Tips on Preparing the Orchestral Harp Part
Almost everyone has suffered through stage fright, whether mild or debilitating. The few who have never experienced it may actually have a different amount of adrenaline-producing hormones in their system, so feel lucky if that describes you. In fact, do not bother reading any further unless you have students who are having palpitations when they play.
When I was young, I never felt any worries while performing. In fact, I would think to myself, I'm just a kid! Nobody expects me to be perfect! Then I would go out there and enjoy myself, playing my music with abandon. When I decided upon music as a career at the age of seventeen, it suddenly mattered if I did well. I was starting a brand-new, difficult instrument, the harp, and it dawned on me that expectations had risen. Boom! Now, when I went onstage, I was shaking all over, hands sweating, panic-stricken. This was a new and entirely unwelcome development.
It took me several years to figure out how to cope with this. I noticed that certain types of music frightened me more than others. I felt happy playing Debussy, even with myriad pedal changes, but miserable playing Handel. Why? In Handel's music, it is much more obvious to the audience when there is a mistake. The solution: I had to develop my technique much further before performing any music that I could not play comfortably at home! That meant I also had to improve my practice habits. Judy Loman said, "You have to learn your music 200% and have it ready at least three weeks before your performance. It's like putting your hair in a bun with only two bobby pins. It will stay up for a few minutes, but if you want it to last, you will need dozens of pins."
Be aware of exactly what you are playing! To prepare for an important concert, I practise both my right and left hand separately and memorize them so that I can literally play them in my sleep. (I pretend to read them off the ceiling.) Most people are only concentrating on the melodic line, and when they are out there in the bright lights, they suddenly notice their left hand wandering around the strings on auto-pilot. That is when"brain cramps" can happen.
Analyze the harmonies, so that you always know what key you are in and what accidentals are involved. Look for all the cadences, modulations and patterns. Mark A, B, C, etc. at starting spots all over the piece, with pedal patterns written in, and be able to start playing at any of them. If you do have a memory lapse, you can just jump to the next letter. If you are playing in an ensemble, know the other parts so that you know where you fit in. Group the starting spots in families, such as all the spots that start in the same key, or use the same patterns. If there are repeated sections, as in a Rondo, be very aware of which one you are on and how it connects to the following section. It helps to attach colours to these sections in your mind, i.e. section A is white the first time, the second time is blue, third time is green. Use the colours of the rainbow in order and there's some logic to it.
Practise in a relaxed way all the time. If your muscles are in the habit of being loose, they are less likely to lock up in performance. BREATHE DEEPLY whenever you feel any tension rising. This increases the flow of oxygen to your muscles. I used to hold my breath when I was playing difficult passages, and then wonder why my fingers felt like boards! Make sure your jaw is not clenched, your tongue is not sticking to the roof of your mouth, and your head is not craning forward to see the strings or music. Yo Yo Ma, the great cellist, suggests doing yoga and stretches as a way of maintaining relaxation.
If you have bad eyesight, you will need specific contacts or glasses that allow you to see your music perfectly, the strings a little less well, and the conductor rather blurrily. It is fine as long as you can see the baton moving in rhythm and whether he or she is smiling, frowning or crying.
Practise playing musically all the time. Dynamics, style, accents, evenness, phrasing, rhythm, tone, emotions, etc. are more important than anything. You could play all the right notes, but, as Duke Ellington put it so well, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."
Have a Plan B! If you make a mistake while practicing, keep going to see how you would get through it. Go back and devise a method of recovery, so you will feel confident that you can keep the music flowing. We have all heard performances by great musicians who have played handfuls of wrong notes, but yet we still enjoyed the concert immensely. If you know your harmonies and rhythms, the audience is usually completely unaware that a note might be missing here or there. However, always practise slowly and methodically so that you program your hands and feet to play the right notes and pedals. If you plow through the piece every day, making mistakes all along the way, you are teaching your muscles to play incorrect notes.
As harpists, we have the great luxury of being able to tune our instruments before we start. Sure, sometimes it is necessary to tune again mid-concert (a few notes, not the whole harp, we hope!) but at least we do not have to deal with bad intonation.
Practise performing! Once you have a good grip on the piece, record yourself and listen to it. Once you are comfortable with that, perform for your family. Next level: friends. Then finally: recital on a stage. The same piece that gave you the dry heaves can become easy after several performances. If it is STILL too hard, then abandon it for now and choose easier repertoire. Come back to it when your technique has advanced further. Always start a recital with a piece that is very comfortable for you, if you have a choice. You could even warm up, disguised as checking the tuning, If you are waiting for a while without a warm-up, get your fingers working at least two minutes prior to playing, and keep them warm.
Do not assume that the crowd is not listening to you if you are playing background music. Numerous times, I have been surrounded by a clutch of admirers, all ears. Always choose pieces that you know well and bring along a stand lamp with an extension cord or batteries.
Practise intervals, arpeggios, scales, etc. with your eyes closed to improve your muscle memory. Your muscles can learn the distances, so you do not have to get worried if you are playing in an orchestra pit and you cannot see your strings very well.
