Tag Archives: Reading

Room for more

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Catch up on the discussion – we started with a challenge here and then I shared the tunes I had read here. That lead to discussion which we have below. Feel free to start the challenge now and I’ll look forward to hearing how you get along! And, of course, it would be great if you subscribe here.

Last week I shared the list of tunes I had read through to prepare for the coming holiday season and mentioned that I didn’t love all of them but did plan to include a couple moving forward. The list I shared came from some of the books I happened to have on my shelf. I won’t lie, I didn’t use all my Christmas books, just the ones I could reach from where I was sitting (never underestimate my ability to work hard to stay lazy!).

Eagle-eyed Kate noticed that I didn’t tell you which tunes I liked and want to keep, and which were meh and I’ll ignore – and she asked which were which! So, I thought I would share that this week.

So, the list of tunes I’ll probably work on this year includes:

  • Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came (to be fair, I have played this but never really committed it)
  • The Holly and the Ivy (I have always loved this one but never play it)
  • New Christmas (which I had also found earlier in a bagpiping book and have been intrigued by, and Jo writes lovely arrangements, so I think it’ll be a keeper)
  • O Come Little Children (which I heard while in Germany at a Christmas market so it’s like a breathing souvenir!)

I also heard from Sharon Thormahlen who has a number of holiday books available too! I hadn’t seen them, but she graciously sent me copies to read through*. She sent me a book of Carols (Tis the Season) and a book of songs (Season’s Greetings) as well as a single sheet White Christmas. The carols book includes those that get a lot of play (Deck the Hall, Silent Night, What Child is This, Away in a Manger, First Noel) as well as some less often played (Celtic Carol, The Holly and The Ivy). The songs book included tunes I never think of (Christmas in Killarney, Little Drummer Boy) as well as the ones you can’t leave on the table (Let it Snow! Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Silver Bells, and a medley of O Christmas Tree/We Wish You a Merry Christmas). I found her arrangements to be approachable and readable, and best of all she has placed the lever changes really thoughtfully so you can actually play without panic! I think I’ll be adding the Christmas Song and maybe Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas as well as White Christmas!

You might note that I had suggested adding a couple of tunes this year and I have already compiled quite a list! I think it’s safe to say that some will be ready to play this year and some will be better next year – and I’m ok with that! There’s always room for more!

*Sharon also sent me a book of Jewish music and if I had occasion to play a Hanukkah gig, I’d dip into it. If you would like to dip into the holiday books, she has them available on her website. In that internet-y way (and to make sure I don’t break any laws), I need to tell you that I did receive gratis downloads of the books I mentioned. I will not get any (additional) compensation if you do (or do not) buy them. I do hope you will buy books from musicians you’re interested in (e.g. Sharon) (or me for that matter) because it’s the right thing to do.

Challenge met?

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So, did you take me up on my dual challenge to do a little (consistent) sight reading and prepare a little early for Christmas? I hope so, if only so you’ll be comfortable when that first (unexpected) request to play for some charity event the day after Thanksgiving comes in! If you’re ready, what would have been a shock can be turned into a tingle instead of electrocution!

I’m kinda pleased with myself. I set the bar low at just one Christmas tune a day, but like practicing in general, once I got on the bench, who can really have just one? As promised, I made a list of the Christmas tunes I read through this week.

I didn’t include those tunes that I could have read but have been in my repertoire for years, so I really don’t need to read them (that seemed like cheating anyway). I did include tunes I have played a few times but can never remember without looking at the page (either because (to me) they’re arcane) or because although they’re popular, I don’t like them!).

I wasn’t fancy – I used books I have already. I focused on tunes I hadn’t ever read, mostly because I didn’t recognize them. I used what I consider “basic” books that you can easily find available. And I focused on the melody and harmony ideas not “straight” reading because 1. I’m lazy and 2. I know I won’t play those arrangements; I’ll find my own. Here’s my list of books (alphabetical by arranger):

  • Deb Friou and Julia Lane’s Yuletide Treasure
  • Jo Morrison’s Christmas Gifts
  • Sunita Staneslow’s Christmas Eve
  • Karl Weinand’s Christmas Music for the Lever Harp
  • Sylvia Woods’ 50 Christmas Carols for All Harps

So here goes, here’s what I read through this week (alphabetical by title):

  • A Child is Born in Bethlehem
  • A la Nanita Nana
  • The Abbot’s Bromley Horn Dance
  • Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came
  • Angelus ad Virginem
  • Birth in Bethlehem
  • Boar’s Head Carol
  • Cherry Tree Carol
  • Cold and Raw
  • Down in Yon Forest
  • From Heaven Above to Earth I Come
  • Green Grow’th the Holly
  • He Smiles Within His Cradle
  • The Holly and the Ivy
  • The Holly Bears a Berry
  • The Humors of Winter
  • Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine
  • Masters in this Hall
  • New Christmas
  • O Come Little Children
  • Over the Hill and Over the Dale
  • Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers
  • Shepherds Hurried to Bethlehem
  • Wexford Carol
  • While Shepherds Watched their Flocks
  • Willie, Take Your Drum

Did I like them all? Not even a lot of them. But there are a couple I’m excited to learn this year. Not sure I’ll play them anywhere, but can’t hurt to have a leg up.

