Live Harp Lesson 41 – Playing hands together

by Zuzanna on 20 March 2020 with No Comments

Have you ever wondered…

“Is it really possible to pay attention to both hands while they have to do two very different things at the same time?”

“How will I ever put hands together if I cannot do that?”

I have seen many beginners wondering about that.

In today’s Live Lesson we will be looking at the seemingly impossible task: focusing on one thing at a time… while playing hands together!

Some announcements

Spring terms comes to the end, and I will soon be accepting bookings for the new term of harp lessons. Sign up here if you don’t want to miss it!

About today’s topic

How many of you know the book that I’m using today? (3:10)

It is a great resource, if…
– you are comfortable with reading music
– you’re studying the harp with a teacher

However, if you’re trying to use it to learn on your own, you may be feeling quite lost when you get to the piece on page 3 and discover that it’s actually quite tricky to play (even though it doesn’t sound like that).

Listen to the piece (from 4:38)

What are the challenges?

playing with only two fingers
coming off the strings after each note
constantly searching for the new note
hands going in different directions

Let’s start with looking for some patterns

If you want to know more about finding patterns, watch Live Harp Lesson 40

When it comes to practising hands together, there are two methods you can use – both for this piece, as well as many others with similar challenges.

Method 1

If one of the hands has more time, move it in advance (check out the PDF to see the hints I marked in the music). See me demonstrating how this works in practice from 8:27.

Method 2

Show your hands the way and feel how they move. Be aware of how far each hand goes and in which direction, as well as how they move in relation to one another. I demonstrated this technique from 10:28.