August and Angst

What a great topic it might be, for this August, to tackle performance anxiety.  I will be playing in a concert in mid-September where it would be appropriate for me to at least play one round of several tunes solo, starting them........ the group I play with was invited to play in the bandshell at the Friday Farmer's Market and it's a 2 1/2 hour gig basically so there will be a lot of time to fill and variety is important.

Week One
I'm briefly on the road visiting family, but I will watch the video Pamela posted and get serious about all this when I get home.  I did bring my harp with me and I have played a bit, never as much as I would like, but enough to keep the fingers going.

Probably the most exciting harp news I have is that for my birthday I was given one of those fabulous carts by my loving husband - he even found it for about half the price at an on-line vendor.  One reason I think I decided to bring the harp with me on this trip was really just the excuse to use the new cart!   But I also find playing in unfamiliar places helps with the above problems.  Once I have played a tune (successfully or close to it) in front of people, that tune seems to start to settle in and I can stay unflapped and confident.

Weeks Two and Three
Not sure what my excuse is for being so lax here lately - it's that time of year, I guess, and I have been gadding about or loaded up with family and guests.  However, I have been steadily playing the harp because we do have a big gig (we being my little irish music posse in VT) on September 20 - and I will be playing four tunes on the harp and accompanying some hornpipes..... So besides those I have a ton of tunes to work on on the concertina, many of which I basically have to learn......Let me see, I will be playing Joe Bane's (a slow reel) and The Piper's Picnic and Leslie's (Oscar and Malvina) and Fanny Power..... accompanying..... I can't remember right now, three hornpipes,  I think one of them is Mrs. Crotty's.....! I've kind of worked out the accompaniment, but I haven't had someone to play the tune while I play what I've worked out.  Pam and Andee you are lucky in that you have a live-in person who can do that!

Otherwise I've been trying to keep various tunes alive, specifically The Sweetheart Reel, Maghera Mountain, a couple of Airs that Grainne taught - names temporarily unavailable.....