Goodbye to an interesting month
Thank you to everyone who has posted and shared photos this month. I am housebound for a bit as I wait for my new knee to grow together, and reading your blog entries has been wonderful! Especially when you mention songs you know/knew/would like to learn. Because of the way our old house is built, I haven't been able to get myself through a tiny door into the 'harp' room, but sooner or later I'll stop napping each afternoon - who knew surgery would take so much out of me??? - and set down and play just for the joy of it.

Earlier this month, I went to the third-of-five long weekends to prepare to be certified as a therapeutic musician, and it was wonderful. I have become friends with a flutist who's on a teaching sabbatical this year, and during breaks in class we play all kinds of off-the-cuff duets. I love the challenge of making up harmonies and counter-melodies on the fly, and I think it's one of those "use it or lose it" skills; mine could certainly use some polishing! It was extremely gratifying to read, in my evaluation, that the head of the program has moved me from the 'intermediate' to 'intermediate/advanced' category of musician. Which certainly won't hold if I don't put this tablet down right now! So thank you all again for keeping me awake and keeping me inspired! Happy New Year!!!!

December? Already?

SNOWSTORM #1

SNOWSTORM #2

Snowstorm One was pretty and about eight inches.  Snowstorm Two was heavy snow, truly wet cement, and almost a foot and a half before it was done with us.  A nightmare.   We lost a lot of trees and I spent hours outside knocking snow off of trees near the house.  Knox spent two and a half days out on his big tractor moving snow around with the bucket.  Of course, he grumbled but was more or less in guy heaven.

Meanwhile, since I last posted, class ended.  We had a post-class concert and with a couple of others I played the slow Joe Bane's reel I got off of Kate MacNamara's album "Are You the Concertina Player" on the harp and that went really well.  Also our Among Friends bi-annual concert was in early December and I played Marbhna Luimni which was taught to us by Maeve Gilchrist at the Harper's Escape.  I am so madly in love with that tune!   I also played Captain O'Kane with Rakes of Clonmel  (as Kathy taught it - I know there are other versions) with a couple of friends (flute, fiddle)  I managed to get one person to learn a new Carolan tune. Tried to get her to learn two, but it is an uphill battle with these non-harpers!  It was Laoise Kelly's version of "All Alive" which I got from her years ago at East Durham.  It's really a nice tune. Weird key.  

I've played at the hospital, down to two visits a month--really just because of winter and the busy disease.  Once the snow falls like this I get less and less inclined to leave home and more inclined to stay put.  I am still editing my book and will be doing so for at least another couple of months, I think.  It's taking forever, but that is the way writing is.

For some INSANE reason I feel the need to 'recover' "Flying to the Fleadh" and also to work on the other Patrick Davey tune, "The Rectory Reel".  Why?  I don't know, perhaps to prove to myself I can.  I also wish to revive "Soft Mild Morning" and fifty other tunes.  But for the meanwhile no playing at all as I have one of those skin splits on my thumb-- too much shoveling and carrying on out in the snow.  

Nothing much coming up in my music life.  Maybe I need to stir up some trouble?

Keep on posting!

Mid- December Panic!

Well, it is the oddest late fall I can ever remember.  Roller coaster temps.  Ice on top of snow, on top of mud on top of ice ...you get my drift!  behind on holiday preparations in every facet of my life.  A choir who is just now been introduced to Christmas Eve service music.  Last minute harp exchanges for Celtic Evensong, due to the Fisher busting an A string right in the middle of the harp 20 minutes before I was planning to load up the van and head for church.  Thank goodness my Kortier workhorse with the small voice  (aka "Patrick") was standing by after being pretty much neglected the past year and a half- barely needed tuning!  And I stuck the mic down inside as usual for that space, and he sounded great.  The tension on that bird's eye maple is harder. so not the same feel as his little sister, "Colleen"- not so many ornaments- but I really felt good with his size.  The Fisher is a lot smaller and lighter, tho only 2 strings less than the Kortier.  Which makes life easier.  And she has a brighter tone, and much bigger voice.  But I was reminded about the things I really love about the Kortier.  So, I guess I am not ever selling him again!  (Sold and then repurchased him from a student after she gave up harping..)  Unless I can find another harp that does what he does, only with a voice to match the size!

Tonight I am playing at our local library.  They have had a Festival of Trees display for the past  few years, and tonight they are inviting folks in after hours to stroll thru the trees while hearing lovely music.  I was first told it was "background" music, which is fine- but then all the press releases billed me as a performer and the hour as a performance!  Yikes!  Wrong time of year to start prepping for an hour long PERFORMANCE!  So, we shall see- that is a lot of music, and they have now assured me there will just be a few chairs, and people will be encouraged to wander about and chat...and I am going with Christmas music printed!  So it will be a mix of stuff I have nailed for memory, and pot luck from the books!

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and Wonderful New Year!  Stay safe!  Stay warm!

love, Sharon

December in Kilfenora and surrounding area!

Another gig!
I just got another gig playing at an awards ceremony this Thursday!  The awards are from the Burrenbeo conservation trust!

Also I have learned a new tune (all in one day!)--The Kilfenora Jig (sometimes called The Clare Jig).  In honor of my new home.  I am also going to play it at the gig along with anything from this area, like The Cliffs of Moher, The Mist Covered Mountain, and all the Junior Crehan tunes I can get up to performance ready standards.



That's me playing during the awards ceremony.  The Boghill Centre won three awards!  And I gave out a few business cards to people who said, "I do a lot of weddings" including a couple hotel owners and the DJ (who is very famous, so I am told)!

Kifenora Cathedral Christmas Choir and Miscellany Concert

My little performance in the cathedral was a success.  I was only a little bit nervous and there was enough light to see my strings, bonus!

I got several nice compliments, but the best one of all was a woman who said, "You really played from the heart; I could feel it.  And that's really rare."


And another gig!
Now I have a third gig booked!  I will be playing background music as a prelude to a trad female trio on New Year's Eve!  I play for about an hour at a local pub, Kilshanny House, and this time I get paid!  Not loads, but it's a step in the right direction!  And the bonus is I know what I'm doing on NYE!

A lot of practicing!
I've been practicing loads for my NYE gig!  I'm feeling really confident!  I've decided (maybe even had a major shift in my thinking / being) that life is too short not to be fabulous!  Life is too short to be scared!

I really need to be on form on NYE because this is the real deal ladies!  I am in IRELAND playing Irish harp, opening up for a trio who are high profile!  It isn't three ladies, but two ladies and one guy.  It's led by Norin Lynch who has a CD out.  She is a wonderful singer.  The flute player is a young lady who I think is called Clara and the third is a fiddler / guitarist called Quentin.  Both Quentin and Norin are in Eoin O' Neil's band The Ceili Bandits.  The Ceili Bandits also have a CD out and Eoin does a trad program called The West Wind on Clare FM.  He is a local celebrity and plays bouzouki and fiddle!

So you see, this *could* lead to some gigs and to be on the same bill as these people is a bit daunting but I'm taking the bull (Irish cow??) by the horns and going for it, because LIFE IS TOO SHORT NOT TO!

November

Hello everyone!  I am still here, and I didn't want all of November to go by without me posting.  I am healing and finding time to play as well.  One exciting thing is I've been asked to play a piece at the Christmas concert which will take place in Kilfenora Cathedral, a 1000 year old church!  A dream come true!

I decided on my piece.  I will play Black is the Colour (I do it as an air) / The Blackbird.  Because I will only have three minutes, I had to pare things down, so I'll do the air twice through and The Blackbird only once through (AA BB).

Another gig!
I just got another gig playing at an awards ceremony this Thursday!  The awards are from the Burrenbeo conservation trust!

Also I have learned a new tune (all in one day!)--The Kilfenora Jig (sometimes called The Clare Jig).  In honor of my new home.  I am also going to play it at the gig along with anything from this area, like The Cliffs of Moher, The Mist Covered Mountain, and all the Junior Crehan tunes I can get up to performance ready standards.

November

Played at our local coffeehouse at the beginning of the month; Pachelbel, Fanny Power, Kean O'Hara 3/George Brabazon and a weird combo of Scarborough Fair/Lark on the Strand. The audience was so appreciative, but little mistakes have made me resolve to buy some kind of pole lighting. Does anyone else do this? Not really seeing the strings is so frustrating!!!! Playing at a different coffeehouse this Friday, where they have sideways, adjustable lighting. I have to remember what they've got so I can get one, too....Carpal tunnel surgery in a few weeks, and then knee replacement in December. Getting older is not for sissies! But 4-6 weeks off from work - think of the practicing I can get in! I am loving the cold, less-humid weather that lets me not tune EVERY SECOND. The mister and I are writing our first instrumental together, a 6/8 lullaby with jazzy chords. Fun seeing a less-nervous Sharon on stage, hoping she'll keep it up! That's all for now, folks. Happy harping.

