Description

FAIRPLAY IMMERSION – July 2021

Time for Your Left Hand to Shine

In this IMMERSION we turn our full attention to playing beautifully with our left hand.

How often does the right hand hog all the best melodies and impressive moments?

It doesn’t seem fair for the left never to have the limelight! Then, when the left hand is actually called upon to play a more melodic or fast passage we can find that it is lacking in the agility, stamina and tone required to play the music in the way we would like to.

Let’s work to re-aline the balance! 

Using my brand new left hand solo piece for harp ‘If the Wren Can…’ we let your left hand find its moment to shine on your harp. We also look at Reversing the Roles of your hands. This ‘trick’ can be useful and effective when arranging tunes. In this part of the course we focus on listening to and controlling our left hand tone to play a beautiful melody, using the lullaby ‘Suo Gân’ (shared by ear) and explore ideas on how your right hand can accompany this (or any given tune) while the left hand is enjoying hogging the limelight. I know many of you will know this tune very well already, that will help with this challenge.

We use the Fairplay Harp School ‘Power Up Your Left Hand’ exercise sheet to warm up (a worksheet originally created for September 2020 IMMERSION) and even sneak in a little improvising at the end with just our Left Hand to prove it is possible.

In this short course we will:

• Remind ourselves about common left hand pitfalls and how best to avoid them.
• Warm up using selected ideas from the ‘Power Up Your Left Hand’ Fairplay Harp School exercise sheet.
• Reversing the Roles: Using the reversing the roles ‘trick’ can be useful and effective when arranging tunes. In this part of the course we focus on listening to and controlling our left hand tone to play a beautiful melody, using the lullaby ‘Suo Gân’ (shared by ear). We also explore ideas on how your right hand can accompany this (or any given tune) while the left hand is enjoying hogging the limelight!
• Look at exercises related to the main left hand solo piece ‘If the Wren Can…’ to focus in on tricky sections (Everyday Exercises).
• Work through an overview of the left hand tune ‘If the Wren Can…’ using the sheet music.
• Finish the course by improvising with just our left hand, to prove it is possible.

Online short Course

The course will initially be delivered live on Sunday 11th July 2021 over a 2 hour time slot 3.00PM-5.00PM GMT/BST+1. The session will include a short break for fingers and brains around half-way through! After the live event you will receive a link to the recorded materials which will include approximately 90 minutes of video training, along with some explanatory text and sheet music downloads for you to print out and keep. You will be able to access for 12 months after the IMMERSION. It is fun to attend live but do not worry if you cannot make it, you will be able to access all the materials afterwards.

In addition working on the piece, my main aim is to cover ideas that will be useful in your future learning, so you can continue to work on improving all the time.

This course is similar to one week of the START HARP  or Flourishing Harpist 12 week intensive online courses for beginner to upper intermediate harpists. Full details on www.FairplayHarpSchool.com

“Great immersion! As usual, Shelley went above and beyond.” Rebecca Blakeney referring to last IMMERSION (START HARP Level 1, 2 and 3 graduate!)

Following the same ethos and delivery style as the main 3 START HARP 12 week courses, we look at playing from sheet music, improvising and playing by ear all with an underlying focus on a good strong playing technique.

This course is aimed at advanced beginner to advanced intermediate level harpists. To be honest as long as you can read treble and bass clef at least a little bit and can play with all four fingers (and turn) you will be able to take this course. Simplification and extension ideas are offered as we go along so lots to keep everyone busy!

You will have 12 months access to these videos and materials.

When you sign up you will automatically receive a confirmation on email from this website. If you are signing up before the live session you will receive the meeting link and sheet music by 1pm BST on Sunday 11th July 2021. If you do not receive any details when excepted please check your spam/junk file and if it is not hiding there email me on info@harpwales.com.

So jut to remind you, in this short course we work on:

• • Remind ourselves about common left hand pitfalls and how best to avoid them.
  • Warm up using selected ideas from the ‘Power Up Your Left Hand’ Fairplay Harp School exercise sheet.
  • Reversing the Roles: Using the reversing the roles ‘trick’ can be useful and effective when arranging tunes. In this part of the course we focus on listening to and controlling our left hand tone to play a beautiful melody, using the lullaby ‘Suo Gân’ (shared by ear). We also explore ideas on how your right hand can accompany this (or any given tune) while the left hand is enjoying hogging the limelight!
  • Look at exercises related to the main left hand solo piece ‘If the Wren Can…’ to focus in on tricky sections (Everyday Exercises).
  • Work through an overview of the left hand tune ‘If the Wren Can…’ using the sheet music.
  • Finish the course by improvising with just our left hand, to prove it is possible.

Full price for this one off IMMERSION is £35.

If you prefer you can subscribe to my Patreon account (Tier 4) where you pay a monthly fee to access the monthly IMMERSIONS along with various other benefits including monthly live Q & A sessions. Full details here: https://www.patreon.com/ShelleyFairplay

Comments from students who have attended previous IMMERSION

• Insider info…don’t miss it but prepare yourself to be bombarded with info in the nicest possible way???
• Don’t miss it! And don’t be surprised if you feel overwhelmed if you do it live. Shelley basically fits a full week of Start Harp into 2 hours, so it’s a lot to take in live — but then you can go back and work with the videos as you’re already used to doing in Start Harp. Or you can miss the live bit and just do the videos afterward. I did my best learning of Spiraling Shoots after the fact, when my brain was quiet and I could hear myself think and appreciate what I was playing.
• I couldn’t join live so learnt it from the recordings, which are great.
• I was glad to be on the live presentation, although it was early in the morning. However, due to more pressing priorities, I tabled my practice efforts for a future time—hopefully, in September. That is a benefit of the Immersion structure. Sign up for the class and add to your repertoire when you are ready.
• I also saw it in the replay. It’s great to be able to go over everything slowly…