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.

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......

Back from Clare and a complete life shake-up

Hello ladies.  Ireland was fantastic, I learned a few new tunes and played in more sessions this year than I did last year (fiddle).  There was another harpist there this year and we chatted and swapped tunes and now I'm thinking of getting a harp teacher up the the Boghill Centre for next year.  It might be worth it if there are going to be two of us again!

The life shake-up is that I found out that my husband wants a divorce.  I am doing OK, but am determined not to let this set me back (my first divorce set back my harping by a couple of years, Lucy will remember).

Yes I am heartbroken, betrayed, devastated, but I must believe that there is a opportunity around the corner.  And there is.  It looks like I'll be moving to Ireland for a year or so.  This is going to be an adventure, one I must have on my own.

There and Back Again: Somerset 2014

Of course my view of Somerset is warped (not in a bad way, mind you) by working behind the tables, but people seemed contented and good-natured about the few things that went wrong, which had to do more with the physical environment of the hotel than the festival itself.   The pre-workshops, liturgical and historical were successes and I heard more than once from people who didn't get to attend their first choice workshop that their second choice was terrific.  Kathy knocks herself out trying to respond to comments and criticisms and lies awake nights trying to think up anything she can to make the festival work smoothly and it shows.

Unusually for me I attended no classes (yes, lazy - but also overwhelmed by all the tunes I haven't learned - feel the same way about all the books I haven't read) so I made that choice which was .... a bit odd, frankly.  I did show up at the Carolan Marathon which was not as well attended as sometimes and we certainly didn't even come close to breaking any records and didn't come close to exhausting my Carolan repertoire, but that's the breaks.  Very amusing time playing for the ceili  - five concertinas!  And afterwards some more music in the redone atrium.   I should add the concerts were spectacular and.... if you didn't get to sit inside the hinterlands weren't bad and you had the entertainment of Miss Hambly-Jackson dancing around and blowing bubbles along with the music.

As it was also my birthday on the 31st everyone was very friendly about that which was nice as was receiving what felt like a multitude of splendid gifts and greetings!

It was also delightful that everyone was extremely sensible about their harps and parking them responsibly etcetera.  A literal load off my mind.  It does take up a lot of space, but it works.  And reconciles me to the Hilton somewhat.  

The truth is I don't know what to do about all the music I haven't learned that I could learn - that I want to learn - it's making it very hard for me to want to go to any workshops where someone might try to teach me a tune!  I know I don't have to, but I am nothing if not conscientious so it is difficult.  I am in a space right now where less is more so any traveling I do to music venues will be for one purpose only! (Read on!)

The most lovely thing for me about Somerset is rooming with Laura E. and hanging about with Kathy and Dennis and Debbie and Corinne and Kim and Laurie N and Emily G. and.. and.. and if I've left your name out forgive me!  It's always wonderful seeing so many people who love the harp together.

I'll be back with the photo Kathy took as I was leaving the festival on Monday morning.

Today I am fighting off a cold and we've had a huge thunderstorm.  Glad I didn't have to drive home in it.

2 wise guys pretending they know what they're doing! And my eyes are practically closed, arghhh!

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.......

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.  

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!

Harping in June!

Yesterday I played the local farmer's market and we got a month's worth of rain in just a few hours!  But this is England and rain doesn't deter people so there were plenty of people to hear me and the waterproof gazebo worked just fine!

I had 8 harps in my house yesterday for our play-together.  I taught everyone The Boys of  Bluehill, someone else taught a French tune and another lady taught a jig which is also a song Follow Me Down to Carlow.

My chocolate chocolate chip muffins were a success and now I'm gearing up to our gig at Kirkstall Abbey which is on this Sunday.

Kirkstall Abbey gig went well, this time I played it with Mike and he backed up my tunes with guitar and sang some songs.  There was also a farmer's market on at the same time so that was nice since it meant more people milling around.

Summer Harping!

It is NOT my year to go to Somerset, because I hope to go to London at the end of June and visit my daughter/SIL. Nevertheless, I have a couple of things in the fire that will hopefully keep me practicing. Since I am lucky enough to be a teacher, I have these great plans every year about practicing for 2 hours every business day morning before I do anything else. But hmm, there's exercising, and gardening, and reading, and kayaking, and cooking, and general sloth involved, too. So we'll see...

