> To those of you who have been playing for less than four years - How many
> months have you been playing and how many pieces can you play (i.e. in front
> of an audience, in a public place)? Also, do you have previous musical
> training prior to taking up the harp?
I've been playing since February 29. I guess I have seven or eight pieces
completely memorized, ten or twelve more that I can sight read
efficiently, and other songs I can improvise if need be. My playing
in front of an audience has so far been restricted to playing at a couple
of harp circles, for friends and acquaintances who visit --and
--here's a real challenge--playing for my Grove and playing at my son's
daycare center (my biggest audience yet! ;)). I guess the scariest thing
I've done so far was spending six hours in a digital recording studio at
Berklee School of Music in Boston because a friend of my boss' happens to
be a recording engineer and wanted to record some acoustic instruments,
and my boss said, "Well, I have an employee who plays the harp...." I did
learn some kidsongs for the daycare gig; that was fun, because they all
sang along, and so many of them sang so *well*!
Now, most of the stuff that I can play is very simple. And I'm lucky,
because on the wirestrung I don't have to work with big arrangements. In
fact, most of the things I play have a simple melody line and the bass
parts are in fifths or chords or even simple continuo.
My musical background-- I begged and begged my parents for a piano for
a long time so I'd have a musical instrument to play when I was a kid. In
our town the only way you learned something other than piano was join the
band, and I went to a school that didn't have a band. I sang a lot as a
kid, and most of my father's relatives were country, gospel or bluegrass
musicians, but my father always said that the only time he ever picked up
a musical instrument was to move it off the chair he was sitting on. He
had a lovely singing voice, though.
Anyway, after a call from my seventh grade music appreciation teacher
(who told my mother it was unfair to keep a kid like me from playing),
my mom went out and bought a second hand piano and I started taking
lessons. Pretty soon I was winning awards, but the piano never really
did anything for me. I sang in choruses through junior high and high
school, and because I was finally in a public school, I took up trumpet
just before my senior year in high school, which was fun while it
lasted.
Then I went to Interlochen Arts Academy to study voice. I didn't major
in music in college, although I probably should have. Over the years
I've picked up just about everything but double reeds and been able to
play it.
I started playing the guitar about 10 years ago and I'm still terrible,
so it has flabbergasted and amazed me how quickly my harp playing is
coming along. It's like coming home to the first instrument that's as
natural to me as singing. My hands just seem to know where to go. Of
course, I've never had a lesson, and when I finally get one I'll
probably find out how much I'm doing wrong.
And-- pardon the metaphysical bent-- I'm absolutely convinced that my
harp is changing my life. Since the harp has come into my life, I'm
happier, more confident, and I'm at peace. I completely lose track of
time when I'm playing, even in the middle of 20 grabby four-year-olds.
For the most part I'm an extremely down-to-earth person, but I feel very
strongly that my connection to the harp begins on a spiritual level. I
can't believe I'm saying this. Well, now that I've identified myself as a
complete flake, not to mention talked for far too long as usual, I'll
mumble into that all-too-familiar embarrassed silence.
Blessings and music,
Gwen
Gwen Knighton gwynfyd@max.tiac.net (bard for hire)
knighton@tiac.net http://www.tiac.net/users/knighton (I speak Geek!)
|________________________________________________________________________|
| But the ladies remember it's Whitsun |
| And the ladies go dancing at Whitsun |
|________________________________________________________________________|
| "While it's there, I might as well bite it." -Kevin Kinsey |
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