Anticipate all the things that will be different in performance. Practise in your concert shoes and attire. Try to simulate the same kind of lighting. Play through the whole program without stopping, once a day, for at least two weeks before the concert. Do it all: come out, smile, bow, sit down, play, then get up and smile and bow to the fake audience at the end. Do not forget to smile. It produces a very happy audience who will love you and applaud all the more.
The more you perform, the less frightening it gets. There is a reason why great soloists look so confident: they have played in that situation many, many times and they practise for hours every day.
Barry Green puts it into an equation: Performance=potential minus interference.
References: Barry Green: The Inner Game of Music (1986)
Frank Wilson: Tone Deaf and All Thumbs (1986)
Barbara Schneiderman: Confident Music Performance (1991)
Eloise Ristad: A Soprano On Her Head (1982)
Take the Harm out of Harmonics
Harmonics - they sound so lovely when played well, but they can be so elusive! After some experimentation, I think I finally cracked the mystery of their capriciousness.
Harpists all know to play a harmonic in the exact middle of the string, measuring from where it is held by the groove, discs or levers. That is why a harmonic on an open string is higher than one in sharp. However, sometimes the harmonics still sound strangled, instead of having that ideal bell-like sound. How do we get the perfect harmonic consistently?
For the right hand, position your thumb on the string you wish to play. The rest of the fingers should be flat in the palm, forming a relaxed fist. The front of the second finger should be at a ninety-degree angle to the exact middle of the same string, with the palm facing the floor. Then, back the fist away to the right of the string about 1/8 of an inch or half a centimeter. Your thumb is still on the string and your fist is poised near the string but not on it. Twist your wrist, bringing the second finger knuckle into contact with the string, playing your harmonic. Now the palm (with the fingers still flat against it) should be facing the strings. This works especially well in the higher notes. The same concept works for the left hand.
Play left hand harmonics by stopping the string with the side of your palm that is directly opposite your thumb. This works for single or multiple harmonics. Some people prefer to use the base of their thumb but that only works for single harmonics.
Double and triple harmonics in the left hand can be tricky, especially if the accidentals make it impossible for your palm to line up right in the middle of the strings. Your palm goes up, so if the harmonics are all flats, naturals or sharps, great! However, if the middle harmonic is a sharp and the top is natural, now what? If possible, change the sharp to its flat equivalent, so that now the harmonic chord lines up nicely with the curve of your palm.
It is vitally important to know exactly at what height you sit, so that you can set your chair in that position before the concert. One fraction of an inch up or down, and your muscle memory will set you up for disaster. Your hand will go to its usual spot on the string and THUD! The heartbreak of harmonics-failure! Even wearing heels after practicing all week in bare feet or flat slippers can be enough to cause this dismal state of affairs. Another variable that can wreak havoc is having a different harp at home than the one you will be performing on. The size of the harp affects where the harmonics sit in relation to where you are sitting. There are variations even among harps of the same style from the same factory, depending on what year they were built. If you are worried about a particular set of harmonics, as a last resort, mark them on the string with a bit of felt marker. It will wear off after a while.
Some strings have terrible harmonics. Try replacing the string if you can never get a good harmonic on it. Some harps also have less than stellar harmonics. It might not be you! Try your technique on a friend's harp. Then buy her harp.
Harmonics are usually played where they are written, with a little “o†above the note, or indications like sons harmoniques. In some cases, they are played where they sound. Salzedo wrote his harmonics this way. Mahler's Symphony #3 has very confusing harmonics, some of which are too high to be played where they are written. One could conclude that they should all be played an octave down or that some of them can be played where written. In case of confusion, the conductor will tell you what he or she wants. When a composer wants the higher note, but the string is too short to produce a harmonic, you can fake it by playing an open octave. If a composer consults you, suggest doubling the iffy harmonic with a glockenspiel, celeste or triangle for a similar effect.
In some orchestra pieces, such as Ravel's Mother Goose, and Walton's Violin Concerto, you have to play a whole phrase of harmonics. It is very tricky to do these well while also looking at the conductor. Memorize these passages so that you can keep your eyes on the strings and listen to the other instruments around you for ensemble. If the harmonics are totally solo, at least you can look at the conductor and the strings without being distracted by looking at the music too! This can avoid a nasty case of whiplash.
At the beginning of Rimsky Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture, there are some fast solo harmonics which accompany first the flute, then the violin. Sometimes I go to Plan A: I play my left hand harmonics with the same technique as the right hand, so that I can alternate hands while playing on strings that are too high for the normal technique. Or, Plan B: if the orchestra takes a moderate tempo, then you can play part-way up with your left hand and continue with your right. Plan A is only for when it too fast for Plan B to be workable. Listen to the melody because you will not have time to look up!
Sometimes the composer has written something completely impossible, i.e. the fast harmonics in I Pini de Gianicolo in Respighi's Pines of Rome. If the section is too fast to play as harmonics, play it up an octave as regular notes. In these cases, try to make it sound as much as possible like what the composer wanted, but harps have their limitations and there is no point in going down with the ship. Just make it beautiful and convincing.
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