All this discussion of whether or not it is necessary to have a harp
teacher from the start (or at all) has been very interesting.
Here are my two (or twenty-five!) cents on the subject and on the more
"general" topic of learning. (You have been warned :-) !)
First of all, I believe it is human nature to constantly learn, and
that core to our being is the ability to teach ourselves and to direct
our own learning. Think about it: as babies we all taught ourselves
to talk and to walk. Our parents weren't sitting beside us giving us
grammar and vocal lessons (at least not consciously!). We heard the
language, learned the art of conversation through our parents'
give-and-take babble with us, as well as from witnessing their
conversation with each other. We learned grammar by listening and
then through trial-and-error. The same with learning to walk. Our
parents (or other interested somebodies) held our hands while we
practiced some of our steps, or we went flailing out own our own - not
wanting any help whatsoever. The thing is, we taught ourselves by doing - but
the *doing* was unique to each one of us. Some babies observe for months
before venturing their first step or first words - others will dive right in.
We are all so unique in how we learn and acquire skills. My 2 1/2
year old daughter for instance: She never learned to crawl as a baby,
but instead scooted around in a kind of sitting position. It took her
six months from the time I held her hands helping her to walk to the
time that she actually felt confident and strong enough to take off
walking on her own (a situation that was very hard on my back!). A few
months ago her then-6-month old cousin learned to crawl, and at that
time Amri took off crawling as well, no problem, copying her cousin.
So she actually learned to crawl *after* she learned to walk. But in
walking she actually had gained the strength and coordination she
needed to crawl.
Here's another for instance. Amri received a 5 foot puzzle this
Christmas, and it has been fascinating to watch her learn how to do
it. At first my husband and I were constantly on hand, providing her
with the pieces to the appropriate section and helping push the pieces
in place so that she wouldn't get too frustrated. She'd just
trial-and-error shove the pieces against each other hoping they'd fit.
But eventually she turned to looking at the picture of the puzzle
piece itself for guidance. I'd say things like: "The giraffe on this
piece doesn't have a head. Let's look for a piece that has just the
head." At this point my advice was welcome (whereas before it was
ignored) - I think because she had enough experience with puzzles that
she could follow my reasoning - I wasn't just throwing out some
incomprehensible proclamation. Now she's familiar enough with the
puzzle that she prefers to do it completely on her own (or
side-by-side with me) and wants *no* input and especially *no* advice from
me. But she isn't proficient with puzzles that she can really do it
all by herself. So when I start to see her get frustrated I
surreptiously push the needed pieces in her direction. Sometimes I'll
try offering some advice, but I know that in this stage she usually
doesn't want to hear from me - it only makes her mad!
Anyway, the point of the above paragraphs is that learning really
comes from ourselves. We all have our different styles, and sometimes
we need direction from others to get over a hump, and sometimes we
need time to ourselves to work it out - on our own timetable. In our
society we have a tendency to rely on the "expert" for all our
learning and for most of our information. We have forgotten what
young children know - and what we used to know when we ourselves were
very young: that we are capable of figuring out for ourselves what we
need to know. We are capable of deciding when the time is right for a
certain piece of knowledge or skill.
How this applies to harp learning:
I believe that learning the harp is a personal journey, and that it
should begin (and end, if necessary) with ourselves. Yes, you can
find yourself stalled at some point if you do not have good technique.
But let's face: at some point - or at many points, if you continue
with anything - you are going to get stalled. With or without
teachers. Getting stalled is not a negative thing, unless you let it
permanently discourage you from ever trying anything new again, I suppose.
Sometimes it means figuring out what technique (or lack thereof) is
hanging you up, or sometimes it means you need new ideas, or sometimes
it means you need a break for awhile. Yes, it is perfectly okay to set
your harp aside for a week, a month, a year, whatever. If you come
back to the instrument, you'll have a fresh prespective. If you go onto
another instrument - or to some other project altogether - you'll find that
you have been enriched by your previous experience.
In general, I think there are two classes of beginners. There are the
kind who may have a previous musical background and have some specific
ideas or purposes for learning a new instruments. This class is also
made up of folk whose learning style is to just dive in. They'll
start picking out tunes right away - and just want to *play*. The
other group is made up of folk who want to learn but don't have enough
experience either with this type of instrument or with music in
general to really go at it on their own, or their learning style is
such that they prefer to pursue a new thing systematically, with
feedback from someone more knowledgeable and experienced in that area.
Myself, while learning harp I benefitted greatly from taking lessons
from near the beginning. I think this was because I had no previous
experience with an instruments like the harp. My background was in
woodwind playing, with a little piano thrown in. And I had *no*
experience whatsoever in thinking on my own regarding music: I had
always played somebody else's arrangements and tried my hardest to
play the way I thought the composer would demand (an impossible task -
I could never measure up the standards I imposed on myself). So
taking lessons on harp, and studiously practicing exercises and proper
technique was appropriate for that stage in my musical life.
These days I have specific ideas about what I want to pursue
musically. So if I decide to, say, take up percussion it would be
because I 'hear' an effect that I'd like record or perform. I would
probably try to find the sound on my own, experiment with different
drums, listen to recordings that have the sound I want, perhaps watch
some videos, and come up with various exercises of my own to bring
myself into a percussionists' "groove". I might even take a lesson or
two if I'm unable to achieve the effect or complexity that I'm
seeking. The point is, I have enough experience in working with
rhythm and thinking independently about music that I think I could
teach myself what I need to know for specific purposes. But if I
wanted to make a musical "career" change and become a percussionist,
I'd definitly take lessons, because I'd want to learn thoroughly what
is possible and I'd want as broad a range of effective technique as
possible (that's my learning style).
If I were to decide to do this I would not consider my own independent
learning with possible "bad" - or rather, "less-than-fully effective"
habits a waste of time. Independent learning is *never* (IMHO) a
waste of time - because you are actively discovering what that
instrument means to you. I am continually amazed at the creativity,
complexity, and the honest flow of the music that I hear from
"beginners" who are brave enough to pursue music on their own, sans
teacher. Even with my students - there is a real difference in the
"musicality" of the pieces that they work on independently as opposed to the
ones I assign or work with them heavily on (I think partly because
with assigned pieces they are always wondering if they are "playing it
right" - oof! The pieces "belong" to me as a teacher first, and not
to them, so a lot of my work is helping them to make those pieces
theirs, while also helping them with x,y,z.).
Anyway, I feel that it really depends on one's learning style and what
one's purpose is for pursuing the harp (or anything else in life) as
to whether or not lessons are necessary. It is certainly up to the
individual, and none of us should judge whether or not he or she has
worked hard enough, nor should we condemn their music as 'hackneyed'.
If people are enjoying the music, the player is obviously offering
something of great worth!
Cheers,
Jane Valencia
jtk@baruk.zendo.com
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