This Class is Part of the
Black Friday Week of Thanks Sale
Deborah Henson-Conant
and the Legacy Project Team present
MODULATION STAIRCASE SERIES
A Modulating
Warmup Series
for Harps
TWO WAYS to WARM UP with MODULATION
1. SHEET MUSIC
for Intermediate to Advanced
LEVER HARP only
This 76-page sheet music for Lever Harp gives you 3 Intermediate to Advanced warmups that modulate to 8 keys and develop your strength, skills and agility with techniques like hand-over-hand arpeggios, ascending and descending arpeggiated inversion, scales, classical techniques and advanced levering techniques.
LEARN MORE
2. ONLINE STARTER TRAINING
For Fledgling to Intermediate
LEVER or PEDAL Harp
This On-Demand Starter Training leads you step-by-step thru the process of modulating from key-to-key with warmups that traing your basic skills in arpeggios, scales and classical patterns.
Includes video trainings for the basic patterns, a “Modulation Wheel” to help you ground your learning, and Bonus excerpts from the Advanced sheet music if you want to taste-test the more advanced versions.
LEARN MORE
Black Friday Week of Thanks Sale
SHEET MUSIC: 20% OFF Intermediate-to-Advanced Modulating Warmups
ON-DEMAND STARTER TRAINING: 40% OFF Fledgling-to-Intermediate Training
SHEET MUSIC for LEVER HARP
Intermediate to Advanced
[Pedal Harp Version is coming soon!]
MODULATION WARMUPS – Intermediate to Advanced Lever Harp
These NEW MODULATION WARMUPS bridge classical music to jazz theory, giving harpists practical insight into how music theory operates on our unique instrument.
Through hands-on learning and the power of pattern, your knowledge of jazz harmony expands while improving your classical technique, facility with levers, and modulation across keys.
Each warm-up targets specific technical skills, like cascading arpeggios or inversions, alongside musical theory concepts – and the 3rd warmup introduces advanced levering techniques.
76 pages, including 3 warmups that modulate through the Circle of Fifths.
“These are the warmups I originally developed to build my own strength, skill and flexibility. Now FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER — I’m so excited to be able to share them with you YOU!” Deborah Henson-Conant
Deborah has recorded a clip of the Modulation Warmups #3. Watch the Instagram clip here.
STARTER TRAINING
FOR LEVER or PEDAL HARP
Fledgling to Intermediate
What if you had a Virtual Learning Game
that taught you to MODULATE?
What if YOU were
√ CONFIDENT to MODULATE to any key.
√ UNAFRAID of your levers
(admit it – you ARE scared of them, right?)
√ NEVER confused by KEY SIGNATURES again!
That’s what you get with the
“Modulation Staircase” STARTER TRAINING
Plus a special Bonus: An excerpt from the Advanced Modulating Warmups
The Modulation Staircase is for:
- Fledgling to Intermediate Harpists who want a great set of warmups that teach them to modulate to 8 different keys.
- Harpists who want a sequential training to prepare them for the Advanced Modulation Warmup Series
- Harpists transitioning from Pedal Harp to Lever Harp or from Lever Harp to Pedal Harp
- Any harpist who wants an introduction to modulation and a set of warmups to practice it every day
Suggestions from the Legacy Project Team
These are the people who helped me finally complete this music and bring it to you.
They were the first ones to ever try it out. See below for their suggestions for how you can get the most out of it!
From Sally
I’m a classically, conservatory trained player who quit the harp at 25, at an unspecified later age to learn more freedom with the instruemnt. My suggestion is that if you just read the sheet music you won’t get the full value of the game, and what really gives you the full value is learning the patterns and playing them with the Star Chart Modulation Wheel.
From Tammy
I started playing as an ‘adult learner’ (make that “very-adult”). I love having a lever-specific training about harmony. My suggestion: Give it a try – it makes modulating so much easier than you think.
From Heleen
As a teacher of all levels, I suggest trying to find friends to do the staircase game together — to motivate each other and to share what you’re learning. This can be really fun.
From Gustavo
I’m a percussionist and the music copyist for this team. My suggestion is to really look at it as a game – so you can try different things to enjoy it. You can have a notebook to write down what you’re learning, you can record it and listen back. You can play it with other people – harpists or other instrumentalists – or with your family and friends. There are so many ways to make it fun. This game is about modulation – and every instrument can modulate, so making a game of modulating with someone who plays a different instrument can be really fun.
Experience the power of Modulation to expand your confidence, flexibility, improvisation and creative expression.
The Modulation Staircase is the first step in the full Modulation Warmup Series that includes warmups in arpeggios, scales, rhythms, classical and jazz techniques.
That’s all on it’s way … but your FIRST step is the Modulation Staircase!
CONFIDENCE
moving from key to key – and knowing what levers to change.
