START HARP IMMERSION – Brahms Lullaby and Sebastian’s Tune

Description

A START HARP IMMERSION

In this START HARP IMMERSION we will focus on two pieces, one is my harp arrangement of the famous Brahms lullaby. This is such a beautiful, simple and tender melody, but we also look at lots of extension ideas and a countermelody so you can enjoy making this as complicated as you like. The second tune I will teach by ear, written for my son this is simply called ‘Sebastian’s Tune’. I was told by one person after playing it at a recent concert that the piece musically conjured up images of castles and knights!

In this short course we work on:

• A warm up designed to work on playing 6ths beautifully.
• Look at exercises related to the main pieces to focus in on tricky sections (Everyday Exercises).
• Jump into using specific techniques: ‘cross fingering’, thumb slides and fourth finger slides to play 6ths
• Learn the tune from sheet music Brahms Lullaby
• Look at extension ideas for Brahms Lullaby including my own countermelody.
• Discuss ways you can use extension ideas to improvise around Brahms Lullaby
• Learn by ear the main theme from my brand new piece ‘Sebastian’s Tune’.

Online short Course

The course will initially be delivered live on Sunday 1st September 2019 over a 2 hour time slot 3PM-5PM GMT. 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 Ruzuku online classroom 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 via the online classroom afterwards.

In addition to the two focus pieces (one delivered ‘by ear’ and the other via sheet music), we will work on a warm up designed to help you become really confident at using 6ths to decorate and harmonise melodies. As an extension to the 6ths warm up section I am going to bravely jump in to teach some technique for cross fingering (and even ways of using the thumb and fourth finger slide) to play 6ths too. This will be challenging but hopefully interesting and useful for the future!

This course is similar to one week of the START HARP 12 week intensive online courses for beginner to intermediate harpists (Level 1, 2 and 3). Full details on www.StartHarp.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 beginner to early intermediate level harpists. 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 ready 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. It is rather like one week of a START HARP 12 week course!

When you sign up you will automatically receive a confirmation on email and then within 48 hours you will be sent a link to the online classroom. If you are signing up before the live session you will receive the meeting link by 1pm GMT on Sunday 1st September 2019. 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:

• A warm up designed to work on playing 6ths beautifully.
• Look at exercises related to the main pieces to focus in on tricky sections (Everyday Exercises).
• Jump into using specific techniques: ‘cross fingering’, thumb slides and fourth finger slides to play 6ths
• Learn the tune from sheet music Brahms Lullaby
• Look at extension ideas for Brahms Lullaby including my own countermelody.
• Discuss ways you can use extension ideas to improvise around Brahms Lullaby
• Learn by ear the main theme from my brand new piece ‘Sebastian’s Tune’.

Full price START HARP IMMERSION is £35. If you sign up before the live class goes out there is a £10 discount available, I have kept this really simple and put a timed discount on the shop page, so just check out before midnight GMT Sunday 31st August!

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…