Sounding Harps Books

For anyone who has been looking for the Sounding Harps series of books from Cairde na Cruite (I’ve personally recommended them to several of my students, who’ve had difficulty tracking them down), all four of them are now available through both Melody’s Traditional Music and Sylvia Woods.

More specifically (since trying to find them through the search functions can be a pain), you can get to them on the Melody’s site here and on Sylvia Wood’s site here.

If you want to shop locally and save on shipping and customs, you could also try taking down the pertinent info from the websites and ordering them through your local music store.

There are four books in total, and they’re all excellent collections of Celtic Music. Many of the arrangements will fit on smaller harps (esp. those in Vol. 1), and Volumes One & Four have arrangements suitable for beginners through early intermediate. For more advanced players, the arrangements in Books Two & Three are intermediate to advanced. Even the easy arrangements are put together very nicely, so the tunes sound great.

Hope everyone had a good November, and that you’ve all been keeping your hands and harps warm despite the snow and wind.

June Tune of the Month: Early One Morning

This cheerful sounding melody is often referred to by older Canadians as “The Friendly Giant Tune”, for its role on the well-loved kid’s show of yore. While it may sound chipper, the lyrics in fact are far from happy: “Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, I saw a fair maid singing in the valley below: “Oh, don’t deceive me, oh never leave me; How could you use a poor maiden so?”

Early One Morning

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

A Short List of Pentatonic Tunes

An inquiry from a visitor to the Celtic Harp Page reminded me that I never did re-post the list of pentatonic tunes I had up a while ago, so I thought I’d rectify that here. If you can think of any other well-known pentatonic tunes to add to the list feel free to note them in comments. A pentatonic scale is just as it sounds, a scale made up of five notes (as opposed to the 7 notes used by major and minor scales and the classic modes). For example, an example of a major scale would be CDEFGABC, while an example of a pentatonic scale would be CDFGAC. Playing the black keys on a piano will also give you a pentatonic scale. Here is a short list of some well-known pentatonic tunes:

A la claire fontaine (French Canadian )
Amazing Grace
Auld Lang Syne (Scottish)
Derby ram, The
En roulant ma boule, roulant
Git along little dogies (trad cowboy)
Go tell it on the mountain
How Can I Keep From Singing
Il etait un’ bergere (French)
Land of the silver birch (Canadian)
Loch Lomond
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (spiritual)
“Old Chinese Song” by Marcel Grandjany (based on Chinese trad. tune)
Old gray mare, The
Sakura (Cherry Blooms, Japanese)
Skye Boat Song
Sukiyaki
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
The Cherry Tree Carol
They Stole My Wife Last Night (Scottish pipe tune)
Wha wadna fight for Charlie?
Wayfaring Stranger
Ye Banks and Braes

…. plus numerous other spirituals, Scottish pipe tunes, Japanese and Chinese songs, etc.

April Tune of the Month: Lord Inchiquin

Apologies for the infrequent posting; I’m caught up in April Fools (another monthly writing challenge, to help spur on the finishing of the first draft of my novel), and in the madness my websites are feeling a wee bit neglected. Here’s a cheerful tune for April, by the famous Irish composer and harper, Turlough O’Carolan. (Although it’s hard to believe it’s spring today – here in southern Ontario it’s been quite wintery for five days now, below zero and snowing!).

Lord Inchiquin by O'Carolan

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

February Tune: Drowsy Maggie

Drowsy Maggie is an example of the type of quick reel that is often played in sessions. We usually do this in a set with several other E minor reels. The chords are fairly simple, mostly alternating between Em and D in the A part; and D, A and G in the B part.

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

January Tune: Brian Boru’s March

Once again it’s properly winter here in the PeterPatch, with snow swirling merrily about outside. The snow first arrived on Tuesday. Concerned that it might just up and melt away the way it has every other time this year (it had been a disturbingly warm and wet winter up to that point), M. and I decided to take advantage of the stuff and dig out our snowshoes. So the past few days have seen us tromping through the snow, and coming home cold but happy to cups of hot chocolate. The cats, of course, are deciding that this is the perfect time to curl up under warm blankets. What has this to do with harps, you ask? Not much, I admit. Except that since this is a very quiet time of year as far as harp gigs are concerned, I’m able to dedicate more time to working on the update of the Chubby Sparrow Site, and to playing with Sibelius. January’s tune is Brian Boru’s March, because – well, because I just couldn’t avoid it any longer. This is one of the very first tunes I learned on harp, and one that I teach to many beginners. It’s easy to pick up because of its repetitive patterns, and it’s a cheerful little upbeat march that works well on just about any instrument. Enjoy!

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

December Tune: To Drive The Cold Winter Away

After an unusually warm and rainy November, winter has finally descended on our little town. We woke up this morning to chilly sub-zero temperatures and a blanket of snow. So I thought this would make for an appropriate December tune of the month. “To Drive the Cold Winter Away” (also known as “All Hail to the Days”) is one of my favourite seasonal tunes, a standard with my early music ensemble and my flute, harp and cello trio. Because the words are also quite lovely, I’ve also included the lyrics to the song below. The duet part was written for our cello player. If you want to use the bass as a left hand part for solo harp, you can leave out the G# if you don’t have G levers, or don’t feel like flipping in the middle of the piece.

