Do I have to practice scales on the harp?

“Music is technique. One can only be free if the essential technique of one’s art has been completely mastered”

(Nadia Boulanger)

Scales have a reputation for being among the least interesting activities we harpists face, but there is no reason scale practice should be dry and boring.

In reality, scales are quite literally the basis of all our harp learning. They develop your:

  • Fingering and dexterity

  • Natural sense of tempo

  • Knowledge of keys and intervals

  • Level of discipline when it comes to practising

As such, I feel they should be approached as an enjoyable part of the practice process.

Think of scales as vehicles for other things. For example, if you are struggling with a two against three polyrhythm in a piece, before you grapple with the passage itself, practise first a scale in this polyrhythm (one hand will play three octaves, the other hand two - see p.16 of Technical Exercise for Lever Harp). The point here is that you already know your scales, so you will not have to read any notes or think about fingering – just about the specific technique you’re focussing on.

We can also use scales to help our speed and dexterity. Work with the metronome to increase your speed gradually.

One of the main reasons that some harpists see scales as a chore is because there is no creativity involved in practising them. Our brains crave to create. But there is nothing stopping us adding some creativity into our practice if it helps us to develop quicker! 

Add some flair to your harp scales practice with these ideas

  • Approach your scales as if they are the most beautiful thing you’ve ever played. Play them as if they were part of a concerto at the Royal Albert Hall

  • Practise at different speeds and different dynamics – from super slow to fast as possible

  • Play each hand with a different touch (e.g. play one hand forte, the other piano).

  • Try emphasizing the different beats e.g. every 3rd or 5th note – make it harder by accenting e.g beat 3 in the RH and beat 4 in the LH

  • Change the shape of your phrases

  • Play them over 1,2,3, 4 octaves – with crescendo and diminuendo for each set

  • Practise in contrary motion

  • Practise accenting certain fingers

  • Add interest to your practice session by having a go at other scales, not just standard major and natural minor. Blues scales, for example, are great fun to play once you know them well.

Also, remember to record yourself playing and listen back! See my previous blog about benefits of recording your harp practice

Do you have other suggestions? Add them in the comments below!

 *** If your scales need some TLC, check out the replays of my Tame Your Technique or Dance Tune Dexterity workshops! ***

https://www.ailierobertson.com/workshops

3 Useful Yoga Stretches for Harpists

Whilst learning the harp is a pleasure, unfortunately musicians can be susceptible to long-term, permanent injuries that can prevent them from making music. Upper-body injuries are extremely common for musicians; studies show that 35 to 60 percent of musicians have had career-damaging injuries at some point.

In this post we’ll look at some simple Yoga stretches that are helpful for harpists. Remember, that the advice here is only from my experience, and if you are experiencing pain, it is important to see a doctor!

The first thing to acknowledge, is that most musicians who play an instrument adopt a posture that is usually somewhat asymmetrical. This is definitely the case with the harp, where one arm is doing one thing and the other something else. Many harpists tend to round the upper back in order to reach the strings, and often twist their necks to to read music from a music stand, or to see the strings better . If you are practicing for long periods with few breaks, it is likely that you posture will also begin to collapse from fatigue. These stretches will help to counteract the harp posture, and increase your strength and flexibility (see also blog post about shoulder tension: https://www.ailierobertson.com/harp-tips-blog/2022/1/11/5-tips-to-help-you-relax-your-shoulders-when-playing-harp.

As with any physical exercise, work within your limits and stop immediately if you are in pain.

  1. Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana)

Best for: Upper back and should pain

  1. Bring your left arm straight up toward the ceiling.

  2. Bend the left elbow, bringing the left hand to the back of your neck. You can use your right hand to gently shift the left elbow toward your midline.

  3. Lift the right arm out to the right side, bend the elbow, and bring the right arm up the centre of the back.

  4. Clasp hands behind your back.

  5. Draw both elbows toward the centre and keep your head from tilting forward by pressing the back of your head into your left arm. Breathe evenly.

