But his piano teacher was a pupil of Chopin, and the Variations and Ballade certainly reflect that.
I use many exercises of my own devising that I hope to publish, and I also use Salzedo’s Conditioning Exercises, and exercises from the Method book. I expand them to more than one octave and tempo. I like to play them once very slowly, then twice as fast, twice as fast, twice as fast. That way I am warmed up in every tempo, just like a good ballet barre. I also vary the note and finger patterns, ala La Riviere, but with the chords of the Conditioning Exercises. I’ve looked at Grandjany’s warmup and don’t think it provides enough repetition; it’s too condensed to be effective, except as a quick warm-up before a rehearsal. I don’t like any of the etude books I’ve seen, or the other method books, except the Universal Method which has some good pages.
Hola Amanda! Vieras que este ano hago recital de cambio de
nivel a intermedio. Lo unico seguro que voy a tocar es el tema y
variaciones de Haydn y el ensamble de Cordova de Albeniz. El
resto del repertorio todavia no se que es. Bueno, yo no se si tu
sabias, pero yo tambien estudio canto, soy soprano, y me
gustaria saber un poco sobre musica para arpa y soprano,
porque ya me he metido varias veces a internet a averiguar
sobre eso, pero no encuentro, generalmente solo encuentro
para coros, y eso no me sirve mucho que digamos. si alguna de
la gente de alla sabe sobre el asunto avisame por favor. Cuidate
mucho. Ciao.Hey Marilyn! Fellow NewZealander here, in the Waikato area. Did you buy the sharpsicle? I’m really interested to know, I have been going back and forth all over the net this year looking for a second harp (I own a Kim Webby lever harp)Trying to find a lap harp with a decent range and levers included. Whereabouts are you? perhaps we could petition one of the bigger musical instruments shops over here to ship in this model (sharpsicle). Even if we didn’t like it they could surely find a buyer. just an idea, please do contact me: anniemaidennz@msn.com
