Boy, the Salzedo method gets a bad rap! And most of the criticism I hear
seems to be about the strictness and insensitivity of the teachers. I don't
know why so many Salzedo method teachers choose to be Nazis. Maybe it's
Salzedo's stern language in the method books - but those are merely a curio
of a strict and miserable age blessedly gone, and perhaps so are some of the
teachers. *grin*
I am glad to have learned the Salzedo method from a young and savvy teacher
with as much compassion as common sense. It's a good technique. Your last
teacher had to go though... real ones don't make you feel that bad about
practicing. I like mine although she no longer teaches me. She feels that,
while lessons never hurt, I have the basics down. She says I have great
hands. This from about 2 months of hanging around with her and mostly
getting 2-minute mini-lessons whenever she saw me playing.
>About 6 months ago an aquaintance of ours, actually my husband's ex
>girlfriend (who wouldn't even speak to me the first year I dated him!) got a
>harp. She plays the fiddle, sight-reads music, in fact teaches fiddle/piano
>(majored in music in college). Now, I''ve been playing 1 1/2 years by now
>and she only about 6 months. Last night, she arrives with her harp and is
>playing all these songs - even ones she doesn't know because she can read the
>music and just play them. Her hand positions are terrible, that much I can
>tell from the little I''ve learned from my ex-teacher and videos, books etc.
> But she (Pam) can play the songs and play them quickly and at a faster tempo
>than I can (even the ones I know by heart.).
Well, to begin with, she's a music major! That means she's been reading
music for years and probably decades. She knows how music is put together -
structure, chording, rhythm, modality, all that stuff. She plays the fiddle
(pronounced vi-o-lin!) or the piano. And she hasn't just had lessons -
she's had *years* of lessons from very professional teachers.
It's no surprise that she can jump in to the harp and have a lot of early
success. It's just another instrument to her. And she sight reads because
she's been doing it for years. It's a bit like saying "Oh, I'll never learn
to fly the BeechTwin. My friend the fighter pilot jumped in and was doing
loop-the-loops. I can barely do instrument landings!"
But you say her hand position is bad. Well, there's the gotcha for the
self-taught or for the cocksure music major who thinks she can play
anything. It's easy to make noise with a harp. But that bad technique will
hamper her - in speed, in volume or range, or in damage to her hands - if
she tried to get into it seriously.
Perhaps you are at odds with your objectives - you're learning to play the
harp, and at the same time, music. She's learning another instrument.
I have two friends who play the harp. One is in a real band (the kind that
gets gigs) where she sings and plays the tin whistle. She can play my own
instrument better than I can. But her technique is rough to the point of
limiting her, and she wouldn't know what to do with a pedal. She's amazed
that I actually "play tunes!" as she puts it, meaning I play sheet music
that's written down. And I play pieces that involve lever flips on the fly,
and I do pedal effects.
The other friend learned the harp 25 years ago and has hardly touched it
since. She also plays my harp better than I. But she plays by ear, she
doesn't even know which string is C, and her hands are a total mess.
Frankly, I have a better future with the instrument unless both of them do
some good learning.
> My way of learning is to listen
>to the song, learn the right hand, then the left and then put them together
>and practice, practice, practice. But I'm still slow. After last night I
>felt like, why should I be doing this? I'm NEVER going to be able to play at
>that tempo, or read music like that....
Try learning some music theory. By knowing structure and harmony, you learn
to see the music as chords and patterns instead of individual notes. Kind
of how you read by seeing words and phrases instead of letters.
>I'm feeling sorry for myself here, I know, but it was very discouraging. The
>upside is that I have been in contact with a woman who lives about an hour
>from here who plays beautifully and teaches (I just found her - yay!) and I
>can take some lessons from her. She does NOT teach Salzedo method, she said
>something about Henriette Renier...?
Renie is good. Pedal harp technique is good. It's healthy and gives you a
lot of range- pedal harps have to be heard over an orchestra without giving
the harpist tendonitis!
>I want to try that, and it's just
>frustrating that there isn't really anyone else around here that plays,
>except for Pam and that other instructor that I DON'T want to go to. (I was
>feeling like the lone harper of Northern CA for awhile there......)
Ugol's Law says, "You're not the only one."
My corrolary says, "Especially in Northern California!"
>I guess I just need some positive strokes here. Has anyone ever felt this
>way?
Ohhhhhhh, yeah. *stroke* *stroke* One regains ones wits after eating some
chocolate.
> Like you'll never play as well as "whoever" and never play quickly and
>all these discouraging, depressing feelings? I mean, I really felt bad when
>I got up this morning. I came downstairs and sat down by Siochain (my harp -
>gaelic for peace) and got all teary and choked up and walked away. I felt
>like it was useless to try.
Sounds like a flashback to your earlier days with the Salzedo teacher.
>Anyone ever felt that and then gotten BETTER? Better at playing?
Of course!
> Do you think lessons can help me? I can play, just not quickly and I
cannot > sight read yet. I know what the notes are, one at a time and very
slowly, >but not where I immediately recognize what they are. I still have
to think >about them.
Yes. Lessons on those things especially. Sounds like you've identified
your areas of improvement. Now you go girl! *smile*
-Bob