More About Playing Perfect Octaves - PHH 273

What if playing the harp felt easier the way you thought it would be? Not because you practiced more, but because you finally understood what was getting in your way. I'm Anne Sullivan, and welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness. Here we tackle the real challenges harpists struggle with: the sticky passages, the tricky fingerings, prepping for performance, and all the ingredients that go into making music sound the way you want it to. I've studied with world-class harpists, taught at a top conservatory for 20 years, and I love playing the harp. But what I love just as much is breaking down the real challenges harpists face and turning them into clear step-by-step solutions, the same ones I teach my students and use myself. So if you're ready to play the music you love with more confidence, clarity, and joy, you're in the right place. So let's get started.

Welcome to the show. If you have been playing the harp for any amount of time, you will have already discovered the key truth about music study, and it's this: whatever you have learned, whatever you have practiced for however long you have been practicing it, You will have to do it again. That's not a prophecy of doom, and it's not meant to discourage you. It's simply the way music works. Music is an art of the moment. We play a piece one day, and we have to play it again the next day. The instant we pluck a harp string, the sound begins to disappear into the air. It is ephemeral. It's elusive. So today we are revisiting a topic I've talked about before on the podcast. In fact, every week during the month of August, I will be reposting an episode that has information that I think needs repeating. And today we're going to begin with a very basic but key technical skill. We're talking about how to play octaves. Basic? Yep. Important in just about every piece we play? You bet! Now, the episode you're about to hear is from Episode 62 of the podcast. It was first broadcast on July 25th, 2022. Now, if you heard it when I released it 4 years ago, it's definitely worth a revisit, and if it's new to you, I think you'll find it helpful. And at the end of the episode, I'll be back live with you to add a few more things for you to consider about how to make your octaves sound just the way you want. So here's a replay of Episode 62 on how to play perfect octaves.

Octaves are interesting. They're the most basic interval of all the intervals we have after the unison. A unison is an interval that doesn't sound like an interval. It would be two of the same sounding notes played at once, like two of the same D or two of the same G. And of course, that's, you know, not— it doesn't usually sound like an interval. We're used to intervals sounding like two different notes. The octaves are the same as a unison except that one of those notes is displaced and is played in a different register, right? In the octave higher or lower. So it's a very basic a basic interval. It's exactly the same pitch but with a different register. So it's important that we learn to play these because they come up all the time. And composers have added octaves to music because when a melody or a bass line is doubled at the octave, it sounds richer. It adds depth. It adds just a different sonority. Now, on the harp, we're lucky because we get to have all that richness to ourselves, right? With other single line instruments like the violin, it would take two instruments to do very many octaves in a row, right?

You would—

this is why we have string quartets and orchestras and choirs and all those things, because that richness is added by adding more instruments because they can play more notes. We get to play a lot of notes all by ourselves, and— but today we're only talking about 2 notes at once, that octave. And of course, if you want to really see and hear what octaves do, try playing a melody just on its own and then try adding the octave below it and just listen to how much more richness is there, how much depth is added. Or A bass line, right? A bass line can sound so much more impressive when you play the octave lower as well. I know my piano teacher when I was young, she would always add extra octaves to the left hand of especially sort of arrangements of popular pieces we were doing. It was like, ah, this will sound so much better with an extra note on it. And it does. It just sounds cool, right? So Octaves show up and we have to know how to play them, but they can be a little bit tricky and they feel like a stretch. They can be hard to place accurately, they can be hard to play beautifully, and sometimes there's a little bit of finesse that's required. So let's see how much of all of that sort of stuff we can cover today. But first, I want you to understand that It's really important to learn to play octaves well because this is key to playing 4-note chords.

Right?

