Jenius Creations

Category: Technique

  • Practice Boot Camp – Five weeks to better!

    May is the “gateway” month – the last month to prepare for all the summer harp fun you’ve been planning. Workshops, competitions, gatherings, schools – there are so many opportunities to meet new people, learn new music, have more fun. And there are also so many opportunities to hurt yourself – carrying your harp more than usual, straining your brain, working your fingers, arms, back and legs!

    So let’s use this month to tune up for the long summer. By building a stronger practice over time, you’ll be able to make more progress in your practice time.  And because you’ll be stronger, you’ll be able to get more from all the events you’ll attend.  Each week we’ll add a new stretch, a technique, and a new practice element focus you can be ready to learn, laugh, and love your harp! Let’s get started*.

    Stretch – Breathing.  Stand with both feet on the floor, weight balanced between them (you can also do this sitting with your weight evenly distributed). Keep yourself lifted, head up, back comfortable and straight, shoulders relaxed. Slowly draw in a deep breath into your abdomen, hold for a moment and then slowly let it out. Do this 5 times. Be relaxed and enjoy the deep breaths.

    Technique – Intervals. Be sure to watch your fingering. Progress, in your favorite key and scale through the second, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, octave, ninth, tenth, and back down. Go slowly and carefully. No buzzing, no misses (errors), even pace, smooth transitions, and mind your hand and arm position and that your wrists are in a neutral position.  No tension!  Keep your shoulders down and your head up. Start with each hand and when these are good, go on to both hands. If this is too easy, place your hands and then close your eyes. Still too easy? Start with your eyes closed to find the start point. Do not accept “good enough” – this isn’t for your teacher, this is for you – do your best. Not getting what you expect? Slow down more.  Go only as fast as you can do it correctly.  Do not move faster than you can go accurately, do not rush. Enjoy the beauty of the tones, the feel of the harp against you, the experience of producing amazing sound. And don’t get upset if you can’t do it perfectly – remember – we’re practicing…and you’ll get better with practice!

    Practice element – Sitting. This week practice approaching the harp and sitting on the bench. Don’t just flop onto the stool! Lower yourself gently and in a controlled manner. No hands. Ensure that you’re sitting up straight and relaxed. Both feet flat on the floor, weight distributed across your hips. No twisted spine. No shoulders around your ears. No wrapping your feet around the legs of the bench. No rolling your hip forward. Now, stand. No hands. Sit and stand five times – slowly, controlled, relaxed. If you’re not able to do this five times, do as many as you can and work your way up. When you’ve done that, reach for the harp and pull it back like you’re just learning – straight toward your nose before pushing it off to your shoulder. Again check your posture. Set your timer for some random number of minutes and begin to play something you know fairly well. When the timer goes off, check your posture and make any needed corrections. Practicing your posture will allow it to become automatic so you don’t have to think about it when you’re playing!

    Slow and steady wins the race as they say – if you don’t feel like you are doing well, keep at it for the week – you will see improvement. Next week, we’ll add another stretch, technique and practice element.  Leave a comment and let me know how you get on!

    *Remember that I’m not that kind of doctor, so please be careful, work within your own abilities (which isn’t to say don’t stretch yourself but also, don’t hurt yourself!).  Be careful and only do what you can do.  This blog pro­vides gen­eral infor­ma­tion about trying to stay health and other sub­jects related to playing the harp.  All the con­tent pro­vided in this blog, and in any linked mate­ri­als, is not intended to be, and should not be con­strued to be, med­ical advice. If you have a med­ical con­cern, con­sult with an appropriately-licensed physi­cian or other health care worker.  Never dis­re­gard pro­fes­sional med­ical advice or delay seek­ing it because of some­thing you have read on this blog or in any linked materials. If you think you may have a med­ical emer­gency, call your doc­tor or 911 immediately.  The views expressed on this blog and web­site have no rela­tion to those of any academic, hospital, practice or other insti­tu­tion with which the author is affiliated.  Don’t be thick – these are just suggestions – take care of you!

  • Thumbs up to the end of the year

    The year is winding to a close, so it’s a good time to take stock.  You may be playing a lot with the events of the holidays or you may still be working on material for your family get together or to impress your cats. It is also cold and dry which is tough on your hands. Meanwhile, there is just a lot going on and everyone is busy.

    All of those things certainly don’t make playing any easier.  So it might be a good time to check in with the basics and see how you’re doing.

    thumbs-up

    Are your thumbs up? Are your fingers and hands relaxed?  Are you sitting up and breathing?  Do you keep up doing all the good techniques while actually playing?

    You know good technique is important – making it possible for you to play better, longer, stronger.  But good technique requires awareness – and what better time than the present to give yourself the present of making sure you’re doing well?

    Check in, and be sure to have your thumbs up as a strong end to the year!

  • Glide through the Gliss

    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”!

    Picture1

    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