Greetings from what seems to be a perpetually soggy state of affairs. Ugh! I just got back from SummerKeys in Lubec, Maine, and another great week of group playing and lessons with Sue Richards. I started the weekend before driving up playing at the Living History event in Hillsboro, in costume, in the heat, at the Franklin Pierce Homestead. That is always a fun gig, and even though it was sweltering, and my fingers were slippery on the strings, it is very relaxed, and people enjoy it. I only play things I have well memorized and played for years. Definitely helps the tone, not watching the page!
Playing with a group of harps, pretty much sightreading and editing as we go, with different skill levels, is a great experience for me. The performance at the end of the week is never perfection, but 6 harps playing together is a wonderful sound, regardless! The audience really appreciates the instrument, and are very complimentary! Then, private lessons with Sue are wonderful. She pretty much covers what you are interested in, or having questions on, and will happily teach you a new tune by ear, followed up with the written notes. Very much a traditional player, not quite so formal in her arrangements. She threw me a curve the last day by suggesting we "jam"! Well, i realized I have never really done that! So, she said, pick something you already know, and all i could think of was slow airs! So we settled on Var Det Du, and while I played my part, she jammed all around me. WOW! So, my slow moving brain was saying, "THIS is what it must be like at a ceilidh! I am TOTALLY at SEA! YIKES!!" My first harp teacher said she would rather jam with a concertina, as the harp is often lost in the noise. Andee, I am assuming this is what you are getting better at when you play with other musicians at the pub? Does anyone have some hints? Clues? A place to start and wrap my head around?
So, the summer is wrapping up, and I have not done half of what I had planned. Weather has been hot and humid much more so than usual. June was crazy with family issues, July and August have just tumbled on by. It will be fun to settle in with the new tunes from Lubec, and really learn them now! Hope you are all staying cool and doing well! Love, Sharon
Concertinas can be very loud though! I'd say it's more the people talking in the pub that drown out the harp rather than the instruments. I can make myself heard usually. I try and do a lot of bass notes when backing, mixed in with some of the higher strings, just depends. My friend backs the tunes with his double bass and it sounds so good, so I try and do what he does (not quite at the level where I can imitate him that well, but trying).
ReplyDeleteWhen I know what key a tune is in, I go with the chords that would normally be in the left hand for that key. For example, if it is in D then the normal chords would be D, G, and A.
The trouble comes (and frequently) when a tune goes to a different key in the B part or when it is a modal or a mode I am unfamiliar with off the cuff as modes don't follow the same 1 4 5 pattern as keys do. But then I will just play the root chord when it comes round and just listen and see if I can figure it out.
Sounds like a good approach! Will have to let that percolate in the brain. !!
DeleteJust what I try to do, Andee! Of course, I mostly bring my concertina to sessions at this point, very rarely the harp. There are enough other harpers hereabouts who do a better job than I do at accompaniment. I've never gotten comfortable with it, I confess. Although to my astonishment I have gotten better and can manage most 'basic' key non-modal tunes!
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