Saturday, July 19, 2014
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
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.......
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
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!
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!
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