Next concert - Harps and Belles

I have been practising and have had a lesson but sadly the blog has been neglected due to a huge number of other commitments this term. Every time a deadline passes (usually met) another one looms just a few days away so thoughts of concentrating properly on the harp are just that...thoughts. If I was like Alan Rusbridger I would find time to practise for 20 minutes every morning, although I would also have a highly demanding and pressurised job and would not get as much sleep as I currently enjoy. That's another blog post for the future, a review of his recent book 'Play it Again', a brilliant account of his year learning Chopin's Fourth Ballade. Too much to go into now but highly recommended anyway.

What I can reveal now are details of my next concert on the harp, featuring a choir, handbells and five harps (myself, Rohan, Anne, Robyn and another player) all organised by Kirsty, who has appeared in a previous blog post from when her and fiance Derek each did grade 5 on the trombone.

The harps will accompany the choir in several numbers arranged by Derek, including Eriskay Love Lilt, one I know from grade 4, and we have our own slot where myself, Anne and Robyn will attempt to play Dancing Lambs and a Scott Joplin Montage. We've had a couple of rehearsals so hope to get a few more in between now and 15th December. I'll try and put regular updates up here.

I also have no less than three weddings now for 2014, all close friends or family, so I am certainly not neglecting my harp.

Benslow Music Trust - Clarsach Course

For the past ten or so years I have tutored with Caroline (see blogs ad passim!) on the Woodwind Ensemble Course at Benslow Music Trust, Hitchin although this year will be th efirst with me leading the whole weekend as Caroline took the decision not to conitune after last year. Actually she took that decision two years ago but we had so much fun in 2011 that she decided to do one more year.

Benslow is a fabulous centre offering residential and day courses in all aspects of music. Most of the courses are for players of varying levels but there also talks, study courses and concerts so there is something for everyone. The atmosphere is a mixture of hard work but immense fun. That's just the tutors. The participants work even harder! That so many of them return year after year says a lot about the support they have for the trust.

This year there is a Clarsach Course, in association with the Clarsach Society to be led by Danielle Perrett and Máire Ní Chathasaigh from 18 to 20 October. Highly recommended and further details are here:
Benslow - The Clarsach Course

Harp Ensemble Day in Holt, Norfolk

Sunday 28 July - Harp Ensemble Day
I had received details of a harp day from the Clarsach Society which was due to take place in Holt. Having been in Wales the previous few days I didn't know if I would feel up to this but as I had a drop Mum and Paul very early in Cambridge for their coach to whisk them away on holiday, and I had planned to be in Southwold on the Monday I decided to make a trip of it and have a couple of days in Norfolk and Suffolk, ooh arr. The playday had been organised by Lucinder Pennick with Danielle Perrett as lead tutor.

Rohan tunes a harp

The day started very early with Mum and Paul arriving just before 6. We loaded them, their luggage, my harp and my luggage into the car and set off. After dropping them at Cambridge station it was a lovely clear run all the way to Norfolk. I arrived nice and early and the next car to arrive was a familiar silver estate. It was Rohan who had been asked to help out so it was great to see a familiar face. Robyn also arrived shortly afterwards and by 9am 17 harpists were getting set up, tuning and chatting. There was a nice mixture of pedal and lever harps and a couple of families where both were harpists. Mother and son in one case and grandmother and granddaughter in another. Lucinder had wondered if the 9am start time was too early but given the time it took to tune the harps and get everyone organised with music it was probably just right. Participants were a mixture of children and adults, some of whom were into retirement! Standards also varied from early grades through to 7 and 8.

A halo of harps?

 Harps were arranged in a circle and Danielle led the first session which was working through 'Promenade' by jazz harpist and composer David Snell. Definitely worthy of more research as he sounds a very interesting character! The piece was lovely, and it didn't take long for the four parts to fall into place. Mid-morning break featured homemade cookies, always a winner! We continued with Promenade after the break and when we have managed a couple of successful run-throughs we moved onto an arrangmeent of the Dr. Who theme!



We had a picnic lunch then returned to playing and did a lovely arrangement by Danielle of Faure's In Paradium. My part had the melody which was harmonics all the way through. A harmonic is when you place the palm of your hand lightly against the string and pluck with the thumb. This halves the length of the string and the sound is not only an octave higher but has a softer ringing quality compared to the normal pitch an octave up. I aksed how to get the sound stronger as my harmonics work but are quite qeak. Danielle said the thumb needed to 'squeeze' the string before relersing and I found this did make a difference.

The next break featured homemade cake and the chance to buy music and harp related goodies while Danielle, Lucinder and Rohan arranged the harps into a more audience friendly position. Out of the 17 harpists only two others had been on the ACE Foundations' harp day back in November so it was good to get to meet lots of other players. Holt may be a good 80 miles away but the Anglia region can feel quite small and it is suprising how many there are out there who share the interest of playing the harp. We had a run through of our pieces, rearranged ourselves and got ready for the concert at 5pm.

Danielle led the performance from her harp and it all went very well. After seeking permission I was allowed to set my little recording device up and captured the performance so will send that out when I've downloaded it.

It was a lovely day and thanks to Lucinder for organising the day and to Danielle for leading and Rohan for her help and sense of humour!
 

Danielle

Lucinder

Grade 5 - my turn

I haven't posted anything for three months but that's partly because I've not done much at all. Oh, apart from take grade 5! It was a bit last minute as we needed some extra candidates to make up numbers for a special visit session so I thought if I had the exam coming up I'd be forced to practise. I did manage some extra practise although not as much as I should have done but got through the exam with a merit (84/100 - Trinity) so I was pleased with that. I now join the illustrious group of Grade-1-a-thoners who have achieved grade 5.

I changed exam boards for this one and used Trinity rather than ABRSM. There is some overlap on the pieces but the main difference is that you can choose which supporting tests you do so I did improvising and sight-reading instead of aural and musical knowledge. The improvising was a bit of a challenge and while I had practised some techniques it did feel like I was winging it. I followed the chord patterns but I ended up playing at half speed to what I had intended so that dragged it all out a little longer than I'd planned. Scales were a little ropey and I missed switching a couple of levers so there were some strange notes here and there. I did feel quite unprepared at this stage. I do find the less prepared you feel the more nervous you are likely to become. So advice for those who are nervous is practise even more than you feel you need to! I may be more understanding now with pupils who do no practise because they say they've been too busy but if that is the case then don't expect to give a decent performance when it counts.

My next harp events are a couple of weddings for friends and family so I need to get my general repertoire back up to standard. My singer friend, Karen, has given me some folk songs for voice and harp so we'll work on those and hopefully get a performance in at a local venue. There are plenty more orchestra and chamber concerts coming up so I'll hopefully get the forthcoming performances bit sorted again. Tomorrow morning I will make a rare appearance at church as I've been asked to play the piano for the newly formed village choir who are singing in the Easter service. I like accompanying but have to work hard so that I don't sound like I'm wearing flippers as I work my way blindly around the keyboard. There are just two pieces, Mozart Ave Verum Corpus, a beautiful four part choral work which requires smooth gentle accompanying, and subtley shaped phrases to support the singers, followed by Oh Happy Day, a gospel version that needs to be as funky as possible. I just hope I get the styles the right way round!