share your music history?

[deb-l]

forgive my curiosity, what other instruments have you played in the past, what do you play currently and what is your primary instrument?

My first in grammar school was recorder, I loved it so much, was given a solo for May day!

[Sylvia]

I did not play any other instrument before harp (pedal), and I started lessons at a university when I was 20.

[deb-l]

not too long at all, thanks for sharing your experiences!

[jessica-wolff]

I started playing guitar in the early ’60s, harp in the late ’70s, and banjo in the mid-’90s. I’m largely self-taught on folk guitar and banjo, but I took lessons on classical guitar and harp. I’ve had long hiatuses of not playing, but always came back to it. I love plucked string instruments above all others (well, duh!) but enjoy the differences between the three. (The banjo, for example, is an inherently cheeky, sassy, in-your-face sort of instrument, and the technique for what’s called clawhammer is as counterintuitive as you can get.)

In a desert-island sort of scenario, I’d pick the harp.

[kay-lister]

Been playing piano since I was 6 years old (now 55), fooled around a little with guitar and flute.

[Sylvia]

Deb,

[steven-todd-miller]

My interest in music was always the harp since I was 5, but as fates work their way I played oboe and English horn on a symphonic level. I received a college scholarship and was solo English horn with our regional symphony performing with such greats as Peter Nero, Alicia de Larrocha, Ransom Wilson, and Isolda Jones. I had awesome solos as we played “Symphonic Dances”, “New World Symphony” and Ravel’s “Scheherazade”. I was really good- I had this incredible English horn with an ultra-dark mysterious tone made in Czechoslovakia in the 1920’s that actually had a low B flat key (unheard of these days). I got my first harp when I was 15 and my passion for it only grew as I felt I was spinning my wheels on dead-end double reeds. I finally made the harp commitment and ditched the woodwind world forever- selling my English horn to a museum in Germany. I have never regretted it for a day.

[rod-c]

Deb:

This question is easy for me to answer. My music history before playing harp: none! I didn’t even read music!

[Ken H.]

Hi Deb!

[David Ice]

Hi Deb,

I had enforced piano lessons as a child, and violin lessons up to 8th grade.

[deb-l]

that’s very much the reason I started playing music again Dave.

[John McK]

I’ve owned and played a lot of musical instruments. . .

[shelby-m]

Hi Deb!
Our neighbor plays flute in the community band.

[harp guy]

I started learning music when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I had been asking my parents for a flute for quite some time but they thought a recorder would be a better idea. Neither of my parents played recorder and no one we knew could, so I took the beginners book and taught myself. After a year they got me a flute. I started taking lessons with some kid at the local high school. She only wanted me to learn a page in the book a day, but I wanted to go faster, so I quit. I taught myself until I could join band when I was 12.

When I was 13 I went to an all state competition and the judges said I needed a good private teacher. My parents disagreed and wouldn’t get me lessons. So I gave up on flute for a bit. That’s how I found the harp. There was one of the little ‘Paki’ harps at a local music store. I rented it, then got a Musicmakers (and later a Lyon and Healy). Because my band director couldn’t teach harp (obviously), I was able to take lessons and I progressed very quickly. I would have been a harp major in college, but I couldn’t afford a pedal harp. So I decided to major in flute instead.

I found a teacher. Paid for the lessons myself, and got myself to my lessons (still in high school) at 7am (only time slot available in the teacher’s schedule). And the rest is history! I progressed very quickly and now I’m auditioning for very competitive graduate schools. Harp is still very close to my heart and by big stress reliever. Nothing soothes my soul more than sitting behind my harp at the end of the day and playing a few things.

[John McK]

So what’s the hidden connection between flute and harps?

[Author]

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