The Results Of An Ongoing Project 


Background
Growing up as a harpist, I never fit the stereotype of a typical harpist.  The stereotype of angelic, classical, pretty music and personality is what people usually think of when picturing a harpist.  I was that student that would rather improvise my own music than to practice yet another etude.  I would always try to figure out how to play my favorite pop, rock, or blues song or theme song from a movie.  In high school, I performed rock standards such as Stairway to Heaven at my school talent shows.  I had only been playing the harp for about two or three years when I saw a PBS special with Deborah Henson-Conant.  She took the harp to a new level.  She performed everything from classical, folk, jazz, and even rock.  And, better yet, she played the electric harp.  After viewing this PBS special, I was inspired to never be “the typical harpist”.  I wanted to be different.  I wanted to break the stereotype of how the harp is viewed.  I kept with my classical training to improve my technique, tone, and abilities and I plan on using it to my advantage to create a unique sound for myself.  I grew up listening to classic rock, blues, and country music and have absolutely fallen in love with country music in the past few years.  There have been many harpists throughout the years that have been successful in both the blues/jazz and rock industries, Deborah Henson-Conant being one of the first to be successful in both.  I would like to become the first successful country harpist.

Project Summary 
During the course of this project, I worked on arranging a country song for solo harp to be able to record and sell.

Timeline
Week 1 
Figuring out what country song I wanted to arrange a cover of. 

Week 2 
Started working out certain sections of Boot Scootin’ Boogie on the harp to figure out what sounded best and how I wanted to piece to come across on the harp 

Week 3 
Started learning the piece and was able to record a short demo to post online for my audience to hear it.  Also, started looking into how to obtain a mechanical license to eventually record a cover. 

Week 4 
I decided to postpone the recording until a later date in order to give myself time to create a better arrangement instead of a hastily put together one. I worked some more on the arrangement of Boot Scootin’ Boogie. 

Week 5 
Started to put my arrangement of Boot Scootin’ Boogie into a notation program in order to better see my edits and to have a copy to easily learn from and publish in the future. 

Week 6 
After talking to some of my audience, I decided that Boot Scootin’ Boogie was not capturing my audience in the way I wanted.  I then decided to pick a new song to arrange while putting the old on the back burner.  I chose Burning House by CAM. 

Week 7 
Started working out problem sections in the music for the harp and learning the first part of the music for Burning House. 

Week 8 
Started trying to figure out how to play both the accompaniment and the melody at the same time and learned more of the music. 

Results 
During the course of this project, I was able to see that playing country music on the harp is possible.  I was able to get a partial arrangement of Boot Scootin’ Boogie and receive feedback on it.  It was after receiving feedback that I realized that it takes just the right song to capture your audience and wow them.  I then decided to change the song I was arranging to Burning House by CAM, a newer country song.  The feedback I got on that piece was the complete opposite from Boot Scootin’ Boogie and solidified my realization from earlier.  During this project, I also researched how to obtain the correct licenses to record and sell a cover song.  By the end of the eight weeks, I was able to find a song that captured my audience’s attention and start an arrangement of it as well as post clips of both songs throughout the timeline.
 

          


Reflection
When I entered into this project, I had enthusiasm and high ambition to really stick to my timeline and complete this project fully by the end of the eight weeks.  I received a lot of encouragement from my peers, family, and audience.  I felt like this was going to be the push that I needed to finally begin in the direction I’ve always wanted to go with music.  But, as the timeline moved forward, I started losing some of that initial ambition, partly due to being in the middle of a semester with a full course load.  Part of this was also due to choosing the wrong song to arrange, it just wasn’t capturing my full attention.  After realizing that the song I chose was not only failing to capture my attention but my audiences as well, I decided that I needed to choose a different song. 

It took me a while to figure out what song I wanted to switch to and if I even wanted to stay in the same genre of music.  I love country music, but I wasn’t sure it was working out for harp.  I finally decided that I had not given the genre enough of a chance and stayed within the genre.  I picked a new song and that made all the difference.  I realized that not all songs can work for every instrument.  And, although I want to break the stereotype of how the harp is viewed, the nature of the instrument still needs to be taken into account.  I do think that my original choice can work, but it will take a lot of time and creative thinking to make it work on the harp.  With the new choice of song and after posting a clip online, I was met with a completely different reaction that with the other song.  It was one of overwhelming excitement and encouragement to continue with that choice.  After receiving that feedback, I realized that no matter what the genre is or what the instrument is, it takes the right song to really capture your audience and engage them. 
  