  6. Release your arms on an inhale and try the pose with the left leg and right arm on top.

Be sure to keep your spine aligned rather than twisted. You should have a straight line from the top of your head to your tailbone. Avoid twisting to join your hands.

While your hands are clasped, do not stick your ribs out. Try to drop your tailbone to the floor and broaden your lower back instead. Also resist rounding your back and curving your chest inward. Spread your collarbones instead.

b17e4c00-da64-46cb-a8bd-c5bbf59600c7.png

2. Eagle Pose Arms (Garudasana)

Best for: Upper back tension

You can choose to sit or stand with this pose. Draw the elbows towards each other in front of the chest. The right elbow is placed into the crook of the left elbow. Bring the back of the hands towards one another. Keep them here, or if it’s accessible, continue to wrap the forearms, bringing the palms together. Press the palms together and broaden across the collar bones to engage the shoulder blades on the back.
Repeat on the other side. You can gently press your elbows into each other to increase the stretch, as well as drawing your arms away from your chest.

Harp yoga 4


3. Cat/Cow (marjaryasana-bitilasana)


Perhaps the most common physical complaint among musicians is that of back pain. These two poses, Cat and Cow, which are usually linked together in succession, allow us to flex and lengthen the entire spine. If we find that we practice in one position for long periods of time, our spines will need to release that tension.

From a hands-and-knees tabletop position, begin cow pose with an inhale. The belly sinks toward the ground, creating an arch in the back, and the head lifts as the gaze is directed upward. On an exhale, ease into cat pose. The core muscles are pulled in toward the spine as the back rounds and the head releases gently toward the ground.

Throughout both poses, we want to be sure to support our spinal movement with engaged abdominal muscles. This allows our spines to move safely and feel supported, rather than relying on our overused spinal muscles to assist with this process. Although simple, cat-cow pose requires precise body positioning for maximum benefit and safety. The knees should be directly under the hips and the hands should be directly under the shoulders.

Musicians with wrist sensitivities or fears of injuring this part of their body should choose to make fists with their hands rather than placing the palms flat to the mat or floor.

Harp Yoga 2
Harp Yoga 3

*images from yogapedia.com

Banish the Buzz! How to stop finger buzzes on the harp

Buzzing is the bane of many a harper. Buzzes occur when a finger touches a vibrating string. Buzzing is particularly a problem in the bass of the harp, because the bass strings, vibrate in wider patterns, and keep moving for a long time.

So what is a harper to do to stop harp buzzing?

 

There are two main types of buzzes:
– a fingertip buzz which happens when you replace a finger on a string which you have just player

– a fingernail buzz which happens when one of your fingernails touches a vibrating string nearby 

So if you’re hearing a buzz, the first thing to check is

-  which finger is causing the buzzing?

- which type of buzz is it? (fingertip or fingernail)

 

Dealing with a fingertip buzz

Fingertip Buzzes are a result of your fingertips being near but not fully on the strings. This is most often due to hesitation with your placement.

When replacing on a vibrating string, placing firmly is really important. Try to make the moment of placing the finger on the string as fast and firm as possible - don’t hesitate. Place just before you’ll play, and with deliberateness.

It may sound like a cliché, but confidence is the key! If you are hesitant, and approach the strings slowly, you’re far more likely to buzz! Hesitation will always create buzzing, as will sloppy placing of a group of notes as less than a unit.

Eliminating nail buzzes

Nail buzzes happen when you are setting onto a DIFFERENT string than the one that is already vibrating, and you catch the vibrating string with you nail.

Good hand position is important here to eliminate this!

 Check your hand position - Notice are your fingers closing and opening below your knuckles? Or are you allowing your hand to twist or pull out of its good harp hand position?  If you buzz, stop immediately and figure out which finger is hitting which string at which point as you place, and adjust that finger’s position.

Play the passage very slowly, changing your hand position ever so slightly until the sound is clean. Now do it again, and if it’s still clean, figure out just what you did to get that sound. Remember, you are ultimately the only one who can determine what fine adjustments in your finger angle or approach will allow you to “land” the notes without buzzing.

Once you know what to do, practice it until you can do it every time. You will get it, I promise.

