Flight of the Heron, harp

Pretty melody!

It is because of YOU, Anne, that I have taken up the harp again after a very long hiatus! Your compositions make me feel as if I am accomplishing something! On this piece, I wish I knew how you improvised, but I am challenging myself to do likewise. Thank you so much for sharing your talent.

Flight of the Heron is such a blast. If you're starting to feel like learning the harp is all work and no play and that you'll never be able to sound good, give this one a go. I'm not a fan of a lot of sweet, staid, music boxy harp music and Flight of the Heron is none of those things. It's a rollicking frolic. It never fails that when I come to the end of this song, I feel like jumping out of my chair, striking an arrogant flamenco dancer pose and shouting, "Hah!"

It's not really hard to play - but darn that pesky low D that always leaves me stranded out in the middle of nowhere - though the variations in the patterns change enough that you'll feel new neurons sprouting as you first memorize and then try to recall them while playing.

I've never been able to improvise on the harp. I just freeze. I wasn't even going to try it with this piece. But I was having so much fun that I thought, Oh, what the heck. So I threw in some rolled cords. Then I mixed together some going up and some going down! Then new little tunes! Then glissandos, up and down - and I don't even know how to do glissandos. Soon I was just tearing up that harp! Well, probably not really, but I felt like I was. Now sometimes I just skip the rest of the song and only do the improvisation part, doing it differently every time.

I doubt I'll ever be able to play at that fast tempo shown on the video, but I don't care at all. It still sounds great to me.

I don't believe I fully appreciated this composition when I purchase it. I marked it as ' a necessary finger exercise for speed" and saved it to last before hunting for more sheet music.
Well, it is a wonderful finger exercise, but for more that just speed. It is also a gorgeous composition that evokes its title in subtle ways, and a piece that hold a future possibility for advancing my musical skills.
I will be working on this for a while as my arthritic fingers resist the pace, but I think of it as physical therapy for both body and mind and will use it at the start of each practice session as a lovely way to warm up and love my harp.

Hi I've just purchased this beautiful piece, and The Land of Dreams. Looking forward to producing something that sounds half decent to keep the thrill of learning the harp alive as it were.

Sadly I'm not experienced enough as yet to do the improvisation as in the recording, where mentioned on the sheet music, and was hoping it would be on the piece to be honest, as it's the prettiest part :(
But it is still a lovely piece for a complete beginner to learn.

When I improve will look at buying I saw Three Ships as it was my Dad's favourite and brought a tear to my eye on listening to it.
Thank you.