The parents of one of my piano students asked if I would be interested in teaching a 5-week class at their elementary school, and I jumped at the chance! I spent those five weeks with nine students, grades 1 through 5, at Northpoint Elementary School in Granger, IN.
During the first week, the room was full of excitement! Most of the students had never seen a harp in person before. Their faces glowed when they got to touch the strings and make their first attempts at music. I asked each student why he or she wanted to take the class, and the answers ranged from “It sounded fascinating!” to “My mom made me.”
In the first class, we covered the parts of the harp, finger numbers, the music alphabet, string colors and corresponding letter names, the technique of closing & raising when you play, and the first song they learned – “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” We also covered the rhythmic values of quarter, half, dotted half & whole notes.
Week Two started with a review of the music alphabet, rhythmic values, and finger numbers. From the red C and black F strings, we worked on figuring out the letter names of the other strings. The second song we learned was “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” With this piece, the students were given a sheet with the letter names, and they had to write in the rhythmic values for each note. We also explored high and low sounds on the harp and began to use the thumb, working on getting it to close over finger 2 when it plays.
The 3rd week brought new excitement into the room as the pedal harps made their first appearance! We discussed how pedal harps differ from lever harps, and how they work. Each student created a unique pedal configuration, and experimented with what kind of sounds they make. I demonstrated a piece that uses pedal changes, and had the students watch my feet as they moved pedals while I was playing.
The next song we learned was “Yankee Doodle.” Again, we figured out the note values and added them to our note names. We discussed forte and piano sounds, and reviewed thumb closing technique.
With the lever harps back for Week Four, we discussed how the levers work and how they differ from pedals. Playing the harp isn’t all fun and games – this week the students learned how to tune the harp (all 40+ strings need to be tuned every day!) and how to change a broken string. Everyone agreed it is more fun to play the harp than to fix it!
With all of the work we put in on having the thumb and finger 2 play at the same time, our final song used the technique. “Happy Birthday” was a challenge! At the end of this class, each student selected their favorite song to play the following week for our audience.
The final class brought back one of the pedal harps, and all of the students had a chance to play their chosen piece for an audience of friends and family who joined us for the last half of the class. We also covered some “special effects” that the harp can do. We made terrible noises with the pedals, wove paper through the strings, and banged on the soundboard. Even though the students did not have harps at home on which they could practice, it turned out nicely! Each student also told the audience one thing that they learned in the class (loud sound effects were a favorite!).
It was such a pleasure to introduce these students to the harp! For more information about harp lessons, visit my website: http://www.theclassicharpist.com/html/harp.html