You might have just gotten to, or maybe you're just beyond, or maybe you're well beyond the point in your harp study where all of a sudden you're tackling 4-note chords. You know, 3-note chords aren't so hard to play. It's a jump up from just playing 2 notes at once for sure. But all of a sudden playing 4 notes at once is much harder. And if your octaves aren't secure, those 4 notes are, are going to be even harder to find. And the principles that you want to learn to place and play 4-note chords well all start with octaves. So don't just think that this is only for playing those 2 notes at a time. This is key for playing your chords as well. So With that in mind, let's talk about how to place those octaves. The most important thing you can do for your octaves is to be sure that your hand is centered. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, whether you're used to playing 4-note chords or not, let's get your hand on the strings and placed for a 4-note chord. Now for demonstration purposes here, I'm going to put my fingers on C, E, G, and C. 4-3-2-1. And so there's a nice 4-note chord, a regular old spacing, a good one to try. So I'm— I've got my right hand on the strings here, but you'll want to do this with both hands, trust me. So put all 4 of those notes on, but we're not going to play all 4. What we're going to do is Just look at your hand as those 4 notes are on. Your palm, the center of your palm, should be centered between the top note and the bottom note. I mean, look at it carefully for a second. Your hand shouldn't be pulled back toward your thumb so that your 4th finger is stretched way out, and it shouldn't be pointed so much or directed so much toward your 4th finger that your thumb can't reach. It needs to be centered, and when you have all all 4 fingers on the strings, it's really easy to see how your hand can center. If you're not sure if you're doing it right, then just put your fingers on those strings and move your hand back and forth a little bit. Back— sort of hold on to the strings and then pull your hand back toward your thumb a little bit, and then push it up toward the column a little bit and see the amount of play that's there. Well, that's the amount of play we want to remove. We want to have your hand centered. So when you feel pretty comfortable and you can see that your thumb has, has room to play and that your 4th finger isn't stretched out or straight, but that everything's curved, your palm is curved, your hand is relaxed, then take 2 and 3 off the string and keep your hand in the same place. So now you're looking at an octave, right? Just the 4 and 1. And that's what your octave should look like when you're ready to play it with your hand centered. So put 2 and 3 back on the strings, then take 2 and 3 off and see what a centered hand looks like. Then go ahead and play that octave. Boom! And see what it feels like playing it with your hand centered. Then I would, you know, use this as a little experiment for a while. Try just placing an octave and seeing if your hand is centered when you place it. And if you want to check, put 2 and 3 on those middle strings and see if the position of your hand changes. Now what 2 and 3 are doing, of course, is helping you find that balance point and keeping you from stretching your hand too much one way or the other. But you can do it just by looking. If your 4th finger is too straight and stretched out, your hand is too far back toward your thumb. And I doubt that it's going to be pushed too far forward, but if your 4th finger is curved and your thumb can't reach the top note, then it's pushed too far forward. So I will tell you that usually we cheat by bringing our hand back toward our thumb instead of letting our thumb be nice and tall and long. That's one of the things to think about to help keep your hand centered, that your thumb is tall and long and that there's a nice space between your thumb and your second finger. And that will keep your hand centered. Be sure to check both hands because both hands need to do this, right? So centering your hand is really key. This, by the way, will also help you solve the problem if you think you have a small hand and a small reach. You need to have your hand centered or your 4th finger won't be able to get to that bottom string. If your hand is at all pulled back towards you, your 4th finger has no shot at it. So try placing that 4-note chord. If you can reach the 4-note chord, then you know you can reach the octave when you don't have 2 and 3 on the string at the same time. So that's the first thing you need to do when you're thinking about placing an octave. And can you see how important this is going to be for playing those 4-note chords? You want to be able to think about your hand as being centered, not too far to the bottom, not too far to the top. Now let's get back to the octaves for a second. When you place an octave as part of an exercise or a piece, you want to be sure to have both notes get to the string at the same time. You don't want to get in the habit of placing your thumb, then your 4th finger, or your 4th finger and then your thumb. So try the sort of, you know, drop-in rule, right? This is the sort of, you know, have your hand poised near the strings, open your thumb and 4th finger to the approximate distance of an octave, and then drop them onto the