November- getting old fast and giving thanks!

Greetings!  This is my birthday month, though I can hardly believe I have already reached this advanced age, when I still have so much to learn and do!!  And I love that Thanksgiving is part of MY month, as I am so grateful for so much, including the inspiration of you all, and fellow musicians in general!  It is feeling like snow, though I do not expect any today, and I am loving the rust and smoke of the surrounding countryside and woods, as there are still bright patches that surprise the eye and gladden the heart!  Hurray for Autumn!!

I was particularly inspired by Pam and Lucy's posts, describing Maeve (whom I have never heard or seen) and I decided to go onstage at the local Coffee House last Saturday with a smile on my face and a bounce in my knees, and decision in my fingertips!  And, though I cannot say for sure there was a noticeable difference in my performance from the audience point of view,  I did feel immensely more confident and had a great deal more fun!  and it is definitely easier to play with the lights dimmed a bit, so as not to wash out the string colors as much, but I felt I was not focusing so much on watching the strings as I was really trying to focus on the tune in my head- minus the usual constant chatter and worry about what came next, leaving more to muscle memory. and a decision to drop the left hand if I started to panic, ready to pick it up down the road when ready!  I had decided to practice my 3 pieces a bit differently, starting at different places, and at different speeds, mixing up tempo and rhythms to see if I could still go forward with the melody line despite it all.  Challenged the gray cells a bit.  And had also decided that pausing, and slowing down if things started running away from me, was not a sign of defeat!  I had once read an account of a disparaging remark made about a musician playing for a dance, and how badly the dance steps can be tripped up with bad rhythm, or by playing too slowly.  However, since I am not playing for dancers, that should not matter, right?!  Why let that complaint mess ME up when I am onstage??!!  So, thank you ladies- your comments were taken to heart, and I tried to be the opposite of grim.  It must have worked at least a little, because my good friend, Don, commented on how relaxed and how much fun I seemed to be having up there.  I also decided NOT to voice any disclaimers this time around...what I was to give is what the audience was to get- no excuses. At my first and only competition, at Loon Mt, the judge told me not to tell the audience I was nervous or even allude to the possibility of goofing up- no matter how funny I tried to make it.  For some reason, I thought it was a way to bond with the audience and make them more sympathetic perhaps?  So, I kept it up, as part of my schtick.  Now, after this weekend, I see that while my audience may have appreciated my self deprecating humor, my own brain was becoming more convinced that messing up was an expected outcome, and I would start the inner dialogue of failure in my head!  Which explains why- at least to me- I actually would become MORE nervous with each song, instead of more relaxed!    So- new mental habits are being worked upon!!

What did I play?  Three Swedish dances, learned from Sue Richards in Lubec.  Josephine's Waltz, another waltz I am spacing out on (Jarna's Valsen?) and Var Det Du- all 3 waltzes.  I had a Shottis in my back pocket if I needed it, but I knew the 3 waltzes would go ok, and my daughter joined in on the flute for the last one, as a duet.   So, I have also decided the DIY is an important thing to pursue, and have another waltz I pulled up on YouTube- also Swedish- that I have begun to try to learn.  It has that bizarre tuning so many Scandanavian tunes seem to have, starting out with B flats and f sharps!  The lever changes will be interesting!  May wish I had taken up the fiddle after all!  I am definitely heavily in Hall of the Mountain King mode, as the winter approaches!  Loving the light and dark contrasts in these tunes, and the surprise twists the melody takes, after being so immersed in the Celtic genre, which is a little more predictable perhaps...not that I don't still love those Celtic tunes!!!

Well- thank you all again for the inspiration you provide!  I think we should arrange to meet in some beautiful place and spend 3 or 4 days together just playing, sharing and drinking buckets of tea!  Would love to meet you all face to face, and have a group hug!  Many group hugs!!  Maybe someday!  Hope you are all keeping well, and finding lots of reasons to be grateful despite the curves life throws at us, and making lovely music- for yourselves as well as others!  Take care- Sharon

October This 'n That

The month has almost come and gone! Are you, like me, wondering how we got to almost-snow season already? We're working hard at not turning on the heat yet, but I know the day is coming. I am lucky enough to have the house to myself this morning, so I have the time to make a nice cup of coffee with a big chug of chocolate syrup and post about lots of stuff.....like The Highland Games, carpal tunnel surgery, new music and MHTP Thereutic Harping!

The Highland Games
We have wonderful Highland Games in New Hampshire at Loon Mountain. We are late to this party, and only started going 2years ago, but goodness we love everything about it! This year I took a personal day off from school and we spent the good part of a day sitting in the sun watching the sheep dog trials. Throughout the weekend people are jurying their bagpipes, so the sound is everywhere!!! I like it enough to consider taking lessons, but the only teacher in our area lives here just part-time....and they're so hard to learn, right? There are harp workshops and competitions throughout the weekend. Maeve Gilchrist was the pro 3 years ago, but for the past 2 years it's been Kim Robertson, my idol. (Though sometimes I do get tired of her big open 9th and 10th chords...) I didn't. Attend any workshops this year, but went to the New England Open Competition and of course Kim's concert. Next year I'm going to enter, and I've already selected two out of the three songs I'll need. You get on-site parking if you're a competitor, which is a great incentive! But we really go to the games to hear Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas on fiddle & cello. This year I think we saw them 3 times, including a set where Kim R sat in. The food! The wonderful people from all over our country! The great-looking men in kilts! It was a wonderful long weekend.

Carpal Tunnel Surgery
My doctor does this in a clinic, which makes it a bigger deal than it is. I think I was out for maybe 10 minutes, and went to work the next day with a band-aid over my 6 stitches. It is great to finally sleep through the night, but because I waited so many years to take care of it, I might never get full feeling back in my fingers. Argh, the numb tingling is annoying, but thankfully it doesn't really distract me from playing. Maybe in mid-November I'll get the other hand done.

New music
I've worked up my own arrangement of a fiddle tune, Mrs. Jamison's Favorite, song #1 for the games next year. I am also determined to learn Kim Robertson's The Selkie, which is a challenge for me because I have almost no technique -yet!- playing open octaves. I have also been playing through her Celtic Christmas book. Sharon, do you have this? There are 2 chants in it that would be great for your Sunday afternoon services. I try to spend an hour sight reading once a week, though that doesn't always happen. If I can learn The Selkie by January, I'm going to reward myself by ordering Janet Witman's new arrangement of Moondance. I have no idea how to do those jazzy lever swoops, but by God I want to learn! We - my husband and I - are playing out twice this month, at local coffeehouses, same old songs with maybe the addition of Pachelbel's Canon.

MHTP Weekend
In early October I went to the second of five long weekends training to play at bedsides in hospitals, nursing and private homes and hospices. So much to learn, and a little frustrating: all the other instrumentalists have single-note instruments, and because a lot of healing music is simple, I'm playing lots of very slow, one-note phrases. But such an interesting thing happened - the session leader did not bring her own harp and used mine. Other than the afternoon that I bought it 4 years ago, I had never sat across a room and heard how deep, expressive and resonant it is!! Maybe 15 minutes of listening has changed the way I play. Kim R said she was planning to live 10 years past the normal age because playing the harp is so spiritual. Haha, I feel this way about my own harp now!

By gosh, the longest post ever. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend and a happy Halloween. And Andi, that photo with the cat right in front of the lens is priceless!!!!

October Odyssey

Leaving home on the Friday, two weekends ago, I drove down to New Brunswick to attend The Harper's Escape.  I think my 12th year?   Different this time because Grainne, having just given birth to #2, Liam, was not there, nor Billy  (I still brought my bottle of Balvenie which I began bringing for him mainly).  Maeve Gilchrist taught the group I was in and Eileen Gannon was also there.  So,  different but very very good.   I will play The Factory Girl and Farewell to Limerick, but .... I don't know about the jig, not really my thing, but you never know.  Simply watching Maeve play is a revelation.  I very much like the jig the other class learned... Walsh's, I think,it is called, a hornpipe, so I will be learning that, I expect

In case you haven't seen it here is this you-tube offering that a local cable station posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Cbz0abebE&feature=youtu.be

Watch Maeve especially!  I think it is hilarious that they devoted even five seconds to a concertina.  And I was appalled to see how grim I look when I play and also that sometimes my mouth is open!  I must work on that . .  My suspicion is that sometimes when I think I am smiling all I have actually succeeded in doing is to neutralize my expression so that while it is not grim, neither is it exactly happy-looking either. Drat. That is probably my biggest takeaway from HE this year.  More on that further down however....

