electric envy

I see the harp twins have a lovely pair of Lyon and Healy Silhouette electric harps.



I was drooling over the black version of this harp a while back......

.... I did have a quick side swipe at lusting after a see through electric harp

before remembering that I really can't afford another harp until I've paid off for my lovely Iris.

And the bride would like....

lots and lots and lots and lots of requests

♥

♥

♥

Rock on!

The indomitable Deborah Henson-Conant demonstrating her homework for the Berklee Music Online 12-week course in the guitar techniques of Steve Vai.

Blue Skies

Finally after what seems like months of rain..... blue skies!!

I took the dog for a lovely long walk yesterday along our favourite bridle path and took the opportunity to listen to Sarah Deere-Jones CD Soirbheas.

A really interesting CD of music for harps with aoelian (wind blown) harps. With the ambient noise of these aoelian harps recorded in different parts of the British Isles you also have sounds of the sea, a church bell, thunder as well as the rhythmic beat of a wind turbine. On top of this, Sarah has cleverly weaved celtic harp music & improvisation.

It would be easy to dismiss this CD as another "new age" recording, but it is so much more than that. Taking you to an "other world" it is a beautiful CD that is guaranteed to lift your spirits.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it reminded me a bit of "Peiwoh" CD by Arianna Savall for it's purity of sound.

Definitely recommended - download the CD to your iPod and go for a long walk listening to Soirbheas. You'll feel rejuvenated!

Sarah is doing a concert up at Salt Mills at a harp day at the Early Music Shop in September, put the date in your diary!

Big Bang Theory...

is the best show on television.

And just when you think it couldn't get any better (joy!) they introduce harp playing Amy in Series 4!!!

Hair raising

Just had a lovely (and slightly bonkers) lunchtime, accompanied by my charming daughter in the rather splendid setting of Tatton Park in Knutsford.

I had a call from a BBC researcher 10 days ago wanting me to play some Victorian harp music as a little musical interlude during the filming of the antiques show, Flog It! which is going to be aired some time in June.

Seeing a good opportunity to dig out my costume for my Queen Victoria Parlour's project, I've spent the past week whilst I was working up in Scotland with the RSNO practicing Victorian harp music during the breaks. And also obsessing about what to do with my hair.

After a life time of having long hair, I have recently had my hair cut short. Short, as in, doesn't really successfully tie back into a small pony tail kind of short. And if you are going to wear a rather silly Victorian costume, you have to go the whole way and do something appropriate with your hair!!

Luckily, thanks to google, I found a really helpful wig shop in Crewe yesterday and the very helpful shop assistant found at the back of the shop, a clip on hairpiece in the shape of a large bun :-) Thanks to half a can of hairspray this morning and a dozen clips, I managed to scrape my hair back and attach said bun, so it looked like a formal hair style that could have passed for Victorian.

The fact that in the end, 5 minutes before filming they didn't want me to wear my Victorian dress after all seemed a moot point. I'm now the proud owner of fetching hair piece, and you never know, there might end up being more than 1o seconds of my playing ending up on film and not on the cutting room floor!

My daughter is currently sporting my bun in a rather Lady Gaga sort of way, and as she said to me on the way home - if I bought a matching one, I could wear them on either side of my head and look like Princess Leia. Now there's an idea, a Star Wars solo harp project...... I wonder if there is any mileage in that?

Charlie the Kitten

I found this brilliant teaching book for beginners whilst browsing through the sheet music at that treasure trove of a harp shop in Paris, Le Magasin de la Harpe.

Play the Harp with Charlie the Kitten by Isabelle Frouvelle

I've been using it for the past year for teaching my (very young) students and it's perfectly paced, with a good balance of music theory, little tunes and cartoons.

Each chapter section introduces one technical idea at a time in a progressive way, with a couple of preparatory exercises and then a little tune with fun titles like Charlie goes to School, Charlie goes for a bike ride, A Flea in Charlie's coat etc.

For when little minds start to wander, you can talk about the cartoons on the page as Charlie has lots of different adventures as well little 'spot the difference' cartoons. You can very easily just work through the book in page order, but after about 30 pages in you can start to incorporate into the lessons the duets as well as the more in depth theory and exercises at the back of the book.

For teaching regular weekly half hour lessons, you can cover technique as well as music theory in an engaging way without "boring" the student, or indeed them even knowing that they are doing so. It's an excellent book for teaching young students. Also an added bonus is that you can work from just the one book for some considerable period of time, so students only need to remember to bring one book with them to lessons!

Interestingly enough I've used this book teaching young girls as well as boys, and it has worked well with both genders. Sometimes harp books for young players can be very "girly" with 'twinkly' titles, but this book appeals to both boys and girls.

It comes in various European languages, so make sure you buy the book in the English language version. I haven't found it in music shops in England yet, but it's very quick and easy to order online from the shop in Paris here.

Highly recommended!

the genius of Harpo

Harpo Marx from the 1946 film A Night in Casablanca.

He's such a brilliant harpist and he makes it all look so effortless. The sound quality is a bit hissy, but overall not too bad on this clip and doesn't detract from his amazing harp playing.

They used to show Marx brother films on TV a lot when I was a kid. I loved the way he always use to fashion a comedy harp out of whatever prop came to hand in the film.

scroll to 5:32 in clip below

 

I remember my very first (elderly!) harp teacher saying that she saw him play live at the London Palladium in the late 1940's and that he played 'straight' (no comedy) harp solos and was AMAZING.

He was completely bonkers in his films, but he had such a lovely gentle humour whenever he played the harp. The scene with the multiple harps in the mirrors always stuck in my memory banks from watching his movies as a child.

What's not to love about Harpo?

A lovely website all about Harpo set up by his son here

X marks the spot

Hidden treasure??

No - just a handy guide for teaching good articulation and finger position.

I ask my students to touch the two crosses when they play, so that they get a full finger articulation. One cross on the index finger for a full thumb articulation, and the cross on the palm is just a general reminder to pull their fingers right into their palm.

The lines on the fingers are an extra guide to act as a reminder for correct placement of finger on the string.... i.e. line up the harp string with the lines on the fingertips.

I also use an orange as a teaching aid.... I'll leave that as a teaser for another post!

Shrek Finger

Apologies if you have just eaten, in which case it's probably not a good idea to look at this photo...... which is how my left hand 4th finger looked 6 weeks ago!

As well as swelling to twice it's usual size, the heavy bruising eventually went down after about 4 weeks, but it still hurt like hell and my knuckle now is definitely not the shape it used to be. (I'll never be able to get a ring over my knuckle again!)

Although I had movement in it, there was no strength in it - I could just about pluck a string on my little clarsach but it couldn't cope with the tension of my Salvi.

Needless to say, I've had a pretty stressful time ever since it got busted going through all sorts of emotions whilst waiting to see if my finger would ever get better.

I've spent the last 6 weeks not playing on it all, despite having gigs in the diary which I couldn't cancel. This past week though I have finally started tentatively playing on it again, although it's still not yet back to full strength. But at least I know now that it works.

Luckily, it happened just after a big run of work whilst I had 5 days off, during which time my finger went through all the colours of the rainbow. It was a lovely vivid green when I had some children's concerts which I had to explain away to the kids as my Shrek finger. I managed to somehow get through 2 flute and harp recitals, and have just finished doing 4 performances of Berlioz Symphony Fantastique with the RLPO.

The big solo scale down in the Berlioz was the first time I've used my fourth finger since it happened, but I still had to do all the left hand octaves using my third finger and thumb. Not ideal.. But I have some time off now from playing, so a chance to rest it properly for a couple of days and then build up the strength doing some slow technical exercises.