Harpists or harp moms

[frogger]

So my daughter plays in the youth symphony and does fine with reading music when it's specific. She also has arranged things (older hymns that aren't copyrighted) 🙂 for solo play.  What she really wants to be able to do currently is help on the worship team but has a hard time coming up with ideas fast enough. Basically, she needs jamming skills. She has tried once and survived 🙂 but I think she would benefit with an online workshop or dvd or something. 

Has anyone discovered something like that. Googling harp learning stuff is the pits. Seems like you have to get to page 72 to find anything relevant.  

[Donna]

There are a lot of harpists in Irish music. They either play along with the tunes, adding in variations, or chord along as backup. I'm not a harp mom but reading your post, I thought, maybe learning from a harpist in Irish music or other folk music might teach improvisation and backing (chording) skills which could then be applied to whatever style of music she'd like to play? Not sure where you live but I know a number of Irish/folk harp teachers who teach via Skype or other online platform if you'd like to pm me.

[frogger]

I will see what she thinks of that book.

And Donna, though I can't afford another teacher and hers can do Celtic music also you made me think to look up specifically Celtic music and I found a Celtic festival in April with workshops which includes jamming with other insturments too.  Yay!

She did a a bunch of Irish music but it was just jigs and such not a real improv. She was doing mainly solo work before orchestra took over.

She knows chord progessions, how to transpose, do sound effects, and she does arrange music,  but hearing a song and just knowing what to do and having a few hours practice before leading worship in a few days might be too much pressure.  She freezes. She wants to be told what to do. Ha.  I guess she got used to having a condutor.    But really she has to be willing to come up with it.  I also need to drive it through her head it doesn't need to be perfect or difficult. Keep it simple.

 

Thanks

[LuvToRead]

There is nothing wrong with keeping it simple!  You can google most worship songs and get a chord sheet.  Maybe she could choose a song they do at church, print the chord sheet, then practice with the song on youtube a home.  (most chord sheets will even tell you which key the song was recorded in)  I know it's not the same as performing live, but it may help her feel more comfortable.  

[wintermom]

My dd (violinist) and I (keyboard and vocals) have been playing with our church's worship team for about 10 years. A lot of the amount of musical collaboration depends on the group leader's comfort level, experience and musical background. Some worship leaders don't read music at all, especially if they are guitarists. They simply go by chords, and they may also change the key they play in almost on the fly using a capo. This makes it very challenging for musicians on instruments that have set keys, such as harp or violin. They may have to be flexible enough to play in a variety of keys, improvising off of a guitar tab sheet. 

My latest music director has a very strong classical music background and writes the musical score for the various instrumentalists so he knows exactly what and when they will play. This is wonderful, but doesn't seem to be very common in the worship music world.

I would say that your dd will have to be patient and slowly figure out what is going to be a good fit with this worship team. She may start off by only playing intros for certain songs, and gradually work up to coming in more often when the team leader becomes more familiar with the possibilities. 

Edited March 19, 2019 by wintermom

[frogger]

Thanks Wintermom. I'm not super musical so I can't say. She knows as a harpist sometimes you just sit out of a song. Lever harps only can play in so many keys too so I can see the added challenge with that.

 

She also keeps telling me there is always someone on keyboard or piano and she can't just do the same thing as the pianist even though harp and piano often play the same role, more of a percussive role I guess.  But what to do as a harpist if the piano is playing your part, she doesn't know. 

That's why I was hoping for some kind of workshop. It sounds like a jamming workshop wouldn't be enough though. That the role of harp in with modern instrument worship has different kinds of challenges from what I hear you and her saying. 

[frogger]

1 hour ago, wintermom said:

My latest music director has a very strong classical music background and writes the musical score for the various instrumentalists so he knows exactly what and when they will play. This is wonderful, but doesn't seem to be very common in the worship music world.

. 

 

Wow. 

We attend a small church where all the worship team members have day jobs and families and do other stuff at the church so that would be asking a lot of anyone. Plus, nobody (in our specific case) knows much about harp, well, accept her. She has seen music ordered for the orchestra that would have required her to have 3 feet before. I can't remember what song that was but her teacher got a laugh out of it. 

 

But boy would she love it. 

Edited March 19, 2019 by frogger

[wintermom]

49 minutes ago, frogger said:

 

Wow. 

We attend a small church where all the worship team members have day jobs and families and do other stuff at the church so that would be asking a lot of anyone. Plus, nobody (in our specific case) knows much about harp, well, accept her. She has seen music ordered for the orchestra that would have required her to have 3 feet before. I can't remember what song that was but her teacher got a laugh out of it. 

 

But boy would she love it. 

 

In truth, this music director doesn't always have time to score every song. Then he may simply ask the violin to play a note from the chord. This is pretty boring for a violist, and wouldn't work at all for a harp. She could play the chord or part of the chord, though.

When I lead the music for a service, I would have my dd play an intro on the violin, and then if she knew the songs well and we had the time to prepare, she would come up with her own harmony lines for the song. 

I know that classical guitarists have to do a lot of arranging of pieces written for other instruments. It's a definite skill-set, but it seems to be at a very high level (graduate studies). Perhaps your dd's harp teacher could help her make a harp arrangement for one or two songs/hymns your church plays frequently. This is assuming that the music director is comfortable with this.

Edited March 19, 2019 by wintermom

[wintermom]

1 hour ago, frogger said:

Thanks Wintermom. I'm not super musical so I can't say. She knows as a harpist sometimes you just sit out of a song. Lever harps only can play in so many keys too so I can see the added challenge with that.

 

She also keeps telling me there is always someone on keyboard or piano and she can't just do the same thing as the pianist even though harp and piano often play the same role, more of a percussive role I guess.  But what to do as a harpist if the piano is playing your part, she doesn't know. 

That's why I was hoping for some kind of workshop. It sounds like a jamming workshop wouldn't be enough though. That the role of harp in with modern instrument worship has different kinds of challenges from what I hear you and her saying. 

 

Yes, your dd is exactly correct that it doesn't make sense to have the keyboard and harp playing the same thing - or even the harp and the vocalists on the same notes. This is where having the harp play a gorgeous intro for a song may work out well. Then the beauty of this instrument can be appreciated by the entire congregation.