As is more often the case, my favorite time is not the classes and workshops but  hanging about playing and talking harp shop (and other stuff).  This year folks were NOT shy about the Balvenie,  I'm happy to say, which was great, because the idea is to lower the anxiety level and have fun when we do FINALLY get to just play.  Sunday evening, our extra night, was the best although we were all in the 'drop' stage of 'harp til you drop'.  If I ever organize anything it would be collegial, no instructors, for people at this "level" that we, the folks that read or write in this blog*, are all at, presumably.   Is it all right to say that while one is never done learning and benefitting from the teaching and example of marvelous players, DIY, at this stage, is the most important thing to go for?

*To new readers:  If you want to be a writing participant, just let me know down below and I'll get you started! 

OK, so back to the musical odyssey.  I spent most of the week editing a manuscript while staying at a B&B that inspired my thoughts of a harp gathering, also visiting with my daughter now at college in Bronxville, just outside of NYC (we went into the Met, etcetera) and THEN I went up to the Northeast Tionol in East Durham where my sister (fiddle) and I always share a room and play play play - I also usually meet up with Eileen McIntyre and that great New Jersey crowd of hers and we play every tune we know and it is so much fun!  I also play the concertina quite a lot at the sessions, and because of the class I take with Benedict Koehler and Hilarie Farrington here in VT, my repertoire is improving. For reasons I cannot comprehend, the session group always stop playing tunes I know when I finally get settled and ready to play.  When I leave they start up again.   Be that as it may.... I have really been obsessing with steadiness, consistency and rhythm issues on the concertina like really trying to get my whole body involved and moving when I play.  What I need to work on with BOTH instruments:  play them like I really mean it.   And that includes being comfortable playing an air and filling the air with silences..... I'm probably the quietest concertina player in existence as it now stands.  The harp I do already play with more steadiness and conviction and I have to say I think it is because of my stint in Kathy's Harp Orchestra.   

At the Tionol I learned a jig  - "Bubbling Wine" by Paddy O'Brien in a class about the composer given by (fiddler Matt Mancuso) that I might try out on the harp.  A very cool tune indeed. 

One piece of news is that next year the Harper's Escape and the Tionol are on the same weekend.  It is a special time with my sister, so that does not bode well for the HE.    

Further, I'd like to apologize to everyone for my long absence.  RL has been very compelling. I work as a writer and that has been absorbing all my energy, which is good for me, but bad for music.  This is also the time of year when I have the six-week class with Benedict and Hilarie..... two more to go!  This weekend my local posse, The Flies in the Porter, has a gig at the Harvest Festival at the big monitor bar in Richmond owned by the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. In September we played two farmer's markets, one in Richmond and the other in Stowe in September.   The Stowe gig was five hours and we lucked out with an incredible day, just perfect.  It's one of the 'bigger' markets and there were tons of out-of-staters there.  We felt very.... picturesque.   I played the harp and the concertina both. 

I hope this makes up a little for my long absence.  There's snow now on our local mountain.  Cheers!

Past Mid-October and the Weather is Blowing in From the Atlantic

Hello ladies, I have made it safe and sound back to Ireland.  Wounds that were just starting to heal were ripped open (there are a lot of memories here of many happy times with Mike) and I spent the first couple days attending to that and trying to get settled in.

Time to put myself on some kind of a schedule (around working and socializing, which are both very important to my healing right now).  I set up and tuned up my harp in the small octagon hall and this morning before anyone was awake and before the sun was even up (7:00, not as early as it sounds!) I practiced for an hour.  Next time I will practice fiddle stuff as well.

I am continuing to practice both harp and fiddle.  Have moved out of the small octagon hall into the big one for now--but it may be too cold in there, I will see.

Making new friends, even going to the pub a couple times so far to hear the local musicians play in the sessions.  I may work my fiddling back up to participating in the session again. I am toying with the idea of doing a little concert for the Boghill community.  Who knows, maybe I'll find someone to play with once in a while.

Where, Oh Where has my Summer Gone????

The weather is spectacular, the colors are peaking early with all the drama of a Verdi Opera, I know I had summer, but is it already gone??  Unfair!  August did contain a wonderful week back up at Summerkeys in Lubec,Maine, where I think I had the best time yet.  The class of harpers were great fun, and a variety of abilities, and Sue Richards was her usual, incredible, warm and encouraging, inspiring taskmaster!  I love the tone she gets from her harps- great touch- light, yet confident, and that is what I am aiming for!  For myself, I was soaking up some more Scandanavian tunes.  Always have a surprise- little odd sounds or turns you don't expect.  Very haunting, often, as well.

The concert Sue gave with her band mate Carolyn Surrick (on the viola da gamba )was amazing, again.  They played a version of Bonnie at Morn that just ripped my heart out!  So, I am learning that, too.  Can't believe I never heard it before...and the words, when I tracked them down, aren't particularly special, but that tune....  And I found out I have been playing The Cliffs of Moher as this lovely, and dramatic slow air- only to play it for Sue and find her looking at me like I had sprouted an extra nose on my face!  It is a JIG- fancy that!!  So, I am now trying to speed that baby up and give it a bit of a kick!  Well, I had never actually heard that played either, so how was I to know?  Hey, if it sounds good, and I like it, why not?!  Of course, I realize I could be in big trouble if I tried to pull that off with a more knowledgeable audience!  But, I do think the beauty of folk music is it's ability to morph and change, depending on whose hands are on it at the moment.  Right? 

Actually got the husband away to the island of Nantucket for a few days in the middle of this month.  First time in 6 years!  He was overdue for a vacation.  I had nicely sprained my ankle the Tuesday before we left, so I was hobbling a bit, but biking was fine.  The weather was perfect, out there, and we extended our summer a bit.  My dream is to be a good enough musician to rent a place out there for months and play enough gigs to pay for the rental!  Dream on!!  Then you all could come visit and we could do duets and trios and so on!  Sound like fun???

Celtic Evensong is starting up at church in a week, and I need to get a gig list put together for that.  May have a new flute player to help me out, so will be aiming for sweet and simple...pretty much my usual fare!  Andee- you are in my thoughts and prayers as you start a new Irish adventure and mend a broken heart.  Pamela- you are also in my thoughts and prayers for healing energy as you face surgery and perhaps rehab.  You I hope to see soon!!

Have a lovely end of September, ladies!

Andee's September

Well, I got the harp out of the case and tuned up.  I have to be happy with that considering the circumstances.  August was tough, but yesterday I seemed to have turned a corner as I was able to get through the day without going into floods of tears.

I had a gig scheduled for last week which I cancelled.  I have two more scheduled for the month which I am still not sure if I will be able to do or not.

I am due to go to Ireland around 16th of October.  Things are still surreal to me, nothing feels 'right'.  If I dwell on this, I will get too upset and I am tired of crying.  I want to be happy again.

Here we are now almost at the end of September.  It was a difficult month for me to say the least.  For anyone who has been through a similar situation, or even a death of a dear dear loved one, you  will know that the grief and the pain comes in waves, ebbs and flows.  The healing is not linear.

For me, at first the waves were tsunamis.  I am finally (hopefully) at the place now where the waves are just big waves and maybe in the future they will be small waves.

I am starting to think about the possibilities in Ireland.  I am even contemplating attending Janet Harbison's Harp College.  Maybe.  It is expensive.  But I have some savings.  You can go for a weekend, a week, a month, or three months with the possibility of staying and doing an internship.  Why not?

/http://www.irishharpcentre.com/

Click on courses and you will see.  I am thinking along the lines of a one month or three month course!!

Let's Just Say September....

......because I probably didn't post in August. Such a busy month for all of us, I think. I spent a week in London visiting my daughter/SIL, and had an 'interesting' airbnb experience that turned out to have a happy ending. I reached the end-of-the-road for my poor, downtrodden knee, and went back to school as well. Thank goodness for Labor Day weekend, to help me catch my breath!