What’s not in here? More modern Christmas songs – I’ll have to source some of those because I like them and want to play them! Or I could learn them by rote (which should be relatively easy since I can sing the ones I like) (don’t worry, I won’t make you listen to my singing). If you find the sheet music for I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, please do not send it to me.

How did you do? I’d love to hear about it, even if you don’t share your list! Let me know in the comments!

Challenge

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It’s the height of the summer and it’s hot. Do you know what that means?

It means it’s time to start thinking about what we’d like to play for the holidays! By then, it will be a stressful time, so we want to be ready. Of course, we have to balance out our need to prepare with ensuring we don’t let our enthusiasm for the repertoire get stale.

What can we do? How should we prepare so far ahead? How will we stay focused and motivated?

Let’s set ourselves a: READING CHALLENGE!

We know that we should be reading more because being proficient in reading takes practice. We also know that reading can be more challenging on the harp than on other instruments because the music isn’t propped up directly in front of us so we have to turn our heads to read the music and to see the instrument – on top of all the other effort of reading.


Many of us feel as though we don’t read well enough or fast enough or accurately enough. It’s easy to forget how hard we had to work to learn to read at all in the beginning. For most of us it was so long ago that we don’t remember how hard it was to get to fluid reading!

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

But practice is also easier if we have a goal. The holidays make a great goal – focused, limited, and they include a deadline – what’s not to like?

To make our holiday reading a more focused goal, let’s do (drum roll please) a 

Summer Christmas 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!) and to be ahead of the game when it’s time to hit the holiday opportunities to play.

But let’s not be too over the top. Let’s set this Challenge for just this week and keep focused on holiday music. 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 while also preparing for the cold time.

My goal is to read at least one new tune every day! I’ll post my list at the end, you send me your lists and we’ll see how we do.

Hope you’ll join me! Start keeping a list in your practice journal and you can send them to me by next Monday (just a week) and I’ll post what we’ve got. This should be both motivating and motivational. Motivating because we’d like to have made a good start and motivational to see what everyone is planning on for the holidays.

Start reading – you have until 21 July! (PS – if you’re running late, send it anyway, we’ll get caught up!). Just use the button below to send me your comments and your list!

Keeping the Ledger (Lines)

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Keeping the Ledger (Lines)

Does the mere thought of having to read Ledger Lines make you faintly queasy? Do those little strikes of ink make your heart sink and your palms clammy? Do you think you should be able to just look at a ladder of notes on top of the staff and race through the notes without a care? Ha!

Well, let’s take a crack at making ledger lines easier to read! We’ve talked about reading before (look here for those thoughts here, here, and here). Perhaps the most important thing to remember about reading is that it is just like reading words – it takes consistent practice. Once you have that, the rest is just details.

Like words, music has predictable patterns that will help you learn to read. Knowing those patterns will make it easier – you just need to know the code so you can crack it!

One code you want to crack is the lines of the staff. There are a couple of things to know:

What goes around comes around Part 1 – we only have seven note names to work with (outwith accidentals) A-B-C-D-E-F-G and then we start again. We are used to that repetition, and it is easy to remember that you just have to apply it to the “stripes” (staves).

What goes around comes around Part 2 – one trick to keep track of where you are is to remember that, as we cycle through the staff, the notes shift – if it’s a line here, in the next octave (up or

down) it will be a space. (no, really, look at the staff!) For example, let’s use A – at the bottom of the harp (if you go that low) it’s a line, as you come up through to the top of the harp, it goes through space, line, space, line, space, etc. If you’re waffling while reading in the ledgers, knowing where you were in the previous octave is a good clue to shortcut your line counting.

Never underestimate the importance and utility of doing a little bit every day. You can do a smidge of reading each day and you’ll make good progress…without even trying! Set aside five minutes each day to do a series of activities that will help move your comfort forward. You can “Notespeller” it (Notespeller has become a verb in my studio in which you treat any sheet music as if it were a page from a note spelling workbook and read, find on the harp, and write in the name of the note – over and over until you “instantly” recognize the notes).  It is really important to match the ink with the string on the harp (after all, an A is not an a is not an A’!).

Get Comfortable. Recognize that if you don’t spend a lot of time reading in the ledger lines (if you always play in the middle of the harp) you’re not going to be very comfortable wading around in the ledger lines. You will get more comfortable being there by being there. Give yourself time to get used to seeing those notes, relating them to your strings, and playing on the “outsides” of your harp.

Tool use. To get better and faster, make (or buy) flash cards of the various notes at different ledger lines. Go all the way up and all the way down. Shuffle them really well so it’s not easy! Be sure to use your harp so you are still relating ink to strings and sounds! When you’re feeling like you’ve learned the lines, you can give yourself timed tests on the flash cards. When you’re getting more comfortable, break out some music you haven’t read but you know goes all the way up and down and give yourself a “stress test” to see how well your reading is coming along. Be prepared to bot “be there” yet – you’re learning!

Be nice – there was a time that you couldn’t find Middle C with two hands and a map, so cut yourself some slack while you learn where low and high notes are!

So, the question of getting better and faster at reading ledger lines has led us right back to the usual answer – focused, attentive practice on that specific skill. Couple that with some patience – and an acknowledgement of the challenge this task poses. Don’t compare your music reading to your book reading and don’t compare yourself to anyone else! Compare yourself today with where you were yesterday, last week, last month. A little every day will get you there.

Do you have other ideas to get to where reading ledger lines feels easier and more natural? I’d love to hear it! Let me know in the comments.