Festival High!

Me & Luna have just taken part in a 3 day Harp Festival, & I’m still on a high (just from sheer happiness, not chemically induced!) The festival was in Falmouth, Cornwall, and included various events around the town. For me the highlight was meeting fellow harpists, & watching their amazing performances! I met Alice Wall & Floralyn George (Flora), both of whom live in Falmouth. They have hugely different playing styles, & both were so talented & inspiring. They were also very lovely & supportive! And as a bonus, I’m going to start lessons again soon, this time with Flora. SO excited to be able to take the next step forward to improve & enjoy my playing & composing.

I didn’t expect any feedback on my own compositions that I recently started playing, and have been really blown away by the comments I’ve received. I feel very inspired to keep writing my own stuff…

Advertisement

Blue light makes your strings disappear! Who knew?

Took Luna along to a local songwriters open mic night on Sunday. I felt I could legitimately go & play, as I’ve now composed my first two pieces – a piece called Strange (the lyrics are in my head, but not for public consumption), & Fairy Pools, inspired by a beautiful place on Skye. I kicked off with Strange which went well, & decided to add in a cover before doing Fairy Pools. I thought Trip to Sligo was a good choice, as I can play it fluently & it’s quite lively. Or not, when you’re playing in blue light, & can’t see your strings!! 😱 So I soldiered on laboriously for a verse or two & then abandoned ship, as I could feel myself grinding my teeth by then! I hadn’t realised how much I need to see those strings on a faster piece. Not to be thwarted, I took a deep breath & embarked on Fairy Pools. Really pleased with that one, & it got a good response, so alls’s well that ends well. Now to prepare for the Harp ‘n’ Gurdy Festival next weekend…

Maybe I should start to believe in myself a bit more…

Sent off an audio track as a sort of informal ‘audition’ for busking at the Harp ‘n’ Gurdy Festival in Falmouth in May. For the next 24 hours I pondered on whether it would be deemed good enough to busk there, given the standard of some of the universal artists performing at the festival. You can imagine my amazement when I got an email asking if I’d be interested in performing at the Good Vibes cafe on two dates at the festival, in conjunction with a Breton storyteller! Excited much? Er.. YES!!

The cat’s in the greenhouse (there’s no harp in there!)

It’s rained so much in Cornwall since last night that we almost have a moat around our house. The cats are not impressed with the rain and prefer to be at home in the dry. However, despite the weather, one of our black cats Merlin has decided the empty greenhouse is preferable to the sound of harp practise indoors! I didn’t think it was THAT bad 😂.

I’m working hard on a several pieces at the moment, including My Heart Will Go On (theme from Titanic) & my new arrangement for Hallelujah to accompany local Rock Choir. But I’d probably better wrap up the practise now so Merlin can come in from the greenhouse… 🐾🐾

First post.. a fresh start

Having neglected my blog for quite a while, I decided it was time to start again. So here goes with a new first post!

I started learning to play the harp in 2015 at the ripe old age of 52. After a few months of renting a harp, I bought my lovely Celtic lever harp. Her name is Luna. I’ve already had some great adventures with Luna, including a fantastic day last June when I went to Abbey Road Studio’s & played harp accompaniment on a recording with Rock Choir.

What an amazing experience!

I’m still learning, but I love to play for others, and the sound of the harp seems to give people a lot of pleasure. I have lots of plans for developing & improving in 2018. This week’s challenges include polishing up Stairway to Heaven & learning Handel’s Sarabande.

Yes, I have eclectic tastes in music!