The biggest thing that happened, harp-wise, during August, was that I took the first of 5 weekend-long workshops (technically they're 'modules') to become a beside harpist for hospital and hospice patients. The program I am enrolled in, MHTP, was highly recommended by a person I ate dinner with last year at Somerset - Janet Whitman! I am definitely NOT being a name dropper here; I was flabbergasted when she approached me in the cafe line and asked if I'd like to share a table. Haha, we are FB friends, and she is the person who got Catriona McKay to send me the Swan Lk 243 sheet music, but she didn't know me from Noah. I play quite a few of her arrangements - Carolan's Concerto and Wild Mountain Thyme to name just 2 - and I was completely awestruck until I saw how down-to-earth she is. I had decided not to sign up for the MHTP program last year because I spent my summer $ at Somerset, and they weren't offering all the modules in our closest city, Concord. I think she was just beginning MHTP herself, and she had nothing but good things to say. There are not many beginning students with me, maybe 7. There is a lot of serious reading involved about the science of music and the stages of death, etc. You need to develop good improv skills and have a variety of types of music ready for all types of patients. But it was REALLY interesting, and I met some wonderful musicians who I would never have played with, Indian flute and flute being my favorites. After my harp tipped over at Somerset last summer - CRACK! - I am now the proud owner of the Cadillac of harp carts, so at least moving in and out of Concord Hospital both days was a breeze. The woman who runs the arts program at the hospital is a wonderful ally, and I am so looking foward to the day when I can play at the hospital on a regular basis. Now, if just one of you would volunteer to pay off the mortgage on our house....

I never did learn every tune of Grainne's first book; I don't like The Blackthorne Stick arrangement that I started with, and then just started looking for beatless music and also music I can play at 50-70 beats-per-minute for MHTP, and my idea of learning all GH's songs turned out to be a total wash. I CAN finally play O'Farrell's Welcome to Limerick, and was planning on playing it our October coffeehouse until I gave up my spot to one of my favorite keyboard players/singers. I would like to learn a fine versio of The Butterfly, and wondered if any of you have arrangements you recommend??

That's it from here in the sticks. Looking forward to everyone else's September posts, especially Andee, as I worry about how she's getting on......

Back from Clare and a complete life shake-up

Hello ladies.  Ireland was fantastic, I learned a few new tunes and played in more sessions this year than I did last year (fiddle).  There was another harpist there this year and we chatted and swapped tunes and now I'm thinking of getting a harp teacher up the the Boghill Centre for next year.  It might be worth it if there are going to be two of us again!

The life shake-up is that I found out that my husband wants a divorce.  I am doing OK, but am determined not to let this set me back (my first divorce set back my harping by a couple of years, Lucy will remember).

Yes I am heartbroken, betrayed, devastated, but I must believe that there is a opportunity around the corner.  And there is.  It looks like I'll be moving to Ireland for a year or so.  This is going to be an adventure, one I must have on my own.

There and Back Again: Somerset 2014

Of course my view of Somerset is warped (not in a bad way, mind you) by working behind the tables, but people seemed contented and good-natured about the few things that went wrong, which had to do more with the physical environment of the hotel than the festival itself.   The pre-workshops, liturgical and historical were successes and I heard more than once from people who didn't get to attend their first choice workshop that their second choice was terrific.  Kathy knocks herself out trying to respond to comments and criticisms and lies awake nights trying to think up anything she can to make the festival work smoothly and it shows.

Unusually for me I attended no classes (yes, lazy - but also overwhelmed by all the tunes I haven't learned - feel the same way about all the books I haven't read) so I made that choice which was .... a bit odd, frankly.  I did show up at the Carolan Marathon which was not as well attended as sometimes and we certainly didn't even come close to breaking any records and didn't come close to exhausting my Carolan repertoire, but that's the breaks.  Very amusing time playing for the ceili  - five concertinas!  And afterwards some more music in the redone atrium.   I should add the concerts were spectacular and.... if you didn't get to sit inside the hinterlands weren't bad and you had the entertainment of Miss Hambly-Jackson dancing around and blowing bubbles along with the music.

As it was also my birthday on the 31st everyone was very friendly about that which was nice as was receiving what felt like a multitude of splendid gifts and greetings!

It was also delightful that everyone was extremely sensible about their harps and parking them responsibly etcetera.  A literal load off my mind.  It does take up a lot of space, but it works.  And reconciles me to the Hilton somewhat.  

The truth is I don't know what to do about all the music I haven't learned that I could learn - that I want to learn - it's making it very hard for me to want to go to any workshops where someone might try to teach me a tune!  I know I don't have to, but I am nothing if not conscientious so it is difficult.  I am in a space right now where less is more so any traveling I do to music venues will be for one purpose only! (Read on!)

The most lovely thing for me about Somerset is rooming with Laura E. and hanging about with Kathy and Dennis and Debbie and Corinne and Kim and Laurie N and Emily G. and.. and.. and if I've left your name out forgive me!  It's always wonderful seeing so many people who love the harp together.

I'll be back with the photo Kathy took as I was leaving the festival on Monday morning.

Today I am fighting off a cold and we've had a huge thunderstorm.  Glad I didn't have to drive home in it.

2 wise guys pretending they know what they're doing! And my eyes are practically closed, arghhh!

Harping in the July heat (drip, drip....)

Our humidifier is working overtime this week. We're hoping for rain tonight to break the spell, but meanwhile everything is just...sticky! We have a wedding to play next week, and I finally broke down and ordered a pair of light wristies to both help me slide and to save the finish on my harp. I can hear my old teacher telling me to raise my arms and not rest on the side of the harp. But sometimes, up in those high octaves, I get lazy, especially if the tune is up there for a while. Is anyone else a leaner, or am I the only lazy harpist here??

We (my husband on guitar) played a coffeehouse at the end of June. We don't play out that often, so it always re-surprises me how intrigued everyone gets over seeing a harp! We've been getting ready for the wedding at the same time, so, when asked for an encore, we had nothing ready and ended up playing Fanny Poer, which I love, but we haven't made a great arrangement of yet. We had a hard time getting out of there because so many people wanted to try the harp. I hope The Harp Connection is ready for all the people I recommend to them! We've played twice at our local Farmers' Market, where the vendors clap and laugh at each and every number and little girls dance all around us. AND the vendors give us free stuff! I got the most AMAZING Irish soda bread, and I wish you were all here to help me finish it, because that thing is huge!! A little girl on a bench behind us called out "Bow down to the goddess" after C's Concerto. You should have seen the look on my husband's face -  he is sometimes known as the Guitar God (jokingly, but still...) by our goofy friends, and suddenly I was the one getting the fun comments!

Our wedding set list is our regular stuff with the addition of Pachelbel's, Here Comes the Bride and the Wedding March. I like playing weddings because we're usually there ahead of time and by the time folks start walking in I have warmed up and feel comfortable in the new setting. And then I hate weddings because, no matter how you plan, you're going to have to lengthen or shorten Here Comes on the fly due to slow/fast walkers, delays, etc. So far we have managed to end right as the bride reaches the groom! but someday our good luck will run out. We're so pleased to be invited to the reception, but it's in another building, and we'll have to bring our instruments into the A/C instead of leaving them in the car, which always seems a little show-off-y. If you ladies have advice or great stories about past gigs I sure would love to hear them!

Bye for now! Have a great month.......

Sweet (and humid) July

Sooner or later the photographs from this  year's Carolan Festival in Vermont will be posted and I hope among them will be a proof that I did a solo and I will post it here!  I played Henry McDermott Roe, valiantly, and made it almost to the very end.... whereupon that little idea.... Oh my god I'm almost done......infiltrated and I kind of fell apart on the last two measures, but it wasn't much and everyone laughed.   I'd love to hear it too, as I know it was all filmed, but who knows when and if any of that will be available.

The festival was terrific this year, the best ever!  Lots of harpers and we all clumped together under the awning of a harper named Mary Paul, many different levels, and I guess you could call it a slow session, but it was a bit more than that as we played tunes as many as eight or ten times and stopped to help people fix things.  We encouraged newbies to just listen and pick out the melody.... a great way for them to get familiar and figure out what tunes they'd like to learn next.  It was spontaneous and lots of fun. I think that is why I had the courage to sign up and play during the open performance time.

Now I'm in the gap between the Festival and Somerset..... I always find it difficult to decide what to concentrate on.  But I've somehow gotten fired up about deepening my understanding of jig rhythm and so have tackled Munster Buttermilk/Green Hills of Woodford - from Grainne's CD mainly the 3rd one, but also listening to all the other renderings I have of both of those around and about in my music library.  

July means off to West Clare (On the Road to Lisdoonvarna)!

Yay, but not until the last week of July so still some time to go.  There is some more good news:  I've gotten a gig at Nostell Priory, which is a Georgian Era mansion, playing my harp and they are even going to give me a dress to wear!  Think less Eliza Bennet (Jane Austen) and more Marie Antoinette (but not so over the top).  I am off to research hairstyles and brush up on my O'Carolan pieces (maybe even learn a a couple of new ones) as the latter part of his life falls comfortably within the time period.  Yay!

I just got another gig!  I'll be playing a 'welcome event' (fancy dinner) which will be held at the Leeds City Museum.  The last time they had the event they had a sitar player and the woman who passed my name onto them thought of me right away.  Just the kind of gig I like!

