Create an Instant Arrangement with Variations - PHH 185

Think about what you're learning through this process. You're learning how to take chord patterns, arpeggio patterns, scale patterns, could be harmonics or glissandos, could be working with keys. You're going to take all those skills and you're going to learn so much more about the music you play. This is sort of a hands on way to learn so much about music theory and about recognizing and playing chord patterns. Particularly. Even if it's fun for you, you don't have to feel guilty about the fun because you're learning.

Welcome to the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I'm Ann Sullivan, a harpist on a mission to empower every harpist to experience more harp happiness. Over my decades long harp journey, I've had lots of successes and more than a few failures and I know firsthand what it's like to feel that plan. Playing the harp the way you want may not be possible for you now.

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Welcome to the show. This is the time of year when, more than any other time, it pays to be an efficient harpist. Just what do I mean by efficient? Well, there are lots of ways we can add more efficiency to our harping. For example, practicing more efficiently. But at the holiday time, I think efficiency takes on a different look. At the holidays, we have more music we want to play, more places we want to play it, and less time to practice, let alone to learn anything new. This is where a little creativity and some experimentation can help ease the crush and the rush. Specifically, I want to show you how creating variations from one piece of music can stretch your music and your technique without stretching your practice time. Now, here's a scenario that might sound familiar to you. You've been asked to play background music for a holiday luncheon. They want an hour of holiday music, but you only have 30 minutes that you feel prepared to play. So what do you do? Well, you have several choices. You could learn new music, but you don't have the time for that. You could turn down the engagement. Nope, don't like that option. You could play everything twice. Well, that's a good idea, but you're already playing four repetitions of Good King Wenceslas and another four might be pushing the limit. What if you could make those extra verses, though, sound more interesting and creative? Now there's an idea. And that's what I want to teach you today. How to create variations for your holiday carols. I'm talking real variations, not just playing the melody an octave higher. The Theme and variations form has been around for hundreds of years. It's interesting to play and to hear. Plus, from a busy harpist perspective, it's learning just one piece and getting loads of extra value from it. Musical value and technique value too. We're talking variations today, so grab a cup of coffee and we'll get those creative juices flowing. Oh, and at the end of the podcast, I'm going to play for you a special theme and variations I wrote just for today. Since we're talking holiday repertoire today, I wanted to be sure to invite you to join our 12 Days of Harp Happiness 2024. This is an event that we do every December for the first 12 days in December, and this year we are doing one 12 day course on a brand new arrangement that I did. The arrangement is called Nocturne for a Midnight Clear. And it's based upon, you might have guessed It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, but it's sort of done in the style of a Chopin nocturne. And don't let the fact that Chopin's piano music is so difficult turn you off this the arrangement comes in three levels. There's an advanced pedal version, there's an intermediate version which is accessible for lever or pedal harp. In fact, no pedal or lever changes. And then there's a reduced version if you just need something to get in there and get done quickly. So there's an arrangement that will suit you. And the best part is that we get to learn it together. So over the first 12 days of December, well, actually 13 this year, over the first 13 days of December, I'm releasing a video each day. Plus during those 13 days we're having three live calls, and those live calls will substitute for the videos. But we're working together to learn this piece. I'm going to show you what's important, tell you how to learn it. The courses like this that I've done in the past have been really, really fun for the people who have attended the My Heart Mastery members are taking this course and I invite you, whether you're a My Heart Mastery member or not, to participate. So you'll find the link to join it on the in the show notes here or on the homepage of Heart Mastery or in our Heart Mastery app. Of course, if you're a My Heart Mastery member, it's already in your library. And being as this podcast is coming out on December 2nd, we're we just started and our first live call is tonight so you won't have missed anything. The sheet music is in the course for you to download all three versions of it. There's a video to get you started so that you know what you're doing. It's really always a lot of fun. And of course you'll come out of these first 13 days of December with a brand new piece that you can play. So I call that efficiency too, even if it's not creating variations, which is what we're talking about today. On today's show, the piece that I'm going to be using as an example as we work is the Little Christmas Song up on the housetop. And we have a version of that piece that I have already published. I published that several years ago and that's available the PDF sheet music is available in our Harp Mastery Shop, which of course you can access from our homepage or From. From the show notes for today's episode. And I'll be referring to that. It's not necessary, of course, that you have that, but it's just another look, something that's different from the variation look that we're looking at today. But today I really want to talk about how you can take any carol and get that extra value from it. Whether you are looking for ways to stretch that Christmas carol and make it last a little bit longer, or whether you just think, well, this is kind of fun, and I'd like to use this as my card technique work for this holiday time, which is also a lot of fun. And I think a good place to start is by reminding us what the theme and Variations form is all about. There's really nothing complicated about the theme and Variations form, but there are some things that may help you as you think about making variations for a carol. So the theme, obviously is going to be whatever carol or song you have in its plainest form. And if you've never done variations before, pick a really simple Christmas carol and pick a really simple version to start with. That's going to give you the clearest framework and to be able to have a very clear melody. And then to know what the chords are that support that melody. Those are going to be the keys to being able to create variations. But the theme itself could be anything. And you may have some Theme and Variations that you have learned or that you like to play. There's the Handelpassakaya, which is essentially a Theme and Variations form. There's a Haydn theme in Variations that we play a lot on the harp. There's the Minstrel's Adieu, which is a piece by John Thomas, also a Theme and Variations. Or the Bernard Andress piece La Jamblet. Also Theme and Variations, there are loads of them. Mozart wrote some really terrific variations on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. And of course, if you've ever worked through a Suzuki book, you know that those Twinkle Variations play a big part. From a learning perspective, Theme and Variations form can be really valuable because it doesn't change the musical material, or at least not very much. But it gives you a chance to work with your technique with different rhythms, different patterns, and to create at the same time something that has a lot of musical interest. So there are some pretty typical forms for variations. Now there are no hard and fast rules, and you will be able to pull out any theme and variations and find other kinds of variations that are really interesting and different. And you'll be able to see that, okay, not every Theme and Variations uses these same things. But I'm going to give you some of the most common variations so you can think about how you might like to create your own. Once again, please don't be intimidated by this. You'll figure out it's a lot easier than you might be guessing right now. And we'll talk about it, I promise. But let me give you the framework first. So you're going to start with that very simple theme. And then the very first variation is usually an expansion on that theme. It's often called a double, meaning that maybe the right hand melody. Instead of just playing the plain old melody, they've added rhythm that doubles the number of notes you play. There's the word double. I tried to work that in there for you so you could understand it. But instead of just having a quarter note melody, it might have that same quarter note melody but with eighth notes that go along with it. It could be something like this. Our example piece for today is up on the housetop and it's a pretty simple melody. You know it this way.

