This blog is one of a series. Each includes one of the students’ final projects from my online course “Hip Harp Toolkit,” along with  their answers to five questions I asked them to answer. You can How are Things in Glocca Mora (ballad in C), Irish Washer Woman (jig in C) and Rocky Top (jig in G). (You can make up your own story.)

I think I got in most of the elements of the course – except much work needs to be done on improvising and smoothness and fluency … I’ve come a long way in using lead sheet – and love it!!!

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DHC says:  

This just made me happy from the minute you came on the screen! It’s just so much fun to have you in the course and know you’re taking this material and making so many people happy with it — including me!!

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What was this project all about?  What were the Guidelines?  The project description was to take 3 contrasting tunes and create a medley no more than 3.5 minutes using techniques from the course, like introductions, melodic improvising, embellishing, turnaround endings and modulating from key to key. (If you’re not a musician, you’ll know when they’re modulating when you see them reach up to shift the levers, which change the harp into a new key).

One of the core principles of the course is “Imperfect Completion” so each of the “Final Projects” is really a “Beginning Project.”

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