TIP: Try playing your pieces an octave lower to really challenge yourself! 

Harp Lever Changes Made Easy

Do lever changes on the harp bring you out in a cold sweat? Just like learning to drive a car, trying to do multiple things at once on the harp can be disorientating at first, but Lever changes are just another layer of coordination that you have to work into you playing. Learning to shift levers can be a challenge, but once you learn some basic tricks, it becomes second nature. Here are some tips to help you master them more easily! You can also check out the Lever Changes chapter in my Technical Exercise for Lever Harp book for some exercises.

  1. My harp teacher used to also was say that lever changes are ‘management, not music’ and it’s totally true! It’s all down to having a plan for when and how they will happen, and practicing them into the piece.

  2. As a general rule, one should incorporate lever changes immediately into the learning process. Think of the lever change as if it were an extra note in the piece – it has to come ‘in time’ with the rest of what you’re playing. Put the lever change on a specific beat so that it becomes part of the the piece, and you play in the same place every time. The lever change is an integral part of the piece, and as such, has to have a specific timing.

  3. You need to focus on the lever you’re aiming for with your eyes, so make sure your Right Hand is totally fluent so you don’t need to be looking at those strings when your Left Hand is changing the lever.

  4. Practice moving up to the lever and increasing the speed at which you can get there and change it. If you have very fast lever changes, keep the Left Hand near the levers so there is less distance to cover.

  5. If a string is still ringing when you change the lever, it can create a buzz or you can hear the sound of the pitch change before you want it. Avoid that by gently touching your finger against the string right before you change the lever, to damp the sound, and get a clean change.

In summary, there’s no magic to changing levers quickly - it’s just a matter of keeping calm, and always having them in the same place. It can be temping to avoid them, but the music you play can become so exciting once you master them that you’ll never look back!

FREEBIE! Here’s a free arrangement I made of the traditional strathspey Miller O’ Hirn which features 4 lever changes! Have a go and see how you get on!

Harp Lever Changes

Learning A New Harp Piece - How To Practice

When learning a new harp piece, not all practice makes perfect. It’s easy to learn-in mistakes that we make early on, so in order to establish good habits, we need a thorough, mindful approach from start to finish.

Once you have chosen a new harp piece and are ready to start learning it, one or two read-throughs is a good idea, but take care to avoid repeated read-throughs or you risk ingraining all sorts of sloppiness. Rather, here are some tips and suggestions for how to break down the process of learning and refining a new piece of harp music to help you avoid typical pitfalls:

  • Start Away From Your Harp

Laying the groundwork starts with some research into the piece. If available, listen to recordings, or watch videos, make notes and if you’re learning from sheet music, explore the score away from the harp. By the time you start work at the harp, you will already have an idea of what you want to convey with your interpretation.

  • Analyse the music

Study the music to understand it better. Look at the patterns, chords, and so on before your fingers even touch the harp strings. Have a sense of the overall design of the piece means you can hit the ground running. If the fingering isn’t already given, decide it and WRITE IT IN now!

  • Repeat good habits

When practising a new piece, it’s important to remember that practise makes permanent! Any errors you repeat will quickly become ingrained, and much harder to fix later on. Try not to let any wrong notes or fingerings go unnoticed. Focus on fixing any errors as soon as they appear.

  • Invent exercises

Find new ways to practice the tune - play it in different rhythms, ‘chunk’ the fingering placement, try it at different dynamics, play block rather than open chords etc. There are many ways to practise a piece that will help it feel confident under the hand.

  • Listen critically

Listen critically to your results. Be your own teacher - what worked well, what didn’t work? Did you stay in time? How were your dynamics?

  • Reflect on your practice

After your practice session, reflect on your work. Highlight what you did well and write down what needs attention next time. A Musicians Practice Journal like this is really useful for keeping track of your progress and setting aims.

  • Practising a performance

Finally, practise playing the piece all the way through. Don’t allow yourself to stop to make corrections! Work with a metronome to check you are playing at the correct speed, and pay attention to phrasing and dynamics. Record yourself and listen back!