Harping in June!

Yesterday I played the local farmer's market and we got a month's worth of rain in just a few hours!  But this is England and rain doesn't deter people so there were plenty of people to hear me and the waterproof gazebo worked just fine!

I had 8 harps in my house yesterday for our play-together.  I taught everyone The Boys of  Bluehill, someone else taught a French tune and another lady taught a jig which is also a song Follow Me Down to Carlow.

My chocolate chocolate chip muffins were a success and now I'm gearing up to our gig at Kirkstall Abbey which is on this Sunday.

Kirkstall Abbey gig went well, this time I played it with Mike and he backed up my tunes with guitar and sang some songs.  There was also a farmer's market on at the same time so that was nice since it meant more people milling around.

Summer Harping!

It is NOT my year to go to Somerset, because I hope to go to London at the end of June and visit my daughter/SIL. Nevertheless, I have a couple of things in the fire that will hopefully keep me practicing. Since I am lucky enough to be a teacher, I have these great plans every year about practicing for 2 hours every business day morning before I do anything else. But hmm, there's exercising, and gardening, and reading, and kayaking, and cooking, and general sloth involved, too. So we'll see...

Our first gig (guitar/harp duo) is as the featured act at a coffeehouse in the western part of NH. In our region of the state, there are coffeehouses in maybe 1/3 of the small towns here, and the folks that run them try to keep things scheduled so that, if you wanted to go to a coffeehouse every Friday and Saturday of the month, you could do it with no conflicts. I like going to new coffeehouses because there's so little stress - your audience has never heard your songs before, so you can play songs you've known for years! We have a pretty standard set list, which includes Squire Woods, Baptist Johnson, Swan lk 243, Ashokan Farewell, Kean O'Hara #3/George Brabazon, Sheebeg Shemore (sp!), etc, etc. We use the Sue Richard O'Carolan arrangements a lot because they're easily adaptable, harmonizable, memorizable, etc, etc.

Our second gig is a wedding at a beautiful, small chapel out in the country. We learned the S. Woods Pachelbel's Canon duet for this, as well as the Wedding March, Here's Comes You-Know-Who, etc. I like this arrangement a lot, but sometimes I have trouble in my LH stretching my fourth/third fingers from low G to D and continuing the arpeggio. I have tried changing my wrist position, flapping my fingers in especially carefully, arching perfectly, to no avail. If you ladies know what I mean and you have advice, please, speak up! About 50% of the time my fourth finger hits an adjacent string as I move up, which is driving me crazy. Yes, I could adapt the arpeggio to something that fits better under my hand, but I refuse to let this thing kick my ass!!

I also hope to spend a few Saturdays playing solo at our small town's Farmers' Market. This has seemed to help drive away my once-unconquerable stage fright. No one really seems to be paying attention, and then suddenly a family stops to ask lots of questions and give lots of compliments, and you let their kids try the strings, and I just find it really sweet. Also, the woman who runs the market - such a good older friend that people think she's my mother! - asks all the vendors to give you a small item from their table as a gift for performing for free. Now if she could just stop those motorcycles from gunning it!....One of those days will be my first public performance of O'Ferrell's (sp) Welcome to Limerick, the hardest song I've ever learned because of the trebles, which I love but am not always so great at. I don't find her advice about using your thumb as an anchor helpful one bit! Does Maeve G. use a thumb anchor? It doesn't look like she does.

I have set myself a goal of learning a song-a-week from Grainne Hambly's first book, so as soon as I'm done planning/running a talent show at my school, I'll be all about The Blackthorn Stick. Does anyone else play from this book? Do you have any favorites? I don't love her Fig for a Kiss, which is actually the first song, and I already know the S. Woods arrangement, so decided to skip it.

I'm also looking for non-Celtic music to loosen up my set list. Do you ladies have anything you recommend? So far, things I'd play in public are Ashokan, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and then the Three Easy Pieces by Grandjany.

Whoo, I've written a lot. Time to sit back and wait for your lovely ideas!
Happy harping!

June! Harp Story #3

Of course, this has nothing to do with harping, but we are hosting this little family, a bit anxiously, hoping the two little ones make it.  They are two weeks old as of today, June 6.  Double the size they were last week.  I watched them have bathing lessons today.  To die for.

So.

On with installment #3 in the Saga which I intend to drag out, if you were wondering:

#3 Carolan’s Receipt

The next chance I got (was it a day? a week?) I scampered into a store that sold CD’s, where I found Derek Bell playing mostly solo on Carolan’s Receipt.  It was all  Carolan, whoever he was.....  Of course, not knowing anything, I had no idea how lucky a find this was.   I mean no insult to anyone, but I could have, so easily, gotten ‘new age‘ not the real thing.   I like to think that that ‘made all the difference’. 

In a frenzy of anticipation (somehow I knew) I popped Derek Bell in the car CD player and sat in the parking lot listening.  The first selection was Sheebeeg Shemore. I couldn’t believe the sound of it.  It was as if all my life my ears had been waiting all for this.   I played piano and then, briefly, cello and really, there is something about the harp that is present in both of those instruments more than any others. 

Some tunes had a metallic echoing edge, others had a softer sweeter sound. I read the liner notes.  Wire strung harp?  Nylon strung harp?  Hunh?  You know how it is, you think..... I’ll have some tea..... then someone says.... what kind of tea? China? India?  Assam? Earl Grey? Green?   At that moment I had an inkling of ‘uh oh‘ there are obviously harps and harps and other harps.... like everything if you open up the magical door you step in to a bottomless pit of choices and differences and complexities...

Around then Derek Bell started to play Carolan’s Receipt and that was it.  

Exactly as described by others here, I was bowled over, knocked over the head, blown away:  I have to play this instrument.  I.have.to.  

With the small amount of rational mind left to me, I whimpered:  This is so not like me!

Next up: Enter the Paki Harp!   

My short Harp Story

That Merry Month of May is fast disappearing, with the rest of the year!  Spring/Summer has gotten all bunched up and late winter has revisited, and all the blossoms opened at the same time, and I am behind on paperwork at work...ugh...  So reading your stories has boosted my mood, and I will just say, my first introduction to the Celtic Harp was when my best friend from school came home from college in 1971 with an LP of Alan Stivell- "The Rennaisance of the Celtic Harp"  from Britanny.  I was immediately sucked into the entrancing sounds, and carried back to my love of the Arthur Legends, and mythology, and particular love of Ancient and Medieval History.  I KNEW that, as much as I loved playing my piano, it would rarely have this magical quality to it (and possible portability!) but what to do???  No one in NJ was playing the Celtic Harp at that point!  A few years later, not sure when, I did hear a Patrick Ball album, but that must have been long after finding "The Thistle and Shamrock" radio program on our Public Radio stations. 

Of course, Folk music was very popular in the 60's and 70's, and then the HUGE hit "Riverdance" brought Irish music, and Celtic "stuff" to the front burners....I started noticing the rare appearance of Celtic bands appearing at a street fair north of Philly, then featured at a "Ren Faire" somewhere else. And I KNEW it was coming closer to me, and that one day I would find harp and teacher, and time and money, all at the same moment- and I would play that magic for myself! 

Sure enough, after chasing the degree, and then moving around til we finally settled on a town that became home, I was at the local "Wool Arts Tour" one rainy October day, and heard....yes....a celtic harp being played inside the building!  I followed the sound  almost in a trance into the room where Mary Graham was playing- and, she DID offer to give lessons and she was ONLY 1/2 hour away and had networked with several other harpers who could lease out a harp for short periods, etc!!!  Heaven!!  My first harp was a leased Lyon and Healey Troubador.  Great sound!  Not truly a Celtic Harp but a lever harp or "folk harp".  Moved onto a beautiful bird's eye maple built by David Kortier from Minn....mostly because Mary was acting as a distributor for him and I had no chance to really go far afield and check out other brands.  Big boy but quiet voice.  And finally (?) I fell in love love love with Sue Richard's Larry Fisher harp, and got that last year.  Sparkly on top and mellow down below- I just need to be playing more, and thinking about it less!  Does that make sense?  MUST GET ORGANIZED so rest of life does not keep distracting me from what I want to be doing!

Thank you ladies for ongoing inspiration- hope to meet you all in person some day!  Sharon

How the Harp Found Me #2

(Yes, I'm breaking my own rules, but for this particular endeavour I think it makes more sense to post these separately from my monthly notes.)

#2  So.... what did I read?

