This sounds a little strange, but I do a huge amount of practice away from my harp, and there’s a particular technique I find very useful for practising both fingering and speed.
Since I was a little girl I’ve always driven my family crazy by drumming my fingers on the table. What they didn’t realise was that this wasn’t just random, but I was pretending the table was my piano, and I was practising my piano pieces on it! But it turns out I’m not the only one who did this! Check out this amazing article about pianist Andrew Garrido using a similar method.
I still do a lot of ‘finger drumming’ these days, but now it’s mostly harp i’m ‘practising’. It let’s me practice when I’m sitting on the train, when I’m waiting in line at a checkout, and even as I push my trolly round the supermarket. But it’s more useful than just a convenience when I don’t have a harp - I use it actively even if I DO have a harp available.
Now, I know the first thing you’ll be wondering is “why would I practise like that if I have my harp in front of me?”, so bear with me! There are a couple of reasons I find this really useful:
1) It lets me really find out if I know the correct fingering or not. If I’m going to make a slip because of fingering on the harp, the chances are I’ll also make it with this method. But now I can’t blame it on anything else! I know it must be a fingering issue that’s tripping me up - somewhere the correct sequence hasn’t wired into my brain quite enough.
2) It’s great for practising rhythmic coordination between hands without the added pressure of the notes. Try to ‘play’ your Right and Left hand parts on the table, and see if you have all the coordination and syncopation in the right place. This is particularly useful when working on very rhythmically complex pieces.
3) It helps your internal rhythm - again by stripping away some of the elements, you’re just focussing on the rhythmic sensation of your fingers moving, so this can really help with your rhythm.
4) A lot of speed on the harp simply comes down to developing your ability to react and prepare quickly with your fingers. By getting used to using our fingers rapidly, they get quicker! I find it really useful to sit and drum out scale patterns and dexterity patterns (e.g. 1,3,2,4 1,3,2,4) with my fingers to increase my speed, which then in turn transfers to the harp. You can use patterns from my Technical Exercises for Lever Harp book and transfer them to this method!
Anyway, i know it’s a little unorthodox, but it really helps me, so maybe something to try! Have fun and get in touch if you have any questions