Our first gig (guitar/harp duo) is as the featured act at a coffeehouse in the western part of NH. In our region of the state, there are coffeehouses in maybe 1/3 of the small towns here, and the folks that run them try to keep things scheduled so that, if you wanted to go to a coffeehouse every Friday and Saturday of the month, you could do it with no conflicts. I like going to new coffeehouses because there's so little stress - your audience has never heard your songs before, so you can play songs you've known for years! We have a pretty standard set list, which includes Squire Woods, Baptist Johnson, Swan lk 243, Ashokan Farewell, Kean O'Hara #3/George Brabazon, Sheebeg Shemore (sp!), etc, etc. We use the Sue Richard O'Carolan arrangements a lot because they're easily adaptable, harmonizable, memorizable, etc, etc.

Our second gig is a wedding at a beautiful, small chapel out in the country. We learned the S. Woods Pachelbel's Canon duet for this, as well as the Wedding March, Here's Comes You-Know-Who, etc. I like this arrangement a lot, but sometimes I have trouble in my LH stretching my fourth/third fingers from low G to D and continuing the arpeggio. I have tried changing my wrist position, flapping my fingers in especially carefully, arching perfectly, to no avail. If you ladies know what I mean and you have advice, please, speak up! About 50% of the time my fourth finger hits an adjacent string as I move up, which is driving me crazy. Yes, I could adapt the arpeggio to something that fits better under my hand, but I refuse to let this thing kick my ass!!

I also hope to spend a few Saturdays playing solo at our small town's Farmers' Market. This has seemed to help drive away my once-unconquerable stage fright. No one really seems to be paying attention, and then suddenly a family stops to ask lots of questions and give lots of compliments, and you let their kids try the strings, and I just find it really sweet. Also, the woman who runs the market - such a good older friend that people think she's my mother! - asks all the vendors to give you a small item from their table as a gift for performing for free. Now if she could just stop those motorcycles from gunning it!....One of those days will be my first public performance of O'Ferrell's (sp) Welcome to Limerick, the hardest song I've ever learned because of the trebles, which I love but am not always so great at. I don't find her advice about using your thumb as an anchor helpful one bit! Does Maeve G. use a thumb anchor? It doesn't look like she does.

I have set myself a goal of learning a song-a-week from Grainne Hambly's first book, so as soon as I'm done planning/running a talent show at my school, I'll be all about The Blackthorn Stick. Does anyone else play from this book? Do you have any favorites? I don't love her Fig for a Kiss, which is actually the first song, and I already know the S. Woods arrangement, so decided to skip it.

I'm also looking for non-Celtic music to loosen up my set list. Do you ladies have anything you recommend? So far, things I'd play in public are Ashokan, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and then the Three Easy Pieces by Grandjany.

Whoo, I've written a lot. Time to sit back and wait for your lovely ideas!
Happy harping!

June! Harp Story #3

Of course, this has nothing to do with harping, but we are hosting this little family, a bit anxiously, hoping the two little ones make it.  They are two weeks old as of today, June 6.  Double the size they were last week.  I watched them have bathing lessons today.  To die for.

So.

On with installment #3 in the Saga which I intend to drag out, if you were wondering:

#3 Carolan’s Receipt

The next chance I got (was it a day? a week?) I scampered into a store that sold CD’s, where I found Derek Bell playing mostly solo on Carolan’s Receipt.  It was all  Carolan, whoever he was.....  Of course, not knowing anything, I had no idea how lucky a find this was.   I mean no insult to anyone, but I could have, so easily, gotten ‘new age‘ not the real thing.   I like to think that that ‘made all the difference’. 

In a frenzy of anticipation (somehow I knew) I popped Derek Bell in the car CD player and sat in the parking lot listening.  The first selection was Sheebeeg Shemore. I couldn’t believe the sound of it.  It was as if all my life my ears had been waiting all for this.   I played piano and then, briefly, cello and really, there is something about the harp that is present in both of those instruments more than any others. 