Conclusion

As you will see, learning a new piece is a process that takes time, effort, commitment and concentration. This logical, focused approach to practising will help you tackle any new harp material with confidence!

Improve your harp playing

Top Apps For Harpists

Welcome to another Harp Tips Tuesday Newsletter - weekly tricks and tips to help you become a better harpist!

I always get asked for advice about tools to aid my harping and learning, so today I'm going to talk about some of my favourite apps that I use pretty much daily, both for myself and students. They have saved me a lot of carting around extra equipment, and have helped improve musicianship for many of my harp students!

SCORE/PDF READING/MUSIC SCANNING

forScore – my go-to music-reading app. forscore allows you to store and view sheet music in PDF format. You can annotate and save changes, re-order pages, print wirelessly and page turns are easy. This has definitely revolutionised the massive pile of sheetmusic I was lugging around! I use it with a bluetooth pedal to turn pages and then both my hands are free for my harp!

 

METRONOME

Soundbrenner – this is a free metronome app that I use all the time in my practice sessions. 

 

TUNER

Tuner Lite is an app I always have on my phone so that I always have access to a tuner! It's very accurate, plus picks up the full range of the harp very well! 

 

RHYTHM, PULSE & METER

Rhythm Lab – this is my new favourite rhythm tapping practice app. It has heaps of built-in rhythm patterns in all sorts of meters and students can tap right on the screen and get instant feedback. 

 

SIGHTREADING 

MusicFlashClass –  This is a great note-learning app - download to your  phone and practice a bit of note recognition everyday!

Read ahead - This is really for piano but works well on harp too! One of the hardest things about teaching sight reading is getting students to read ahead and not stop. To do that, they need to practise memorising a bar of music ahead of time. They also need to drill lots of patterns that come up in musical scores. This app practises all that and more. Definitely worth exploring – you can try demo levels for free and then buy upgrades as you need them.

 

AURAL TRAINING

Ear Master – one of my new favourite apps available for ear training and musicianship. This test you on things like rhythm, intervals, pitch, progressions, etc. It really is an all-round musicianship app that every harp student should have.

I hope these might come in handy for you! Share with others and spread the word!

My Harp Chat Facebook Group is a good place to go for advice and encouragement from other harpists, and if you need sheet music, video lessons or anything else, find it on my website.  

tips to improve your harp playing

Limiting Beliefs - Are they hindering your harp playing?

Welcome to another Harp Tips Tuesday Newsletter - weekly tricks and tips to help you become a better harpist!

 

Today I want to talk about Limiting Beliefs. 

 

Limiting beliefs are those which constrain us in some way. 

 

Limiting beliefs are often about our selves and our self-identity. We often have limited self-images of what we can and cannot do. If I think 'I cannot sing' then I will never try or not go to singing lessons to improve my ability. This is the crux of many 'I can't' statements: we believe our abilities are fixed and that we cannot learn (from Changing Minds)

 

The good news is, most of these beliefs are based on false ideas so with a little bit of effort in getting rid of these beliefs and replacing them with better, more rational and more positive thoughts you can start to really see yourself as the harpist you want to be, and then start enjoying your harp playing more and see much better progress.

 

One reason we form limiting beliefs is to excuse ourselves from what we perceive to be our failures. When we do something and it does not work, we often explain away our failure by forming and using beliefs which justify our actions. But in doing so, we do not learn and may increasingly paint ourselves into a corner, limiting what we will think and do in the future. (http://changingminds.org/explanations/belief/limiting_beliefs.htm)

 

If there’s ONE single biggest problem many musicians share, it’s a lack of confidence. Not just confidence in their ability to play a particular thing: underneath is often a deeper unease, a sense that maybe you’re struggling because you just don’t have the talent. This is possibly the biggest and most damaging obstacle, because it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

The simple solution for the learner is to realise that your immediate goal is not to be a great harpist. Your immediate goal should be to be able to play whatever it is you’re working on with confidence and authority. That means that your goals need to be modest in the beginning – but setting one modest and attainable goal after another is a sure path to progress. You may not have the skills to play what you want to play just yet, but you can learn to play something easier and play it well.

