Puzzling...?

Recently at a workshop taught by a compassion facilitator for our local harp organization, the question was asked, “What brings you joy, other than playing harp?” The question reminded me of a time when my husband suggested that I needed to find a hobby. My reply to him then was “I have a hobby: learning another instrument!”

But, as I dug deeper, I realized that one of my “zen” go-to’s is working puzzles – jigsaw, word games, sudoku, solitaire, and a few others, all on my iPad. So this week I’ve been very aware of how much time I’m spending, and what value it has and have come up with this neat little list:

1. The Zen factor: I find I am settled into a place of peace, but am still aware and alert to what is happening around me.
2. Listening to the mental soundtrack: I find I’m rehearsing using the “think method” the most recent tune I’ve been practicing, or the recent arrangement I’ve been doing for harp or guitar.
3. Physical rest: My heart rate drops to resting or below, even to the point that sometimes my fitbit thinks I’m asleep.

So this “waste of time” that I’ve sometimes felt a bit of guilt over is really benefiting me in a number of ways. It’s not productive on the surface, but I’m also seeing how it is in a way, a different side of the same elephant.

That elephant is my drive to solve things, whether it be a tricky bowing technique on the violin, or a challenging piece on the harp, or planning and preparing a workshop. These are all aspects of my vocation, but are also my avocation… Why do I make harp and guitar arrangements? Because it’s fun and challenging, and engaging!

So, yes, I can proudly, without shame, admit that my hobby is playing games on the iPad!

But back to my vocational games: Arranging tunes for both lever harp and guitar (and in singable keys) for my workshops has been a great puzzle to work out. One key works well on lever harps tuned in Eb, but not on lever harps tuned in F or C. And then it may work in a different key on guitar, but we can put on a capo so everyone can play along. And then is it singable?

I’ll be teaching a fun Waltz class with tunes from several countries, as well as a few from pop/country, and jazz and it’s open to harp, piano, guitar, and even singers (only two of the ten tunes have not lyrics). I spend a lot of time working these arrangements up, and some might think I’m not compensated for the time I invest. But I am enjoying it – or I wouldn’t be doing it!

In addition to creating the arrangements, I do a bit more research for each tune, so I can add some background during class. The Waltz Around the World class is going to be a lot of fun to teach! If you are interested in the class, you can read more about it and register with this link: https://tinyurl.com/waltzaroundworld

It’s already starting to fill up, but I also record every workshop, and some opt to take the class via video replay.

Okay, a few more tunes to complete, and puzzles to work out, and next week’s workshop is ready to go!

Groovy Musings

Warning! This will be more relevant to string players and harpists than vocalists, or wind or brass players!

I recently took a course called “Strum Bowing” for violinists who want to get more groove into their playing, and learned a lot of cool and groovy stuff both for violinists and other musicians to consider.

The inventor of this technique is Tracy Silverman, who along with Darryl Unger, was a member of the innovative Turtle Island Quartet. The quartet has had numerous members over the years, and Tracy was in from 1993 – 1997.  Here’s a more recent line up if you want to hear what they do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfXjOX-L2LI

So, what the heck is “strum bowing?” It’s making use of the bow to create a groove the way guitarists do with their strumming hand. On a guitar, you can strum continually down and up but when you mute the chord by lifting the pressure of your fingers but not lifting off the strings, the resulting strum sounds more like a percussive beat than a strummed chord. The groove is created by only pressing the fingers to the fretboard on the beats you want to accent, and letting the pick create the scratchy “drum” beat on all other strums.

So Tracy takes you through how to do that on fiddle, and also how to “chop” which is so percussive there is no pitch. Visit his website if you are play violin, viola, cello, or string bass and are interested in learning this technique:  https://www.strumbowing.com/ It’s a great course!

I’m loving trying all this out on violin, but it got me musing…

How does this apply to other instruments? Well, with any of my strumming instruments (tenor banjo, mandolin, guitar etc.) I can simply mute chords just like guitarists to get a rhythmic groove, emphasizing only the beats I press my fingers to the fingerboard. I’ve done that for years with bar chords on the guitar but haven’t managed to try it on banjo and mandolin because I’m often playing chords with open strings. You can also mute strings by laying your fingers across the strings if there are open strings in the chord. Need to work on that…

But what about harp?

If we want to be more percussive on harp, we usually do more damping of the strings, but to make it really groove, it’s also important to incorporate the damp into the rhythm, so that the damping sound is on the beat you mean to put it on. And that’s tricky to do, but adds to the groove in a way that simply damping whenever it’s convenient does not. Groove doesn’t just mean syncopation or other interesting patterns. It could even be just having all the notes in a melody “in the pocket.” So letting your body (strumming hand, bowing arm) keep a steady beat will help put all the notes you play in the right slots rhythmically.

With both strumming on the guitar and strum bowing, there is a consistent motion of the fastest rhythmic element, (eighth notes or sixteenth notes) but for harp, we have to pluck and then damp, which are two very different actions.

I’m still in the musing stage on this, but the key thing is to keep that unit of rhythm going somehow. I’ve suggested to students and harp ensembles to do something physically to feel where the downbeat is during a dotted quarter and eighth rhythm. I’ve suggested grunting “uh” on count 2, so it would look like:

But the problem is that the “uh” might come too soon, or the eighth note may not come immediately after so it doesn’t resolve the issue some people have of shortchanging the dotted note. A better solution may be to put in two “uh’s” so that each eighth note is felt either in the fingers or in the voice.

It’s not a good way to perform of course, but it makes sure that there are three units for the dotted quarter and one unit for the eighth. So it would be “Pluck uh uh pluck pluck.”