Also during these eight weeks, my outlook on my project changed overall.  Where in the beginning, I wanted to have a cover recorded, licensed, and up for sale by the end of the eight weeks, by the middle, that outlook changed.  I realized that it takes a lot longer to prepare an great arrangement, learn the music, and prep your performance of it for recording not to mention all of the steps you need to go through to obtain the right licenses.  By putting off the recording to a later date (yet to be determined), it took the stress off of the project and made it fun again.  Playing music, for me, is a passion.  I don’t want to do anything that will make music not fun.  So, I have to always make sure I am doing what I can to keep it fun and make sure I am still in love with the art. 
  
I think that the biggest thing I learned from this project was that I don’t want to constrain myself to one genre of music, for example, play only country music.  If I do that, then it takes away from my whole goal of what I want to accomplish with the harp.  It would be the same as being one of the other hundreds of harpist that only perform classical music and never branch out.  I want to show a wide range of styles that can be performed on the harp.  This semester, I have been taking private lessons in jazz and although jazz has never been one of my favorite genres, I have fallen in love with playing it.  It has opened up my mind to so many more possibilities of what can be done.  The biggest lesson learned from this project, I think, was to not constrain myself and always believe that anything really is possible.
 


 

Working From Two Scores 


This week, I started working on arranging Burning House by CAM.  I originally bought one version of a piano/vocal score to base my arrangement off of.  But, when I started playing through it, there were quite a few note mistakes as well as rhythmical mistakes.  I pointed this out to the help center on Musicnotes.com (where I bought the music) and they were able to give me a credit to by a different version of the song.  Below, I have circled a couple of the mistakes I came across in the first arrangement I bought.  The first circled G is actually supposed to be an A and the second circled G is not supposed to be there at all as the B before it supposed to be an eighth note.


After buying a different version, I was able to start adding things to the piece like playing octaves in the base to give it a richer sound and points to muffle where chords should not be heard in accompaniment.  There are also a couple of places in the melodic line that I have added a pedal slide to mimic how the original song sounds.  This is illustrated in the photo below.


As I was working through the piece, I realized that I am going to have to work from both versions of the song that I purchased as I need the accompaniment as well as the vocal line.  This will be the challenging part of arranging this song because the accompaniment and the vocal line are in the same register and overlap with each other quite often.You can see in the picture below how the vocal line and the accompaniment overlap with each other.


I am confident that there is a way for it to be done and still sound like the original and I am excited for the challenge as this piece is going to and already does so far sound amazing on harp.

The Challenge of Being an Arranger 

One of the biggest challenges one can face when trying to arrange a piece for any instrument, is finding just the right piece.  By that, I mean, finding a song that not only goes well with your instrument (which can be any if done right) but also one that captures your audiences attention as well as keeps your own interest and creative juices flowing.  At the beginning of the project, I wanted to choose a country song that encompassed the true sound of country music.  But, as I have been working on it over the past few weeks, posting clips for my audiences, and getting the opinions of my audience and peers, I feel that "Boot Scootin' Boogie" is not the right fit for the harp.  I have talked to multiple people about their opinions on the song and they have not been impressed.  The normal reaction I get when playing a non classical piece on the harp is awe, amazement, and excitement.  I want that same reaction for the piece I arrange.  So, I feel that it is time to choose a different piece of music to arrange as both myself and my audience are uninspired by "Boot Scootin' Boogie".

When I decided to chose a different song, two songs came to mind... "Georgia On My Mine" as done by Willie Nelson and "Burning House" by CAM.  Georgia On My Mind, I have played before, but only off of a lead sheet, so I thought it would be good to make an actual arrangement of it for solo harp. Below is a video of me playing it with my old jazz instructor.



Georgia On My Mind, I feel, with the right arrangement, would be beautiful as a harp solo.  It would also be a cross between jazz and country which I love as I want to perform in both in the future and I am a jazz minor.  It is a fairly simple song, the only challenge would be to write in my own base line.

"Burning house" by CAM is a beautiful song that inspires me every time I listen to it.  Every time I hear it, I can hear it on harp with cello at certain parts and possibly some light percussion here and there.  This song gets the gears in my head turning and I feel that it would be a big hit when ever I think about a harp cover and arrangement of it. Below is the original song by CAM.



