Tuition in Harp
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly lessons near Bude, monthly in Taunton and Exeter, and On-Line lessons.
Sarah Deere-Jones gives regular lessons in harp at the Cornwall Harp centre, which is near Bude. She has been teaching for around 20 years and enjoys helping a wide variety of musical backgrounds from serious students studying classical harp and working through the Assoiated Board grade exams, to adult hobby harpists. Sarah studied at the Royal Academy of Music as a performer on harp where she gained her LRAM and LGSM diplomas in harp performance, her professor there was the highly respected harpist Renata Scheffel-Stein, who was principle of the London Symphony Orchestra. She also studied singing as second instrument and gained her LRAM in singing teaching. Sarah therefore is able to teach proper classical harp technique which is terribly important in whatever genre of playing, to enable the harpist to develop a relaxed hand technique, avoiding the problems of tension which cause so many difficulties in advanced playing. Sarah's pupils are almost always successful in auditions to youth orchestras and school music departments because of their solid harp technique and good level of musical understanding.
There is currently nothing to compel private music teachers to be properly qualified for teaching, particularly with unusual instruments like the harp, so it is important that students enquire about this before signing up with a teacher, good teachers will not mind a bit if you enquire about their qualifications. Unfortunately it is true that there are several untrained and self-taught harpists out there posing as teachers, and they can do untold damage to serious students by not paying attention to serious faults in technique. They also deprive properly qualified teachers of a living! Sarah is aware of the difficulties in the south west of finding a good qualified teacher. It is not always enough for a teacher in harp to have only a music degree although this undoubtedly proves good general musical knowledge- but a music degree will not be specifically on harp and so expertise in harp technique can be sadly lacking! Teachers must have studied as a performer at one of the major UK music Academies and have obtained at the very least a Licentiate diploma in harp performance before being properly qualified as a teacher in harp.
Sarah's pupils normally achieve distinction in exams, and she is in favour of the exam system, which is a good motivator and also a qualification often required by schools and youth orchestras. Her pupils often are surprised at the benefits of having achieved harp exam qualifications, and in several cases have achieved scholarship places in private schools on harp and gained free top class education on the basis of it! Sarah's adult pupils are encourgaged to join the Cornwall Harp Centre harp ensemble, which again is a very good motivator with regular concerts and public performances and a fun social aspect.
Currently lessons are given weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on how far the pupils is travelling as some of Sarahs pupils travel from across the south west. Obviously lessons need to be regular and only older or more experienced students can cope with monthly lessons. However some students manage with doing the weekend courses indispersed with montly lessons in between time, its not ideal but it is certainly better than having no lessons at all.
Sarah developed the worlds only 'on-line' one to one harp teaching service as an aid to students unable to find a teacher, and now has on-line students all over the UK and even abroad. This is a serious way to learn the harp and students hundreds of miles away from the centre have managed to achieve examination successes through the on-line lessons. For more information please see the 'on-line' lessons page on this website.
Fees = £30 per hour, £15 per half hour. Lesson length depends on standard and regularity and aspirations! Sarah teaches on tuesday and thursday afternoons and evenings at Trehawsa. She also runs a harp department at Kings School Taunton, and Exeter University on a monthly basis. Please e mail for details.