Sign up details >>HERE<<
10th January 2022
6 Week Online Course
A course looking how to ‘Play Your Harp Out!’ for fledglings to budding professionals. Are you thinking of playing for friends, family, a wedding, an event, in an ensemble, a solo concert? We will talk programming, preparation, logistics, safety, sanity and much more!
Play Your Harp Out Content:
- 6 weeks of video and worksheet content delivered via email on Ruzuku.
- 6 weeks of live sessions in Zoom for Q & A and workshops on programming, arranging from a lead sheet practice, communication, noodle practice, writing about yourself, and a group kit party/show and tell!
This course is aimed at all levels, for anyone who is looking to play their harp out! Whatever our level we can bring joy with our music, I believe the key is to be prepared, manage expectations and find our own way to feel comfortable wherever we are playing.
This will include the materials I created to teach a short course on being a Wedding Harpist at the Harp Department in the Royal Northern College of Music in 2019. These particular materials are useful to budding professionals as well as students seeking to perform for friends weddings, including helping choose and program repertoire, useful equipment for your gig bag, working with bride and grooms to be, working with venues, legal requirements and much more.
My goal for this course to help enable fledgling players to get out there and enjoy playing in public. I am also very keen to share information to budding professionals, all the information I wish I had had at my fingertips when setting out into the ‘real world’ after music college!
Six weeks of exploring ‘What’s the Occasion?’ topics:
- Social Events with Background Musicg. Tea party, Birthday, Anniversary, Christenings, prom, community events
- Corporate Events e.g. launches, wine and dine for networking, conference dinner, company anniversary.
- Charity Event to me this often feels like a cross between a social event and a corporate event.
- Weddings ceremony, drinks reception, wedding breakfast, first dance, with the band.
- Funeral background or service
- Ensemble Concert e.g. band, small chamber group, harp ensemble.
- Orchestra Concert as part of the orchestra or as a soloist in a concerto.
- Solo Concert e.g. in a theatre, concert hall or church
- Care Setting g. a Hospital, Hospice, Nursing Home
- School / Young people setting
Six weeks of ‘Let’s Focus On’ topics
- Thriving at your level – Programming & Preparation
- Logistics (e.g. getting your harp out and to a venue!). The challenges of different venues/spaces
- Communication (email, phone, at ‘playing out’ space) including pricing and getting your message out (e.g. biography, sales pitch, blurb, websites, social media)
- Safety/Contracts/Legal Requirements (yourself and audience/guests)
- Sanity/head space (performance nerves, imposter syndrome)
- Large equipment (eg. Harp, amplification, trolley, car) and gig bag (the little bits and bobs)
Six Weeks of Harp Music:
- ‘The weekly noodle’ Each week we will play around with a ‘noodle’ that might just come in handy for you during a gig one day!
- ‘Check your gig bag for…’ piece of the week. Each week I will provide you with a few of my own versions of common pieces we all need in our gig bag, along with a few little ideas you can use in various different performance contexts covered in the course.
- The weekly ‘How to sound good warming up in public’ exercise!
To sign up for the course visit the shop page >>HERE<<
