Rehearsal started late today, which gave me a chance to work on some of my parts in the hotel. I still only have playable parts for a few of the tunes, but the list is growing.
A moment when the music comes
The way this works, Steve’s figuring out what I’ll play as we go along, I try to catch what I can, take notes and videos and then try to transcribe it and get it into something I can follow on paper. Then I’ll learn it, eat the paper, and join the CIA … no, what am I saying…
My personal goal by the end of these 3 weeks is simply to know what I’m SUPPOSED to be playing so that I know what to practice during the rest of June and July before we start the tour in August – and I’m going to need all that time to actually learn to play it – to know it in my mind, my ears and my body.
Right now I’m still spending hours each day creating these “parts.’ Once I have them I can actually start working on learning the music, and the coordination. But right now, I’m still in the ‘figuring out’ stage. To be followed by the “trying to remember what I already figured out” stage. Followed by the “what the heck did I mean by what I wrote here???”
The fact that I can’t really execute the music leaves Steve in an awkward position: he needs to know what the tunes will sound like, but I simply can’t maneuver them – so there’s no way for him to know whether I’m playing the wrong notes because I don’t know the right ones, or because I just haven’t worked out the logistics of getting my harp into the right key at the right time.
Struggling with Notes
He’d like me to just let go and ‘play’ but when I do that, what I ‘play’ is a lot of wrong notes.
I should explain that the lever harp is an instrument you continually re-tune into different keys while you’re playing. If you don’t have the levers set correctly you’ll play the wrong ‘notes‘ even if you play the right strings.
And at the moment this instrument feels like field of harmonic landmines.
To avoid becoming totally demoralized, I try to count the times each day when I actually have a moment of clarity – a split second of knowing what I’m doing. And even when I can’t remember – at day’s end – what I had clarity about, I remember the feeling of having had it.
My greatest frustration in not being able to get a handle on the notes is that I lose opportunities to be a musical sponge.
Often the way Steve passes on the character of the music to us is by playing it to us and having us play it back. Because in this situation, Steve is the orchestral score of his music – the music comes out of his fingers, his voice — and directly into us. That’s the part I want to soak up.
And that’s the part you can’t put on a page.
Written music can only give so much. What it does give me I really need right now: the exact location of each pitch. What it can’t give is the depth of musicality, ‘feel’ and character.
No matter what you write on the page, the only way to really pass that on is from person to person.
That’s what’s so exquisite and rich about this experience and why I ache to have the notes, the words of this language, the fabric of the music – so I have a place to catch those riches that hang like ripe fruit in the room where we rehearse each day.
To read more in the Rock Harp Diaries, go to: https://hipharp.com/blog/category/rockharp-diaries/
Indeed! Learning a tune without sheet music makes it so much easier to play it like it’s supposed to sound. But I can imagine it’s really hard, especially with Steve Vai’s music. That moment, when you know the music in your mind but when your fingers just can’t produce it – it feels like being disconnected, failing around. I think it’s really brave that you don’t avoid that experience but rather embrace it and try to soak up as much as possible. Keep going! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your experiences. You are really living my dream! :). I hope you’ll one day be able to pass on all the techniques and things you are creating during these months – you are a pioneer!
Thanks! Well, there’s a LOT to remember, so I want to have it written as a reference, even though I try to work them ‘off book’ as soon as possible. But having a book to be off of is really important, especially in these tunes! And yes, yes, I so want to find the time to share some of the amazing, beautiful, difficult, fun wonderful things I’m learning.
I’d LOVE the time to share them in video and manuscript so other harpists can actually be working on them and then come see them in the shows in context. For that I only need an extra 4 or 5 hours each day. So … send time! Minutes, hours, days — I’ll take it all!
It is so refreshing to know that you struggle. When you appear on stage you make it look like so much fun (note that I didn’t say it looks easy – it looks darned hard, but it does look like fun). As I sit, practice, and get discouraged it is good to know you go through this too, and work your way out. So I CAN do it!
Oy! Yes I struggle, and yes YOU CAN do it and yes, it takes a lot! And it’s helpful for me to remember my own struggles. I’ll try to write more about that, especially throwing myself on the floor, sobbing when I first started harp and crying (out loud to nobody) “Why do I always have to work twice as hard as everyone else, just to be half as good???!?!?”
I can get pretty dramatic with myself…
Hi Deborah,
I am a guitarist from Sydney Australia.
Steve Vai is a remarkable human being that leaves all of his emotions on the stage floor when he plays. The trick is to do exactly as he says and LET GO!
“hammer it, caress it, hate it & love it with every thing you’ve got. His music charged, sweet outof this world and downright menacing at times.
Deborah, in case this hasn’t crossed your mind, Steve Vai found you looking for harp strings for his wife, liked what he saw and asked you to join him on tour, which means that you got everything that is required to be the perfect addition to this latest Vai line up in spades and we in the know regard Steve as one of the most exacting, and influential guitarists and composers of the modern age of rock.
So what does that mean for you, when you’ve worked your whole life to master your craft? TRUST that you know what you’re doing and you’ll be just fine.
Oh and BTW, a little quote from your current employer;…….”if you want to play something that you hear, you need to listen with your minds eye” ……. Steve Vai
I wish you well, and I am sure that when the “Grand Canyon Of Groove” that is Steve Vai’s music presents itself to you, to look back and bear witness to your journey will be a most fulfilling trip.
Deborah this is one of the most interesting and inspirational blog posts I’ve read in a LONG time – in the last year I’ve just started to move away from classical harp towards jazz and pop/rock, and I have found it such a different way of working and a real struggle at times. However when they come, those moments of clarity you mention are so precious that they make everything worth it. And I’m working on a pedal harp! – too frightened of the lever harp at the moment although I’m getting there. I don’t take pleasure in your struggles but I find them inspiring, as there is hope for me that there is a way forward. I look forward to reading of your adventures and seeing the tour. I’m in the UK so won’t be able to make the gigs but hopefully will see some online. Brava!