Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
It’s a car you rent by the hour. You pay for an annual subscription and are then able to use any available cars in your neighborhood or wherever you need it. You reserve the car online and use your membership card to open the door (the keys are inside). It’s very convenient in places where you don’t need to own your own car (I live in DC) but just need a car sometimes. Sinze I sold my car It’s how I get my harp around when I need to take it somewhere. I also use it to get to lessons sometime if my schedule for
Alice, it’s great you mentioned the Final Fantasy music. There is definitely a niche that would love music like that in a wedding (or anywhere for that matter). I’ve heard of some orchestras doing performances pieces from the Final Fantasy scores to large and enthusiastic audiences.
Which reminds me of a recording a fan put up of her rendition of “Lament of the Highborne” from World of Warcraft, in which she sings and plays the instruments including harp. Not a great one for a wedding though, if any guests understand Thalassian (and if the couple requests it, there’s a good chance a few would).
Bowed strings can be fun to play. I played viola before taking up the harp and for a while after. I only quit because I moved where there wasn’t an amateur group that fit my skill level (all either really serious, or low level that I wouldn’t have found challenging), and I wanted to have more time practicing the harp as much as I I thought my goals would require.
If you want to play in an orchestra, the bowed strings play almost nonstop, and the violins play some of the most difficult parts (lots of fast runs etc.), so you’ll have a lot of practicing to do to learn the music
Julia,
I have a Venus Diplomat and a Thormahlen Cygnet. I play in a community symphonic band and in church.
I love my lever harp but prefer playing pedal more. I like the smoothe, big, rich sound and have used the low bass wires, especially in octaves, more than I expected. And I don’t like flipping levers but the pedals came easily when I finally got my pedal harp.
Sometimes I do like the lighter, bright sound of my lever harp and of course it’s easier to take places.
I bet that lutes are still mostly used with period construction and volume since it’s largely an early music instrument, while both harps and bowed strings have gotten brighter/louder/MOREMOREMORE!!! over time, which could be part of why the lute would get drowned out, especially if the orchestra is
Congratulations. I don’t play for money but also refer to my playing opportunities, occasional church services and community band concerts, as gigs. I treat them as seriously as if they were paying me, and prepare, show up on time, find out when to start and stop, play my best, and generally try to make sure they’re glad I played and want me to play again.
I’ve found that simple pieces, besides being safer to play if you’re still learning like I am, can be very effective if they’re good arrangements and played with a pleasant tone. The music minister at the church where I’ve played said my playing at one service had “presence but space.” In many settings you don’t need to overwhelm them and a really busy piece or a flashy glissando party can sound like distracting noise in the wrong setting.
This article seems appropriate in this thread.
I’m sure there aren’t a lot of potential car buyers for whom “boxy” is a good adjective, but we’re among them. I just Googled it – love!
To echo Sarah’s comments, an advantage of a school without a well-known conservatory is that non-majors get more access to instructors and ensembles. Even schools without a music major at all usually have
If you search with “harpmobile site:harpcolumn.com” in Google (without the quotes) you should find some threads discussing various cars. A Toyota Prius will fit a concert grand (barely) but if your daughter is very tall it might not fit her at the same time. When I tried one myself, the only way I could fit it and me was by loading base first, which is quite strenuous since you have to lift the entire harp off the ground. On the plus side, your daughter would be in great shape in no time. Different harp models
I’d check with both the music program and the teachers. If the music program is large enough to have a graduate school, undergraduate non-majors would often be assigned a graduate student, though the faculty can usually take on some non-major students if they choose. Of course if the teacher knows the student and wants to teach them, the chances of this happening are much better. At Indiana I knew of several voice faculty members who taught non-majors as well, including some of the major ones. Often these students were voice majors who left to do another degree, possibly music theater or something related, and stayed in the studio. I boldly approached a few of them about taking me on as a non-major, and they were gracious and James King let me sing for him and sang a few notes for me while I felt his diaphragm, which was quite interesting since he had such a powerful voice, and even in his 60s at point blank range the sound was almost overwhelming.
That’s funny about the Brightman/Bocelli song. Interestingly, the original Italian version of it is wedding acceptable, “I will go (i.e., set forth/depart) with you; countries I’ve never seen or lived, now I will live there”.
Donna Summer actually did a nice dance cover of it a few years ago with a rather liberal English translation that is also goodbye-free.
