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Many people choose to use a third party service – soundcloud.com is a good example. You upload your mp3 file there, and then you can post a link to it so people can listen.
Yes thats the one. I’ve not tried it with Skype, but its a microphone, it should work with any program that requires a microphone. For some reason they always say “manufacturer refurbished” on the advertisements and yes that is scary, but you get a guarantee like you said. Condenser microphones draw power from the PC (or an internal battery or another source) to work, whereas dynamic microphones (which you are probably more familiar with) don’t require it. They provide in most cases a better frequency response than a dynamic microphone, which means they can give you a clearer, cleaner recording – all other things being equal.
If you get one and it works but you don’t like it, I will buy it from you, I’m sure I can use it here for something, one more microphone never goes astray.
You can pick up a M-Audio usb mic with little stand and pro tools recording software from ebay for about that. Its a large condenser microphone that should record harp well. Very good value.
I’ve not used the mic but I use M Audio preamps in my studio which are excellent and have only heard good things.
If the wind is so strong that it is blowing over a music stand outdoors (other than a cheap wire one that really isn’t suitable for gigs anyway), I would think twice about playing the harp in that area.
I don’t use a stand at all, but I’ve seen some players put a weighty sheet of see through perspex over the music to stop it from blowing off the stand.
Age is not a problem, but time is. I tell all my adult students that they are probably in a better position to pick up the skills than many younger students because they are possibly more focused, motivated and experienced enough to relate the skills to something they already know.
Where you run into problems is that to do this, you need to either give up something else or do less of something else. Simple as it sounds, many adults refuse to make that simple compromise and as a result get nowhere.
Give it the time it deserves and I”m sure you will do well.
No you aren’t too old.
Learning to read music before you start certainly isn’t a bad idea. I will probably get shouted down for saying this, but it might be a good idea also to pick up a cheap keyboard. Its one thing reading music and another thing playing it. Just learning some rudimentary keyboard will give you some hand eye co-ordination skills and help develop the hand and finger independence you will need.
It will also give you an idea if you have the patience and the concentration required before you get into the deep end of financial committment.
good luck with it – I really hope it works out for you.
adamOn a related note, a question I get asked alot (regardless of which harp I am taking out) is “did you make that yourself?”. Again its probably a size related kind of question, but the people that ask that obviously don’t know the first thing about me. In high school all the other kids were onto the next thing when I was still making the candle stick holder. And my candle stick holder never looked as good as all the others. And the candles wouldn’t stand up straight.
I say no I didn’t, but somebody did. If asked if its homemade, I say I daresay it was made in somebodies home.
Its a difficult one isn’t it and what you should do probably depends on an extent to the type of show you are playing. Of course in a concert situation I’m sure most people would understand that its inexcusable, so what you are talking about here really are background music gigs. If its background music that you are playing, I think that its ok to stop mid piece and talk to the people. You can bring the piece to a graceful halt or just stop mid note if you want to make it clear to the person that is interupting that is exactly what they are doing, interupting.
Myself, I can handle a fair bit of conversation and still keep playing. If its persistant and intense conversation I just stop. I try not to get annoyed about it, I figure I am still providing entertainment but in a different way. If there are a number of people hanging around obviously waiting for me to play I will close the guy down (and it usually is a guy) sooner rather than later.
Pretty girls can interupt all they want and I’m not particularly fazed.
Can’t help with the cell phone thing sorry, thats just rude.
Frank each harp varies in its centre of gravity so it would be best that you get instructions for the particular instrument you have.
I use a musicmakers knee bone for one of their lap harps and highly recommend them. I am not familiar with the design of your harp but I imagine the knee bone could be used in a wide variety of harps and would not be difficult to modify (by you) if you required that.
