The Secret to Placing Faster (And Playing Faster!)

Something that many harp students struggle with is getting their fingers replaced back on the strings fast enough so that they can keep playing with the correct rhythm and timing, and so that they can just play faster in general.

And when this is left unaddressed, the music sounds choppy, with long pauses, and it’s hard to hear where the beat is supposed to be.

Today I’m going to show you the secret that with just a few moments of practice will take the hesitation out of your playing and get you playing smoothly and in time.

One of the things I always say to my students, is that the hardest part of playing the harp is GETTING to the string; once you’re there, it’s not really a problem.

So, that means we have to practice GETTING to the string!

And to do that, we’re going to practice something called “ready position”:

• Ready position: hovering your fingers just BESIDE the strings about 1cm away, in the right shape.

The secret to placing quickly and placing fingers in a group all at once, is opening the hand into ready position - once there, the strings are so close that placing is a breeze - getting all the fingers down together and with less buzzing.

As an example, try placing a triad (eg. CEG). Then lift your fingers off the string just about 1 cm (or about 1/2") and keep your fingers in the exact same shape - that's your ready position.

Next, try closing your hand and open back into that same ready position shape you were just holding.

You can apply this in a piece you're working on by finding a spot you're having trouble getting to on time by playing the notes just before, opening into ready position beside the next strings you need to play, and FREEZE!

Once you get the hang of this, the goal is to pretty much always get into ready position when placing your fingers. So if you’re working on a piece where it’s hard to play something in time, come back to this and practice the motion of getting into ready position in the context of your piece.

If you do this for even a few minutes each time you practice, you'll be placing and playing faster in no time!

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