OPTIONS
to combine pieces that you didn’t think might fit together
FLEXIBILITY
to play in different keys
Learn the Pattern, Step on the Staircase, Play!
and every day you take it further, make it stronger
What harpists like YOU are
already saying about the
MODULATION STAIRCASE
“FIRST STEPS”
Here are comments from the first people to see the Modulation Staircase, HipHarp Academy members who range in technical ability from adult beginners to professionals.
“I’m loving this color-coded pattern for modulating!”
— Tracy Jane
“This info is SO helpful! I’ve been wanting to noodle more into other keys, and this gives me some good tools.”
— Christine
“In addition to being a great exercise, this is very practical.”
— Cherrie
“This is great and will help us lever harpers have the facility to play music that modulates.”
— Wendy
“Makes it so much easier to see patterns!”
— Betty
“It’s an easy structure to remember, also the changes are logical. Seeing it written down, makes it easier to see the structure.”
— Joke
“I can figure out how the Circle of Fifths works but I cannot always remember it. So this is a very helpful way to remember how to transition through it.”
— Joan
Learn more about how you can join harpists like these in
Hip Harp Academy
FAQs
Q: Does this work for Pedal Harps?
Yes – though currently the “Star Chart Modulation Wheel” and the sheet music are focused on the 8 major keys available for an Eb Lever harp (Eb, Bb, F, C, G, D, A, E). BUT once you learn the patterns, you can play them in any key.
Q: Will this work for a Lever Harp that’s tuned to C major with all levers down?
Yes – though currently the “Star Chart Modulation Wheel” are focused on the 8 major keys available for an Eb Lever harp (Eb, Bb, F, C, G, D, A, E) and “C” harps can’t play in F, Bb or Eb. BUT once you learn the patterns, you can play them in any key.
Q: Will this work for Chromatic or Double-Strung Harps
The warmups themselves will work, and they’ll help you learn to modulate and get familiar with the Circle of Fifths, but none of the training will be specific to chromatic or double-strung harps, so if you’re used to getting the benefit of trainings that aren’t specifically for your instrument, you’ll definitely get a benefit from the Modulation Staircase.
Q: When is the next part of the series coming out?
We’re already working on it, so it should be out late Summer or early Fall 2023
Q: What level of harpists is this for?
Advanced Beginners to Professionals.
Q: Do you need to know anything about theory before you start?
DHC says that if you just learn the patterns and follow the game, eventually music theory concepts will become obvious – so, no, you don’t need to know anything about music theory before you start.
If you DO know the concepts of music theory, it’s fun to recognize that you’re actually playing things – easily – that you’ve been told about and that may have seemed hard or complex before.
Sally warns that if you focus on the sheet music you won’t get the full value of the game, and what really gives you the full value is learning the patterns and playing them with the Star Chart Modulation Wheel.
Suggestions from the Legacy Project Team
These are the people who helped me finally complete this music and bring it to you.
They were the first ones to ever try it out. See below for their suggestions for how you can get the most out of it!
From Sally
I’m a classically, conservatory trained player who quit the harp at 25, at an unspecified later age to learn more freedom with the instruemnt. My suggestion is that if you just read the sheet music you won’t get the full value of the game, and what really gives you the full value is learning the patterns and playing them with the Star Chart Modulation Wheel.
From Tammy
I started playing as an ‘adult learner’ (make that “very-adult”). I love having a lever-specific training about harmony. My suggestion: Give it a try – it makes modulating so much easier than you think.
From Heleen
As a teacher of all levels, I suggest trying to find friends to do the staircase game together — to motivate each other and to share what you’re learning. This can be really fun.
From Gustavo
I’m a percussionist and the music copyist for this team. My suggestion is to really look at it as a game – so you can try different things to enjoy it. You can have a notebook to write down what you’re learning, you can record it and listen back. You can play it with other people – harpists or other instrumentalists – or with your family and friends. There are so many ways to make it fun. This game is about modulation – and every instrument can modulate, so making a game of modulating with someone who plays a different instrument can be really fun.
Meet your guide, Deborah Henson-Conant
Deborah Henson-Conant is an award-winning, innovator and coach. She’s the recipient of a Grammy-Nomination, NEA Grant, Mass Artist Fellowship and countless commissions and private project grants.
She’s the innovator behind CAMAC’s “DHC” Electric Body Harp and compositions like “The Nightingale,” “New Blues,” “Baroque Flamenco” and “Nataliana.”
She’s performed with artists from Bobby McFerrin, Doc Severinsen and Mason Williams to rock guitar legend Steve Vai – as a soloist with symphonies from the Boston Pops to the Baltimore Symphony – and as a concert artist at the Kennedy Center, Chicago Humanities festival and countless theaters and festival throughout the world.
Her online Academy, “Hip Harp Academy” has trained thousands of harpists worldwide in improvisation, arrangement and performance.
Visioning, goal-setting and creative delivery is an essential part of her work – and in this creative training
