Harpejji solo 2 - The harpejji and me

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(This news is part of the Harpejji solo project)

I’ve been interested in two-handed tapping for quite some years now, but my first experiments with the Chapman Stick and then different sorts of tapping guitar didn’t work well. Not coming from the guitar, I had many difficulties finding an ergonomic body posture and I found the geometry of the fretboard very difficult to master. I was getting more and more frustrated because I did not really progress when I discovered the harpejji, which seemed like the perfect solution to these problems.

I was lucky enough to be able to try one not far from where I live (in 2013 this was an incredible luck) and by the end of 2013 I had my own harpejji. I experimented a little bit with the instrument, even in gigs, but for various personal reasons, it’s only in 2019 that I really started to develop my harpejji technique.

As a melodist, I was especially interested in developing accompaniment. In particular the Paseador project allowed me to experiment with diverse comping techniques. Part of these techniques I described in a series of blog posts so that my experience could benefit other players.

Along the way, I found that I needed a way to describe scale and chord shapes and fingerings so I developed a notation inspired by guitar tablatures. As I was spending a lot of time drawing these tablatures, I asked the HE-Arc Ingénierie, the Technical University of my home town, if one of their students could help me develop an editor. Soon the student Nicolas Laoun was developing a great open-source editor that made things much easier. As a matter of fact, he did such a good job that Marcodi (the manufacturer of the Harpejji) immediately wanted to include it on their website and this notation is slowly getting the de-facto standard for harpejji tablatures.

So this is where I stand now: a handful of years practising harpejji comping, and the desire to develop a solo repertoire. Lately I applied for a research grant awarded by the Service de la culture de la Ville de Neuchâtel and was lucky enough to get some support. So I’ll be able to dedicate a little bit more time in the upcoming months to my harpejji solo playing. Of course I’ll be documenting this research here, so… stay tuned!