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Free Downloadable Sheet Music and Etudes for Harp Students and Harp Teachers
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These resources, for the most part are suitable for harps as small as 22 strings.
The sheet music for the etudes are posted as PDF files for free, immediate download.Yes, the resources on this page are free. Donations are, however, gladly accepted. If you find these resources helpful, you are welcome to "toss a few coins in the hat" or purchase some of our sheet music. Music is our full time profession, not a hobby. At the very least, feedback, positive or otherwise is appreciated.
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These Resources for Harp Students and Harp
Teachers by Barbara
Ann Fackler are licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License.
Rot und Schwarz by Barbara Ann Fackler Rot und Schwarz is the theme for a series of skill building preludes for harp. In the same way that we often simplify map reading, by not naming every street that we'll pass on the way to our destination, note reading is simplified when new harpists can quickly identify where all the black and red strings are notated on the staff. These are useful for teachers as well as those learning on their own. Once these come easily, try my arrangement of Ode to Joy. Felicitation, Spring Song, Still Waters and Meditation, all found in Short and Sweet Volume III: Accessible Solos would also be a great place to use your new skill. Look for music in the Pretty Quick Music catalog that is a Skill Building version and dig in.
An Introduction to Note Reading for Harpists The title pretty much sums it up. To read notes well, you need to understand how the staff maps out your instrument. It's a beautiful system that shows you the location of each note on your instrument. Pay attention to how the notes move, up or down on the staff. Learn the watch for relationships as notes move, is it moving stepwise or skipping around, going up or down? When you read a map, do you need to know the name of every street you pass on your way to the next turn, or do you just need to know how many blocks to travel and in what direction? Note reading works in a similar fashion. This free one
page
music worksheet reminds you what you need to know. 36
KB
Note Reading and Rhythm Tutorial Each note on the staff tells you two things about itself: 1) what it sounds like (the pitch of the note, and the string it is played on and 2) how long the note should last (the duration of the note). Where the note lays on the staff (which line or space) tells you what string to play and what the note will sound like. What the note looks like tells you how long the note should last. Download this free one page (PDF) tutorial that explains note values and how to interpret them. 32KB
Placing Four in a Row One of my favorite things about the Suzuki method is that it teaches the placing of all 4 fingers very early on. Learning to do this teaches you to find a good healthy hand position. If you've worked through this and the study on root position triads, try out the lever free version of Grieg's Morning Song or Saltarello (recorded on my CD). You might also consider Irish Love Song and Meditation from the Short and Sweet Volume III: Accessible Solos. It's a lot more interesting to fine tune your new skills with music you enjoy than an etude and when you're done, you've got music you can play for family and friends. If you're up for a more serious workout, grab the Lariviére etudes and start at page 6.
Thirds Learning to play thirds is the beginning of being able to add harmony to your music. It is important to learn to bring both the thumb and second finger off the string at exactly the same moment and to be able to recognize the interval of a third when the notes are not played as a chord but as individual notes following one another. Work through this short study until you can control your fingers reliably. Then, you're ready to work on music that incorporates thirds like Kelvingrove (used in the Gather worship book)and Sweetheart Waltz, part of Short and Sweet Volume III: Accessible Solos. Silent Night, Hosanna, Loud Hosanna, or the Beethoven's Ode to Joy might be good choices for you if you can manage this study well. If you are comfortable with placing three notes in a row, then you could also learn Hymn of Thanksgiving or Children of the Heavenly Father from The Sacred Lever Harp or Ron Harris' In This Very Room.
Typical fingerings for harpists If you are consistent in your habits as a beginner you'll have an easier time as you attempt more difficult music. There aren't too many chord shapes for a harpist to know. Because our instrument works chromatically differently than other instruments, a minor third and major third are virtually the same to our hands. Once you realise this and memorize the typical fingerings for each interval, large chords and arpeggios become much easier to master.
Triads in Root Position (C Major) Root position triads are often found in beginning music and they're very useful when learning to improvise. Small harps that don't allow for large chords will use them all the time. You need to master not just placing this chord shape but recognizing it. When you have mastered this, you can learn Westphalia, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us, Ode to Joy(version A), We Three Kings, All the Pretty Little Horses or the Sweetheart Waltz. If you work with a harp ensemble, you are ready to play first harp on Arabesque if you have mastered this exercise. Once you're comfortable with the version in the key of C, try the other keys as well. Click each link for sheet music for each free harp etude. triads: D major triads: G major triads: a minor 56 KB
Inversions of Triads Chords may be inverted, meaning the note on the bottom is no longer the
root. Once you've learned to dependably find a root position chord,
it's time to learn how to find the inversions. This prepares you to
learn Ode
to Joy
(version C), Come Thou
Almighty King, Christ
the Lord Has Risen Today, Fairest
Lord Jesus,
Jesus
Loves Me,
Manoah
,
and
O
Sacred Head.
You're also probably ready to start learning to read lead sheets. Work
this in different keys to learn the chords that commonly ocurr in keys
you'll use a lot on lever harp. Download the sheet music for these keys after you've learned the one in C major: key of D key of
F key of Eb key of
G 40 KB A Short Study in the Placement of Four Note Root Position Chords The beautiful thing about harp is that we can memorize the shapes of commonly used chords which simplifies note reading. Root position chords always have the same shape to the hand on a harp, no matter the key. Finding chords of three notes is much easier than four note chords, so a little extra practice finding big chords is often necessary. This is a short study, to be practiced over a long period of time that will help you memorize the shape of a four note root position chord. When you are ready to work on all the inversions possible with four note chords, grab the Lariviére etudes and look at page 5, which offers enough exercises that you'll be busy for a long time. The exercise on page 5 of Lariviére can be played on lever harps, there are plenty for pedal harp only. 76 KB
Lead Sheet
Tutorials:
Included are two (2)
free tutorials
on reading
lead sheets that are designed with harpists in mind. Learning to read
standard lead sheets opens up limiless possibilities for repertoire,
even to the novice. Also including on this page is a list of
commonly occurring chords for commonly used key signatures.
Nearly all of my Beginning-in-the-Middle students learn to
read
lead sheets sometime in their first two years of study. I
teach
them to use standard lead sheet notation so that they can read any lead
sheet they find. Once you've got the hang of this, check out the lead
sheet collections in the Short Cuts collections.
Lever Tutor You don't need to be clever to flip levers quickly, you just need to know how to think about them. Here's a couple of tutorials to get you started.
The Lariviére Exercises and Etudes is available as a free download. This is a great collections of etudes, aimed at pedal harp but some can be played on lever harp.Learning to replace strings on your harp can be daunting until you've tied the knot enough times that you remember it. Harp Spectrum has a decent article (with pictures) that will remind you how to do this. There's also one at Vanderbilt Music Co. and a movie at The Harp Herald.
Think Enharmonically!
Sometimes thinking enharmonically makes a passage easier to play,
either on pedal harp or lever harp. This webpage includes a (hopefully
growing) collection of hints that will help you find ways to make
enharmonic spellings simplify and expand your harp playing. Examples from harp sheet music included.
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Download Instructions:
PC Users - Right Click and select download link to disk.
MAC Users - Control Click and select download link to disk.