The Instrumentalists Thread

[Rían]

I started this thread because I play the harp and just love it!! and katya was asking questions about it, because she wants to start, and I thought an instrumentalists' thread might be helpful. There's a singers thread, but that will have very different subjects, and maybe we instrumentalists can help each other out here like the singers help each other out.

[Rían]

Here are some of the links I posted in the other thread about my favorite Celtic harpist and some pieces I like and some harp technique:

Here she is - Grainne Hambly - here's her site.

in this one, watch her left hand - she does this really cool damping of the strings thing to get a staccato effect.

I don't think this one is Grainne, but it is a super-cool angle on the hands - shows absolutely classic harp technique, the kind that lets you play the right hand as quickly as she is doing (although I like this particular piece played a little more slowly) and this player is using damping on the left hand strings, too. The key is placement of the fingers before they play - very different from piano playing.

[Rían]

When katya said she wanted to start playing the harp, I wrote this:

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

Katya, you can google for harp teachers in your area, and just tell them that you like the Celtic-style music and do they teach that. You probably want a lever-harp, like mine (and like the ones in the link, but mine is smaller) instead of a pedal-harp, which is the big honkin' kind you see in orchestras. You can always move up to a pedal-harp if you want to, but that would pretty much be only if you decided to be a professional harp player.

... and she responded ...

Originally Posted by katya

RÃ*an, do you have any other advice? It doesn't really matter specifically what kind of harp I find because I don't know anything about it or have anything in mind... but I want something small and something I can play celtic music on. Any suggestions? Do you know any place I can find one inexpensively (couple hundred dollars or so?), even if it's not good quality, used, whatever? I might see if I can find some sort of teach yourself guide or something like that too, because I can't afford lessons right away. I did find a lady in the area who gives them, though.

My main advice is to just keep at it, and I think you'll be able to do it!

I was very blessed in three ways - first, my mom already played harp and had two harps (a small travel/lap harp and one of those big honkin' lever harps), and second, I lived within an hour of the biggest harp center in the west - Sylvia Wood's Harp Center, and Sylvia is a VERY good harpist (1980 All-Ireland harp champion, among many other credits) and loves to help people to play the harp. The third thing is that I took piano lessons as a child, and that translates very well to the harp (piano comes from harp, anyway - harp to HARPsichord to piano).

My mom played harp for years and I was never interested in playing, until (I must admit) the LoTR movies came out! Then I came across Celtic harp playing, and I was a goner! My mom played during mass at her church, and frankly, it was basically accompaniment (she's a singer, not really an instrumentalist), so I was never interested before. So I was able to borrow her small harp and play around with it for 3 or 4 months -enough to know that I loved it, and then received a harp for Christmas - picked it out at Sylvia Woods. Then Sylvia watched me play as I was trying out the harps and told me to run, not walk, to a good teacher, because I was playing incorrectly, and you really can't play anything much if you don't have the right technique. So she found me a teacher in my area, and that helped IMMENSELY. I never took very many lessons - too busy, with three kids plus some major health problems - but even a few lessons are absolutely critical. I probably took no more than a dozen or so - took a lesson every two weeks for less than I year, I'd say - but they were absolutely ground-breaking because of the special things that you need to know to really play anything besides very simple stuff.

As far as harps - maybe try contacting Sylvia Woods and ask her how to get started. You might be able to rent one? or find a used one. Mine was several thousand dollars new. Basically just get any harp you can lay your hands on and work with that, and take at least a few lessons right off the bat, so you don't have to unlearn bad habits like I did.

As far as finally buying one, I like my size harp, because it's large enough to have great sound and a good range, but small enough to be reasonably portable. It has 26 strings, but I really regret not getting 30 strings, because it gives you a lot of flexibility in playing chord inversions in the left hand (the base clef). Mine has two octaves above middle-C, and one octave plus 4 notes below.

Well, that's a start - keep me informed

[Tessar]

Heck, for any instrument a couple of lessons can be absolutely... well... pardon the pun, but, they can be 'instrumental' to your success!

I had some lessons for piano... the brunt work of my piano skills come from just sitting down and playing, but the things I picked up from my lessons allowed me to achieve some moderate success on my own because I learned things like fingering for quick passages, etc.

[Rían]

I agree - a huge amount of skill comes from just sitting and playing for hours on end, but a few lessons are critical. And the few technique things for harp are counter-intuitive, but are really, as you say, instrumental in playing well. It just put my playing into a whole new league - no, I'd say several leagues up, it's so critical. And really, it took just a few lessons to learn them. Of course, the more lessons the better! but you can manage without, too, after the first few, if you don't have the time or money.

Anyway, this is open for any instrument, not just harp. I enjoy browsing thru the Singers thread from time to time, and I'd enjoy reading other people's thoughts 'n things on the instruments they play


Oh, katya - I forgot to give you the name of a really good harp teaching book by Sylvia Woods - it's "Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp" - it's quite good, and I'm sure you could order it from her website.

And an interesting harp tidbit - you NEVER use your pinkie!

[katya]

I was just thinking about starting an instrumentalists thread today! I have played clarinet, guitar, and piano, but piano is the only thing I've ever gotten seriously into (took lessons from first through tenth or eleventh grade). I agree that lessons are critical, and not only with instruments. Kendo (Japanese fencing) was the same way. Before I got started with club, I picked up some bad habits (though luckily not too deeply ingrained ones) that I had to break.

The lady here charges $80 a month for lessons but I don't know how many that is, if it's weekly or what. I think you can do individual ones also, though. Of course, the first step is getting a harp. I think I want to get a cheap one, whatever I can get my hands on, just so I have something to practice on. A nice one is something to look forward to years down the line, I think, depending on how much I keep it up, how into it I get. I will definitely look up this Sylvia Woods lady. Harp sounds so nice... I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I'm reading through LotR right now. I like the fact that you don't use your pinky! I hate using my pinky on guitar. I don't think my hand is made for playing guitar so much. I hope it's ok for harp. I have really long fingers but they bend in a weird way.

