Scottish Harp (clarsach) intermediate course with Corrina Hewat.
Fee $72 (approx £38). Buy this teaching course.*

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Corrina Hewat teaches 6 tunes covering fingering, tuning and accompaniment for the Scottish Harp (also known as the clarsach). This a very interesting and entertaining course.

Listen to a FREE sample of Corrina playing.

Lesson Plan
Tuning – in Eb and then C, scale and then 5ths

NB: Each of the tunes has a pdf with any complicated fingering marked, and fingering has been bracketed, noting placing in the direction your fingers are playing.

Lesson 1 - Drops of Brandy – a 9/8 jig in A major (with G naturals)

This 2 part tune is well known in Ireland and Scotland, in the key of G and A. It’s a nice one to start with as the tune is split between right hand (RH) and left hand (LH) in the first part. I learnt it from the renowned harper Alison Kinnaird. In fact I think I may have pinched her left hand roughly)to the first half.

Lesson 2 - Glenlivet – a reel in A minor

This 2 part Scottish reel first appeared in print in Volume 1 of ‘Kerr’s Merry Melodies’ published around 1875. RH and LH harmonics are demonstrated in this presentation, and I have arranged the reel using only harmonics in the LH. This tune also works well as a round.

Lesson 3 - Roslin Castle – slow air in E minor (high D#)

A beautiful slow 2 part air, previously wrongly attributed to James Oswald. Although it appears in his collection (1740), he did not write it. It had appeared in a previous collection by William McGibbon as ‘The House of Glams’ and acquired the title Roslin Castle when Richard Hewitt wrote words to it around 1750. Robert Burns also wrote his poem ‘The Gloomy Night is gatherin fast’ to the tune in 1786. We concentrate on running, arpeggiated chords in this tune. I want you to feel free to adapt this into your own arrangement, with your own expression and timing.

Lesson 4 - Irene Meldrum’s – 2/4 pipe march in D major

This is a fine tune for the harp – it does have lots of five note runs, but with careful placing, these become fun to play. The four parts have repeated phrases running through them, keeping it memorable. I have kept a very simple chordal LH for this one so as not to overpower the tune.

Lesson 5 - The Little Cascade – pipe reel in E minor

A well known 6 part reel very suitable for the harp. Written by G S McLennan during his time in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II, it was inspired by a dripping tap. This arrangement should leave you very open to interpreting it in your own way, taking it faster or slower than the version here (which is at quite a moderate speed for learning purposes).

Lesson 6 - Elmo Lives downstairs – 9/8 - 6/8 jig in D minor

This 4 part tune was inspired by a small dog who lives downstairs from me, who doesn’t yap in regular time, but has adopted a weird, if not remarkable, 9/8 3/4 rhythm to his barking. To make the sound bearable I ended up playing along to him (from upstairs in my flat) and ‘Elmo’ was born. It’s a great rhythm to learn, and you should have lots of fun with this one. I also play a harmony to the tune if you’d like to learn it, or play along with it. I recorded this one on Kathryn Tickell and my duo album “The sky didn’t fall” released on Park Records, but with a beat missing in part 3.

Biography: Over the last ten years, singer and harp player Corrina Hewat has emerged as one of the most distinctive, original and versatile artists on the contemporary Scottish scene. Synthesising the energies and idioms of traditional, jazz and classical music, in formats ranging from entirely solo to a 31-piece "folk orchestra", Corrina's combined talents as a vocalist, instrumentalist, composer and arranger have won steadily increasing acclaim among critics, fellow musicians and audiences alike. Only now, however, has she at last distilled this wealth of experience and creativity into her long-awaited first solo album, My Favourite Place.

Fee $72 (approx £38). Buy this teaching course.

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