Anouk has developed two courses that allow students to learn in a group.
The group dynamic adds an extra dimension to the learning process, allowing students to practise new techniques with each other and help each other progress. Over the period of the course students are encouraged to keep in touch and share their experiences, in hopes that they will keep doing so even after the course.
The courses currently offered are:
– Therapeutic Harp Music
– Getting Creative with Music
Both courses are aimed at making harp players of all levels more familiar with their instrument and discover their own style of playing. The Therapeutic Harp Music course helps students to suite their music to the person they play for, while Getting Creative with Music is about discovering more possibilities of the harp and thinking outside the box to expand playing style.
Any harp players can take part in the courses, provided that they have a basic knowledge of technique (usually this is after one to two years of playing). This makes for groups of mixed abilities, ranging from new harp players to people who have played for as long as 30 years. Each student is on an individual path of improvement (and individual help is offered where needed) and can take away from the course what is most suited to their level of playing, while getting insights from other students and learning from each other.
Both courses can be taught at any given location on request, in English or German.
Therapeutic Harp Music
This course will teach the basic principles of playing music with a therapeutic goal in mind: by adapting the music to the listener, a safe, familiar environment will be created which can promote healing.
In this course we will cover among others:
– experiencing the modes
– playing in different modes
– improvising in the modes
– making a cradle of sound for a patient
– repertoire choice
– extending your repertoire
– interacting with clients
– composing for a client
Besides the creative side of playing, there will be time for the technical aspect of harp playing, and time to share experiences. If students have any specific questions about their music, these can be addressed too.
During the course Margreet Poulie will assist in teaching the aspect of interacting with clients.
Students are expected to practise some homework between the lessons.
The goal of this course is to learn to improvise while playing and to improve instrumental skills of the students to make them able to play in a therapeutic setting.
You can like the Facebook Page for this course and find up to date information on Therapeutic Harp Music there.
Getting creative with music.
This course aims to improve creativity with music.
By using improvisation, composing, practical theory and ensemble playing students will look to expand the borders of their musical abilities.
In this course you will be working with:
– simple techniques to make sheet music fit the abilities of the student
– improvisation
– instant accompaniment (by playing from chord charts)
– arranging music
– creative exercises that challenge students to compose music
At the end of the course students will be able to fit music to their abilities and to think in possibilities instead of restrictions.
With this course students will expand their instrumental abilities, learn how to improvise in different styles, learn music theory and how to practically apply it practically and they will be able to free themselves from using sheet music.
You will be expected to do some homework between the lessons.