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Hi Catherine,
Sorry to hear about your illness. I have my own issues as well and as a matter of privacy, I *never* discuss them online (or even much in the real world). I’m not a performer for other reasons, and those are usually the ones I talk about if people ask. I’m a recording musician and I love it! It’s an entirely different art form from live performing and it allows one to pursue a deep introspection that I don’t think I could have achieved with a roomful of people staring at me. I built my studio in 2007 and released my first album earlier this year. It hasn’t been without its challenges (marketing, sales, etc.) but then concert promotion requires business skills as well, unless you have someone else providing that support for you. Also I maintain a blog and that helps to draw in listeners and get people interested in and a bit more knowledgeable about harp and music in general.
You might be able to make some videos on the days when you’re feeling ok at home and then post those online, either on YouTube or on a website of your own if you have one or in a blog post. You can take breaks as needed and edit in new material later too. It’s one way of performing and also promoting your work.
Btw, you didn’t tell a long sob story. Sometimes folks just take health for granted. Music can be a challenging career choice, even for the healthy. I hope these ideas help, even if just a starting point! 🙂
Best,
SherriI know… it’s like that with everything. You have to advertise it a lot and maybe people will act on it. 🙁
Do you have a website Saul, that you could post it on? Or know of others you could submit it to?
Best,
SherriGood point about the different browsers… I just tried it in Chrome. Looks good there but then my setup is different. Here’s what I have if it helps: Windows XP sp3, Firefox v. 29.0.1 and Chrome v. 35.0.1916.114 m. 17″ monitor. 1024 x 768 resolution.
I haven’t tried it on my iPad yet. Will let you know.
Hi Hugh,
Background color: that was my original suggestion… sorry for any confusion.
Here’s my blog page for color/font reference: http://sherrimatthew.com/wordpress/No, this page shows a crisp white background on my monitor. I agree with everyone the typeface should be darker, black if possible. I would adjust my own blog fonts to black if I could. I just use a cream background on my page because it is for some reason easier on my eyes.
Hi Hugh,
I’m happy with the size. Do you think it should be a serif font though?
And also, do you think the background color should be an off-white or light cream instead? I did that with my blog. I figured it would make it easier on the eyes. Just my thoughts.
Best,
SherriFabulous stuff Marco, you sure do have a lot of Andreas Vollenweider’s style! I used to love to listen to him as a teenager. I’m beginning to think now it’s a good idea to post your musical influences so people can get a good sense of where you’re coming from and not be afraid to click “play”… for me, Enya really defined my sound and her albums taught me how to layer-record. I’ve just started making people aware of that on my site and elsewhere. I used to think “just let your music speak for itself” but you’ve got to get them to click that play button first, so they know what to expect!
And you sure do have a lot of his essence, without being a copy (big difference there). Maybe you could do a blog here on that, how you arrived at your style. Would be interesting reading!
Wow, congrats to all of you guys on your lovely new harps! They look great!
Meg, that’s a great idea photographing your tuning wrenches… (I should have thought to do that for my harp page on my site, didn’t occur to me). Btw, I really like your decorative inlay a lot – what material is it? Different woods?
And Marco, that’s quite the harp! Going to play it with the windows wide open and crank your amp?? 🙂 Seriously though, are you going to be doing some shows where you’ll be able to plug in and present an amplified concert?
Hi Sarah,
I should hook your husband up with George. He’s got a lot of repertoire, and several students at both colleges right now. He started ragtime on the carillon, has a lot of pieces published. Now a lot of people are doing that. Here’s his email address: gmatthew@middlebury.edu if you want to pass it along. He’ll be happy to hear from him, no worries! I remember he told me Frank said he had somebody covering for him, stunt double as it were! With the face mask and costumes nobody knew which performer it was. Now we know! 🙂
Georgie is playing the first movement of the Alan Hovhaness Harp Sonata on the carillons at Norwood, MA, Albany City Hall and Wuertzburg, Germany, and he’s played it many times at Middlebury.
Hi Sarah,
Yes, George knows Frank. They are old friends! 🙂 No, unfortunately, I have to stay home. My parents are aging and mom has not been doing well recently. A few scare calls lately, so I’m keeping an eye on her. She lives down the street from us. (I’m an only child as well, so no one else for back up). And at the same time I do worry about George making the run to Europe as well, since he’s a lot older than me.
Georgie showed me some pics of the Cast in Bronze show in one of the carillon newsletters he gets. I think Frank was doing a lot at Disney world for a time. He wishes he could have a portable like Frank, but it’s a big investment, worse than a harp. 🙁
Only six years? That’s a long time! You can learn a lot in six years! Does he do the costumes and all for the shows?
Hi Sarah,
Like Angela, I don’t have children either and don’t plan to, although I probably still could at 44… wouldn’t care to try this late now, but anyway, I see your husband plays the carillon. My husband George Matthew also plays the carillon! Middlebury College and Norwich University (for 29 years now!) He is about to start an extensive European summer carillon tour starting in July. His website, with tour itinerary, if you’re interested: http://community.middlebury.edu/~gmatthew/index.htm
Just curious, where is your husband carillonneur? They probably know each other! That is a small world! (like our harp world 🙂 Is he a GCNA member?
Irish 25 is still a bit awkward? Will have to take a look at their measurements and compare them to Argent Fox’s. You’ve got me thinking now! (and that’s a good thing). I see their Irish 30 is about 50″ tall.
Yes, I’ve been wanting to do multi-rank wire for a long time, but not until my technique was up to it. This would let me do echoing effects, among other things. My husband was teasing me about how I was going to keep that thing in tune! (and he’s a musician too).
Hey Randal,
Which model did you get? I see on their web site they have the Avalon 26 and the Irish 25. Sorry to hear it’s a bit much that way. That could cause some discomfort in the long run, hopefully nothing serious. Did you come up with any playing work arounds to deal with that? btw, I’m thinking of going with Argent Fox for my next wire harp… will be a lap harp, but double strung! 🙂Hi Randal, I know all about that path! 🙂 How are you enjoying your lap harp?
When I started on nylon, I actually studied wire technique on it. Strange, but true. So I worked out of the books, did the damping thing, although the long ring time wasn’t there for me to hear it, grew my nails, all of that. The problems began when I needed a higher string tension for some of the techniques that demanded a bit of speed. The nylon was just too floppy and I couldn’t get out of the way in time for anything to happen. At that point I had to make a decision to invest in a real wire harp. It took six months for Triplett to build my Luna and while I waited, I kept up my studies as best I could on the nylon, but I’d really hit a wall there. When my new harp arrived, my technique really took a big jump forward, because it was suddenly so easy to do it on the real thing. Like the difference between running fast in sport shoes and bedroom slippers, if that analogy helps! LOL!
