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I never practiced without my parents making me until maybe 12 years old, and even at that I did not practice for more than an hour a day, if that.
I can only remember one time my parents ever actually practiced with me, and that was my mother trying to work with me to learn to read music after my very first lesson. That was a headache, though, since she didn’t really know either!
At some point my parents just started setting a timer, and I had to practice for the entire duration. You would think that this would result in poor practicing, but my teacher was sufficiently strict enough that I felt it was in my best self interest to practice as she instructed (and therefore please her). My parents were never particularly good at the “motivate” school of thought and more in the “just do it” camp, so I’m not sure if that’s a helpful or appealing suggestion.
One benefit is that it allows the student to take the instruction as seriously as he or she wants. You’d probably be surprised how much progress your daughter would make by herself if you just required her to play for a certain duration rather than specifically coaching her through it – she’ll practice the parts she doesn’t like or that are hard when she’s mentally ready (granted, she might need some prodding, but she’ll probably do more on her own than you expected). I think most music students have a natural tendency to better their playing without external urging, but especially with younger students, they may just need to play around on the instrument by themselves for 15 minutes or so. Once they’re bored with that, they’ll move on to the music as long as someone makes sure they continue practicing. I’m still this way too, sometimes (except I continue on my own)!
I too almost quit – probably twice – during middle school (the beginning and end, I believe) but it was really just due to disinterest in the material I was learning. Once I found music that I really wanted to play, I started practicing like a fiend and now I’m studying in a conservatory.
~Sam
I’m sorry if you misunderstood me but I did not mean that they just walk out and play with no practice or effort. I meant more along the lines that great musicians generally aren’t stress heads about proper technique, etc.
A true musician just plays. They don’t count, read, or analyze every note. That’s why Jimi Hendrix will always be more famous than unknown classical guitarists of his time. It’s good to read music and all, but I can’t help but notice the most successful musicians generally don’t read a note. Of course I was never into the classical scene. There’s a sense of raw soul that can only be relayed by a true musician, an ability to produce sound that creates a feeling.
I’ve always assumed that the skewed gender ratio is what’s actually responsible for seeing many male professionals, but not many male beginners. At least subconsciously ,a young male student probably isn’t totally comfortable with the fact that he is probably his teacher’s only male student (or maybe even the only male student in his region!). If he is a very naturally gifted player, he will receive lots of praise that will outweigh any subconscious discomfort with the gender ratio. Moreover, he will probably be praised more than a female colleague of similar level simply because of his gender. On the other hand, a male student who is not very good at the instrument will probably end up quitting rather early unless he is very much in love with the instrument. I think that sincere (and rightfully deserved) praise at a young age is probably what naturally selects male harpists so that a greater proportion of them are very good and therefore likely to go on to be professionals. The clincher here is that if you have two equally talented harp students who could easily both make it as professionals, the boy will probably receive more encouragement (at least implicitly). In this way, boys who begin the harp and stick with it are more likely to be better players because of the natural selection method I described above. Then on top of that, they’re probably more likely to go to be professionals than females of the same caliber. With both of those things going for them, its no wonder that the male:female ratio is much higher at the professional level.
Did that make sense?
~SamI learned to play on a lap harp with only F and C#’s. It eventually became difficult as I progressed. But in the beginning my teacher used Sylvia Woods’ books.
http://www.harpcenter.com/product/sylvia-woods-teach-yourself-folk-harp/
Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp was my first harp book. I learned out of it for years.
The arrangements are lever free (there might be one or two songs with lever changes but I don’t remember. I almost never used my levers so I imagine there weren’t any.).
Check out harpcenter.com, they have tons of books specifically for lever harp with little to no lever changes. I hope this helped!
— Natalie
Oh my goodness I just played my first beach wedding with my pedal harp! I felt the exact same way, I was so worried sand would get in the pedal workings.
The woman who organized the wedding was so understanding and sweet. She got me a piece of plywood which we then put a blanket on. My harp has a lyon and healy case, and I also have a harp dolly. Between the case and dolly rolling it onto the beach wasn’t too difficult. Then we placed the harp on the plywood. It was large enough that my music stand, chair, harp, and amplifier all fit onto the wood. It worked perfectly and my harp stayed clean and I didn’t even pop a string. I thought with the salt, humidity, and sand at least one or two strings would pop. It went really well and I think us harpists need to relax a little. 😛
If I did beach weddings regularly I’d definitely consider a carbon fiber harp (Heartland Harps) so I wouldn’t have to worry at all, but for now if the weather is fine a pedal harp on the beach would be lovely.
— Natalie
Jessica, I’m 99.99% sure he wasn’t there (I don’t remember that AND I just searched the entire whc program) – are you sure it wasn’t some other male harpist? Sylvain Blassel, perhaps?
~Sam
I tried this out and I was amazed! Moisturizers usually leave a greasy oily feeling for an hour or so. The aloe vera felt a lot like water, and soaked in very quickly. But for a few hours my hands weren’t dry at all! The best part was they never felt greasy, thanks for the tip!
— Natalie
Wow, it sounds absolutely beautiful! If I weren’t on a student budget I’d be on this in a heartbeat. Do you have any pictures available of it?
— Natalie
I disagree. I think the transcription works wonderfully. In fact, I think many parts are superior to the original exactly because the harp doesn’t have as much sustain.
~Sam
I’ve done this several times over the years – be sure that the speaker system you go into can handle the extended range of the harp without distortion or overloading particularly around the 5th octave – couple of the places I was at had very low quality speakers in the ceiling and could not take the range of the harp – definitely try to have a sound check before the event – I prefer transducer pickups so that you don’t pick up ambient noise – also many of them have a pre-amp with volume and tone controls that you can adjust during the job without having to find someone to adjust the PA system controls – if you can set it up, the advantage is that you get really nice even coverage of the event without blasting in one area – my current amp has a line out which can send my sound to their PA which is also a nice addition – have fun
Carvin Stagemate – I have two of them, both with the available “effects” – they are extremely versatile with a four channel mixer for mikes or lines built in – the battery will last 3 hours on a charge or 1 1/2 if you add the extension speaker – I use separate bass and treble transducers in my harp and blend the sound through two of the channels – I’ve been using mine for over ten years regularly at both indoor and outdoor weddings and events – I have also found them to be very handy when playing in hotels, as I am often placed against a moveable wall in a ballroom where there is no power – also use it regularly at my restaurant job just to cover the area a little better –
Never a day quite like that, but I’ve had my share of bad days.
My first wedding ever was for a family member (I’m 17 also) and they had it at this ritzy restaurant. We almost ran late because of traffic but somehow we made it 10 minutes before the ceremony. The wedding was supposed to be outside but a sudden Florida thunderstorm ended that and they moved it inside. As we pulled up the rain showed no mercy as it seemed to have fun pouring inches down. There was no entrance with cover, not a back entrance or anything! The only way in was a long, narrow, stair filled board walk with no cover whatsoever. Thank God I’d gotten a Lyon and Healy harp cover two weeks before that! I would have never made it otherwise. When we got in there was hardly any time to tune, and from the cold of the car to the extremely humid tropical downpour the strings had gone wildly out of tune. I was horrified at the sound but everyone loved it, and I didn’t screw up the performance too bad. 😉 It was actually pretty nice, and that was a bad day caused by forces outside of my control so I couldn’t be too upset.
I can’t think of a day involving my harp that made me completely miserable but that’s because I have a terrible memory. Sticky notes are my friends too, until I forget about them also. Nobody understands the toils of a memory-ridden 17 year old.
You are not alone in your bad day and I’m glad you’re doing better now!
— Natalie
