Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Emma, that fiddle guy was so cool…but what if you don’t know the piece the phone is playing? I’d be OK with Fur Elise…. At first, I thought he was just going to stare him down. That’s probably what I’d do.
Both of my harps I bought new….back in the day, there was always a 3-yr waiting list for used. What I didn’t think of at the time is this:
If I were buying, I would want a new one that had been on the showroom floor for at least a year and had already had its first regulation. I figure the sound would be mellowed out a bit by then…and I would ask for a discount because it was a demo.I think the piece is nice and would lend itself well to improv, as I suggested above. I wish someone would throw that one at me!
IMO, she should NOT double a string part. That’s a single line. The harp needs harmony…like two hands worth. Think keyboard without the little fingers…i.e. four fingers on each hand. Chords here and there would be nice. Maybe a few arpeggios in the slow section. A glissando at the end of a phrase works well…just not too often, or it’s overdone. Maybe others have more ideas, but that’s essentially the way I do improv.
Doesn’t look like anyone’s keen on this…and my response will not be what you are looking for. The “donating” I’ve done was playing at nursing homes for several years when I was a rookie. I went out once a week, going to all the area homes. I didn’t do it out of the goodness of my heart. I had terrible stage fright, and it helped immensely to have a fail-safe audience.
Aside from that, early in my career, I was duped into playing a couple of events “to get noticed, to get known, etc.” Someone told me he had seen me playing at _____’s house party. Well, I had never been there, but I knew the name. I backed him into a corner asking for a description of the harpist, and he agreed it could not have been me. Trouble is, those people were the ones who had me play one of those events, for free, so I’d get known…but they had paid someone else to play their party.
After that, no more freebies. I work too hard and have too many thousands of $$ invested in equipment to play for free. Everyone wants money from me…the grocery store, gas station, electric company, etc. for their services, and I want money for my services.
That’s just my viewpoint, of course. If anyone wants to donate, maybe they feel that would be appropriate for them.
If it’s a rental, the strings might be old. Who has to pay to replace them…you or LH? I’ll bet it’s you.
I wonder if the bench is heated, too. There is something down there by the bench, but I can’t tell what it is.
Donna, I had to laugh (not really funny!) because that happened to me once. I went SPLAT right on my behind….really awkward getting up again. They don’t understand it has to be a SLOW process.
Usually, some macho man comes up when I’m loading into my station wagon, but I just tell them they’ll throw me off balance if they hold onto it…and I’ll lose my loading muscles if I let someone else load for me.
I guess I’m too old to care. True, I seldom get referrals from those others I send work to, but that doesn’t stop me. I still refer.
Neither does price. I charge what I charge, and if I don’t get the job, I wasn’t meant to play it. In contrast, when I was young, if someone called and didn’t call back or schedule, I was heartbroken.
I just try to take the high road. I get a lot of work from my own referrals…people or places I’ve played for before, or people who have heard me somewhere.Oh, they will say Syl is negative again!! I looked at the links. I see there are only two, and they both have the harp on the left shoulder, which I think was in vogue at the time in the British Isles…. and arms on the board to anchor. There will be exceptions to everything, and of course I wouldn’t discourage a blind harpist.
The PA I saw at RS was not big. I’m still using my two amps…so far, so good. I tried a Fishman, but it didn’t pick up much…not nearly as well as my Marathon 30 or RS 20.
I worked five summers on Begin the Beguine. (I was still working at the school during that time.) I can play it now, but for some reason, it wouldn’t stick.
