Reply To: Background Music Suggestions

[natalie-wagner–2]

Dear Kristen,

Background music is my absolute favorite thing to do! No pressure from a stage. 😉 You can play whatever your audience wants, which sometimes means your picks. I have had people amazed that the Star Wars theme can be played on the harp. I play a dinky little arrangement I created after figuring out the melody by ear. I played a concert for local youth, I was up on stage alone for 15 minutes. I swear I threw up in my mind! And out of all the pieces I played, STAR WARS was what everyone remembered months to even a year afterwards!

I also love video game music. I learned Serenade of Water from Legend of Zelda and Dire, Dire Docks from Super Mario 64 by ear too (this is all of my aural training sadly. Three songs. *sigh* ). People enjoy these because both are very soothing and ‘harpy’ sounding. Only my boyfriend recognizes them but they work extremely well as repeatable instrumentals.

Sylvia Wood’s Groovy Songs of the 60’s and Lennon and McCartney for the harp are both great too, haven’t met anybody who doesn’t love hearing Let it Be or House of the Rising Sun yet.

Background gig music is just fun! I’m hoping to get a regular job playing at a restaurant soon, and if I do I’m actually looking forward to requests.

God bless you!

— Natalie