strings and see how close you come to just hitting the right strings. You want your hand to learn the spacing of an octave. As well as placing both notes at the same time. Placing both notes at the time— at the same time is obviously efficient. It's once again going to help those chord placements. It's going to make all that placing easier in your real music. And the more your 1 and 4 learn to play that octave and learn what that octave feels like, the more they're used to it, the easier it will be for you to place the octaves accurately. So we're going to center your hand. We're going to place both notes at once, and you should be ready to play octaves. Now there's one thing we need to address about your left hand octaves in particular. While your right hand always plays octaves the same way it plays everything else, your left hand does not. Your left hand can play octaves with a closed hand just the way your right hand usually plays them, or it can play them with an open hand. And if you were to play your left hand octaves with an open hand, you would be playing them still with 1 and 4, but 3 and 2 would also be open. In other words, you know, think about your hand being flat, right? All your fingers are open, and then you bend 1 and 4 into the strings that you want to play for the octave and leave 2 and 3 pointing essentially straight up so that your hand is open. Now this is a useful position for playing octaves. It's a very strong way to play them, and of course your left hand has to play lots of big strings, so it's a nice strong way to play them. It also helps keep your hand open if you want to muffle the sound in between octaves or to just clean out extra notes vibrating. So what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to play some left-hand octaves, and I'll play them with an open— with my closed hand first. So this would be sort of normal, you know, the normal way your right hand would play octaves. So listen to this scale of octaves for just a moment. It's precise, it's clean, it's fine, except that there's a lot of reverberation, isn't there? Now Well, that's what the harp is all about. We love that resonance. We don't love it all the time in every circumstance, so playing those octaves with a flat hand allows you to clear out the sound by sort of doing a quick little muffle as you're placing the next octave, and you can have a sound that sounds much more clear and distinct like this. Now I did that a little slower and I did sort of some extra, extra placing so you could hear what it sounds like. But my hand is open and 2 and 3 are up, are sort of pointing, you know, I don't know, toward the column of the harp, not straight up. And then my hand pulls away with 1 and 4 and flattens out on the strings before I play the next octave. Now that muffle is a really nice technique. But you can still use an open hand muffle for an open hand octave, rather, for your left hand without the muffle. It's just a convenient way to play the octave. And it can help with some left hand passages, but your left hand needs a little bit of versatility here too, because playing your left hand octaves with the regular closed hand position can help you move back and forth between octaves and other note patterns more quickly. So your left hand needs to be able to do both. How about that? Left hand versatile placing for those octaves. All right, so we've got your fingers on the strings, everything's working well. So how do you play octaves well? And is there really a problem with playing octaves? Well, there are some things to consider, and maybe you haven't thought about this before, but with an octave, as with any interval, Sometimes we want both notes to have the same kind of sound, the same volume. We want them to sound equal. And sometimes we might want one to sound louder than the other. For instance, we might want one of those notes to be the melody note in the right hand if you're playing right-hand octaves, or we may want it— one note in the left hand to sound more like the bass note. So we need a certain level of control. Whether to have them play with the same sound or with different sounds, right? With different dynamics more particularly. So the key, of course, you probably guessed I was going to come back to this, but when your hand is placed and centered properly, then it's easier to play those notes with the same dynamic because your hand is balanced and your sound will be balanced as well. If your hand is pulled to one direction or the other, you're going to lose some control and you will be less in charge of the dynamic that your fingers play. So you want to keep your hand centered for sure. That's going to keep the sound balanced without you thinking about it much. But you do want to be able to think about how you can add more weight to your thumb or more weight to your 4th finger so that you have choices about those notes. Now there are exercises that you could do. That will help you think about it in addition to just playing the octaves together and doing some experimenting— playing those octave notes rather, right? Thinking, okay, well, let's see, can I make my thumb louder? Yes, I can. Can I make my fourth finger louder? Yep, a little bit tougher in my right hand to make my fourth finger louder, but it's something to think about. There's my thumb louder, right? And my fourth finger