Harp Day

The main character in my work-in-progress is a high school girl who hopes to attend college as a harp major. Yesterday, I went to Harp Day at Michigan State University. It's a recruiting event to attract prospective harp majors to the MSU College of Music and also a chance for local harpists to get together. Attendees can sign up to get a lesson with Dr. Chen Yu Huang, take a master class and participate in Harp Jam. I went as an observer.

I had a chance to hear two of MSU's freshman harp students perform. It was like my character came to life and played for me. I chatted with a high school student from Grand Rapids who hopes to attend MSU as a harp major. "You're writing a book about me?" (direct quote) I asked several young players why they chose harp as an instrument, and their answers were close to what I’d written for my main character.

The Master Class provided ample material for the harp lesson in my novel. The revised version will likely come to next month's critique group. I enjoyed the variety of music students brought to the master class. I was impressed by the students’ talent and skill.

I also got to hear the fabulous Modern Harp Quartet. If you click through the website, you can hear excerpts from several of their pieces.

I came home inspired, perhaps more as a writer than a harpist. But that’s what I am, a writer. 

Harp

The protagonist of my work-in-progress has a giant, impractical dream. She wants to attend the Julliard School as a harp major. Will she get there? Probably not, but my character will become a harp major at some college or conservatory. Many of the students I tutor dream impossible dreams as well.

As I worked on my manuscript, I realized I didn’t know much about the harp, so I contacted a local harpist and asked if I could hire her as a consultant. She agreed and told me I should take harp lessons as well. She offered to lend me a small folk harp for practicing. In the two lessons I’ve had so far, I’ve learned far more than I expected.

Here’s a progress report:

• It would have been better if I’d learned to read bass clef as a child. I’m getting better.
• My rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” is often recognizable.
• Sometimes when I see notes on the treble staff, my fingers still feel imaginary clarinet keys. (I played clarinet for about ten years.)
• The arthritis in my left thumb makes it lazy.
• Jeremy and his friends love to remind me to practice.
• Most importantly, I’m learning which questions to ask my teacher to improve my manuscript. 

On Practicing

Everyone has heard the old joke.

Q: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

A: Practice.

While practicing improves the performance of any skill, many of us resent, postpone or even shun practicing.

The ACT college entrance exam is given early in March, so I’m in tutoring crunch time. I tell my students that practicing on sample tests will increase their speed in answering questions. As few things are as mind-numbing as ACT practice tests, it’s safe to say that none of my students has ever done her homework.

Recently, I asked my son, Jeremy, how to get students to practice.

“Scare them,” he said.

“Um, what?” I asked.

“My guitar teacher writes a metronome setting, and I’m so scared, I practice until I can play that fast.”

That approach works for Jeremy because he owns the problem. He understands that becoming a great guitar player includes the ability to play fast with clean articulation. My students don’t see how recognizing an Oxford comma or a 3-4-5 right triangle will help them excel in college. Imagine that!

My mother used to say, “Practice makes perfect.” But how do writers practice?

Trunk novels: Few writers publish the first novel they tried to write. All those manuscripts languishing on my hard drive have honed my writing skills.

Writing exercises: I do fewer of these than I used to. Perhaps it’s time to revisit the literary version of scales and arpeggios.

Free writing: See above.

Revision: Re-writing and re-envisioning are essential. It’s safe to say I practice revising every day.

Endangered Products Reprise

In 2011, I wrote about an incident in which the Justice Department raided Gibson Guitar Company on the suspicion that they had used endangered woods to make modern guitars. Insightful comments from Wyman Stewart stated that many musicians use heirloom instruments that have unknown provenance. Apparently, even instruments with clear documentation can be subject to intense scrutiny when crossing borders. Two members of Pro Arte Quartet, a world-renown string quartet, were recently detained at Belgium Immigration because their antique instruments were made from now-endangered woods and the bows contain small pieces of ivory (link). 

While killing endangered animals or harvesting endangered trees to sell their products for profit is despicable, antique instruments were made before these trees or animals were endangered and before alternate substances were available. Although the instruments and bows in question have their own passports, the musicians were still detained until Belgian friends were able to contact the cabinet minister who oversees the Convention on International Trade in Endangers Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.   

This story had a particular poignancy for me. On our way back from Boston, we were chosen by the US Immigration Service for a “random” check – probably because we had four guitars in our station wagon. For us, it only meant a slight delay in our drive, but we decided to take the southern route around the Great Lakes in the future.

Local Talent

I learned this morning that a country western group, Restless Road, advanced to the final four in the Groups division on X-Factor. Zach Beeken, the bass voice in Restless Road, went to high school with Jeremy. They sang together in Chorale and Men's Chorale. Jeremy used to take voice lessons from Zach Beeken's dad.

Basses rule!

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

Last week, I blogged about my protagonist’s decision making process. I noted the passages that referred to the decision and assigned them a numerical ranking ranging from -10 = pretending the problem doesn’t exist to +10 = sealing the bargain. That means, the lower the number, the more negative my protagonist is, and the higher the number, the more positive she is.

Today, I graphed the numerical ranking vs. line number. Deciding to embark on the hero’s journey was neither straightforward nor easy. 

Since my numerical analyses make some you crazy, here’s Herbie Mann covering If (a Picture Paints a Thousand Words) by Bread.

Speaking of pictures, that album cover was ranked one of the worst of all time.

The Band with No Name

For one of my manuscripts, I need the names of a few imaginary rock bands. No problem. I assumed I could string together a few goofy or relevant words then google them to see if a band already used that name.

Ha!

Just about every band has a web presence, and just about every word or short phrase in the English language has been used to name these bands. I even tried some geeky scientific terms, but they are some of the most popular. Eventually, I came across a band name generator that was helpful, but I still don’t have a stellar name.

Any suggestions?

(I’m leaning toward metal bands because of the thunderous presence of a certain metal band in my life.)

Music Animation Machine

I recently discovered this YouTube rendition of Clair de Lune. What a marvelous way to introduce intervals and rhythm to beginning music students.

Here are links for Music Animation Machine and the composer, Claude Debussy.

Stone Age Rock and Roll

No one knows when prehistoric people started making and using complex musical instruments. The August 6, 2009 issue of Nature reports the discovery of bone and ivory flutes dating from 35,000 years ago. The flutes were found in caves in southwestern Germany.

The bone flute (picture) was made from the radius of a griffon vulture. Bird bones are hollow, which makes them ideal for flute construction. The flute had five finger holes, and was marked with fine evenly-placed scratches near the finger holes. The scratches may have been used to measure the location of the holes for tone calibration. Anthropologists believe the two V-shaped notches in one end of the flute served as a mouthpiece.

Fragments of two ivory flutes were also unearthed. An ivory flute was more difficult to make than a bone flute. First the mammoth tusk was shaped to the rough form of a flute. Next, the tusk was split longitudinally so the inside could be hollowed out. Finger holes were drilled, and the two halves were cemented together with air-tight seals.

It's hard to guess what the earliest music sounded like, but it probably wasn't like this.

Conard, N.J., Malina, M. and Munzel, S.C., New Flutes Document the Earliest Musical Tradition in Southwestern Germany, Nature, 460:737-740 (2009).