I wish I had written down the titles of the books they brought me that day,  but most of them were filled with  ‘the usual’ information., covered in such fine books as the Yeats, listed below. Thus there was plenty of information about the evidence for development of the stringed instruments, photos and drawings of carvings from Egypt and regions of the Middle East.... mostly two, three string curved, plucked instruments - from which all the stringed instruments gradually evolved.   In fact, all cultures have some kind of stringed instrument, along with wind and drumming.  As a child we certainly made music blowing on blades of grass.  Many believe that the bow and the harp have a close relationship - wonderful metaphorically as they both drive straight into the heart.   The most interesting book they brought me, for reasons I cannot think why, was one which showed how, in the late middle ages, once the ‘do re mi’ musical notation system was evolved that monks and others would hide messages in the music.  I spent a magical afternoon thumbing through these books, looking at pictures, reading text here and there until in the middle of all this reading, the lightbulb came on and I thought, What am I doing? Shouldn’t I be listening?

A Short Bibliography:

Story of the Irish Harp and Its History and Influence, Nora Joan Clark

Harps and Harpists, Roslyn Rensch

The Harp of Ireland  Grainne Yeats

The Belfast Harper’s Festival, 1792, and the saving of Ireland’s Harp Music, Edward Bunting

Tree of Strings, Crann Nan Teud, A History of the Harp in Scotland Keith Sanger

Carolan, the Life and Times and Music of an Irish Piper, Donal O’Sullivan

If anyone has more good ones to add, please let me know!

Almost June; How My Harp Found Me

Once upon a time I played the piano pretty seriously. It was my instrument in college, and because I played by ear, it came easily. Once upon a time, I came home from work and played to relax...played my daughter to sleep...played to learn more of the Baroque music I loved.

But then, I just.....stopped playing. I had a beautiful Yamaha school upright, and gradually I stopped playing, and even stopped getting it tuned. We bought an old, old cape way down a dirt road, and I spent time researching decorating and gardening ideas. I missed being a musician, but I was involved as a music teacher, and eventually I sold the piano ( and bought the most beautiful DRDimes chair with the money!). I bought a small virginal, and played it now and then, but I was basically not playing anything. Since I'd had a piano from the age of three, you'd think I'd miss it, but honestly I didn't.

And then one night I went to our local coffeehouse -haha, the one I'm so busy managing now!  - and a lovely woman brought her harp onto the stage. I was so transfixed that I changed seats to make sure I could see her hands. Maybe my Scots ancestry zoomed in on the Celtic tunes. I was afraid to approach the woman, but spoke with her after the concert, and found out a few details.

And then I rented my first harp, a Pratt. I loved the wood and the pillar, but it was a mistake to begin on gut strings when my fingers were so weak. I found a teacher, but she wasn't a good fit, and because I wasn't a beginning musician as well as a beginning harpist, she didn't know what to do with me. So I stopped taking lessons with her and I returned the Pratt. I took a 2-month break, and did a lot of research.

I went to the Harp Connection with a check in my hand, and I asked my favorite saleswoman, Lily, to play me every Celtic harp they had in stock. I don't know, maybe I listened to 20 harps. I was so green, I didn't know to ask the right questions. But boy, I knew the harp I wanted the minute I heard it: rich, a beautiful deep first octave, mellow and serene upper octaves, and a walnut soundboard to die for.

Thank you, Sharon, for introducing me to the Celtic harp, an instrument I never knew I would love so much, and that would fill the empty spot I didn't know I was carrying!

May: How the Harp Found Me. #1

In the story I was writing, an attempt at fantasy, there was a woman who had been put out to sea in an enchanted boat, so that she could not marry the king’s son as planned.  Nobly born as she was, it was also known her mother was a witch from the North and many did not like the idea that she would pass this heredity onto their children.  And so, before the wedding, the kidnapping by a cabal of royal wizards, men who disliked the idea of women practicing magic.  However, there was one (of course) who did not fully believe the witches were such a problem and could not bear the thought of murdering a young and innocent person, and so after she is put in the boat and the other wizards have gone, he casts a spell that puts the boat and the young woman into a state where the boat will be protected and where she will not age.  Then, as with all spells, in order to work have to be breakable, he hid a harp with no strings in the boat.   If she found the harp, could string it, tune it, and play the melody that would shatter the spell, then she would be free.   

After I wrote this, I thought, I don’t know blank-all about harps, I don’t know what they really look like, how many strings, how you would tune it..... not a single thing.  I’d better go and do some research.   So I went to the nearest library which happened to be, at that moment, the main branch of the Philadelphia Free Library, which has an entire room devoted to books and journals about music, recordings and sheet music, and asked for books about harps, their origins and history.  

They brought me a stack.  I picked out the most general one first and began to read.

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In other news:
Once again, I can't seem to get it together until the month is half-way spent, but that is better than not at all......

Meanwhile, I have been playing the harp a decent amount, after all that, working the hardest over Carolan's Fairy Queen, and after that The Blackbird to be followed by The Crib of Perches a set which I was going to play at our bi-annual Among Friends party with a friend (flute) however, she can't attend, so that will have to wait for the fall party.  Also working on Planxty Dermot Grogan a very pretty tune (I have a recording about somewhere .... whistle and fiddle).  I should be brave and play The Fairy Queen at the upcoming Carolan festival in June but..... I hate playing alone, and that is a problem.

Since I missed commenting on your thread Andee - I love the 'play-together' group name - so much nicer than 'harp circle' which I've never cared for.  And I like that you teach other tunes to each other.

One thought I've had from time to time, that may not appeal, or it may, is for one of us to choose a tune for all of us to learn - then if and when we see each other we might have some tunes to play together.  The one whose turn it is could record themselves playing it slow.

Also as I mentioned in a note to Pam I may try to get back to thinking more about music and the harp and writing in more depth about some of the things I think about.  I'll start at the beginning, most likely, with how I found the harp or it found me.  They'll take time to write, so be patient with me!

I'm so happy that you all post even when I am being dilatory!

How I Became a Harper / Oh the merry month of May!

     I was about 31 years old and very blocked creatively.  I enjoyed my job at Essene Market and Cafe, I had lots of friends, but the magic was missing and it made me really sad.  I no longer had any inspiration to paint or sew or do the creative things I used to do all of the time.  Everything was flat and colorless.

One of my favorite tapes at the time which was by a 'celtic' or new age harpist.  She is not well-known at all and I can't even remember her name now.  All of her pieces on this particular tape had something to do with legends (mostly Arthurian) and magic.  I also had a Patrick Ball tape and an Alan Stivell tape.  These three tapes were given to me by my roommate at the time.  I loved them.  I had discovered the magic of the harp, even if only to listen to.

One afternoon I was on the train from Center City to the 'burbs and was listening to the little-known new age harpist on  my Walkman and staring out the window.  My mind wandered and emptied.  I must have been in a very meditative and receptive state.  And then something amazing happened.  Nothing like it had ever happened to me before or since.  It was the stuff of fairytales (or crazy people!)!

"You can do this", a voice said  The voice was large, perhaps male but not necessarily.  It was definitely a voice that while inside my head, had come from outside my own consciousness.

"Do what?"  I asked it silently.  "This.  Play the harp.  You can learn to play the harp."  It was definitive.  It was almost a demand.  I was stunned.  While not a skeptic at all, these things just never happened to *me*.

Up until this point I had never remotely considered the possibility of taking up a musical instrument.  Other than piano lessons when I was 9 and violin / viola lessons when I was about 10 and 11, I had never played an instrument.  I considered myself an artist, a painter since I was in my early teens.  After all, it was what I went to college to get a degree in!

My life was about to change drastically.  I remembered a little dusty shop on South 4th street, a couple blocks below Fitzwater.  The windows were lined with tinted yellow plastic (to keep the sun out I suspected).  Inside looked like a wood workshop with harps all over.  Some intact, some in pieces.  The shop was no longer open to the public, but there was a note taped inside the window with a phone number on it.

I called the number and made an appointment.  I spent over an hour or more talking with the man who owned the business.  He was harp and dulcimer maker.  He went on and on about the history of harps and the harp in folk music and the care and feeding of harps.  He gave me a stack of papers and info.  I thanked him for his time and left.  I was thrilled and inspired!

From there I started to research them more.  For a year I read up on folk harps. I was also just getting into Irish music, folklore, and culture at the time.  My tape collection grew.   And then when I felt ready I started to look for a teacher.  How would I find one?  I went into the little Irish shop on South Street between Second and Third and picked up a copy of the Irish Edition.  In it was an article congratulating two young harpists for placing in the Comhaltas Regional Fleadh.  There was a photo of the proud girls alongside their teacher.  "*She* is going to be my teacher", I said.  There was no maybe about it.  It was Kathy DeAngelo, of course and I phoned  her immediately and set up my first lesson.


