June 2000: Adapting Music for Harp:

Unit 3: Working From Sheet Music

First, try to play what is there. Some pieces may be do-able. Some may be awkward. Again, consider the melody. Sometimes you can eliminate the repeated notes that accommodate syllables of the words. By using just the first one and moving on in proper rhythm you might be able to create a better flow in the melodic line. Very often the sheet music can be a good foundation for your arrangement. Try to use as much as you can of what is offered.

Paramount in your considerations must be melody. One way or another you have to play that completely or the piece will be unconvincing. Although you might not think so at first, the second most important element is the bass line. Often people come up with arrangements that contain the right melody and the right chord qualities but the progression of the bass line is altered and it just sounds odd. Most popular melodies are not very complicated. Most popular music is not very complicated. The things that make them particularly appealing or in some way "special" are usually very subtle - a basic rhythm pattern or the progression of the bass line. If you sing a popular melody with no words or accompaniment , you will sometimes find it to be singularly uninteresting. Sometimes a piece depends on the poetry or message of its words to come alive. Sometimes it is the arrangement and "style" that makes it appealing. For these very reasons, some pieces of music simply do not lend themselves well to solo arrangements on any instrument, let alone harp. You will have to work with your piece and see how it comes along.

Above all, do not try to be fancy. Try to find the elements that give your piece life. Honor them and back off. Complex does not equate with good. Simplicity and ease of execution will result in a far more enjoyable harp arrangement. Some of my best work is my most simple sounding. Keep in mind something I tell my students all the time: consider a flautist, or violinist or for that matter any instrumentalist that plays one note at a time . We honor and adore them every bit as much as a keyboardist or harpist who struggles to incorporate all the elements of a piece in one solo execution. So why do we have to be more complicated to be better? The answer is that we don't! All we have to be is beautiful and our instruments have the edge in that department just by the inherent beauty of their sound.

See you next month.

Stephanie

*April, May and June lessons were posted at the same time... find the April and May lessons in the Archive...Webmaster

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