The music for Burning House is also very simple but I could easily add more to the harmonies and textures to make it a little more complex and fill out the sound for the harp.

Below is a clip of how the beginning of the song sounds on the harp.



After playing around with both of these songs, I have decided that I am the most excited about and have the most inpiration for Burning House by CAM.  From this point forward, I will be working on this song for my arrangement and eventual recorded cover song for the project.

Notating the Arrangement 


This week, I have started to finalize some of the changes that need to be made to make this piece be playable on harp and to really get a feel for what I want to do with my arrangement of this piece.  Since I have started finalizing some of the changes, I decided to start putting it into a notation program (I use Sibelius).  This way, my arrangement becomes a lot clearer as my paper copy was getting a bit messy with scribbles and changes.  Also, putting it into a notation program with the changes I want to make allows me to be able to print off copies to more easily learn the music.  It is possible to learn the music from my original paper copy, but is a bit slow going with the amount of hand written scribbles across it.

Some of the changes I made were, for example, changing the G sharp in measure three to its enharmonic spelling of an A flat.  I had to do this because of the way the pedals work on the harp.  It makes playing this measure a little easier. 
I also made a change in measure nine.  I changed the C natural to its enharmonic spelling of a B sharp​.  I had to make this change as there is a C sharp over a C natural which is impossible to play on the harp without using enharmonic spelling.
This week, I was also able to record a short sample of my arrangement to show the progress of what I have done.

Enjoy!

A Potponing of Recording 

Recording and selling music is something I have always wanted to do.  I am also asked quite often if I have any CD's for sale.  I know that it would be a great way to get my music out there and another source of income.  Since country music is what I want to ultimately go into, I thought it would be a great idea to record a country cover.  I still have every intention of recording a country cover and eventually an album.  But, as I have started working on an arrangement of a country song these past few weeks, I have realized that it is going to take a lot more work and time to get it to a point that I love it and feel that it is ready to record.  I initially thought I could complete this project in an eight week time span, but, add in school full time and work, there is not much time left in each day to work on my project.  The past month has been especially stressful with the passing of my great grandfather (and traveling to California for the funeral) and dealing with moving mid semester.  After a lot of thought and careful consideration, I have decided to alter my project a little.  Instead of recording a country cover by the end of the eight weeks I allotted myself, I would like to have "Boot Scootin' Boogie" arranged and performance ready (i.e. memorized and ready to perform in a concert) by the end of the eight weeks.  This will give me enough time to make a beautiful arrangement that I am happy with and proud of.  It allows for enough time to work out any problems I might encounter with arranging the song and have my arrangement proofed by other harpists as I would like to publish it as sheet music to sell as some point.  Altering the timeline of my project also allows me to add one or two other songs I might want to work on and record like "Burning House" by Cam (as every time I hear it, I can imagine a beautiful harp cover *video below).  



With allowing myself more time to create the arrangement(s) and getting it performance ready, I will be pushing the recording date back to the Fall of this year (2016).  I was talking to my harp professor recently about recording and she recommends performing any piece of music that you plan on recording at least ten different times in front of different audiences.  She suggests this technique so that when you go to record the song, you are completely comfortable with every aspect of it and will possible only need one or two takes to record it. Recording in the Fall will give me the whole summer to get those ten performances in.

I was reflecting on some of my past experiences, one of which was my concert of "Lauren Arasim and Friends" at Chapman University.  This was a concert of all folk and blues music with a trio.  I was reflecting on how it went and what I would do differently next time.  At the time, I tried to put the concert together in a very short amount of time.  This did not allow for enough preparation time and I feel as though the concert could have been better if the trio and I spent more time on arrangements and rehearsals.  I then compared it to what I am working on now... I want an arrangement and recording to be amazing and to be something I can always look back on with pride.  Giving myself that extra time, will allow for that.  

Photo from Lauren Arasim and Friends concert.

I want to always keep up my professionalism and high level of performance with my music.  That not only includes my live performances but also in the arrangements that I create.  I would like for them to be on the same level as my role model, Deborah Henson Conant's music.  I have performed her music on multiple occasions and always gotten compliments.  I want my music to have that effect for other harpists in the future and to open doors for them just as Deborah Henson Conant's music has opened doors for me.  It is different, fun, and inspiring to myself and all those who hear it!  


My performance of Deborah Henson Conant's Baroque Flamenco! 

This week, I was in California for my great grandfathers funeral and have not had a chance to work on my arrangement of "Boot Scootin' Boogie", but will get back at it as soon as I am home.  I look forward to sharing my progress and work along the way.

