New harp and new music

I've now had my new harp for just over a week and it's about time I put some pictures of it up here.

 The wood is maple with a walnut satin finish. When I ordered the harp over the phone I was given lots of choices but didn't really have a clue what it might look like. It feels very much like the old harp to play which isn't that suprising really. The main difference is that the levers are made of brass, unlike the old plastic ones and these go up to sharpen the string. The plastic ones went down. I didn't give it much thought before but it makes more sense for them to go up as when you sharpen a note it goes up in pitch so that has helped me remember which way I am supposed to go. One problem I have found is that the plastic levers were coloured to match the strings. All the C levers were red which made them easy to spot. The new levers are all brass so you have to work it out from the string. This has taken a bit of getting used to.

Although my grade 2 exam is over I have plenty of new pieces to learn and work through. My next public performance will be at the Learning Orchestra course in Provence, later in August. One of the pieces is Elgar's Chanson de Nuit. The conductor forwarded me a part to have a look at. Elgar wrote for the pedal harp and as there are frequent changes of flats and sharps the part is not that playable on the lever harp. However I can rearrange some of the chords so that most of the notes can be played. I've listened to a recording so know that the beginning and end are quite important. It is also very slow so that gives me plenty of time to think. I have started writing in lever changes in red on my music which makes it easier to spot. I am alos hoping to get as much of this as possible from memory so that I can look at the harp and occasionally the conductor. I know that harpists always like to see any orchestral music well in advance of the first rehearsal and I can see why. So many moves need forward planning so you don't get caught out on the day.

I have not been sent my grade 2 result yet and it will have been two weeks tomorrow. No matter how well (or badly) I've done I have set myself the aim of doing grade 3 at Christmas. I have a couple of the pieces as they were in books for grade 2. This week I managed to learn most of Etude, a 17th century study by Carlo Grossi. It is made up entriely of scales and after a few play throughs I worked out what patterns were being used and managed to get this from memory in just a few days. Like an eager child I find that when I can do something half decently I am quite content to just play it over and over again, rather than tackle anything new. It's not ready for performance yet as my fingers slip, especially when changing hand position, so I'm working with the metronome, building up the speed. I've been playing through two other tunes, very slowly so may start to work on those when I get back from a holiday next week. Finally, looking much further into the future I've had a look at the opening few sections of the slow movement of Mozart's Flute and Harp concerto. This would need some serious work and probably a more tidy technique but I've had a look at a few bars and have planned how the lever changes would work. I'll probably revisit this one from time to time over the next year or so.

Hopefully the next post here on the blog will have my grade 2 result. I know you're all as excited as I am to find out!