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Ann, on choosing inappropriate music: my teacher and I work pretty much on the principle that I propose pieces to learn and she comments on the suitability of the choice.
Judging solely from the picture on the web (I’ve never seen this in person), I’d go for the Petutschnig Modell I, which is a single-action harp.
Well, perhaps I have just been a bit unlucky, however, I know other music teachers who have similar experiences.
Either Saul is at least partially right or my teacher collects more than the average number of head strong students.
When I started with her I frequently attempted to select (totally inappropriate) music, and learned to my dismay that there were things I could love to hear, but not play in the stage of learning I was in. Now I’ve found that some of the music I coveted is technically playable but poorly arranged and doesn’t sound good.
My teacher is extremely methodical and I have come to see that her planning is a blessing.
At present we are agreeing to disagree about going to pedal. Finger technique is not my strong suit on any instrument, and lever technique seems to me to slow the process even more, but I can’t deny that all of the work I do on lever will make the addition of pedals more satisfying. I also love some of the lever repertoire and wouldn’t want to miss it.
To paraphrase a biblical reference “The good harp teacher is worth more than silver or gold”.
Just wanted to update this thread…
Apparently Claire Jones is the current Royal Harpist… Here’s the bbc news link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/6719685.stm
And her website link:
http://www.clairejones.co.uk/lnewsroyalengagements.html
Ms. Jones as well as the previous (-ly mentioned in this thread) Royal Harpists’ albums are available on iTunes…
For a brief history of Royal Harpists – I found this on wikipedia:
The Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales is a position within the Royal Household. In 2000,
What adults definitely tend to have problems with is how to relate to and respect their teacher. Many, or a certain type, want to be catered to endlessly, and coddled and think they are purchasing a service like a cleaning person, and then will quit abruptly for the most ridiculous reasons. It almost seems like the more “New Age-y” a person is, the worse they are, and the least “evolved”.
I found the cause of the problem. Evidently some grease had been coming out from the A pedal. This must have been a while ago, because I set a white towel under the harp, and no grease is leaking out now. The only thing is, the wall to wall carpet is very soiled and has to be completely cleaned. But, at least, I now know what caused it, and that it has stopped leaking. Thanks for everyone’s help.
Carl, just for the record: I gather ethical norms in the social sciences have shifted since that study was done and it’s no longer considered acceptable to lie to subjects in a study.
I was informed by a rather reliable source that they were both public domain when I began to write the arrangements – apparently
Dear Ann,
I’m sorry to have seemed hostile to you. It’s just that as a teacher, I simply don’t understand comments that seem to write off people trying to learn.
I don’t teach music, but all my experience in teaching other things suggests that there are some things that carry over, no matter what you teach. One of those things is believing in your students. So yes, stretching to believe they can do more than you might think they can matters.
But I’m a little iffy about the translation of that idea into ‘goals’. As I say, I don’t teach music, but I’ve had the equivalent in my own field of people saying ‘I want to play in an orchestra pit’. I wouldn’t be inclined to say ‘you can’t’. I’d never say ‘you can’t’ to any student–who’s omniscient? Not me, for sure. What I would do, faced with a student announcing grandiose goals, is to say: ‘let’s focus for the moment on acquiring the mastery that is ease’. What I mean by that is the familiarity with whatever it is (playing, knowing) that will give you the technical facility to do something more than the merely technical. But we start by learning the technique, not as an end in itself, but as a means to the end of expression. Sometimes, at least in my field, students don’t understand, unless they hear it explicitly, that they’re being asked to master ‘technique’ as a means. If that point isn’t made clear, some will just be turned off by the demand for technique, and I suspect that some are turned off music because no one told them that they were only being asked to do etudes or scales or theory, for example, as means, rather than as an end. Maybe it’s obvious to some of those who teach that these things are only means, but it may not be obvious to a learner. That’s the thing about teaching: you have to say the obvious. Sometimes saying that, combined with the conviction that your students can hear it, benefit from it and will ultimately find joy in it, will change everything.
Several years ago, I taught a student who needed to pass Greek. I told her when she was in despair over the 100+ forms of the regular Greek verb, ‘Look, beginning Greek isn’t a matter of intelligence; it’s just donkey work. Put in the hours crunching paradigms and you’ll be fine’. I didn’t think I was saying anything important, but she came back after the Christmas break and said ‘What you said made all the difference: it’s just work’. She got the highest mark in her Greek exam in her year, and continued on after that, relishing Greek. I didn’t teach her that year: she taught me. I’d never before realized how much people need to hear: just work. Just work won’t make you Pablo Casals or Maurizio Polini, but on the other hand, you’re not going to get to that standard without work. So you may as well work. Given how far people can get with work, why stunt them by your own belief that because they belong to this or that group they can’t learn? Learning is going beyond where you are now. With effort, we can all do that, even if we can’t all become professional whatevers.
Oscar Wilde: “We are all in the gutter. Some of us are looking at the stars”. That’s about the truest thing I know about teaching: wherever you are right now, you can look at the stars. So why not look?
There is a lever harp arrangement by Deborah Ethier, available for digital download.