Working Through It 

After going through the music last week with a critical eye and a pencil, this week was time to start learning the notes.  It was time to sit down at the harp and work through what I had hoped, I had worked out the week before...pedals, enharmonic notes, etc.  Last week, you saw the two different options for the bass line.  I have decided to go with the pedal slide option as it adds a unique sound that only the harp can add.  This week, I was able to work out the first page of music.  It took a while as, the things I worked out the week before either didn't work or I had missed some things.  For example, there was a section that I needed to use an A flat instead of a G sharp as it made playing that section a lot easier.  One of the challenges I came across while learning the notes was playing the song in a slight swing rhythm.  Playing a swung rhythm can be easy with a single melodic line, but when another line is added that has a different rhythm or two's against three's, it makes is a bit more challenging.  I eventually got it down, but it was still as a slow rhythm.  Once all of the notes are learned like the back of my hand, I will be able to speed up the tempo and add dynamics and musicality.  Below, you can see a short video of the music that I learned this week.



This week, I also started looking into how much everything is going to cost me to get a mechanical license as well as production fees for producing an album in the future.  For a mechanical license, according to harryfox.com, I can get my mechanical license through SongFile.  Harry Fox states that "Songfile is a limited quantity mechanical licensing application that gives all users the tools to license copyrighted works. We have made it easy for users to pay the proper royalties to publishers and songwriters for their work!".  On SongFile's website, it states that the cost for royalties is 9.1 cents per unit for songs that are five minutes or under and is 1.75 cents for every minute thereafter.  When they say unit, it means one copy of the song that you recorded.  So, if you want to sell 1,000 copies of one song, you have to purchase 1,000 units.  At least, that it is what I can gather from information provided on their website.  In order to get the mechanical license, you have some forms that will have to be filled out and submitted online.


As far as getting a CD replicated for with the case printed with artwork, that is going cost you a pretty penny.  I was looking on Disk Makers and their prices run about $350 for 100 CD's or about $850 for 300 CD's.  It will also depend on what you chose for cases and how "fancy" you would like to get.  But, producing a CD will not be cheap.  My harp professor said that, you can typically find people to donate or sponsor your recordings and albums but will probably have to pay for the first one yourself.

Hopefully in this next week, I will be able to talk with my professor about how to go about calculating the amount of units for my mechanical license and also have more (at least half) of Boot Scootin' Boogie learned and up to tempo.

Thank you for checking back in and reading about my progress!

 

The Process of Arranging and a Loving Dedication 


Arranging for harp can be a little bit trickier than other instruments because of the way that the harp functions.  A harpist not only plays with both hands but with both feet as well.  The harp has 47 strings and seven pedals.  You can think of the strings as the white keys on a piano and the pedals as the black keys.  The pedals allow harpists to change the tuning of the harp strings between flats, naturals, and  sharps.  The pedals can pose certain challenges when working with chromatic music.  This is because there are only seven pedals (one for each note in a scale) and when one pedal moves, for example the D pedal, all of the D strings on the harp are re-tuned.  Since this happens, it is impossible to play both a D natural and a D sharp at the same time.  There are, however, ways to get around this little problem.  Enharmonic spelling (when relating notes sound the same pitch but bear different names)!  If we use the same example from before, D natural and D sharp,  but respell it using enharmonics, the harpist is able to play it.  D sharp is also E flat so it is possible to play a D natural and an E flat at the same time and it would sound the same as the D natural and D Sharp.  This little trick allows harpist to break out and perform more styles of music than just classical.  

When I decided to arrange Boot Scootin' Boogie for the harp, I knew I wanted to have a starting point.  That meant, for me, to have a piano arrangement that I could base my arrangement off of.  I found a piano arrangement through Music Notes; a great resource to find almost any song in arrangements for many different instruments.  After finding a piano score to Boot Scootin' Boogie, my first step was to go through it and write in my pedal markings (where I will have to change a pedal in order to hear the correct note).  While going through to mark my pedals, I also had to pay attention to whether or not anything would need to be enharmonically re-spelled.  In the picture below, you will be able to see that I had to re-spell a D sharp to and E flat as a D sharp and D natural were written (and not able to be played on the harp).  

 
 But, there are some sections that I come across that cannot be solved until I play with it while sitting at the harp.  In these instances, I circle the problem section and put a question mark, as you can see below.


