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!