#108: Quick Fix: Buzz No More

Legendary harpist and composer Carlos Salzedo had this to say about buzzing: “It is important that there be no buzzing when replacing. Buzzing comes from lack of precision in replacing, and will be eliminated if the player replaces very accurately.” 

That quote comes from the Method for the Harp book that he wrote with Lucile Lawrence, his former student and at the time that method book was written, his wife.

What is interesting about that quote is that even though Salzedo had so much to say about so many aspects of harp playing, that is all he says about buzzing, nothing more.

On the one hand, it’s enough. Every harpist should be replacing accurately in order to avoid buzzing. But we knew that much. What Salzedo leaves us wondering is exactly how we should practice accurate replacing so we don’t buzz. Unfortunately, Salzedo either thought it was too obvious to elaborate on or he wanted to keep his secrets for his students.

I imagine he thought it was obvious, but since it isn’t obvious to most of us lesser harpists, we need a little more instruction. Hence, today’s podcast episode. This is a “Quick Fix” episode, meaning we are going to get super-practical and talk about the practice techniques to use to help you be more aware of your buzzing as well as learn to prevent it.  You’re going to want to take notes, so if you’re driving or on the exercise bike, go ahead and listen now, but be sure to come back to this episode later when you can write down some of the key strategies.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Two Retreat Spots left!
• Related resource Teach Your Fingers to Do Your Bidding blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]