Here are some of the most common limiting beliefs I hear from students. Do any sound familiar?

 

1) I`m Too Old To Learn

This is a big one and it is complete nonsense.

I have taught the harp to so many people who are over retirement age. And guess what…the ones who stick with it are the ones who succeed.  Of course things like arthritis may be an issue, but as long as you practice properly, you will get better.

So much of learning anything is about confidence more than anything, and harp is no exception. Older people really believe their age will hold them back whereas children don`t care about their age – they just play. Take a leaf out of their book and stop worrying about the results ahead of time!

 

2) I`m Tone Deaf

Are you really? Only about 5% of the population are actually tone deaf. Most can actually hear that the pitch is off but lack the skills to correct themselves. This can be easily learned.

 

3) I`ve Got No Rhythm

Rhythm is something that can be worked on frequently throughout the day and many of those people we think of who have great rhythm worked hard to get it.

Practice your rhythm skills and they will improve! Check out the Apps I recommend in this article to help your rhythm!

4) I Don`t Have Enough Time To Dedicate To Practising

We all wish we had more time. So since you can't get more time, you need to use your time better! The way you practice your harp is much more important than for how long. Make sure you've downloaded my Effective Practice Guide for more advice on this 

 

If you have ever had any of the above false self-limiting beliefs about your harp playing, now you know how wrong they are. Taking time to unpick our limiting beliefs can free you up to achieve more than you ever believed possible!

 

My Harp Chat Facebook Group is a good place to go for advice and encouragement from other harpists, and if you need sheet music, video lessons or anything else, find it on my website.

 

Try challenging your limiting beliefs and see if it helps your harp practice this week!

 

Benefits Of Recording Your Harp Practice

Welcome to my Harp Tips Tuesday Newsletter - weekly tricks and tips to help you become a better harpist!

 

Today I want to talk about the benefits of recording your harp practice

You’ve invested your time and money into learning the harp. Get the most out of your practices by making audio and video recording of your efforts. Here’s why:

 

Your ears aren’t perfect!

Your ears often do not give you a correct idea of what you’re playing really sounds like. Recording yourself helps to bridge the gap between what you think you are playing and what it sounds like in reality. That way you will have in your head an accurate map of where you exactly stand in terms of playing skills.

 When you listen to your harp playing on a recording you realise that not all of it is the way you thought it sounded. You will be able to identify minute glitches you may have glossed over, edgy transitions, and poorly played portions, plus bits that may sound better than you imagined! Are you slowing down during the difficult parts, are you flying through the relatively easier sections with unnecessary haste, are the pauses you are taking of the correct duration, are you playing convincingly enough towards the ending?

 All these are questions recording yourself will help you to answer truthfully. 

 But one thing is for certain, if you want to expand your harp capabilities beyond playing for yourself, the sooner you start recording your performances, the more you will be helping yourself since you will be able to pinpoint weaknesses and strengths and you can use this information to become a better harpist.

 

BENEFITS OF AUDIO RECORDINGS

Many students rely on their instructors to tell them if something sounds “right.” Audio recordings allow you to evaluate your music and identify areas for improvement. Things to listen for include:

Pacing. Notice if you are playing faster in the easier sections and slower in the difficult ones, so you can smooth out these differences.

Tempo. Most pieces have a set tempo that is then increased or decreased for dramatic effect and musicality. Listen to the tempo of your playing, and note areas that need changes. 

Rests. Pay special attention the rest values. Are you holding them long enough or too long? etc. Most beginning harp players focus intensely on the notes, yet they forget to attend to the rests with as much vigour. Music is a dance between sound and silence, and both components matter.

 

BENEFITS OF VIDEO RECORDINGS

Your finger, hand and arm positions must all align appropriately to produce your desired sounds. Visual recordings let you observe whether you are using the proper techniques and positions on the harp, and whether your body moves with your hands rather than fight against them. Video recordings can also help you troubleshoot for recitals.

Have a go and see if it helps your practice this week!