Nyckelharpa Four a Day - Day Two

Hello!

Time for day two!

:)

Vicki

Day Two - today we are adding third gold note, third finger D. We are also adding the two count note. Make sure you hold it for a full two counts and make sure that it is the most beautiful long note you have ever heard.

Nyckelharpa Four a Day - Day One

Hello!
So my third blog entry. :D
I have a website where I have teaching resources. I have recently opened up some of the resources and thought I'd share them on this blog. I have been writing daily exercises, slowly working through different things. It is a work in progress! The idea of these exercises is that you do one day at a time, moving from one day to the next. They are exercises and it's all about playing beautiful notes and working on technique. It's not about playing faster, it's about playing beautifully and accurately. It was originally devised with no tunes, but I'm going to add some in as I go along! The title is taking the idea of having five pieces of fruit a day - this is your four a day - four lines, each with four bars on. Maybe I should get out more!
:)
Vicki

Enjoy, I hope it helps!

Day One - today we are going to start with three notes. Open top string A, first gold key, first finger  B and second gold note, second finger C. Play each note with a steady even pulse.  The most important thing is to keep the bow on the string at all times, don't stab at the string with it. Every note needs to be more beautiful than the last. Play these slowly and beautifully until you can imagine that you are moving into a nice meditative head space.

Nyckelharpa Basics Part 2

Hello!

It's time for me to share my next video, "how to hold the nyckelharpa bow". Of course a bow hold can be subjective. I don't play the violin, I'm a double bass player, so obviously I'm influenced by what I'm used to. When I teach violinists though I generally find that I'm usually encouraging them to have a more positive and harder bow hold.

I hope it helps!
:)
Vicki

Halsway Schottische at Halsway Manor

Hello!
Nigel Eaton wrote the wonderful Halsway Schottische and it went round the internet with lots of people recording their versions of the tune. So I wrote a version for nyckelharpa that I recorded with myself playing all the parts. This year as part of the Nyckelharpa Festival at Halsway Manor I absolutely had to get this piece performed there! So here are the results!
Enjoy!
:)
Vicki

Nyckelharpa Basics Part 1

Hello!
I've had this blog for a while now but haven't done anything with it. That's about to change. I have a plan for this blog to use it for some teaching of the nyckelharpa. I've been busy teaching and building and planning and sorting out. I'm a musician, I'm a teacher, I'm a performer. I'm also a bit of a nerd that worked in an online learning community. So here I am sharing some of the things that I've done over the years. I thought I'd start with sharing my "how to hold the nyckelharpa" video. It's quite an old video and for some reason it came out quite red, but it does the trick. It shows the standard hold and how to tune with C tuning. I hope it helps a bit! (I've since got some better lighting so it's the only red video I have!)
:)
Vicki

Sunrise Over the Candlestick

Hello and Happy New Year!
It's been a while since I shared anything on this blog.  So here is what I recorded the other day.  It was originally scored for Scottish smallpipes and string quartet, but it turns out it works rather nicely on the nyckelharpa too.  I really need a tenor harpa, but this will do for now.  I'll re-record it properly some day. :D  Enjoy.

Nigel Eaton's Halsway Schottische

Afternoon!
There's currently an idea going round - "how many people can we get to play Nigel Eaton's 'Halsway Schottische'?" Well how could I resist a challenge like that? So here is my version, once as solo and then for three nyckelharpas.  It was a fun afternoon playing and recording this. :)
:))
Vicki

Singi Sunset and Barham Down

Hello!
I've been busy planning some arrangements and have recorded the first of them. Two tunes, the first The Singi Sunset I wrote and the second is a Playford tune called Barham Down. I've got more of these one the way. Enjoy!  (If you'd like the arrangements themselves they're available in our shop.)
:)
Vicki