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

Lyrics: “All Hayle to the Dayes”, Eng. trad.

All hayle to the days that merit more praise
Than all the rest of the year!
And welcome the nights that double delights
As well for the poor as the peer!
Good fortune attend each merry man’s friend
That doth but the best that he may,
Forgetting old wrongs with carols and songs
To drive the cold winter away.

To mask and to mum, kind neighbours will come
With wassails of nut-brown ale,
To drink and carouse with all in the house
As merry as bucks in the dale;
Where cake, bread and cheese are bought for your fees
To make you the longer stay;
The fire to warm, will do you no harm,
To drive the cold winter away.

Thus none will allow of solitude now
But merrily greet the time,
To make it appear of all the whole year
That this is accounted the prime:
December is seen apparel’d in green,
And January fresh as May
Comes dancing along with a cup and a song
To drive the cold winter away.

This time of the year is spent in good cheer,
Kind neighbours together do meet
To sit by the fire with friendly desire
Each other in love to greet;
Old grudges, forgot, are put in the pot,
All sorrows aside they lay;
The old and the young doth carol this song
To drive the cold winter away.

Why I do this

My students are so cool. Every day I’m reminded of how each and every one of my students are amazing in some way.

Having taught some of my younger students for several years in a row now, I’m really getting to see them grow up. When I asked one of my returning students what extracurricular activities she was doing this year, she said ballet and curling. Is that great or what? Not exactly two activities you usually hear said in the same breath. I’m so glad kids these days don’t have the same restrictions and stigmas associated with certain activities that they used to. Girls and boys equally have a lot more freedom to choose to do whatever they want, without being unfairly judged or ridiculed as a result.

I know that there are some problems with some kids being over-saturated with activities, and stressed out by all the expectations that have been laid on them by the grownups (and other kids) around them. But that doesn’t seem to be a problem with any of my students. Almost all of them come to each lesson with a really positive attitude; they may get easily distracted sometimes, sure, or show up tired or distracted for some reason or another. But that almost always disappears as soon as we dive into the lesson.

I sometimes wonder how any teacher could rigidly try to force each student to conform to the exact same style of learning and the exact same hand position. Every single one of my students is so different; they’re all different shapes and sizes, all different ways that they learn best. We always start with a basic solid technique foundation, of course, but there are so many ways it can be modified to fit each student, without losing the main goal: having a practical and efficient way of getting around on the harp, so you can focus on creating great music without being hampered by bad habits.

But back to my students… Besides harp lessons, they’re all doing a wide variety of cool things. One of them is involved in community theatre, one of them sings in a choir; and it’s not just the kids; most of my adult students have families and full time jobs to juggle on top of everything else. It’s impossible to have a “favourite” student. All of them have their own unique approach to things, and their own way of making teaching enjoyable.

One young girl seems to have fallen in love with the harp at first sight, and is always really cheerful and enthusiastic. She even gave my harp a name – her own special name for my harp. I didn’t tell her that I already have my own name for the harp – I figure harps are kind of like cats; they can have many different names. After all, every student relates to the harp in their own way.

Another one of my students is what some might call a model student; she’s incredibly bright, quick, always really positive and polite (and I don’t mean in that scary, unnatural way that kids can be polite, like it’s something they’ve been forced to do, but completely genuine). She always practices, and seems to really enjoy the whole learning process. She’s one of those people who has the potential to be anything at all that she wants to be.

With my adult students this year, we’re dealing a lot with health issues and a tendency to really build up and retain tension, so there’s been a really strong focus on the ergonomics of harp technique. We’re doing a lot of deep breathing, and finding as many ways as we can of releasing tension. It almost feels like sometimes I’m taking on the role of a phsyical therapist! One of my students practices Tai Chi and Yoga, something we share, and we’re finding ways to incorporate the terminology and philosophy behind those practices into harp playing.

All in all, I have to say that teaching music gives back as much as it takes. It can be hard work, sometimes, but it’s so worth it. So here’s a shout out to all the music students out there, doing their best to struggle through despite all the potential setbacks and frustrations they may encounter. We don’t just teach you; we learn from you too. And whenever I feel like I’m not doing all the things I want to do, or that I’m not contributing enough to the world, I think about those moments when a student breaks into a smile when something finally clicks; when one of my younger students actually clap their hands in joy after finally playing through a whole song all by themselves. Thanks, guys. You make it worth it.

October Tune: Woodicock

Okay, so it’s not quite October yet. Thought I’d get a bit of a head start. It certainly feels like October around here; chilly, windy, leaves skittering everywhere.

Woodicock, thumbnail (see print instructions below)

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

Our early music group plays this one in a set with “The Old Mole”.

September Tune: Out on the Ocean

New Tune of the Month, courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music (right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or just pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions).

Out on the Ocean is a popular upbeat session tune, and can be played in either a leisurely or more rollicking fashion.

It goes well with Rolling Waves, Geese in the Bog and Connacht Man’s Rambles.

Also known as Mick Mulcahy’s, O’Connell’s Jig On Top Of Mount Everest, O’er The Sea, Out In The Ocean, Out Of The Ocean, Over The Ocean, Portroe, Split The Whisker, The Wind Is Over The Ocean.