Self teaching books

[Judiann]

Books are such a bargain, and I buy a lot of them. I do have Pamela Bruner’s third book, but I haven’t done much with it.

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For anyone self teaching, an area that is often neglected is technical exercises. I’ve been working through Finger Puzzles and Shapes for the Harp by Denise Grupp-Verbon. It comes with a DVD that clearly demonstrates some of the exercises. Those finger shapes make great warm-ups. There’s a free sample YouTube video, although it’s easiest to progress through the book in order, with a single exercise at a time. It teaches you to place intervals and play patterns automatically.

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Another method of hand shapes is Magic Hands Course by Carol Kappus. I don’t have that book, but I rely on the Magic Hands positions she demonstrates on YouTube. Sometimes I’ll mark shapes, such as “mitten” or “butterfly” on the sheet music, and then it’s easy to read the first note and know where the other fingers go without having to read the individual notes. With practice, your fingers automatically place on the right strings, reading only a single note in the bracket. It’s like instantly recognizing a C major triad without having to read the three notes C, E, G.

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At my current level, both of those resources have been more helpful than the third Bruner book. Just a suggestion for other methods to consider.

[Laura De Courcy]

Hi, thank you so much for your reply. I have looked at a sample of the contents for Pamela Bruner’s third book and like you mentioned, I thought it lacked technical exercises and technique. From what I could see of the contents page it just seemed to be more like information. I will definitely take a look at the resources you mentioned as I always want to build on what I know, learn new techniques and learn some exercises. Thank you again!