louder. The notes are still sounding at the same time. But one is louder than the other. You can do that in series, you know, like in a scale, or you could do an alternating pattern and just see what happens. What if you do octaves like this back and forth and think about 4 being louder, getting the accent? That will help tune your ear and make your ear aware of what you're doing. Or the other way around, a thumb being louder, which you will not find difficult, I guarantee it. Our thumbs like being louder. And then once you've gotten that in your ear about, you know, how to— and how those sounds sound different from each other, and you've started to feel the, uh, the difference in weight and pressure it will take to make one of those notes sound louder than the other, then go back to playing them together and seeing what you can do. But do think about this and be intentional with it because there are times you're going to want to make that a conscious choice, and it's nice to be able to have that in your tonal repertoire. But however you want to balance those notes, the key to playing your octaves well is to close your fingers. Don't let yourself be tempted to just sort of close halfway, to have your 4th finger play from that middle knuckle instead of closing from the back knuckle of your hand. You want your 4th finger to close all the way into your palm, all the way into your palm, not to pull away from the string. It's very tempting. I have worked with students over the years enough to know that it's very tempting to want to pull your hand away and to just sort of close your finger halfway instead of all the way. But your sound is going to always come from the closing of your fingers, fully closing. And you need to practice this with octaves. And it may take just a little bit more attention just because it feels more difficult with octaves. It isn't, but it just takes a little bit more attention, especially when you're concerned that as you close your fingers you might brush against another string, something like that, right? You will learn that when your palm is curved, right, your hand is curved, not flat and not tense, but you're— but curved nicely, just rounded gently the way we want it to be. Your fingers can close without hitting those other strings. Here's how to work at that if you're having trouble with it. Do the centering drill we talked about before. Put all your fingers on the strings. Then remove 2 and 3 to be sure your hand is centered. Then alternate your fingers closing 4, closing 1, and making sure that each finger is playing cleanly and closing all the way, and that your hand isn't moving. It's not moving back and forth, but it's staying centered where you want it. Then just play those notes together without without moving your hand. I don't mean that you can't, you know, move your hand after you've played, but don't recenter it. Don't try to adapt your hand. Just have it where it was when you were playing those fingers evenly and individually, and then close them. You will stop that extra, you know, hitting extra strings, and it's A very simple little drill, very effective, but it starts with centering your hand and then closing properly. Um, it may seem to you like if you close properly you're going to brush on those strings. Check the position of your hand and make sure that that is correct. That should fix most of those issues. Now one last question and observation about octaves because I know I get this one all the time. Why do we play octaves with 1 and 4, and should we ever play octaves with 1 and 3? Um, there are times you might play octaves with 1 and 3 if the chord itself is larger than an octave and you need to reach that span between 1 and 3. But on the whole, you're going to use 1 and 4. It keeps your hand centered, uses your hand well, and is a better, better for your hand physically to play with 1 and 4. Left hand sometimes might play with 1 and 3. You— a lot of people feel that they get extra strength from their 3rd finger on those big left hand octaves, but be very careful because it's easy to sort of stretch that 3rd finger in a way that is uncomfortable or might cause long-term discomfort. So 1 and 4 are really the best fingering to use, but you know, don't be afraid to experiment with 3 if you have a chord that requires 4 notes and an extra big stretch. You may want to do that. As always, a big stretch can be not so good for your hands, especially if your hands aren't used to that kind of a stretch. So be very gentle and remember there lots of accommodations to make. You don't have to play all those notes if you can't reach them. Nobody wants you to hurt yourself trying to reach that many notes. So please make accommodations. You know, leave out a bottom note or a middle note or something if the stretch feels too big for you. A regular octave by itself shouldn't do it, but that's why we recommend 1 and 4 for octaves and not 1 and 3. Well, that's certainly a lot of information about octaves, perhaps more than you wanted to think about with octaves, but they're so important and it's important to play them well. I also know that you will find that when you start thinking about centering your hand and closing it, you're going to find that there are a lot of other situations that will be— will become less problematic as you think about that with your octaves.

