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Cheyenne Brown gained an Honours BA in Scottish Harp at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, where she had a full scholarship for four years of Scottish harp study. She then went on to get a masters in Scottish Ethnology from the University of Edinburgh where she researched never-before studied issues involving the construction of the Scottish harp. As one of Scotland’s top Scottish harp exponents, she maintains a busy weekly teaching timetable as well as traveling abroad to promote Scottish music. She has taught in America’s Ohio Scottish Arts School, Harper’s Ferry Gathering, and Common Ground on the Hill; Canada’s Gaelic College in Cape Breton, and regularly in Germany’s Dudelsack Akadamie, as well as local Scottish events such as the Edinburgh International Harp Festival, and workshops across the country. She was instrumental in starting up regular harp workshops in Glasgow through the Clarsach Society.

Cheyenne teaches in a traditional style by ear. Emphasis is placed on developing muscle memory and learning phrases by analyzing the shapes and patterns of the hand positions and melodic phrasing while also having fun! Music is always provided at the end as a reference but not used during the lesson unless specifically requested from the student. Students are welcome to bring along a recording device to help remember the tunes, especially if they don’t read music. For beginning harp pupils, sightreading is gradually introduced as well as learning by ear to develop a well-rounded musician. Tunes from Celtic and pan-Celtic areas are primarily used, including airs, laments, jigs, reels, hornpipes, marches and strathspeys. For more advanced students, emphasis is placed on learning the differences between different types of tunes and playing them accurately within the tradition. For anyone interested in pursing graded levels, there are now Scottish Harp Graded Exams available for levels 1-5 and Cheyenne is happy to progress students through these grades. In regular lessons, she also uses much of her own tunes and teaching material, supplemented by arrangements by other Scottish and Irish harpists. In workshop settings, she uses her own arrangements which are often suitable for ensemble playing and multi-levels.