From: Dan Rochman Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 16:08:43 -0400 Subject: [Fwd: A Beginer's Tale]
Dave Breeze wrote: (snip) > After 2 years of practising on my lonesome I summed up the courage and the > cash and attended a harp weekend run by Dr. Midnight (active on this list). > This has to have been the most positive move I have ever made on the harp. I > had been struggling for almost ever to get all three bends on draw 3. I had > incorrectly assumed that I was simply not bending far enough and that if I just > tried harder and kept practising that I would eventually get there. In my > darkest hours I even ignored the problem in the vain hope that it would go > away. > > Well - 2 minutes into playing in front of the Dr. Midnight revealed that I was > over-bending on draw-3. I was already below the bottom bend and had been > attempting to force the instrument beyond its physical capabilities. I was > shown a chromatic tuner and shown a few simple exercises to improve pitch > control. > One week later after about 30 minutes practise a day all three bends are clearly > there. OK they are not 100% accurate but according to the tuner they are not > far off. > > Two take home messages here. Expose your playing to an expert at the earliest > opportunity and buy a chromatic tuner.
Well, this parallels my own experience somewhat. I had my first lesson with Carlos del Junco just a few weeks ago, and learned that I really had no clue as to what notes were where on the harp, and especially what I was doing when bending 3-draw. Something I never read anywhere was that bending 3-draw down to the "bottom" (or lower!) might be "easier" than bending it only part way down. I didn't think of the sounds in between 3-draw and 3-draw-bbb as "bends". I, too, figured that the "other two" bends on 3-draw must be lower than the one I'd been pulling forever and a day. On my C Lee Oskar, anyhow, this is definitely the case, 3Dbbb being simple to hit, and 3Db/bb being much trickier - I need to hear the notes to make sure I'm getting them, and being "in the middle" somehow makes it easier to be off a few cents in either direction. 3Db/bb seem to require greater ~delicacy~ to play.
[curious sidenote - I now have a D Lee Oskar, and getting the 3Dbbb is really hard for me, while still effortless on the C... strange...]
I still don't have a chromatic tuner (advice from the list on this? do I want one?? what/where/how to buy one? online/mailorder sources for good cheap ones?? combination metronome/tuners?? digital or analog? etc...). What I learned at Carlos' place was that a cheap electronic KEYBOARD works wonders in its place.
The really stupendous thing, looking back on it all now, is that I've had a cheap 'n cheesy little electronic casiotone-type keyboard getting dusty in my basement for YEARS, and never thought of it as something I could use to help with my harp playing (don't give me that look - I know, I know)...
Now, of course, I don't practice my harp playing without that keyboard in front of me (well, when I'm at home.... the keyboard, while pretty damn portable, pales in comparison with the harp - hence my curiosity about buying a pocket chromatic tuner).
My simple, humble advice to all beginners, then: Invest in a cheap-o garage-sale keyboard. These things also have, even in the cheapest bottom-end models, built-in metronomes or accompaniment modules. But in terms of acquiring some theory, and understanding positions and modes, and really knowing whether that funky half-bent 3-draw is B-flat, or A, or somewhere (gasp!) in between, these things can't be beat. And some tiny little "toy" ones sell for next to nothing, even brand new.