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Is anybody here a member of the HarpColumn online discussion group?  http://musicstand.harpcolumn.com/
 I don't know why I bother as half the time it's totally boring (classical) and the other half it's infuriating.  For example at the moment a woman new to the harp already plays tin whistle up to session standard and was asking for tips on how to get the tunes on harp up to speed.

A classical know-it-all basically told her she needed a classical background and 10 years of study!  WTF?!  Comments like that are like a red rag to a bull for me.  All she needs is a bit (or a lot--but not ten years!) of practice, keep the left hand simple (especially for sessions) and a few lessons on ornamentation.

I love nosing in and telling the classical know-it-alls they know nothing when it comes to trad Irish.

Update:  The woman who made the comment has since pointed out that she didn't think classical training was necessary, it was just in the absence of any folk harp teachers, a classical harpist would be able to teach good technique.  I apologized for any misunderstanding and agreed, but said that it stopped there, the learning of the tunes themselves is best done by ear if at all possible and that 10 years study was more than just a bit conservative an estimate.

I just inquired through email at a cafe in town if they'd like me to do a free concert.  I'd like some paying gigs, but the cafe is actually run by the charity I work for so it would have to be for free.  It's a really nice cafe in a historic building in the city center and I saw they've had a few informal concerts before.

My fiddle teacher last night said I have the best rolls of all his students--yay!  Thank you Kathy for teaching me such nice roll technique!

April has almost slipped away too....

Don't know why I am finding it so difficult to post here - I think it reflects the fact that I am in a bit of a harp slump.  In fact, there is irony here, as the whole reason for having this blog is to help with this problem.  Playing weekly at the hospital certainly helps, but I think my problem is a larger one in some way that I find hard to define.  Not quite so 'profound' (or profoundly stupid) as 'why am I playing this music' because when I play I love it, but because I suspect that my conditioning leads me to always want to set goals so as to improve or progress or some such thing, and I can't figure out, now, what my goals should be.  I would like to find someone who plays another instrument, preferably flute, I think, who would like to work up a wedding/event repertoire, but such people don't grow on trees and land in your lap when you snap your fingers.

Also I am distracted, as I mentioned before, by finishing up this book, which is like the ever-receding horizon.... or the task of Sisyphus.

I am in the spring session with Benedict and Hilarie right now, week 5 of 6.  I think that Brian McNamara the piper will be at class tonight, which should be fun.  (Have to practice up a couple Leitrim tunes, quick!).  They decided we should have a concert on May 9 - just when I planned to be away working on the book so I am waffling and quandery-ing about that.

This is a salamander year, btw, and we have the cutest little yellow spotted critters running about everywhere.   There are lots of 'salamander crossing' signs up on the roads!  (Not official ones, mind you).  Vermont is a funny place to live.

I'll post a photo of one of them when I get it out of my phone and into the computer.

Organizing and Focusing

For April I am really trying to focus and organize.  I am no longer working crazy hours and have more time to practice so that's good.  I am finding it difficult to focus though for some reason.

I have decided to work my way through my Book (Lucy will know all about my book).  It's basically all my Irish tunes (airs, songs, O'Carolan pieces, etc.).  They are arranged by tune type so I am starting with jigs and working my way through.  I am working on each one to bring it back up to performance-ready standard (except for those which I have pretty much lost for the time being) and choosing one or two from each tune type to revive.

I have gotten through jigs and reels so far and have chosen to revive My Darling Asleep for jigs (as well as finishing up learning the two from the workshop last month) and Toss the Feathers and The Wind That Shakes the Barley for reels.

It's now the last day of April.  Beltane Eve!  Anyway, I am still plugging away at my repertoire, reviving and re-learning.  I skipped over polkas and slides (just for now)--haha!

I have also finally made a very big decision.  I told the harp ladies in the performance group that I would no longer be participating.  I did it in the nicest way possible (after all it's all about what I can handle, nothing to do with any one of them personally).  I told them I hoped no-one would be upset with me and that I considered them all my friends.  I hope to see them at the June play together which will be at my house.  The play-togethers have nothing to do with the performance group, it's open to everyone and the person hosting it usually teaches everyone a tune  (which is actually a lot of work!). Also people can generally share anything they want that they have been working on, etc.

March wind is unrelenting!

I cannot believe- again- where the month has gone!  And the cold, while punctuated by some teaser warm days, has been pretty steady.  Slowly the banks of snow are shrinking, but I am hungrier for Spring this year than I have ever been!

I have been working on a few O'Carolan pieces- Miss Noble and Sir Arthur Shaene (?)- and a lament. And a couple of Sue Richards tunes- Fire in the Hearth and Do Not Mourn for Me ( or is it Mourn No more for Me)??  Anywho- lovely pieces from her collection.

Sue and Brother Andrew have organized a Harp Gathering- Tune Sharing weekend coming up in  West Park, NY at Holy Cross Monastery that I am busting with excitement over!  I will (theoretically) have 20 new tunes in my head by Sunday!  Hah!  Well, and then a hard copy to refer to, thankfully!

Not spending enough time on the harp with Palm and Easter Sundays approaching and keyboard music to learn, but then it should be pretty smooth sailing and I have promised myself daily dips in the strings!

I am also investigating the carbon fiber harps by Heartland Harps in NC- have any of you actually played one of their carbon fiber creations?  They make them all with concert spacing, but CAN make them with the closer Celtic harp spacing (though you void the chance to return it after purchase, unlike their standard guarantee...) and I am wondering if the feel and sound are comparable to wooden Celtic harps and string tension/spacing?  I did their harp tasting audio online, and while I was actually able to pick out the wonderful aged Dragonwood harp amongst the carbon fibers, I was blown away by the sound I heard.  Not necessarily the best device to listen on, though, so just wondered if any of you have experienced first hand?  The weight and the indestructibility, and the ability to leave a harp in a hot car and sling it around, just seems like a miraculous idea!  I LOVE my Fisher harp, but transporting it anywhere is such a worry if it involves any distance in warm weather.

It will take me awhile to save up for one, if I go that route- just dreaming for now!  Harp lust, you know!!!

Stay warm and have fun, ladies- Spring is really on the way!  Promise!!  Sharon

March has gotten away from me!

Hello my friends, I am sorry about how terrible I've been about posting..... not sure why this is.  My primary focus has been my 'real work ' writing and will probably stay that way for the next few months until I finish my current project.

Having said that, however, I am playing the harp somewhat regularly because of the steady hospital gig.  So thank goodness for that.   My two 'assignments' are to work on Festus Burke to play with my sister along with Loftus Jones(but that is in good shape) and to learn The Fairy Queen, using the Caitriona Rowsome setting, which I listened to so much while I was learning the melody, that I gave up and gave in and am learning her really lovely accompaniment rather than struggling to come up with my own!  I kept trying and then I would realize I had internalized her setting and just kept 'finding' her notes!   I would love to have Fairy Queen ready for the spring 'Among Friends' party but I doubt I can do that.  I'm trying to prepare one new or old tune to play at each hospital day that I haven't played there before, but it's getting harder and harder to meet that requirement!  May have to reduce it to every other week.... or..... whenever!

The OTHER HUGE news is that my daughter entered the National Poetry Recitation competition called Poetry Out Loud and is one of ten Vermont finalists - (out of 5000 entrants).  Last week we had the 40 semi-finalists meeting and this Thursday she will compete with the nine other finalists, reciting her three poems on live Vermont Public Television.  Yowza!  You can bet that that is distracting me completely.  I've been assigned to be the one who is anxious about everything!   Anyhow, it should be streamable and I'll post a link - but really - googling either Vermont Public Television or Vermont Arts Council should get you all the info you need.

March is Irish Month

I am still working full-time plus!  Very little time to practice, but I did manage a couple days this week.

Tomorrow evening Fiana NiChoinaill is flying in from Limerick.  She'll be staying at my place overnight and then the workshop is the next day.  She is also going to fit a private lesson in for me at some point before she flies back on Saturday night.

Fiana was a student of Janet Harbison and now has her Masters Degree in (Irish?) Music performance.

I had the most fantastic time hosting Fiana and at the workshop!  She is such a lovely and friendly young lady, not to mention very talented, of course!

She arrived after 10:30 pm and we sat around chatting for three hours!  She must have been exhausted after travelling by bus for two and a half hours from Limerick to Dublin and then the flight from Dublin to Leeds.  I was full of nervous energy wanting her short stay to be comfy and perfect and excited about the workshop in general.  It was really interesting talking to her about music, and also just about things like formal education and grading in folk and Irish music which is a funny thing in itself, plus the differences in formal education between classical and \Irish music.  I wish I could remember more specifics, but at the moment my brain is tired.

