Four finger placement

[Markus Faller]

I use the Carol Kappus “Magic Hands” method (http://carolkappus.com/shop/magic-hands/). Do the fingering every day, start for example with C and go up to the higher C and then down to C again (so you have 16 repetitions of that pattern). If you do that everyday once (I do it as a warm up) for 20 days you have 320 patterns (300 is the magic number of repetitions to burn the pattern into your brain!). And it works. Some patterns are easier than others (4 finger patterns are the most difficult). Hope you can manage it. Best wishes 🙂

[Hana]

Thank you for your help and tip! I don’t have the capacity to work through another course right now, but I’ve incorporated your approach into my routine and hope it helps.

[Victoria Johnson]

1) Which fingers and / or strings do you pay attention to when placing? (landmarks)

Depends on the shape and which hand I am playing. Sometimes it make more sense for place from the bottom up and trust that the top finger or two would land on the right place. Sometimes it make more sense to place the first and forth finger and then reach with finger two and three for the middle notes. Experience with it.

2) How do you practice being able to place your fingers reliably?

One of the best ways to practice placing in my experience is practice playing all the notes as a block chord. In your example, I would play the C-E-G-B with the left hand together, and then C-E-G-B with the right hand together, like so: https://youtu.be/V7JWUMRzAFY This would help you build muscle memory where your fingers should go together which in turn helps with placing.

Adjusting finger and wrist angle when playing four note chords might be helpful, as demonstrated by Josh Layne in this Harp Tuesday video: https://youtu.be/H5PXBfb2X84

3) In this and similar shapes (e.g., 1-5-8), my third finger tends to pull up. What helps you to keep your finger down?

Practice the 1-5-8 shape as a block chord. Go nice and slow and really pay attention to the third finger. Exaggerate the movement of the hand and feel the fingers pulling on the strings and then a nice full close after plucking the strings. And then relax the hand before repeating. This gives you the opportunity to see and feel what you third finger is doing and how to keep it relaxed and pointing down.

4) Is there a resource on LTH or another platform you can recommend? (Except feedback videos and lessons.)

I am a big fan of Heather Downie’s How To Harp. Lots of great technique courses and she is very active in the community to answer questions.