Welcome back. So that was our little blast from the past from Episode 62, all about octaves and how to place them, how to play them, the importance of centering your hand. And I wanted to give you a little bit of an exercise. I talked at the— toward the end of that episode about how octaves can be a stretch. I know that they can really be a stretch, particularly when you have inner notes, and I wanted to suggest something that might help you with that. So what I suggest is a very simple drill. If you put 1 and 4 on the strings at, you know, place an octave, right? Make sure that your hand is centered. And then put your 2nd and 3rd fingers on the strings in the middle. For instance, if you're holding an octave C with 4 and 1, then put your 3rd finger on the E and your 2nd finger on the G as if you were playing a C major chord. Then, actually, while you're holding that octave, very gently play 2 and 3. You don't have to close them very far, but move them in toward your hand. This will be a stretch so that when you play the E and the G without letting go of the two C's, you're going to feel just a little bit of a stretch. It's okay if you don't— that means your hand's already used to this. But if you feel a little bit of a stretch, that's all right. Don't pull your fingers up and away from your hand. Pull them just ever so slightly toward your hand, until it's, you know, uncomfortable, and then don't pull anymore for sure, right? So what I'm saying is you don't have to close your fingers all the way. We don't need you to do that. But you'll feel what it feels like to have all 4 fingers on the string, and you will start to get a little bit more stretch. The nice thing about this is that because you're holding on with 1 and 4, your hand is centered so that your fingers will eventually be very equal. You might find it hard to play 2 and 3 exactly together. They should sound at the same time. If they don't, that's okay for now, but that is your goal. You need to stay relaxed while you do this. You can play very softly that's fine too. We want to not make this hard for you, but we want to sort of give your hand the idea of how it's going to have to work. This is not only good for just sort of getting used to the stretch that you need for 4-finger chords, but it's really good for your finger coordination. So it will give you that gentle stretch, it will give you that prep for 4-finger chords, and it will help you get a little bit more coordinated. Just remember, you're gently closing them toward your palm. They do not have to touch your palm. Just move 2 and 3 in. Of course, you can also— when you're— when you've done that, you can replace 2 and 3 on the string and then play 1 and 4 together while you hold 2 and 3 on the string. And that will also help you keep your hand centered while you're playing the octave. And in case you want to see exactly how this goes, this is pretty much the same kind of drill that you'll find in the Salsedo conditioning exercises. This would be exercise number 6. So if you want to actually see how that might work, you can look at the conditioning exercise. Once again, it's number 6, and you can see how it works. But the idea is you hold with that 1 and 4, gently play 2 and 3. And then you hold 2 and 3 and close 1 and 4, and they should be able to close all the way. So a little bit of an exercise, but one that will really help you with your octaves. So there you go. Next week here on the podcast, I'll have another revisit episode for you. This one's a little bit more recent, but it's a hot button topic for sure. This one is about how to choose your next piece. We want to think about how you choose it, what criteria you're looking for, and how to make sure that the piece that you choose is going to be a good one for you, that it won't be just so easy that it's a lateral move, that it'll ask a little bit of you, but also that it's not going to be a really, you know, it's not going to be climbing up a cliff.

You're going to be able to actually manage it.

So we'll talk about how to choose that next piece next week on the podcast. In the meantime, remember, every 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. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Enjoyed today's episode? Then share it with a harpist friend, subscribe for your weekly harp happiness boost, and check out harpmastery.com or the Harp Mastery app in your app store for more resources and ways to connect. I'll see you next time.