After putting in all of the pedal markings and circling possible problem areas, I get to start playing around with how I want the song to sound.  For example, the intro to this song is a walking bass line which can be played a couple of different ways on the harp.  Since the harp uses pedals to create sharps, naturals, and flats; it is possible to create a sliding sound from one pitch to the next. This is called a pedal slide.  This walking bass line in the intro has a G natural to a G sharp which can either be played with or without a pedal slide.  The two videos below demonstrate the two options.
 

Without pedal slide


With Pedal Slide

Today, the sun is a little duller than normal.  Last night, my great grandfather passed away.  He was the toughest, most stubborn, opinionated, strong, and loving man I have ever known... and I got to call him my grandpa!  I think that my cousins words best sum up the man that he was:

"Seriously the toughest SOB I have ever known. Heaven didn't want him and hell was afraid he would take over. Cheated death at least a half dozen times, served in the Navy and the USMC. He had a magical green thumb, drank scotch every day and could catch every trout in a stream. After 96 years Saint Peter finally opened the gates and called him home. RIP Grandpa."

 I cannot believe that you are gone, but I am so happy that you were in my life for so long. I miss you so much already! You had an amazing 96 years! I was lucky to be able to call a guy like you my great grandpa!  You have been such an inspiration in my life! I'm dedicating this song to you Grandpa! 

I love you so much, Grandpa Roach!

In loving memory of my great grandfather, Harold Earl Roach, Jr.!

 

The First Step Towards a Dream 


Growing up as a harpist, I never fit the stereotype of a "typical harpist".  The stereotype of angelic, classical, pretty music and personality is what people usually think of when picturing a harpist.  I was that student that would rather improvise my own music than to practice yet another etude.  I would always try to figure out how to play my favorite pop, rock, or blues song or theme song from a movie.  In high school, I performed rock standards such as Stairway to Heaven at my school talent shows.  I had only been playing the harp for about two or three years when I saw a PBS special with Deborah Henson-Conant.  She took the harp to a new level.  She performed everything from classical, folk, jazz, and even rock.  And, better yet, she played the electric harp.  After viewing this PBS special, I was inspired to never be “the typical harpist”.  I wanted to be different.  I wanted to break the stereotype of how the harp is viewed.  I kept with my classical training to improve my technique, tone, and abilities and I plan on using it to my advantage to create a unique sound for myself.  I grew up listening to classic rock, blues, and country music and have absolutely fallen in love with country music in the past few years.  There have been many harpists throughout the years that have been successful in both the blues/jazz and rock industries, Deborah Henson-Conant being one of the first to be successful in both.  I would like to become the first successful country harpist.


While I have always played around with non-classical styles of music, it hasn't been until recently that I've have the courage to seriously start pursuing my dream.  I've started with small steps, but unless an artist takes a big leap, there isn't much chance of success in the long run.  So, I am taking that leap by recording an instrumental cover of a classic country hit.  When choosing a country song to do a cover of, I wanted to choose something that had the country twang that people associate with country music.  I also wanted something that was well known enough that my audience would know what song it is without the lyrics.  I've tossed around a few different ideas for a cover to create a unique sound for myself.  The couple of song ideas I was tossing around are "Burning House" by CAM, "Little White Church" by Little Big Town, "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks & Dunn, and "Forever and Ever, Amen" by Randy Travis.  I would like to eventually record covers of all of these but, for my first single, I am going to go with a classic/timeless country song... "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks & Dunn.  This tune, I feel, will translate well into an instrumental cover.  
 


 

Since I want to record and release a cover of this song, I have to go through the necessary steps of getting permission and licencing.  In order to record a cover of a song, you have to get permission/the necessary licences unless the song is public domain.  Public domain means that the work is not protected by copyrights, trademarks, or patent laws.  Public domain works typically are over fifty years old, so anything created within the last fifty years has a good chance to still being protected by copyrights.  To record a cover, you will need a mechanical licence.  This can be obtained through Harryfox.com.  You can either do this yourself, or your producer or recording studio may be able to do it for you.  If your recording studio offers this, I would suggest taking advantage of it as it's one less step/hassle for you to deal with and they've done it many times and know exactly what you will need.  Also, you'll want to get all the necessary licenses before you record. For more detailed information on licencing, you can follow this link to learn more.  

As I embark on this process of arranging and recording my first country cover, updates will be shared so y'all can follow along in this adventure. Thank you for your support.