Heather Downie Harpist

I've just entered my fourth month as a Harp Scotland subscriber and am enjoying it more and more! The content is comprehensive; of course there pieces to learn, but with them come important warmups and exercises that are geared to the technique needed to play to pieces with confidence and to invest in your basic skills. Unique to this course are entertaining "context" videos about the culture, history and geography related to the music, often with a stunning soundtrack of Heather's own recordings. There is really something for everyone here. Heather is a dedicated teacher and has worked hard to provide a course that allows "newbies" to dip gently into new techniques and more experienced harpers to improve technique and learn some very cool arrangements! Not only is she passionate about sharing the culture of her homeland, but clearly hopes to inspire harpists at any level to enjoy playing. Playing along with Heather in the videos, while hearing her good-natured instruction and explanations, and getting a chuckle from her bloopers and anecdotes, has pretty much removed the isolation of learning harp on my own! I highly recommend Harp Scotland. It is excellent value!

The course that Heather has created is really wonderful. This isn’t just a ‘learn some tunes’ course. She refers to the history of the music, the geography, the time it was written. The depth of work Heather has put into this really shows. Her passion, her knowledge and her ease of teaching, makes you feel welcome, able and supported throughout. I love the friendly and informative videos, well explained, carefully planned lessons which Heather excels at. I would recommend this course, not just to learners, but to everyone who wants to delve deeper, with expert hands guiding you through and making the very best of your harping. I am a professional harper and teacher, with a strong belief that we never stop learning. Heather’s course is a fun and stimulating way to keep the brain and the fingers working well!

I really appreciate the thoughtful details that go into Heather's instruction. She offers more than one way to approach the music and provides ways to grow if you're willing to take the initiative. I love hearing about the folklore and the context for the song each week. Our community page is filled with our own anticipation about what happens next to each character in our song. Outstanding program overall!

This course is so fabulous- couldn’t recommend it enough. I love finding out the wider context to Scotland’s folk songs. Perfect for anyone from beginners to advanced!

I enjoy all of Heather's programs. She is an excellent teacher, a clear communicator and she's fun to work with. The videos are engaging and interesting to watch. The tunes are broken down into easy steps at different levels and the platform makes it easy to move between the programs. I usually don't have enough time to completely learn the tunes as I'm just too busy with other pieces I'm arranging and working on. However, for me it's very worth my investment to enjoy the warm ups and watch the history videos. I just do what I can and have fun with it!

This week has been so good. Heather, your tuition, using singing, then playing the right hand to help put the hands together has been so helpful. And Ainsley's singing the tune has been for me really good. Apart from her lovely voice I found I know this tune and have heard it sung a lot over the years, definitely by Karen Mathison and possibly others. The other good thing for my learning style is that the introduction of the left hand really helps consolidate learning the tune. Thanks Heather, you're putting it together nicely for me. And I've found as I've progressed that it's best for me to learn the left hand starting with the beginner and working my way through. I not only learn the tune better but the left hand through the 3 levels is progressive which helps me to adapt as it becomes more complicate. Forgot to say before that the inversion exercise has been very help for me. As the course has progressed I'm picking up good techniques both to improve my fingering and to coordinate and remember the music using both hands. I'm now starting to develop my own techniques based on those being provided to suit my flagging memory. So far it seems to be working. The other thing I'm benefitting from is the amount of content as it forces me to be diligent in playing regularly as well as going into the technique bank. I appreciate how important consistency is in developing my play but not as strict as I should be in maintaining it. The style of this course is ideal for ensuring I keep with it and ringfence time to try to avoid getting too far behind. As the course continues I'm finding I'm having to work much harder to get to grips with the tunes and the exercises. This has been quite challenging particularly in respect of my (historical) lax approach to fingering. The good bit is that it is now forcing me to pay much more attention to fingering as I have to be diligent in placing to get to grips with the advanced level of play. The exercises are equally challenging but again, I am seeing a difference in my focused concentration and the time I need to spend going over them on my own after the course input. So, it's becoming increasingly hard work but I think it will be worth it in the end!!

I've enjoyed playing Heather Jock very much. Love the snaps and the story, and the video of Scotland! I might have gotten the review stars backwards...? I'd give it 5.

Harp Scotland is a brilliant course, with something for everyone. I am a beginner, but Heather includes material with different versions for beginner/intermediate/advanced. This also means that pieces can be revisited at higher levels when you have improved. The course is organised into different sections, with new material added each week. There are different areas you can focus on - whether it's warm up material, technique, working on the tune, learning about the context - so you can plan your practice around this. There is also a Harp Community where you can post up questions or participate in discussion. Heather is excellent at breaking things down into manageable chunks and making learning less daunting. She gets right down to the nitty gritty of technique and teaches by ear (though sheet music is also provided). This is quite challenging for me, with a 'glued to the notes' background, but with Heather's excellent teaching, I am definitely improving. One aspect of the course I really enjoy is learning more about the context of the tunes - whether it's Puirt a Beul, Scottish scenery, learning about modes, tales of a local rascal, Scottish music collections or Heather's Mum's recipe for tablet - there is always something which adds to the interest of the piece. Heather is a wonderful teacher and works hard to make the course useful and enjoyable to all. She seeks feedback and will change a way of doing things if her students prefer. She also hosts regular Zoom sessions with participants to discuss any questions that arise. Heather has a very personal approach, her dogs also occasionally join in the fun. and you feel you have a friend to support you through your harp learning. It is a fantastic course, and I would highly recommend it to anyone (even if you don't play the harp - try it and you will want to)!