I had about 4 hours sleep in total, but wanted to be up and ready before Fiana so she could sleep a bit more (only one bathroom in our small cottage!).  I 'made' her eat something and made sure I packed snacks for the day just in case.  (I really am giving you a play-by-play description, aren't I?).

Mike got us to the venue in plenty of time for Fiana to settle in with the borrowed harp and tune up.  My friend Joan commented on how my face lit up when Fiana played the first tune for us.  I was thinking, "Now *that's* what it's all about!*  She taught us two jigs--Leitrim Fancy and The Wind on the Lake.  She managed to teach all 11 of us by ear and no-one even protested about not getting the sheet music beforehand!  She was extremely thorough and went at a slow and steady pace so as not to leave anyone behind.  We learned the bare bones of the tune first and then three completely different ways of ornamenting it.  With the second tune she gave people ideas for what they could do in the left hand.  We also learned the slow air With Her Gun and Her Dog which is from the Petrie Collection (around the same time as Bunting, a lesser known collector and collection of harp tunes--must look into it further).


Gigs booked:  I now have three summer gigs booked.  Two different farmer's markets and my usual gig at Kirkstall Abbey playing inside the Cloisters.  One of the market gigs may be as a trio (with Mike and Brian's duo Craig & Wylie, so we'd be Craigs & Wylie or Craig & Craig & Wylie).

In the meantime I had a fiddle lesson yesterday and have almost completely learned Reel of  Rio.  A bit tricky especially since I wasn't already familiar with it.

Still so so busy at work and have now resorted to practicing my fiddle either before opening the shop or after work before I go home.  The harp is another matter and I've so much to work on as always, of course.

February's almost over!

Hello harp ladies--sorry I've been absent!  I've been full-time plus at work still and also just got back from visiting my mom in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where I can sadly say there are no harps or irish music as far as the eye can see and the ear can hear.  Except for perhaps some Plastic Paddy music scheduled in March.  That being said, I *did* hear a man playing pennywhistle just off the beach and I think he was playing The Merry Blacksmith.  I wanted to say something to him but he was gone when we went past the second time.

I know you are all so sick of snow but we've had a mild winter in the UK and today feels almost like spring.  I really really wanted snow at least once this year but it doesn't look likely now.

I am very, very behind in both my harp and fiddle stuff and Irish Month is only days away so I've got to get playing.....I'll stop by here again later!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it......

February- I have heard it described as the longest shortest month in the calendar!  Well, despite the weather, and all the snow we are buried under, it seems to be moving pretty quickly!  At the very beginning of the month I had back to back gigs.  The "All Ladies" night at the Coffee House was a blast.  I played with my daughter Kate- she played flute with the "Christ Child's lullaby" that I have incorporated whole sections of Stephanie Curcios arrangement into (There is a lovely little descant like part that plays perfectly over her variation of the traditional tune as well as over the traditional tune!  So harp and flute trade off those melodies.) and she played on flute the 2nd harp part of Sue Richard's arrangement of "Var Det Du" (Scandinavian piece) and she sang with the harp on "She moved thru the Fair", which is a tune I really love.  I play broken and harmony chords when she sings the melody, then take the melody when she takes a break!) 

I also have met with another flute player who is interested in doing Celtic Evensong services with me, as well as just having fun with Celtic, early, Baroque or classical stuff.  I may have to resort to the piano for the Baroque and Classical- don't have the time or inclination to really work that up on the Celtic harp with all the necessary lever changes, and the piano is so much easier for me to play that stuff on!  But having someone to make music with for fun is great.  She has recently plugged into an oboeist and a cellist- so who knows what might happen down the road!

An answer to a prayer has just come thru- a friend of mine and fellow ex-library trustee- just finally succumbed to taking Celtic harp lessons and just bought a slightly used 2013 Rees harp and is over the moon about learning to play!  She is right in town, and a brilliant lady, so I am sure she will reach and surpass me as quickly as Miss Pamela did! At any rate, while she is also a busy person, I think we will be able to get together and do duets  and I am really looking forward to that!  She is also a Physician's assistant at a local hospital, and interested in Music therapy courses, as am I....so maybe another whole new thing may be happening over the next year or two.  I LOVE the sound of multiple harps playing....really transportive!

Oh, the second gig the next night was our Celtic Evensong service, and Kate and I did the same harp/flute things, so we were in practice!  The weather made it tough for attendees at both venues to get out, so it was a bit sad that more folks weren't there to hear or participate.- but you get what you get, and it is all good!

Now I just need more hours in the day... or more days in the week...or more weeks in the month...Take care in this everlasting winter cold, Dear Ladies!

Sharon

February, Sunshine, Snow and Music

February 11 Not exactly straight lines here, as this is a photo of a painting...... it's me with corgis and cats, painted by a friend who stopped by while I was practicing and took pictures of me practicing.  I did tell her the left hand should be higher up than the right..... but it obviously doesn't work compositionally.   I'm thinking of asking her if she would let me use the photo for a 'business' card - I do have people stop and ask for them during my hospital gig and I don't have any.  I particularly like the red socks, which apparently I really was wearing that day.

I've had two gigs so far this month, one with no harp at a snowshoe festival at the Green Mountain Club (concertina instead) and one with harp playing on the balcony at the Richmond Free Library with a small group during their Book Sale.  Both were very very different and both were extremely fun.  I think the hospital experience is helping me be calmer and more confident.  Yay!

I know many of you have gigs and things that were coming up, I'd love to hear about them.  Especially photos!

What an exciting way to start 2014!

There was an email from the Grand Dame of Irish harp in my inbox!  Janet Harbison got my email address from someone else and thought I could help her make connections for her for upcoming concerts and other Irish harp related events!

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help her to be honest as it seems she'll be based around Liverpool and that's a couple hours drive from Leeds and I don't know anyone in that area.  Also, I'm not exactly the most connected person and I don't really know a lot about networking, etc.  But, she still wants to call me and ask me a few questions, etc.

I do know the UK (well England anyway) really really needs a good shot of Irish harp related stuff as everything is sort of generic folk, Welsh (blah), Scottish, or Classical.  I will do everything I can to help her!  I'm excited to talk to her on the phone.  I wonder (doubt it!) if she'll remember me taking her week long workshop 15 years ago.  I certainly remember so much about it--it was such an amazing experience!

Bloody finger!  Literally.  I cut it on a can of beans a couple days ago and it's still bleeding off and on.  And it's my right hand pointer finger (that's harp finger number 2).  So it's hard to play right now.

Anyway, with my help, my chapter of the Clarsach Society has booked Fiana NiChonaill to do a workshop for us in March.  She's a former student of Janet Harbison.  I'm really excited about it--it'll be the first Irish workshop we've had since I've been a member!  She's also offered me a free lesson since she'll be staying with us when she flies in from Ireland, so yay!

I don't know what else to say right now except for only about 6 weeks to go until 'Irish Month'!  Can you believe one of my harp lady friends didn't even know when St. Pat's was??!

Finger has healed but I have fractured my little toe!  At least it wasn't a finger!

I have relearned The Blackbird and am confident with it except for a bit of the B part where I put some variation into the melody and getting that to go with the left hand at the same time.  I am thinking it's a big no-no to play a tune with the same variation / ornamentation both times when competing in the fleadh, which is why I'm pushing to get The Blackbird learned with the different variations for both times through.

I have also relearned a simple slip jig I learned from Janet Harbison eons ago called Baltiorum.  Also an air which was one of the first tunes I learned from Kathy.  At the time she thought it was O'Carolan's  Lament for Owain Roe O'Neill. but now we know it isn't O'Carolan at all.  It's on an old Clannad album, we don't have a name for it.

Have any of you seen the book 'Irish Harping 1900-2010' by Helen Lawlor?  It's very interesting!

Fiddle lessons!  I had my first fiddle lesson (in the UK) last night!  Apparently he is the only fiddle teacher in Leeds!  He's a lovely young guy from Co. Tyrone, Tommy Peoples was his teacher.

 I brought my 'book' (Lucy is familiar with my harp book--well this is the same with my fiddle tunes all written out in my own quirky ABC format) and said that at the moment I don't need any new tunes, I just need to refresh on the tunes I already have.  He's really easy going and was fine with that.  We worked on Mist Covered Mountain (which they don't play much in Co. Tyrone *or* Leeds) and Cliffs of Moher.

He showed me loads of different ornamentation to do including double stops and rolls.  I know, this is not harp stuff, but it's related, right?  The double stops gave me ideas to try on the harp (left hand stuff) and also he had a super cool different bit in the B part of Cliffs of Moher which I've got to learn on the harp!  I was up half the night with my mind racing about this stuff!