Easy songs – Harp Tuesday

Ep. 223 – how to play Aurum Aqua

A look at how to play Aurum Aqua, a short piece featuring downwards arpeggios in the style of Hasselman’s La Source or Pratt’s The Little Fountain.

Susan Dahl Graham, the composer, has made the sheet music available for free! Download it here.

Support from my patrons helped make this video possible: https://www.patreon.com/joshlayne

Get free sheet music and stay up-to-date on what I’m doing by signing up to my email newsletter.

And make sure to watch the Harpist in the Wild episode featuring Aurum Aqua:

Ep. 213 – Easy harp music – how to play “Night Song”.

In this episode of Harp Tuesday I take a look at a short piece from Betty Paret’s “First Harp Book”. “Night Song” is a beautiful piece, and great practice for right hand chords (3rds and 6ths).

I could resist a beautiful June day, and took Harp Tuesday outside! This also ties in with my new series, Harpist in the Wild. Episode 2 (A Baroque Feast) is about to wrap up, with the season finale on June 5. More at https://www.harpistinthewild.com/

Paret’s “First Harp Book” is an excellent book with some nice music and great fingerings. You should be able to find it at your favorite local music store, or online for example at https://www.harpcenter.com/product/paret-first-harp-book/harp-music-books-betty-paret

Support from my patrons helped make this video possible: https://www.patreon.com/joshlayne

Ep. 206 – How to play “A Winter’s Day”

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Watch the companion Harpist in the Wild episode:

Ep. 201 – A look at “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” on the harp

In this episode of Harp Tuesday I take a look at how to play Carol Kappus’ beautiful arrangement of “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”. Check out Carol’s music and sign up for her email list at http://www.carolkappus.com

I recorded “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” as a standalone music video:

Ep. 196 – How to play “Good Morning, Little Yellow Bird”

30 years ago, on Oct. 9th, 1990 I started learning “Good Morning, Little Yellow Bird”. This is the earliest piece of music I have on which my teacher (Kathryn Ely) wrote the date we started. 30 years later I thought it would be fitting to do a Harp Tuesday episode on it – hope you enjoy!

Ep. 184 – Learning “Down by the Salley Gardens” by ear

I thought I’d do something a little different today and try and teach (and learn myself!) a tune by ear. A beautiful Irish tune known by a number of different names – Down by the Salley Gardens (or Sally Gardens), Maids of Mourne Shore, The Foggy Dew, etc.

While it kind of defeats the purpose (of learning it by ear) if you’d like a free copy of the music with my fingerings, sign up for my newsletter

(Existing subscribers, email me and I’ll send you a copy!)

Ep. 181 – An easy Bach “Chorale” – phrasing and dynamics

An easy Bach “Chorale” gives me an opportunity to talk about phrasing and dynamics!

If you’d like the sheet music for this easy harp arrangement of “Erkenne mich, mein Hüter” from Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, just sign up for my email newsletter and I’ll send you a copy 🙂

Ep. 168 – How to play Rousseau’s Minuet in G minor

In this episode I take a look at a piece from Mildred Dilling’s collection “Thirty Little Classics for the Harp”. It’s a Minuet in G minor by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (yes, the philosopher). A beautiful, elegant tune that’s easy to play.

Ep. 165 – How to play “Petite Berceuse” by Hasselmans

A look at Alphonse Hasselman’s lovely “Petite Berceuse“. In the key of C and playable on a 25 string harp, the sheet music is in the public domain and can be found at archive.org – https://bit.ly/2Jo2aY9

Harpist in a Tree, episode 2, features me playing “Petite Berceuse” in a tree 🙂 Watch it at https://youtu.be/2hezgZDifyk

Ep. 156 – Musing on fingerings

A bit of a ramble about fingerings! When can we and can we not trust our hands to tell us when a fingering is bad or good?

As promised, here’s the link to Hasselman’s “Petite Berceuse“ at the harp archives.

Ep. 146 – Learn “Oh Come Emmanuel” on the harp

In this episode I show how to learn an easy version of Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel / Veni, Veni Emmanuel. Find the free sheet music at http://www.joshlayne.com/emmanuel

Ep. 145 – Learn “Deck the Halls” on the harp

In this episode I talk about how to learn an easy arrangement I did of “Deck the Halls” (AKA Deck the Hall or Nos Galan).

Find the free sheet music at http://www.joshlayne.com/deckthehalls

Ep 133 How to play Barbara Allen on the harp (patterns and shapes!)

Ep. 123 Looking at the Butterfly jig

In this episode of Harp Tuesday I use the Irish slip jig The Butterfly as a starting point to talk about fingering and technique. Music for the Butterfly and 1000s of other traditional tunes can be found at https://thesession.org/tunes

Ep. 120 “Alfonso el Sabio” from Kim Robertson’s “Celtic Harp Solos”

In this first episode I take a look at a beautiful piece called Alfonso XII el Sabio (13th century Spain) from Kim Robertson’s sheet music book “Celtic Harp Solos . (I wonder if in fact it’s music associated with Alfonso X el Sabio).

EDIT – Thanks to Therese Honey in the YouTube comments – it is indeed from Alfonso X “Cantigas de Santa Maria” This is number 166 “Como póden per sas culpas”. Check out this site which has sheet music for the entire set of songs: http://www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/166#music/r

With a rather hypnotic tune and great rhythms this is a very fun piece to play!

(Celtic Harp Solos is an excellent book. Your favourite harp music retailer will probably have a copy (or could obtain one for you). It also appears to be available as a PDF download. For example:

https://gourd.com/robertsonbooks.html

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/kim-robertson-celtic-harp-solos-digital-sheet-music/19899385

And check out Kim Robertson’s website.

Category: Easy songs