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.