Grossi question

[alan-cross]

Does anyone know where I can find the Grossi Method book in English? I don’t understand italian at all and I hear this book is terrific for fingering exercises. I’m new so I hope I didn’t put this in the wrong spot. Thank you in advance.

[Tacye]

I believe the book is only available in Italian, but there is an English translation of the text. I think I saw a copy of it i the files of the yahoogroups harplist.

[alan-cross]

Do you have a link to share it? Maybe you can email it to me. I would greatly appreciate it. Too bad nobody has published a English version yet.

[Donna O]

You need to join the Canadawest harplist group in yahoo. Once you are accepted you can then look in the files on the left side of the page for the Grossi english translation. I don’t think there is a way to you link directly to it. You can try this. Good luck. Donna http://launch.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/CanadaWestHarplist

[alan-cross]

Hello again,
Instead of making a new thread I decided to just update this one:

I still haven’t been able to get the English translation version for the Grossi and Pozzoli books. I’ve visited and joined the CanadaWestHarplist but no where can I find the files for it. If someone can email them to me that would be awesome! Email: alancross6@aol.com

While I’m on the topic of the Grossi book, I’m having a bit of trouble fully understanding what it is I’m supposed to be learning from the book. Is it supposed to help with my technique or is it to help with something else? I think I need to know what the purpose of the book is for me to understand how to ‘use’ it, assuming that makes any sense. Same goes for the Pozzoli book that came with the Grossi book. So any help explaining the books would be appreciated. 🙂

I’ve also bought “Harp exercises for agility and speed” by Deborah Friou and “Conditioning Exercises” by Carlos Salzedo. I find both books very clear and easy to understand and follow.

Thanks everyone that answers 🙂

[Donna O]

Alan, I sent an email with the attachments to your email address.
DonnaO

[alan-cross]

Thank you very much. I’ve gotten all 4 pages.

[maria-myers–2]

Hi Donna,
Could you send me an email with the attachments? mariaharp2@gmail.com
Maria

[Donna O]

Maria, Done.
DonnaO

[patricia-jaeger]

Alan, whether for harp or piano or guitar or any other instrument, it is a good idea to expand your knowledge of Italian a bit beyond presto, amore, pizza and so on. It will help your musicianship immeasurably over time. Not only is using a small English- Italian-English dictionary a great help for any student musician, but there is a wonderful series of illustrated books called: The First Thousand Words in (Italian, or German, Russian, Spanish, or Polish, etc. etc.) by Amery, Di Bello, and Cartwright. The illustrations by Cartwright,, full of humor, with a small duck or cat on each page, are obviously designed to appeal to young children; but I am not ashamed to reveal that all my students have gone to page 38 in the Italian volume to find comical illustrations for “arms” (le braccia), “elbows” ( i gomiti) “shoulders” (le spalle) “fingers” (le dita), “thumbs” ( i pollici), “hands” ( le mani), “head” (la testa) and other Italian words. Then, your Grossi and Pozzoli music books will become much more usable. My copy, published in 1983 by Usbourne Publishing Ltd. in London, England, was $12.95 when I bought it new.The ISBN is:
0- 86020-768-4
Combining a humorous illustration with a foreign word, greatly helps memory of that word.

[lyn-boundy]

Hi Alan. i love the Friou book and keep referring back to it for exercises.

You ask what you are supposed to get from these books and I can only really tell you how I use them – I hope ot helps. Firstly, it is handy to have a few fairly simple exercises (scales, for instance) that you can use as a warm-up when you first pick up your harp in the morning. They will just help to get your fingers working and your brain back into harp-playing mode.

Other exercises are there to address particular problems or techniques and should be chosen in conjuction with whatever piece you are learning at the moment. For example, I am currently learning a piece that has some very fast arpeggios and, as well as practising those when they arise in the music, I find it really helpful to spend a little time during each practice session working on the four-finger arpeggios on pages 33-52 in the Friou book. If you are learning with the aid of a tutor then he or she should be able to point you towards which exercises best replicate the technique you are trying to achieve, if you are learning alone you will need to use trial and error to discover which is most appropriate at any given time, though they will all come in handy sooner or later.

The general purpose of exercises is to assist with fluidily in your playing and to accustom your fingers to doing things and reaching positions that don’t come naturally at first- to teach you to play certain techniques speedily and smoothly. They also ensure that, rather than just repeating the passage in a single piece of music, you are able to transfer those skills to any other similar piece rather than only learning that particular passage in one particular key or tempo. Incidentally, they really do work, that is why they are still used by all musicians and they can be very relaxing and quite meditative to do so don’t think of them as forced labour that isn’t particularly enjoyable. Have fun with them and you will find they are one of the most important parts of the learning process.

[lisa-abrew–2]

Hello,
I recently ordered the Maria Grossi method book and would love to have the English Translation. Can someone please provide a link or send me a copy by email?
Thank you,
Lisa Abrew

[shoshanna-godber]

I know this is an old thread, but if anyone out there still has the english translation I would love a copy as well! My email is sdgodber@gmail.com I’m part of the yahoo group, but I couldn’t the file either.
Thanks!
Shoshanna

[carl-swanson]

shoshanna- You might be interested in my new publication from Carl Fischer Music, Bochsa Revisited. It is the first volume(etudes 1 through 20) of Bochsa’s Op. 318, 40 Easy Etudes. It was released about 2 months ago now. It contains 20 original Bochsa Etudes and 20 Etude Variations that I wrote to expand on the original material. There is also 12 pages of text at the beginning explaining effective practice techniques and why etudes are so effective at building technique. There is also a small description of the technical points in each etude.

Best of all is the edition itself. This is the first time in at least 100 years that these etudes have been re-engraved, and I had them engraved over two pages instead of one the way all other editions of these etudes are. Also, all of the pedals are marked in letters that are large enough to read from 10 feet away! And it’s spiral-bound, so it stays open. There is an edition for pedal harp, and another edition for lever harp. If you go to my web site, http://www.swansonharp.com, you can download samples of many of the etudes and etude variations.

[shoshanna-godber]

Thank-you Carl! Those books look like a great resource. I don’t suppose you’ll be making them available digitally at some point? I live in Canada, and between our weak dollar and shipping it’s becoming harder and harder to buy print books from the States.

In case anyone else is still looking, I just found the Grossi translation on the virtual harp circle yahoo group…

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