Welcome to Lauren Scott's harp blog! I'm a professional harpist based in the UK. Here you will find all sorts of harp musings, in a bid to spread a bit of harpyness. Thanks for visiting!
I've clocked up a substantial amount of miles in my car past month, with just short of 1,000 in 4 days last week!
I have a Volvo V70 estate, which I bought second hand a few years back and it's the first Volvo I've owned. What a brilliant car, it fits the harp in with loads of room for other gear and is so comfortable to drive.
So considering the very silly amount of miles it does, recently I've had to have 2 new front tyres, and new ball joint for the suspension and today I needed to get it a new battery. Which is not bad really.
Q. Where's the battery then in a Volvo estate? It has needed jump starting with jump leads the past 4 days hence me getting the new battery this morning, and I got a nice surprise when I opened the bonnet looking for the battery.
Thank goodness for smartphones and being able to google "where's my battery on a Volvo V70" when you are stuck in the middle of nowhere. There is a jump starting point under the bonnet, but the actual battery is not there.
A. In the boot of course. Lift up the little seats in the boot space, lift up the flooring and it's under there silly!
I bought a Victorian style hooped underskirt from the most amazing "aladin's cave" of a theatrical costume shop in Cambridge today.
I had just gone with a friend who was buying a costume for a show she is doing and went into a frenzy when I saw all the Victorian dresses they had.
However, after trying on a few dresses I decided that the one I already have is best but was in need of enormous hoop underskirt to make it all stick out!
Just need to get a few more props sorted out with Richard then I think we are all ready for our first Queen Victoria's Parlour gig next week. So just about to pop out and rummage through some charity shops for props.
I've just been doing some practice with the hooped underskirt over my jeans to see how it feels playing the harp with it on, and am very glad I did as it is very, very strange. How did the Victorian ladies manage?
I've also got a bit of a cold in my right ear so I need to play with an ear plug at the moment. The combination of hooped skirt over jeans, t-shirt, flip flops and big yellow ear plug sticking out of right ear is not the most glamourous look! Hopefully my ear should be ok by tomorrow for the last of the run of Katherine Jenkins gigs that I'm doing this summer.
Just been showing a harp student some harp videos and have stumbled on this amazing video on YouTube which I've just added to my "inspiring harp videos" page on this blog.
Definitely the most tasteful jazz harp I have ever heard. Texan harpist Cindy Horstman in a duo with bass player Michael Medina.
I played on a Katherine Jenkins gig yesterday at the Llangollen Eistedfodd and it's going to be broadcast on S4C this Sunday 11th July at 8pm. I played David of the White Rock as a duet with Katherine again, this time a very different and scarily chromatic arrangement, and there were also a few harp solos in the Welsh Medleys.
So that got me thinking about why I used my black Aurora harp and not the gold Iris, especially as that concert was being broadcast on the telly...
I really appreciate having two harps, especially as I've been managing with just one up until now. The new gold Iris is at the Phil at the moment, so it was convenience really that I used the black Aurora. But actually I was really glad I didn't use the gold Iris!
The Iris is now starting to bed in now that it is nearly a year old and has an amazing rich sound which really carries across an auditorium. For solo and orchestral work it is a truly stunning instrument to play and you can get a real range of dynamics.
For Katherines gigs though all the instruments are miked up and the harp has 2 very close mikes, 1 at the bass end and 1 at the top. The engineers get a great sound (so I'm told) of the harp out at the front, but it is a complete nightmare playing with such close mikes. You have to be so aware of every finger noise, damp and pedal noise.
My Iris produces so much sound that I'm very conscious of having to damp all the time especially the mid range. You don't notice that when you play acoustically but it really shows up whenever I have done some test digital recordings.
I was going to do a CD recording earlier this year, but I've postponed it until the harp settles in and matures a bit more and generally doesn't have so much "boom" on a close up microphone.
So the Aurora came into it's own! It's a really lovely harp with a great sound and I'm very lucky to have two such amazing harps.
I've just had a very busy few days of gigs. First up was a Katherine Jenkins gig in Whitehaven, which was nicely presented by Katherine after all the recent tragedy there. The next day was a James Bond gig with the RLPO which was fun but it was just page after page of glisses, and there were lots of pages.
Slotted in between the glisses there were a couple of pieces where I actually had some notes to play, namely Schindlers List and then a 2 bar harp solo in Hill Street Blues!!! Then back to even more glisses. Thank goodness for felt picks, otherwise I wouldn't have any fingers left.
In the morning on the way to the Bond gig I had a Bollywood wedding to play at which made the whole weekend a bit of logistical nightmare. Probably more about Bollywood harp music on another post.
This is a new thing which I have recently started doing and the repertoire is very interesting, especially as there doesn't seem to be any sound clips on the web of how it is supposed to sound on just a harp! So I've recorded a few quick clips which although it's not the best recordings, at least give a rough idea of the sound.
