I’ve been working on Sylvia Woods’ easy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon in D for nearly three months now.* My instructor assures me that this is a big turning point in my practice — beginner harpist to intermediate! — but $#@!, I’m ready to put this song behind me.
It haunts my dreams …
At this stage, I can play the entire thing without false or missed notes (well… most of the time). What I am still struggling with is keeping my tempo consistent without a metronome! If I’ve got my metronome, I’m golden. Without it, the fast section just gets faster … and faster … until either my fingering falls apart OR the song just sounds artless anyway.
I have at least two weeks until my next lesson, so my current plan of attack is just to religiously play with the metronome in the hope that somehow this beat will lodge itself into my brain. I think it’s my fault for not starting the piece with a metronome — I only figured out the metronome app on my (new! shiny!) phone about two weeks ago. So I suspect all these inconsistencies got drilled into me in the month and a half before that.
Any other tips for keeping a beat in the middle of playing? I don’t really have trouble keeping a consistent beat when that’s ALL I have to do (like clapping steadily). It’s just when I simultaneously have to focus on something else, too, that’s already a little technically challenging for me to begin with.
Fellow Canadian Alys Howe plays a much nicer and complex version Pachelbel’s Canon in this video.
On the other hand, as the Boyfriend once showed me, Pachelbel’s Canon also has a very, very dark side.
I’m with comedian Rob Paravonian on this one.
*I’m also embarrassingly pleased with myself that the product description at www.harpcenter.com describes this particular arrangement as “an intermediate harp solo.”
The Harpist of Market Square 