Harpejji solo 4 - Easy harpejji sight-reading

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(This news is part of the Harpejji solo project)

Finding easy sheet music for practicing sight-reading on the harpejji is not as easy a task as one would expect. Most pedagogic material for beginners on the keyboard rely on techniques quite specific to the keyboard. Fingers resting on C-D-E-F-G in both hands, use of the pedal… all things that don’t transfer very well on the harpejji and make these easy pieces much less easy.

Lately I stumbled upon this set of pieces by Franck Gasseling that I find very nice. Most of them transpose relatively easily to the harpejji; the first ones are very easy but there is a steady progression to less easy ones; and most importantly, they sound more like music than like exercises. Note that there are also recordings of most of them, so if you need to hear them first that’s also possible. Thank you Franck Gasseling for this nice work (although I’m pretty sure you didn’t really target the harpejji when writing these pieces!)

Want more? Along the years, I’ve also been toying with

• pedagogical pieces from the baroque era like Michel Corette’s Les amusements du Parnasse. The subtitle alone should convince you to try them: “Méthode courte et facile pour apprendre à toucher le Clavecin avec les plus jolis airs à la mode.”
• Alec Rowley’s Selected progressive Studies
• The Five miniatures preludes & fugues by the same Alec Rowley are a little bit more challenging but sound very nice too.