I miss playing piano sooo much. I have been checking Craig's List for cheap ones.

[Tessar]

Does anyone here play violin? I have quite a few friends who either do or used to.

I went to a violin concert last night and it was really fantastic. They played some things from Beethoven's Sonata in D Major, op. 12 no 1, Ravel's Sonate pour violon et piano, and S. Prokofiev's Sonata No. 1 in F minor, op. 80.

I don't know much about violin, but I can say with a fair amount of certainty that the violinist was truly fantastic. The music was extremely captivating, and she played with a lot of energy but without all of the annoying dancing around that people do as a substitute for actually playing musically .

[katya]

I don't play violin, but I would love to be able to. I think cello is a step higher on my list, just because I love the deep, low sounds, but I love violin too.

When I play piano, I tend toward android-style playing, at least in how I hold my body. To me, no matter how musical or dramatic I'm trying to make it, I don't move around very much more, unless I need to use my body weight to play a loud note or something. Not saying one way is better or worse though.

[Rían]

Any harp updates, katya?

I found this video - it shows the size of my harp, although mine is a prettier-colored darker wood. It's very portable, but I kinda miss having more strings on the bottom.

[Rían]

A-HA! And here is a clip that shows a harpist flipping levers as she plays - the big honkin' harps are pedal harps, and you change keys with the foot pedals, and the smaller ones are lever harps - each string has a lever that, when you apply it, ups the pitch by a half-step. (and the really cheap ones don't have levers at all!) There aren't any half-step strings - there's just cdefgabc, and you tune in the half-steps before the piece, or make them with the levers. When you want an accidental or to change key during a piece, you gotta flip a lever right in the middle of playing!

[katya]

No updates, yet. I am asking my parents and anyone else who usually buys me Christmas presents to pool their money and buy me a harp, though. I'd rather have that than have them spend their money on a bunch of little things that I probably don't want.

[Noble Elf Lord]

A semi-bump...

I play the keyboard, propably mentioned it somewhere else. Mainly can do intros, these, actually: Within Temptation - Mother Earth (perfectly ), Nightwish - Moondance (well), - Amaranth, - Nemo (plus a lil more), - Swanheart (by ear!), Kinslayer (only the first part of the intro... but very fast). Can't remember more now. (Plus I'm getting very very very bugged due to stuff. )

Also, I can play Saw- theme.

A little bit of Walking in the Air. What else... ah yes, the Exorcist- theme.
A piano piece called "Lady". Short, but good.

Ask me if you care to hear more.

[katya]

I just bought myself a copy of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata today. I'm so excited! I don't know about the first and third movements, but the second is a LOT easier than I thought it was. It's definitely within my grasp. And it's pretty short, too. But I have a feeling by the time I finish learning it I'm going to be sick to death of the main melody.

[Huorn]

I am a concert violinist. I have been at it for 35 years. I started in 1975. The violin I used back then was a smelly 3/4 size. I thought for a moment I was drawing my bow across a diaper pail. I don't know why the instrument smelled so bad. I remember the beat up case the violin was in. I showed promise, so my other took me to Sears and bought me my own violin, a Joseph Lorenz for 70 dollars. I still have that violin.

I studied under Anne Tischer, the concert Master of the Ventura Symphony Orchestra and Morris Collier the Concert Master of the Lincoln Nebraska Symphony Orchestra.

I now play in the Worthington Minnesota Orchestra and I do solo work for churches and community events. I'll be doing a duet with another Violinist for Hanukkah.

[Tessar]

Huorn, you're awesome. Did you study music in college, or just privately?

We have some -excellent- freelance violinists where I live. I will be the first to tell you that I know very little about instrumental music as far as the specifics, but there's one amazing violinist that played some music for a funeral I sang at and man..... she was breathtaking. It almost sounded as if she weren't bowing it at all sometimes, she played so smoothly, and her control over the dynamics and tone coloring were just... perfection. Her final note was something crazy high on the E string, and she just sort of floated it off into nothing. I was sitting right next to her, and you almost couldn't tell when she had stopped playing it she decresc'ed it so perfectly.

[EllethValatari]

I play the piano and the xylophone (not this but this)

[Huorn]

Elleth, Lol! But did you start out on the little kiddie one? I remember playing with one of those when I was a kid and it was what got me hooked on music.

Your sig is just awsome.

Tessar - I studied both in College and privately. I even gave lessons for a while. I may consider doing that again.

And here's an off the wall question that has nothing to do with the subject at hand--just how big an avatar can you upload on here? I have some really cool animated ones that I am not sure if they would fit.

[EllethValatari]

Huorn- thanks! My sig is from my favorite of T's works, his essay On Faerie-Stories. If you haven't read it, you should. It has changed my entire view of fiction and literature overall, and it is the inspiration for everything I write.

Back on topic-no, I didn't start on the kiddie one! I went to a course at the Fine Arts Institute in my city over a summer-we learned to play two different percussion instruments-the xylophone and the Bata drums. I enjoyed the drums but they didn't give me much freedom-so I picked up the xylophone. Thankfully my extended family pitched in to buy me one-they're very expensive! I really enjoy playing it-I especially like to "transpose" my piano pieces to xylophone.

Pirates of the Caribbean fans, check this out!

Click here!

[brownjenkins]

Thats some nice jammin Ell!

Here's a video of a jam we had a few summers back with some local musicians... I'm on bass, but the violin was my favorite in this tune...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vvw0B1vx4

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Dude, EV . . . that's . . . pretty awesome.