Some tunes had a metallic echoing edge, others had a softer sweeter sound. I read the liner notes.  Wire strung harp?  Nylon strung harp?  Hunh?  You know how it is, you think..... I’ll have some tea..... then someone says.... what kind of tea? China? India?  Assam? Earl Grey? Green?   At that moment I had an inkling of ‘uh oh‘ there are obviously harps and harps and other harps.... like everything if you open up the magical door you step in to a bottomless pit of choices and differences and complexities...

Around then Derek Bell started to play Carolan’s Receipt and that was it.  

Exactly as described by others here, I was bowled over, knocked over the head, blown away:  I have to play this instrument.  I.have.to.  

With the small amount of rational mind left to me, I whimpered:  This is so not like me!

Next up: Enter the Paki Harp!   

My short Harp Story

That Merry Month of May is fast disappearing, with the rest of the year!  Spring/Summer has gotten all bunched up and late winter has revisited, and all the blossoms opened at the same time, and I am behind on paperwork at work...ugh...  So reading your stories has boosted my mood, and I will just say, my first introduction to the Celtic Harp was when my best friend from school came home from college in 1971 with an LP of Alan Stivell- "The Rennaisance of the Celtic Harp"  from Britanny.  I was immediately sucked into the entrancing sounds, and carried back to my love of the Arthur Legends, and mythology, and particular love of Ancient and Medieval History.  I KNEW that, as much as I loved playing my piano, it would rarely have this magical quality to it (and possible portability!) but what to do???  No one in NJ was playing the Celtic Harp at that point!  A few years later, not sure when, I did hear a Patrick Ball album, but that must have been long after finding "The Thistle and Shamrock" radio program on our Public Radio stations. 

Of course, Folk music was very popular in the 60's and 70's, and then the HUGE hit "Riverdance" brought Irish music, and Celtic "stuff" to the front burners....I started noticing the rare appearance of Celtic bands appearing at a street fair north of Philly, then featured at a "Ren Faire" somewhere else. And I KNEW it was coming closer to me, and that one day I would find harp and teacher, and time and money, all at the same moment- and I would play that magic for myself! 

Sure enough, after chasing the degree, and then moving around til we finally settled on a town that became home, I was at the local "Wool Arts Tour" one rainy October day, and heard....yes....a celtic harp being played inside the building!  I followed the sound  almost in a trance into the room where Mary Graham was playing- and, she DID offer to give lessons and she was ONLY 1/2 hour away and had networked with several other harpers who could lease out a harp for short periods, etc!!!  Heaven!!  My first harp was a leased Lyon and Healey Troubador.  Great sound!  Not truly a Celtic Harp but a lever harp or "folk harp".  Moved onto a beautiful bird's eye maple built by David Kortier from Minn....mostly because Mary was acting as a distributor for him and I had no chance to really go far afield and check out other brands.  Big boy but quiet voice.  And finally (?) I fell in love love love with Sue Richard's Larry Fisher harp, and got that last year.  Sparkly on top and mellow down below- I just need to be playing more, and thinking about it less!  Does that make sense?  MUST GET ORGANIZED so rest of life does not keep distracting me from what I want to be doing!

Thank you ladies for ongoing inspiration- hope to meet you all in person some day!  Sharon

How the Harp Found Me #2

(Yes, I'm breaking my own rules, but for this particular endeavour I think it makes more sense to post these separately from my monthly notes.)

#2  So.... what did I read?

I wish I had written down the titles of the books they brought me that day,  but most of them were filled with  ‘the usual’ information., covered in such fine books as the Yeats, listed below. Thus there was plenty of information about the evidence for development of the stringed instruments, photos and drawings of carvings from Egypt and regions of the Middle East.... mostly two, three string curved, plucked instruments - from which all the stringed instruments gradually evolved.   In fact, all cultures have some kind of stringed instrument, along with wind and drumming.  As a child we certainly made music blowing on blades of grass.  Many believe that the bow and the harp have a close relationship - wonderful metaphorically as they both drive straight into the heart.   The most interesting book they brought me, for reasons I cannot think why, was one which showed how, in the late middle ages, once the ‘do re mi’ musical notation system was evolved that monks and others would hide messages in the music.  I spent a magical afternoon thumbing through these books, looking at pictures, reading text here and there until in the middle of all this reading, the lightbulb came on and I thought, What am I doing? Shouldn’t I be listening?

