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I’ve really never had a problem with a client, but occasionally with small agencies (not that they won’t, just that they take forever), and dishonest staff people.
For example, I once played a dinner at a very exclusive development, and they weren’t half done when my time was up, so I asked the Maitre d’ to find out if they wanted me to stay overtime, since it was crowded and I would have had to disrupt a lot of guests to get over to him myself.
He was gone a long time and then came back and said to stay. Luckily, I left a message on the agent’s answering machine about the overtime as soon as I got home, because the client called to complain the next morning. The louse from the club had told the client I would only stay if they paid the overtime up front in cash and had pocketed that money himself. I don’t know how he thought he’d get away with it.
On another occasion at this same establishment, I was hired through an agent by a resident to play for a party, but when I got there, the club had hired someone else and wouldn’t even let me come in to tell the client about it.
Of course the agency saw to it that I got paid, but the client was pretty steamed to have to pay twice. That time the Maitre D’ got fired.
Well, you know, Carl, the one thing I’d take issue with is this:
>A bad teacher in point of fact can’t really play the instrument very well him/herself.
I’ve known people who were incredible players who weren’t much as teachers, probably because they never had to struggle while learning.
Well, you know, Carl, the one thing I’d take issue with is this:
>A bad teacher in point of fact can’t really play the instrument very well him/herself.
I’ve known people who were incredible players who weren’t much as teachers, probably because they never had to struggle while learning.
Well, you know, Carl, the one thing I’d take issue with is this:
>A bad teacher in point of fact can’t really play the instrument very well him/herself.
I’ve known people who were incredible players who weren’t much as teachers, probably because they never had to struggle while learning.
Yes, it’s such a hoot. A humble little working class cottage and a big fancy style 11 (I think–something shiny, anyway). She’s always talking to the kids through the strings and there’s a voiceover i one scene about thanking God for various things, including “the harp in the parlor.”
That’s funny, David. I looked at it and thought, “Oh yes, I’ve seen that before–it must have been in one David Ice’s presentations. ” 😉
Sherry, your link gives me a 404 error. I think you left something off the end, but I’ve tried all the suffixes I cant think of and none of them work (the search on their site is crashy).
Yes, I’d totally trust someone like him, since he knows all about harps and finishes adn such. I wish he had more pictures of his soundboard work on his site.
Well, the risk level varies to some extent on the type of harp, too. I wouldn’t hesitate to jump in on a harpsicle, for instance, but I’d be terrified of a pedal harp, and even for the prelude I sat there with the sandpaper in my had a very long time asking myself, “Are you SURE you want to do this?”
It was fun, though, except that you need really strong back muscles to rub out Deft if you don’t have a spray booth available.
Of course, if you know a good furniture person you trust, they could probably do the finish stuff at the beginning and end for you, but I’d want someone I was very sure was very skilled.
Yes, I like Pamela Bruner’s designs, too.
I should say that you can just rough up the existing board finish and paint on that, depending on the medium you choose, but there are two problems with that:
1. the design will look like it’s floating, because it is
2. You still need to put something over the painting to protect it (especially if the artist uses gold) and that means that if you don’t subtract some finish before you start, you will have a thicker coat of finish on the board when you are done, which could possibly affect the sound quality somewhat.
It’s not a total no-no, but it’s very hard to get the finish off and replace it to look right. Years ago Natalie from L&H told me that they sometimes would send harps out totally finished except for the board, to people who wanted to have an artist paint the board.
I painted my prelude’s soundboard and it was a tremendously difficult job, first getting down to somewhere near the wood (the finish is very thick) and then rubbing things out when I got the finish put back on. I’m not the world’s greatest artist, either and it was very hard working on the board on the harp (when possible, real artists like to have the board off the harp). The trickiest part was the gold lining, though.
Of course, you would actually pay L&H more for an unfinished board than for a standard harp with a decal, I think.
