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In This Issue:

Article: The Joys of Being an Adult Beginner
Ten Tips to Be the Best Harper You Can Be, at Any Level
Technique Tip of the Month: Repeating Octaves
Improvisation Starter of the Month: Ostinato Patterns
Resources: Learning By Ear

The Joys of Being an Adult Beginner

As adult students, it’s so easy to envy children. They do learn incredibly fast! On the other hand, no one—neither teacher nor parent—can easily convince a child to practice in a disciplined way on their own. In other words, a young, agile mind is somewhat wasted on the young! Today, why not let being a motivated adult, full of the passion to learn something new, inspire your gratitude?

Most Celtic harpers started the harp as adults, sometimes after years of searching for the "perfect" folk instrument. Personally, I absolutely love teaching adult beginners. Before I tell you why, let's look at some of the challenges for you.

I find that the adult students I teach and talk to have some universal blocks to overcome. These include very high expectations for themselves, acute embarrassment or shyness in front of their teacher (especially if they had any bad experiences with music earlier in life), and forgetfulness about the level of repetition required to make new kinesthetic skills fluent.

If you are starting the harp with little or no previous musical experience, you are learning simultaneously on several levels: kinesthetic, auditory, visual and analytical. This layering can be somewhat overwhelming, but it also provides you with the opportunity to consciously build an incredible musical foundation. How can you do this? By spending some time on each sensory aspect: listening to the sounds you make; singing; watching the shapes your hands make on the harp; dancing, clapping or tapping the rhythms; and analyzing the patterns of notes, chords and phrases in your piece.

Any skill takes time to become fluent. Do you remember the mechanics of learning how to drive, dance or perfect your sport? Relish your "beginner's mind", knowing that you will never get to revisit this place of adventure and enthusiasm. Remember that your harp teacher's job is to help you reach your goals, and that none of us are bored by "easy" pieces or disappointed in you for playing wrong notes. Set your own clear, measurable goals, enlist your teacher's support in meeting them, and get feedback often so that you know the progress you’re making. I'm always amazed by the shock on my students' faces when we look at how far they've come.

Everything I've discussed so far will help you physically and psychologically for the ups and downs of your skill-building with the harp. But there is something even more essential, something that will free you to use the harp to speak the music of your heart. That something is PLAY.

I believe that play--experimentation, listening, having fun, letting your own music come through--is the key to deepening your confidence. Play helps you recapture the fearlessness of the child, enraptured with sound, free of any concepts of right or wrong and so able to play and sing unselfconsciously.

Play can be as simple as just “noodling” on the harp. Today, why not try closing your book and spending some time with your harp without someone else’s musical map to limit you? Every time you allow your own musical impulses to flow through you, real magic happens.

If you need some inspiration to get started, there is a page at My Harp’s Delight full of ideas for improvising. I've included another "improvisation starter" in this newsletter. Don't be afraid to experiment with sounds you like: single notes, glisses, intervals and chords. If you like a pattern, try it with different notes, or different rhythms, or up and down the harp. Bring playfulness into every encounter you have with your harp, and you will be forever inspired to keep learning.

I hope that you come to realize, if you haven't already, that the joys or being an adult beginner far exceed the possible frustrations. You have the privilege of being one of a growing number of people who have decided to follow a new passion later in life. By the way, did you know there’s a harp conference just for adult beginners? One of my students just attended this year's Beginning in the Middle conference and had a wonderful experience. Check out the conference details here.

If you decided to take up the harp in your retirement years, remember that learning music provides wonderful benefits for your brain, as well. Your harp, and all that multi-sensory learning I mentioned above, can be your personal “fountain of youth”. Here is a link to an article from Making Music magazine all about the benefits of learning music for the mature mind.

The bottom line? Being a beginner puts you at your most excited, ready for the adventure of learning to play the harp. You have few false notions, no bad habits, no “paper training” to slow you down, and you have the maturity to set your own goals and strive to reach them. This is why I love teaching adults--it's a privilege to watch what passion and imagination can do! So don’t worry about what you’ve never done before . . . take joy in what you can do today with this magical instrument.

Ten Tips to Be the Best Harper You Can Be, at Any Level

1. Listen to every sound you make. If there is buzzing or the sound is thin, stop playing and try it another way (for example, check your hand position and how you are replacing your fingers).

2. Be able to sing the melody and any counter melodies in the piece you’re playing.

3. Be able to clap, tap, and/or dance the rhythm of the music, especially with jazz or Latin rhythms. If you can get a recording, do this as you listen.

4. Have a picture of the piece in your mind, or a story that reminds you of the mood and qualities you want to bring through when you play it.

5. Practice in smaller, more frequent sessions. When you walk by the harp, play a practice spot or even a passage that you love.

6. Visualize your piece when you are getting ready to go to sleep. Picture the music, or picture yourself playing it, or hear it just how you want it to be.

7. Put a note on your mirror or steering wheel that says, “I’m so lucky ~ I get to play the harp!”

8. Remember, it’s not how many notes you play, it’s how you play the notes. Listen to other people playing, and pay attention to that.

9. Remember, also, that the silences are as important as the notes.

10. Remember that you have the great privilege to bring music into the world, and that your music is a unique gift to all who hear it. Cherish that gift yourself!

Technique Tip of the Month

Recently, at my own harp lesson, I was trying to play a difficult passage full of repeated octaves. My teacher, Rachel Ellins, reminded me of a wonderful way to make this easier. Instead of using standard hand position, with a high thumb and low fourth finger, drop the thumb a little. Now round the space between finger and thumb into a C shape (the same shape you would use to make an OK sign, just with a different finger). If you keep this shape as you play, you can much more easily play octaves up and down the harp ~ try it and see!

Improvisation Starter of the Month

This month, let’s play with a repeated pattern called an ostinato (a constantly recurring melodic fragment). Here is one to try: Tune your harp or set your levers for the key of C; with your right hand, put your thumb on a, and your other three fingers on g, e and d (just above middle c). Practice playing these four notes in succession, either from the top down or the bottom up (see which you like best). When you can do this with a smooth, rippling motion, you are ready to add you left hand.

Use your left hand to play chords and single notes alternating below and above your right hand. Try open chords (e.g. d a d, or an octave plus the fifth) in the bass and closed chords, thirds or sixths in the treble. It doesn’t matter what you play, as long as you like it. Strive to keep the right hand going smoothly as you let the left hand roam. Remember to use some repetition in your left hand to create structure (if you like it, do it again).

Resources

This month’s resources are about learning tunes by ear, another great way to free up your harp playing at any level. The following websites are aimed at traditional Irish players (fiddle, flute, etc), but the helpful hints they offer apply equally to harpers:

Elbow Magic Learn by Ear Page

Slow Players Learn by Ear Page

Treelight Playing by Ear Page


Thanks for reading Notes from the Harp. I welcome your questions and comments. I'll be back with a few more inspiring ideas next month . . . in the meantime, happy harping!

All content by Susan Zevenbergen, Copyright 2007.

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