A Short Bibliography:

Story of the Irish Harp and Its History and Influence, Nora Joan Clark

Harps and Harpists, Roslyn Rensch

The Harp of Ireland  Grainne Yeats

The Belfast Harper’s Festival, 1792, and the saving of Ireland’s Harp Music, Edward Bunting

Tree of Strings, Crann Nan Teud, A History of the Harp in Scotland Keith Sanger

Carolan, the Life and Times and Music of an Irish Piper, Donal O’Sullivan

If anyone has more good ones to add, please let me know!

Almost June; How My Harp Found Me

Once upon a time I played the piano pretty seriously. It was my instrument in college, and because I played by ear, it came easily. Once upon a time, I came home from work and played to relax...played my daughter to sleep...played to learn more of the Baroque music I loved.

But then, I just.....stopped playing. I had a beautiful Yamaha school upright, and gradually I stopped playing, and even stopped getting it tuned. We bought an old, old cape way down a dirt road, and I spent time researching decorating and gardening ideas. I missed being a musician, but I was involved as a music teacher, and eventually I sold the piano ( and bought the most beautiful DRDimes chair with the money!). I bought a small virginal, and played it now and then, but I was basically not playing anything. Since I'd had a piano from the age of three, you'd think I'd miss it, but honestly I didn't.

And then one night I went to our local coffeehouse -haha, the one I'm so busy managing now!  - and a lovely woman brought her harp onto the stage. I was so transfixed that I changed seats to make sure I could see her hands. Maybe my Scots ancestry zoomed in on the Celtic tunes. I was afraid to approach the woman, but spoke with her after the concert, and found out a few details.

And then I rented my first harp, a Pratt. I loved the wood and the pillar, but it was a mistake to begin on gut strings when my fingers were so weak. I found a teacher, but she wasn't a good fit, and because I wasn't a beginning musician as well as a beginning harpist, she didn't know what to do with me. So I stopped taking lessons with her and I returned the Pratt. I took a 2-month break, and did a lot of research.

I went to the Harp Connection with a check in my hand, and I asked my favorite saleswoman, Lily, to play me every Celtic harp they had in stock. I don't know, maybe I listened to 20 harps. I was so green, I didn't know to ask the right questions. But boy, I knew the harp I wanted the minute I heard it: rich, a beautiful deep first octave, mellow and serene upper octaves, and a walnut soundboard to die for.

Thank you, Sharon, for introducing me to the Celtic harp, an instrument I never knew I would love so much, and that would fill the empty spot I didn't know I was carrying!

May: How the Harp Found Me. #1

In the story I was writing, an attempt at fantasy, there was a woman who had been put out to sea in an enchanted boat, so that she could not marry the king’s son as planned.  Nobly born as she was, it was also known her mother was a witch from the North and many did not like the idea that she would pass this heredity onto their children.  And so, before the wedding, the kidnapping by a cabal of royal wizards, men who disliked the idea of women practicing magic.  However, there was one (of course) who did not fully believe the witches were such a problem and could not bear the thought of murdering a young and innocent person, and so after she is put in the boat and the other wizards have gone, he casts a spell that puts the boat and the young woman into a state where the boat will be protected and where she will not age.  Then, as with all spells, in order to work have to be breakable, he hid a harp with no strings in the boat.   If she found the harp, could string it, tune it, and play the melody that would shatter the spell, then she would be free.   

After I wrote this, I thought, I don’t know blank-all about harps, I don’t know what they really look like, how many strings, how you would tune it..... not a single thing.  I’d better go and do some research.   So I went to the nearest library which happened to be, at that moment, the main branch of the Philadelphia Free Library, which has an entire room devoted to books and journals about music, recordings and sheet music, and asked for books about harps, their origins and history.  

They brought me a stack.  I picked out the most general one first and began to read.

