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......