Glide through the Gliss

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One of the things that defines the music of the harp has got to be the glissando. Glisses are central to any showoff repertoire, and while they are easy to do, they are very difficult to do correctly! The only way to get good at glissandos is to do them, practicing them until they are perfect – but you already knew that.

First – what is a Gliss? Glissando comes from the French word Gliser – to slide* and when doing a gliss, you do, in fact slide up the strings.

Glissandos are tricky beasts – yes, they are dead easy to whip out but devilishly difficult to get right!

Glisses have a beginning, an end, and should have some specific characteristics including being even in tempo, include dynamics, beginning and ending on time and on the right notes, should be in the key denoted and should be effortless. No cheating with “stop fingers”!

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Glisses can go up or down. They are not used so much in traditional music but are present more in classical music. Glisses are also variable and may take many forms. But most of us more trad players who just want our listeners to be happy.  We are just looking to rip off a four octave drag up the strings and back down again in that crowd pleasing glissfest that seems to keep them coming back for more (and lets admit it – they are kind of fun!).

Going up, use your 2 or 3 finger with a gentle curve and draw up the harp – keep your elbow lifted like you’re drawing a bow. To go down, use your thumb and push your hand away from you. Not hard.

Except of course, the details are where the work lies. Breathe and count – don’t play longer or shorter than the gliss gets – you don’t want to shy the values or make an expansive ritardando where you didn’t really mean to. Follow any dynamic that might be needed to assure the gliss suits the tune and isn’t just a splash of noise! Start on the right first note and end on the correct last note. Practice smoothly moving along the strings,  not “stuttering” through the notes (especially that last one when you try to end in the right place!).

So, practice doing them correctly, so they are crisp and correct – playing the notes you meant to and no more and you’ll begin to enjoy playing glisses for fun

* http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/glissando?s=t

Deadline is coming up – Don’t miss it!

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You know that I’m excited about the upcoming 2016 Harp the Highlands and Islands Tour – we are planning this trip in July to enjoy the Scottish summer! Dates for 2016 are 30 July – 6 August 2016.  This timing will allow you the easy option to stay a little longer if you chose to go to the Tattoo, the Festival and the Fringe as well – you’ll already be there!

The tour will include the breathtaking Highlands and the Isle of Skye as well as learning and playing and having a great time.  We cater to harp players at all levels and we also welcome other traditional musicians as well as “harp appreciators”! Each day we’ll take on a tune, learn more harp lore, and learn how the music is intertwined with the history and culture.

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We will depart from Edinburgh and then spend eight days seeing the Highlands and Skye.  Our tour group will be small – no more than six travelers – which allows enough flexibility each day to see the very best Scotland has to offer and still include those special things that can’t be planned. And each day, there is a tune that matches our travels, experiences, and mood.

The early booking discount date is rapidly approaching! Book by 15 September and pay only $3000, saving nearly 15%. Prices go up after that – book by the end of the year and pay just $3200. From 1 January, $3499*. Got a crowd? Call for options.

I hope you’ll join us. For more details go to this year’s website (click on the button above for Tours of Scotland).

* Of course, there is small print:  Prices per person, double occupancy and include eight day/seven night dinner, bed and breakfast accommodations, tour and professional driver guide, entrance to all attractions, morning and afternoon coffee or tea, as well as other special treats along the way.

Reading Challenge wrap up

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Did you set a reading goal for yourself? Did you make good progress to that goal? The original idea was to set a short term goal to read at least one tune each day.

I didn’t do as well as I would have liked. I didn’t get to read every day. And I fell well short of my goal. That happened for a number of reasons – the sort of reasons that often trip us upPicture1

  • I didn’t have a real plan for what I was going to read
  • I didn’t make sure I had the “bandwidth” to insert reading into my daily practice – some days I don’t have a lot of time to practice and I chose to spend the time I had on work that has a shorter horizon.
  • I didn’t prioritize reading.

Now, to be fair, part of the reason I didn’t has as much time included that I worked to prepare to teach a workshop (ironically – on sight reading!). I also need to prepare for some upcoming events that required I spend time writing which meant I didn’t have the time to read.

And, of course, reading isn’t really a contest so I could slag it off – I only needed to read some ensemble arrangements. But I have to admit, I’m a tad disappointed. Not only because I didn’t make my goal but also because I set the goal but then didn’t do enough to make it happen. That’s how it goes when you make a wish rather than a goal.

How did you do?

Hot motivation

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It’s summer. It’s hot. No one really wants to do anything except perhaps go to the beach.

But soon it will be autumn and quickly after that it will be Christmas – so there’s practicing to be done and tunes to refresh and other tunes to learn – and to do all that you have to stay motivated.

And if you’re joining me on the Reading Challenge, staying motivated to read all those dots is essential. Likely, you also set goals at the beginning of the year and making progress on those means you have to stay motivated!

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Here are five ways to stay motivated while its summer (or any time really):

  1. Have a goal – keep the end in mind. You might be tired of hearing me say this but it is essential. You won’t be able to stay motivated if you forget where you wanted to go.
  2. Take it in small steps. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Identify the small tasks that make up the path to your goal and use those small steps to make progress.
  3. Sit a lesson from someone (or someone new). Few things are more motivating than having a lesson.  If you’re not taking regular lessons, participate in a workshop.  If you have regular lessons, take a lesson from someone else to gain a fresh perspective on what you are doing most of the time.  There are still summer workshop opportunities and the autumn workshops are just around the corner!
  4. Believe in your goal – and yourself. If you think you will fail, then you certainly will. Have faith in yourself and your work,
  5. Be kind to yourself. Listen to your self-talk. If what you say to yourself is something you wouldn’t dream of saying to someone else (picture your best friend), then don’t say them to yourself!

