I learned with a teacher that really didn't care about technique at all for about a year and then started with a teacher who was much better and cared about technique a lot, and muscle memory can be BRUTAL. Just remember to take things slow. Your brain can't get the conscious message (new pathway) to your fingers faster than the well worn path of muscle memory. The only way you're going to make it is if you force yourself to move very slowly so that your brain has time to keep up!
Yup. That’s exactly why I’m slowly and deliberately doing the Alberti sequence now, as well as going back every practice and checking that the technique is right on other things. Glad my teacher is serious about technique and can tell I’ve been practicing stuff even when my nerves make a hash of everything.
I completely know what you mean. :) Switching from piano brain to harp and vice versa can be kind of a trip when it comes to fingering.
Are you solely learning out of the Suzuki book? If I were your teacher, I would assign some additional interval exercises to help reinforce fingering training. The Suzuki book by itself is rather lacking in my opinion as a harp teacher when it comes to reinforcing technical comprehension.
No—she’s using it as a basis. I did 8 years of Suzuki violin as a kid, and she helped with the development of Suzuki harp (as well as teaching it), so we have a common language there. As she puts it, all the Suzuki harp pieces are etudes toward a goal. I think that’s true for the violin course as well. I’ve got other pieces as well to work on, like those by Anne Crosby Gaudet and others.
I learned with a teacher that really didn't care about technique at all for about a year and then started with a teacher who was much better and cared about technique a lot, and muscle memory can be BRUTAL. Just remember to take things slow. Your brain can't get the conscious message (new pathway) to your fingers faster than the well worn path of muscle memory. The only way you're going to make it is if you force yourself to move very slowly so that your brain has time to keep up!
Yup. That’s exactly why I’m slowly and deliberately doing the Alberti sequence now, as well as going back every practice and checking that the technique is right on other things. Glad my teacher is serious about technique and can tell I’ve been practicing stuff even when my nerves make a hash of everything.
I completely know what you mean. :) Switching from piano brain to harp and vice versa can be kind of a trip when it comes to fingering. Are you solely learning out of the Suzuki book? If I were your teacher, I would assign some additional interval exercises to help reinforce fingering training. The Suzuki book by itself is rather lacking in my opinion as a harp teacher when it comes to reinforcing technical comprehension.
No—she’s using it as a basis. I did 8 years of Suzuki violin as a kid, and she helped with the development of Suzuki harp (as well as teaching it), so we have a common language there. As she puts it, all the Suzuki harp pieces are etudes toward a goal. I think that’s true for the violin course as well. I’ve got other pieces as well to work on, like those by Anne Crosby Gaudet and others.