"Stay in Shape With Little Effort" May 10, 2016
I've worked a lot with adult students and most of them find it difficult to find time to practice regularly. When life's responsibilities crowd out music it's still possible to stay in shape with little effort.
I encourage my students (adults and children alike) to create a repertoire collection as they progress. The music in this collection changes as skills develop and personal preferences change, but there's still purpose to the habit.
Carefully chosen maintained repertoire is an easy, enjoyable way to maintain skills and stay in shape. Look at the Handel concerto here above. There's plenty of rigor in this to keep hands in shape. If you don't have a long time to practice, sit down and play through something like this on regular basis. Even you lever harpists can play this, there's a version with no lever changes! Ed Druzinsky, former principal harp of Chicago Symphony used the first harp part from the Magic Fire Music (Act III) from Die Walküre (Wagner) as a frequent warm up (he memorized it). It's plenty strenuous and accomplishes much: keeping the part in the fingers, providing a great warm up and reinforcing skills.
When you're short on time, use each minute at the harp wisely and choose music that will serve more than one purpose. Instead of heading to an etude book, find music you love that reinforces the skills you learned in your etude books. If you do that, you'll stay in shape and always have music at the ready when you're asked to perform.
This piece, the first movement is useful as a wedding processional or recessional. It's great for Easter Sunday or Christmas because of it's festive nature. Learn it, use it to stay in shape and be ready for lots of events.
More music of Handel arranged for harp can be found here http://hornandharp.com/handel.html.
Download the Handel Concerto, just an excerpt of the first movement in several free versions here:
lever harp, minimum 27 strings, with lever changes indicated
22 string (lever free) harp C-c
full size lever harp, lever free
pedal harp, no pedals marked