Traditional Irish Harp Tutor Level 1 + FREE The Tunes Book Vol 1
Now also available as a download version
These tutor books are the Harbison Harp Method for Traditional Irish Harp.
Today, Irish harp players have the choice of becoming traditional players that interpret, arrange and accompany, spontaneously and creatively as traditional harpers have done for over a millennium - or to play already arranged ('finished') pieces of traditional Irish harp music. From ancient times, our tradition has been ‘oral’ meaning ‘given by mouth’ - or ‘aural’ meaning ‘learned by ear’ (both descriptives are correct!) and it is an improvisatory art that is ultimately flexible, constantly changing, masterfully technical and expressive by the addition of ornamentation and variation.
This is distinctive from the ‘classical’ style of learning and performance - but, like jazz and other improvisatory styles, can also exist in the classical repertoire in ‘fixed’ arrangement. The Harbison Harp Method is designed to teach traditional players, and is the method that has trained many of Ireland's most celebrated traditional harp players currently.
In the Traditional Irish Harp Tutor, Level 1, you will learn:
- the basics – the parts of the harp, about the strings, their names, notes and notation
- to distinguish between melody (what you can sing) and chords (the background harmony)
- technical training from 'The Book of Chimes' and accompaniment skills with 'Chordscapes'
- to play universally known tunes at an accessible standard to start experimenting with simple ornaments and variations
- Close Position Chording – where the notes of the chords are re-arranged for the convenience of accompanying
- about Chord Plans and Play Patterns so to accompany tunes played by your friends
- to explore and experience different tune types e.g. marches, slipjigs, mazurkas and polkas
- to recognise how written music works – by following the dots and identifying chord and interval shapes
Tunes featured in this coursework are:
Three Blind Mice, The Big Ship Sails, Bráthar Séamus, Row Row Row your Boat, Óró Sé Do Bheatha Bhaile!, The Drunken Sailor, Brian Boru’s March, Dusty Bluebells, Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms, The Green Glens of Gweedore, Molly Malone, John Egan’s Polka, Peg Ryan’s Polka, Carolan's Eleanor Plunkett, Planxty Irwin and Fanny Power; Báidín Fheidhlimidh, The Belles of Ballee, The South Wind, Sport of the Chase, The Streets of Dublin, Padraig O’Keefe’s Slide, The Rakes of Mallow
Technical exercises are from The Book of Chimes and The Book of Chordscapes.