If I were strumming chords on a guitar with this rhythm, I can strum continual eighth notes and just press the chord on the first down, lift on the first up and second down, and then press again on the next up and the next down.

I have always put the rhythm into my body in some way, either in my shoulders, or in my torso with a very slight bounce, but so many new harpists are focused too much on playing the correct notes with the correct fingers that they are not allowing themselves to move a different part of the body to keep the rhythm.  

What may work better since the focus is on the fingers and strings would be to move the wrist very lightly down and up on eighth notes so each eighth note segment is felt in the body and not just silently counted “1 & 2 & 3 &.” Silent counting without the feeling of rhythm would not necessarily be even. In trying this out myself, I’m finding it’s actually similar to how I lead our Harpers Hall Ensemble. I know my torso and shoulders move, but I am pretty sure I’m moving my arms or hands in time as well, almost like a conductor in an orchestra.

Any of you harpists want to try the wrist concept and let me know how that feels? I intend to try it on a few of my private students.

Here’s a short video of what that might look like (this is the first A of Arran Boat Song.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/124cduJGV_cZXsbzUkRjJ2Drwugpy9Ba_/view?usp=share_link

So, give it a try and let me know how that feels! Here’s the Arran Boat Song with lots of that rhythm in the tune. We play it in Gaelic Muses using two violins and harp, and then move into Glass Island Reel.

 

Thank you Tracy for giving me some new ideas!

Practice Techniques Part 2

Well, the weekly blog I’ve been writing since July had a few missed weeks early on, but hmm… more than a month of silence! The last blog was on a helpful practice technique I learned about in Noa Kagayama’s course “Performance Psych Essentials” and there was a promise to share more in upcoming blogs, so I am happy to share another technique in today’s blog. But first, where the heck did March go?

Well, I kicked it off with the worst cold I’ve had (not COVID) since before the pandemic. I’d forgotten how long it takes to recover from the “common cold” and how easily the voice can be taken away. I never had complete laryngitis with this cold, but the difficulty in singing and even speaking lasted longer than I thought reasonable… I had four performances for St. Pat’s Week with Gaelic Muses, and my voice was gradually more reliable for singing my solos, although my harmony parts were soft and low enough to be there to support Lynda’s vocal leads from the start.

I was barely through that weekend when it was time to prepare for the Pagan Bunny Burn weekend (the 30^th through April 2) where two of us from Gaelic Muses were scheduled to perform. Here are a few photos from that performance:

 

Yep, those are bunny ears! We had great fun, but I’ve only just yesterday put away my tent and all the camping gear associated with the weekend.

So, a busy month that kept me from regular blogging but not from regular practicing!

In my last blog (on February 24^th) I wrote about “At Tempo Forward Chaining” which has been a great method of working through tough spots both for myself and for my students. If you didn’t see that one, you can read it here: https://verleneschermer.blogspot.com/2023/02/practice-techniques-part-1.html

In this blog, I’m going to talk about something that is very helpful both in practice and in preparing for performance. I’ve always encouraged my students to record themselves to troubleshoot areas to woodshed in their practice, but an additional benefit to recording yourself is the fact that it puts you in “performance mode” revealing what you may be experiencing when you are in front of a live audience. For some reason, even though you may be the only one hearing (or watching if it’s video) the recording, it’s as if there is another ear listening that may be passing some sort of judgment. So it’s good to add that kind of pressure, and to hear what kinds of mistakes might crop up due to that added pressure.

But if you aren’t using recording as a regular practice tool, it’s a good idea to start with just recording a short phrase, and work through what needs to be improved or changed a phrase at a time. Not as micro-focused as the forward chaining, with adding one note or one beat’s worth of notes at a time, but do a full phrase complete with the expression you intend. Then listen to it and be very specific about what you hear. No “that was just bad” or “it’s missing something” or “I’m not feeling it.” Pinpoint what exactly was bad or missing or what is causing the lack of feeling (as in no dynamics, or eighth notes that are played exactly the same strength.) And then you can apply a solution.

Here's a step-by-step for using recording for troubleshooting:

1. Warm up with anything other than the piece you will record.
2. Play a single phrase several times through so it’s not the first time.
3. Record that phrase.
4. Listen to the phrase more than once to identify what needs improving.
5. Determine what the solution should be (is it an issue with fingering? Posture? Counting? Preparation? Dynamics?)
6. Practice applying the solution(s).
7. Record again.
8. Listen to the new recording and note whether the solution solved the issue, and note if you are hearing new issues.
9. Repeat until you are happy with that phrase.

The most difficult thing for most people is to focus on a short phrase rather than just running through an entire piece. The problem with running through the entire piece is that you’ll just be practicing playing it with all the mistakes and not actually working through them. Also, it’s difficult to remember what went wrong over the whole piece, both while playing, and when listening back. And it can be overwhelming if there are mistakes throughout. So, be happy with the baby steps, the small successes, and know that they will combine to give you huge success in your practicing!

Now a step-by-step for preparing for performance will look a little different:

1. Warm up with anything other than the piece you will record.
2. Don’t practice the performance piece, but go directly to recording it in its entirety.
3. Listen to the performance and note the overall delivery as well as any specific errors that may have never shown up in regular practice. These are the ones that the additional pressure of the “listening ear” may have introduced.
4. Do this exercise either at the beginning of each day or after a significant break each day, but not on the day of the performance.
5. Go to your performance with the knowledge that you’ve prepared and are ready!

Don’t forget to smile and enjoy the music you’re making!