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In other news:
Once again, I can't seem to get it together until the month is half-way spent, but that is better than not at all......

Meanwhile, I have been playing the harp a decent amount, after all that, working the hardest over Carolan's Fairy Queen, and after that The Blackbird to be followed by The Crib of Perches a set which I was going to play at our bi-annual Among Friends party with a friend (flute) however, she can't attend, so that will have to wait for the fall party.  Also working on Planxty Dermot Grogan a very pretty tune (I have a recording about somewhere .... whistle and fiddle).  I should be brave and play The Fairy Queen at the upcoming Carolan festival in June but..... I hate playing alone, and that is a problem.

Since I missed commenting on your thread Andee - I love the 'play-together' group name - so much nicer than 'harp circle' which I've never cared for.  And I like that you teach other tunes to each other.

One thought I've had from time to time, that may not appeal, or it may, is for one of us to choose a tune for all of us to learn - then if and when we see each other we might have some tunes to play together.  The one whose turn it is could record themselves playing it slow.

Also as I mentioned in a note to Pam I may try to get back to thinking more about music and the harp and writing in more depth about some of the things I think about.  I'll start at the beginning, most likely, with how I found the harp or it found me.  They'll take time to write, so be patient with me!

I'm so happy that you all post even when I am being dilatory!

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!

April has almost slipped away too....

Don't know why I am finding it so difficult to post here - I think it reflects the fact that I am in a bit of a harp slump.  In fact, there is irony here, as the whole reason for having this blog is to help with this problem.  Playing weekly at the hospital certainly helps, but I think my problem is a larger one in some way that I find hard to define.  Not quite so 'profound' (or profoundly stupid) as 'why am I playing this music' because when I play I love it, but because I suspect that my conditioning leads me to always want to set goals so as to improve or progress or some such thing, and I can't figure out, now, what my goals should be.  I would like to find someone who plays another instrument, preferably flute, I think, who would like to work up a wedding/event repertoire, but such people don't grow on trees and land in your lap when you snap your fingers.

Also I am distracted, as I mentioned before, by finishing up this book, which is like the ever-receding horizon.... or the task of Sisyphus.

I am in the spring session with Benedict and Hilarie right now, week 5 of 6.  I think that Brian McNamara the piper will be at class tonight, which should be fun.  (Have to practice up a couple Leitrim tunes, quick!).  They decided we should have a concert on May 9 - just when I planned to be away working on the book so I am waffling and quandery-ing about that.

This is a salamander year, btw, and we have the cutest little yellow spotted critters running about everywhere.   There are lots of 'salamander crossing' signs up on the roads!  (Not official ones, mind you).  Vermont is a funny place to live.

I'll post a photo of one of them when I get it out of my phone and into the computer.

Organizing and Focusing

For April I am really trying to focus and organize.  I am no longer working crazy hours and have more time to practice so that's good.  I am finding it difficult to focus though for some reason.

I have decided to work my way through my Book (Lucy will know all about my book).  It's basically all my Irish tunes (airs, songs, O'Carolan pieces, etc.).  They are arranged by tune type so I am starting with jigs and working my way through.  I am working on each one to bring it back up to performance-ready standard (except for those which I have pretty much lost for the time being) and choosing one or two from each tune type to revive.

I have gotten through jigs and reels so far and have chosen to revive My Darling Asleep for jigs (as well as finishing up learning the two from the workshop last month) and Toss the Feathers and The Wind That Shakes the Barley for reels.

It's now the last day of April.  Beltane Eve!  Anyway, I am still plugging away at my repertoire, reviving and re-learning.  I skipped over polkas and slides (just for now)--haha!

I have also finally made a very big decision.  I told the harp ladies in the performance group that I would no longer be participating.  I did it in the nicest way possible (after all it's all about what I can handle, nothing to do with any one of them personally).  I told them I hoped no-one would be upset with me and that I considered them all my friends.  I hope to see them at the June play together which will be at my house.  The play-togethers have nothing to do with the performance group, it's open to everyone and the person hosting it usually teaches everyone a tune  (which is actually a lot of work!). Also people can generally share anything they want that they have been working on, etc.