“She plays stuff you just wouldn’t think could possibly come from the instrument that St. Peter hands out to new arrivals at the pearly gates.” Jeff Kaczmarczyk – Grand Rapids Press
I love that quote from Jeff Kaczmarczyk — and the following videos I will show you how I make some of those sounds! You can also see these techniques LIVE at my 2 next shows:
- THIS Saturday, June 20th at the Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris, ME (TIX)
- Wednesday, July 1st at the Cape Cod Jazz Festival at Wequassett Resort (INFO)
‘Strum-Tune’ Arm-Harmonics
In this video I show how I create a strum technique for voice & electric harp using my arm to create bell-like harmonics and percussive sounds
Juanito’s Left-Hand Bossa
In this video I show how I developed a left-hand bossa-nova pattern to use with voice & electric harp
Looper Pedal Bassline
In this video I show how I use my looper pedal to clone myself with electric harp
Brubecker Multi-Area Tuning
In this video I show how I tune parts of the electric harp in different keys so that I can shift harmonic area when I shift to a different physical area of the instrument.
Love your hair…love you…you’re looking excellently sophisticated these days.
ag
LOVE all of these videos. Harpists like me would for sure PAY if you put on a link just to get the SCORES for them. Beats listening to them note by note to try to figure out what you are playing and why I love it so much!!
Ha ha ha, Margi! I would pay for a link to the scores for these, too! There ARE no scores — but I AM curious which are the ones you would most want the notes for and why. It’s so funny … I never even think of these as things other people might want to do since I’m still in the discovery phase.
Oh … I guess I’ll probably ALWAYS be in the discovery phase, won’t I? I guess that’s my personal life-long phase.
I Love the way you play. I have a Pedal harp, so I need the Cords to play it. Thanks a lot. Yours Claudia
Oh, Claudia – you don’t need the chords! Improvise! Listen! If there’s one thing I’ve learned from taking classes with Deborah – there’s no WRONG! It’s only imperfect completion. So – mess around with the SOUNDS that you’re hearing Deborah make – you’ll find what the notes are. But does it really matter? I mean, whote the NOTES or CHORDS are? What really matters is the technique, the cool bluesy/bossa nova(y)/jazzy sounds you can make. Then you can come up with your OWN notes and chords!
And Deborah – I am SOOOO excited to be taking the improv class with you at Somerset. My students can’t wait either – they lap up whatever it is that I can share with them. Thank you!
Wow … this is so interesting! I had created these videos for audience members and it never occurred to me that other harpists would want to play these things — but I totally understand that it would be helpful to you if I outlined what I was doing – even just saying what the notes are or the tuning.
This is something very interesting for me to think about — especially at the point when I release the MP3s. So thank you for that idea!
You say harp hacker. I still say harp wizard!! Love these videos! So helpful–and fun!!