Andy and I played at the funeral today of a very special lady today, who died before her time. It was a really lovely church service, and it was nice to catch up with some old friends afterwards.
Playing at a funeral is definitely one the hardest gigs you can do, but it was a real privilege for me and Andy to be able to play for her as she was really good to us when our kids were little.
I played some solo harp music before the service, and then just before the service started we (Andy on tenor sax) played "the Water is Wide" which is such a beautiful tune. As Carol was brought into the church we played "Pie Jesu" by Lloyd-Webber, and then as Carol was taken out of the church we played "Fields of Gold" followed by "Autumn Leaves".
Andy and I so rarely play together which is a shame as the harp and tenor sax sound really lovely, but Andy does have to "hold in" the volume so as not to blast out the harp. It balanced out ok in the church though and I'm glad we could do this for her.
I've been really busy with gigs, but have hardly had any chance to practice. A very unsatisfactory way to be, but thats the way it goes sometimes.
I spent most of this week in between gigs (and during breaks in the gigs) writing up proposals, filling in funding application forms and generally catching up on loads of admin. All the applications need to be submitted in the next few days, so hopefully I can get my life back and get some practicing in then.
Finally got my flyers for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe dates to the printers last night which was long overdue considering the tickets are now on sale. It would be really good if being a musician was just about practicing and playing, but I think at least half of it is about admin. Otherwise how do you get the work in the first place? On reflection I suppose it's not that often really that the admin takes over completely from the playing, it's just annoying when it does!
I've been playing through Salzedo's "A Daily Dozen" as technical exercises a lot lately.
I'm a real fan of the "Conditional Exercises" and have been using them for years, and bought "Daily Dozen" last year as something new to try out.
I'm really not sure what I think about these. I find them very good, but have slight reservations about them - especially number 2 with the octave jumping. They do however deliver a condensed version of what you can achieve by going through something like the LARIVIERE book.
Like the "Conditioning Exercises" you can play through the whole book in just over 15 minutes which works as a good technical warm up.
I think the problem I have with them is that they are obviously designed to be done by players who use the Salzedo technique. I've not come across any players in the UK who do not use either the French or combination of French/Russian method of playing, so I must admit that I find the Salzedo technique really odd to look at with the high elbows.... I suppose it's a case of what you are used to!
With that in mind, exercises like the octave jumping in number 2 of Daily Dozen are probably lost on a harpist with French/Russian technique, although they are still fun to do.
Here is a good little video explaining the basics of the Salzedo technique
Unfortunately I couldn't find a similiar video showing French method but here is some text off the net explaining the differences...
There are two main methods of harp technique: the French (or Grandjany) method and the Salzedo method. Neither method has a definite majority among harpists, but the issue of which is better is a source of friction and debate. The distinguishing features of the Salzedo method are the encouragement of expressive gestures, elbows remain parallel to the ground, wrists are comparatively stiff, and neither arm ever touches the soundboard. The French method advocates lowered elbows, fluid wrists, and the right arm resting lightly on the soundboard. In both methods, the shoulders, neck, and back are relaxed. Some harpists combine the two methods into their own version that works best for them.
My husband, Andy Scott who is a composer, will shortly be writing a new piece for solo harp.
He has been commissioned by young talented harpist, Keziah Thomas who has recently moved to the US, so the piece will be premiered at the Forge in September in London and then in Carnegie Hall in New York in October.
Andy wrote his flute and harp sonata for me nearly 8 years ago now and I will be re-recording it soon with Clare Southworth on flute for a new CD of all of Andys flute music due out next year. So after 8 years, another harp piece, and this time a major solo work for harp by Andy is well overdue.
Rather sadly, the ability to access funding for the arts has somewhat gone down the pan over the years and it is harder and harder to do creative things in the arts. So it's really inspiring to see a young artist not being limited by the lack of funding out there by public bodies!!
Finally - I couldn't take the nasty sound they were producing so I ended up doing what I always normally do when I get blisters. (But usually I don't get blisters quite this thick, which is why I was holding off from the doing this...)
It's probably against all correct medical advice.... but I usually file them off with a nail file.
Takes a bit of a while when the skin is that thick, but they would have split whilst I was playing at some point anyway.
I think filing them so there are no edges is safer, as then you are less likely to 'snag' your skin when you are playing.
So, for the first time in years, I have 3 really raw fingertips and that bottle of surgical spirit which I have had hanging around for years is finally coming into use again as I'm dunking my fingertips in there as much as possible.
Luckily only one of them is really sore to play on and I'm hoping it will have hardened by this Saturday when I'm playing the Mozart flute and harp concerto! Not a piece to have a painful right hand 2nd finger, but c'est la vie! I must remember to smile and not grimace whilst playing.
I'm looking forward to Sunday and not obsessing about my fingertips for a while.