If we're going to do it as a double, instead of just plain quarter notes.

With some eighth notes, we're going to put eighth notes in everywhere.

That's a double. It makes sense, right? You're just ornamenting the right hand. You're not doing very much. Now if you have an even simpler melody about our Good King Wences list, right.

You could just put a sixth below it.

And a fifth there. And maybe you could make it a double by alternating those notes.

Something like that. Pretty simple. It doesn't have to be complicated. And that's a double. You could also have a double variation.

In the left hand where the left.

Hand has that same kind of idea.

Only it's going to be arpegg or ornamenting the chord structure probably instead of.

The melody could be the melody if you wanted, but it's going to all of a sudden double its note values as well. So there's a left hand double. An option. You don't have to do that. Of course. None of these are required. Another common variation that might come in next in the order would be a triplet variation so that you have the melody now ornamented with triplets. Something like this. Here's the Good King Wenceslas again.

You could do the same thing with up on the housetop.

Next up in the list of variations is often what I call the special. It's the one that has those special effects. Could be glissandos, could be harmonics could be anything else but that one that's just special to the harp. And you know, the variations, they kind of come around like this.

Little harmonics that might be part of it. Could add glissandos. This is the one that takes the most creativity of all of them, I think. And it's the most fun to do then. Lots of sets of variations also include a minor variation if the piece is in major, or a slow variation if the piece is very fast. And this can be fun just because it's slow. So much fun to have a totally different look at the Christmas carol. Imagine Good King Wenceslas in minor and being very sad and slow.

I love making up these things for you as I go. You can tell I'm making it up. It's like, oh, I don't know what I'm playing next to. So that's just a little bit of a very sad Good King Wences list. And you could do the same thing. It's sort of fun, perhaps a little irreverent. You might not want to do that with some of the carols that you absolutely love and that mean a lot to you spiritually. But with a carol that's a little bit more fun, like up on the housetop, as you'll see in a minute, it can be kind of fun to do that. And then of course, most sets of variations finish with something very flashy. Lots of big scales and arpeggios.

Somehow it sounds a little bit like the end of Star Wars. But in any case, you get the idea. That's the big flashy ending. Now those are some of the most common kinds of variations, but it doesn't mean that those are the ones you have to do. The variations that I think you can start with are ones that work from exercises that you know and that you use all the time that are going to be great for just ornamenting a carol melody. And of course, creating an opportunity for you to work on your technique and extend those carols at the same time. So here's an example. A simple right hand pattern exercise like 321 2.

That can make a very nice way to expand a carol. So here is 3, 2, 1 2. That's all I'm going to play. And I'm going to use the chord structure, or at least the basic chord structure of up on the housetop and expand it that way. So I've got a C chord.

I've got an F chord, a C chord, a G chord.

Maybe just extend that for a little while and then a C chord. So this is why I said right from the beginning that the simple melody and the simple chord structure are the basics that you want here. So that you know what your chords are and then what your melody notes are. And then you can pick a pattern and play that chord pattern. You don't even have to have the melody with it. This pattern is a simple four note ascending arpeggio. The kind of exercise we all do right now. If we want to use this as a variation for up on the housetop, it might go something like this.

You can't hear the melody in there at all. We could add the melody in the left hand if we wanted.

Or we could put that arpeggiation in the left hand while we play the right hand. Or we could decide that this is a good enough exercise. We're going to do it hands together. And we could do do the same chord, but maybe not the same version.