Happy 20th! It’s time for Camp!

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I am very thrilled to be heading off to 20th Anniversary Harp Camp. So glad some of you will be joining us! Kris and I are looking forward to a highly personalized and fun-filled weekend so you can extend your technical skills no matter where you’re starting.

Picture1Harp Camp has small class sizes so we can give each person personal attention. It is very intimate, we focus on very specific teaching at the harp, and away from the harp we include the sights, sounds, textures, and tastes that make our harp life full!

Our campers typically have a great time – and left tired and with their heads full – just like we like it! And we have a blast!

What a way to have summer fun! See you when we’re finished

2016 Harp the Highlands and Islands Tour!

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We are very excited to be planning the 2016 Harp the Highlands and Islands Tour – this will be our 5th year! We’re planning to go at the height of summer when the sun shines and it is beautiful!

We are looking forward to traveling 30 July – 6 August 2016.  See the beautiful, powerful sights of Scotland while we’re learning and playing and having a great time.  Picture1Our trip is designed for harp players at all levels. Each day we’ll have a harp event – learn a tune, add to your harp lore, and more all while experiencing the history of our musical heritage. Don’t play the harp?  We’re happy to have all musicians with small traditional instruments and appreciators of the music are also welcome – there’s no lack of interesting things to do!

We kick off from Edinburgh and spend the next eight days seeing the highlands and Skye.  Our tour is intimate, consisting of just six travelers on each outing. This very small group size allows flexibility so that each day we can see the very best Scotland has to offer as well as those special things that can’t be planned. And each tune will match our travels, experiences, and mood.

All this for just $3499/ppdo. Book early for a discount — book by 15 September and pay just $3000. Book by 31 December and pay $3200. Got a crowd? Call for options.

This schedule also positions you should you decide to stay on after our tour and go to the Festival, the Fringe or the Tattoo. I hope you’ll join us. For more details go to this year’s website (click on the button above for Tours of Scotland).

Is that a full stop?

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If you’re going to improve your music reading, you have to know what all the ink means!  So, let’s start with the . Yup, that’s a dot – a .

Nope, it’s not a full stop – in fact it means the complete opposite – it means add half again.

No matter what the note is, the . gives you half again as much.  Got a quarter note, add a . and then you have 1 and ½ beats.  Got an eight note, add an additional sixteenth note value.  Got a half note, add half its value – an entire beat.

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When you’re reading a piece of music, these . become very important.  They can be easy to overlook because they are small and there can be a lot of information on the staff, but they become very clear when you count the beats in the measure.  I know you’re counting each beat in every measure so you would know right away if you missed any of the .’s!  If, while you’re counting (including the .’s), you have too many beats (or not enough beats), you know right away that you need to go back and reread the measure.

Like reading words, at first finding the dots, remembering what they mean, and counting them out will be painful and will require painstaking attention and reading.  But with a little bit of work each day you will become a better reader!  Given enough time and practice, when you look at a page of music, you’ll know what to do with all the .’s!

Brain work – Enharmonics

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No one likes to learn theory. No one even really likes to think about theory. But one of the important things about theory is that it helps you build a vocabulary that you can use to talk with other musicians…and actually understand what they’re talking about.

And the words shouldn’t be the way we differentiate ourselves from one another, but often that is what happens – someone uses a word that sounds like you should know what it means but you have no idea what they are talking about! So, here’s the first of these – just so you can stay in the conversation!

So what are Enharmonics? Enharmonic is the word used to describe two notes of the same pitch that have different names. This is easier if you look at a piano –

Picture3For example – if you look at the right black key in the set of two – you can call this D# (if you are in the key of EMaj) but might also call it Eb (if you are in the key of B Maj). They are the same sound (this is not entirely true – if you’re interested we can address that later – but for our purposes, they are the same sound) but have two different names.

If you have your harp tuned to Eb Maj, you can either leave the A lever down (to have an Ab) or you can lift the G lever (to have a G#). You’ll get the same note (assuming you have tuned correctly!). The challenge is to remember what string to play when!

Enharmonics allow you to have both notes (either G or G# and or Ab and A#). Note that, unlike the piano, you can’t have both without flipping levers. And that’s ok – as long as you plan ahead!

You’ll get better at using enharmonics to get more out of your harp if you practice reading the music and “translating” the notes in your head as you play.

2015 Reading Challenge!

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We all know that we should be reading more. Reading takes practice. It is more challenging on the harp than on other instruments because the music isn’t propped up directly in front of us – we have to add turning our heads to all the other effort of reading.

Some of us complain that we don’t read well, or fast enough, or accurately enough. And we have forgotten how hard we had to work to learn to read initially…it was so long ago that it escapes us how hard it was to master!

There is a way to make reading easier – PRACTICE!!

Picture2But practice is also easier if we have a goal – so we’re going to have a Summer Reading Challenge! The goal is to practice our reading so it becomes second nature (or at least is closer to second nature than it is now!).

The Challenge will be on for six weeks. The plan is to read through as much music as possible in that time. You can select music that you are interested in. You can read melody lines or both hands – whichever will get you further along in reading the music you want to read more easily. The point is simply to practice your reading so it will get easier!

My goal is to read a new tune every day! I’ll post a list at the end and we’ll see how I do – hope you’ll join me – start keeping a list in your practice journal and you can send them to me in August! Start reading – you have until 26 August!

I’m off to Oberlin!

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I’m not going to try to kid myself that I’ll get a post off this week – I’m at the Ohio Scottish Arts School – learning from amazing tutors including Wendy Stewart, Haley Hewitt, Ann Heymann, Charlie Heymann, Sue Richards, and from my fellow OSASers who are incredible harpers in various stages of development – why aren’t you here?!?