—by Federica Creta, Italy

I was playing a gig with my concert grand pedal harp, and a man approached and started asking questions about the harp. They were the usual questions about how many strings the harp has, what the pedals do, and so on. 

Suddenly, he looked at the harp in confusion and asked, “Where do you hide the speakers that play the accompaniment music? Inside the harp?”

Momentarily confused, I soon realized what he was saying. He thought I wasn’t playing all the notes. Maybe he had heard too much music? Surely I must be using some sort of backing track to play along with.

He was absolutely astonished when I showed him that it was just my bare hands playing the instrument. Incredible what we can do on a harp! •