A nice way to take the chord structure from a carol that you like and use it as an exercise or a variation. We could also try descending arpeggios, maybe something like.

And get some descending arpeggio practice in that way. Now you can get fancier if you want, but the point is take a pattern, take a melody, take a chord structure and put them all together, mash them up and poof, there's your Christmas carol with variations. When you think about it, you'll realize that most exercise patterns that we play now, I'm not talking about an etude that's more composed like a piece, but an act exercise pattern. Those exercises are designed to have one particular finger pattern that you repeat over different notes. Often you're doing the same pattern on each note of a scale. For instance, as you move up the octave. Well, that's what makes them ideal for something like this. If you have a simple chord structure, then you can just take that pattern and use it for whatever chord you've got. Now you'll find that it might take some jumping around. And that's what you heard me kind of fumble with as I've been improvising these little variations for you today. I didn't write them out. I just had the chord pattern here and I had the exercise pattern and I was sort of mashing them up as I go. And that's why there were some fumbles and stumbles. You are likely to encounter the same thing. And that's why if you're going to do this where you think people might be listening, you might want to plan it out just a little bit more and you can take your cords and you can take your pattern and figure out where you're going to change what you're going to do. So it takes, or could take a little bit of strategizing to make it sound nice and polished. But the thing is, if you're just practicing at home and you want to get some extra practice on a carol, or you want to decide to have just a little bit of fun with one, this is a great thing to do. It's going to do so much for you. Not only will it give you those variations on a carol and some practice on your technique, but it's going to help expand your creativity. If you've ever thought that improvisation was something you wanted to do, this is a great way to start. It's going to give you an idea of what to do with chord structures and melodies and what suits your fingers and how you can use it. This is a terrific way to do this and it's fun. And this particular opportunity only comes up once a year. Well, I know you can play holiday music anytime you want, but this is kind of when it's extra special, right? So that would be a great thing to have as a special December focus for you if you needed to think, okay, I just. I want to have a reason to practice. This might do it and it could be a lot of fun to do. There are a couple considerations that I want you to bear in mind through this whole process. First of all, obviously, if you're like most of us, this isn't going to be an absolute instant arrangement. As I said before, you heard me fumble with these things. So this probably isn't something I would want to try out or improvise in front of an audience, at least not without some preparation ahead of time. So it's really sort of semi instant. So, you know, be patient with yourself as you go through this process. And I really want you to be willing to try ideas and to not worry over much about the mistakes that you're making as you go. Think about what you're learning through this process. You're learning how to take chord patterns, arpeggio patterns, scale patterns, could be harmonics or glissandos. Could be working with keys like doing that minor variation instead of all of them in the same key. You're going to take all those skills and you're going to learn so much more about the music you play. This is sort of a hands on way to learn so much about music theory and about recognizing and playing chord patterns particularly. So this is going to be so valuable on a lot of fronts. So even if it's fun for you, you don't have to feel guilty about the fun because you're learning. This is exactly the sort of thing that my mother was skeptical about in my early piano student days. When I was very young, my mother saw this as messing around and I'd sit down at the piano and try out some of these weird sorts of variation kinds of things. And she asked piano teacher about it, who very wisely said that this was a terrific way for me to learn and as long as I was doing my regular practice, she didn't need to worry about this or interfere with it, that it was going to be very creative. And it turned out to be something that I always enjoyed doing and something that stood me in very good stead because it taught me so much about music just from this kind of messing around. And you'll find out how much you can learn too when you try it. Now, if you've made it to this point in the podcast, you get the prize. At least I hope it's a prize. It's a surprise anyway, because I'm going to play for you now the entire little arrangement that I did of up on the Housetop as a theme and Variations. Now a number of years ago, I did up on the Housetop in sort of the style of Mozart. I used an Alberti base and did it sort of that way, called it Mozart on the Housetop. And we have that arrangement for sale in our Heart Mastery Shop. This is not for sale. This I did just for this podcast and just for you. So this is a Theme and Variations on Up on the Housetop and you'll hear the theme, of course. You'll hear a right hand double, a left hand double, a glissando variation, a minor variation. Oh, it's so sad. It's kind of funny. And then of course, the flashy finish. So this is my quickly composed for you version of up on the Housetop. Before I play, let me remind you to join our 12 Days of Harp Happiness Extravaganza and join me as I teach you my new piece, Nocturne for a Midnight Clear. That's a ton of fun and it's just getting started so you can get in and get all the goodness as we go here. So join now. You'll find the link in the show notes on the app or on the Heart Mastery homepage under upcoming events. And then next week here on the podcast, we're going to be talking about calming your technique, bringing everything down a notch to remind your fingers how to really work so that they serve you well this holiday season and they don't get all tight and tense and everything that we don't want. We want them to be beautiful and relaxed and have that gorgeous sound. So we'll be talking about calming your technique next week. Calming your technique is just one of the ways in which you can add more harp happiness to your life. And of course, I want you to remember that day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. Which is what I'm going to do for you right now. I'm going to play my little Theme and Variations on up on a Housetop and I will see you right back here next week.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast.

I release a new episode every Monday.

Morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your harp happiness every day. See you next time.