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Audry, thanks for all the information it really helps. I do have the Teach Yourself Irish as well as the Buntus Cainte books and tapes (we used the first one in the class I took and I picked up the full set the last time I was in Ireland).
Definitely no matter what route I take I want to include some kind of real life interaction. I tend to be much better with languages speaking and reading, but listening comprehension is where I always have the most difficulty. That is why I was also thinking Rosetta Stone might help. Anything where I can practice listening. I may write the company to see if they can tell me the dialect.
Anyway, lots of great information and I will look into some of the things you suggested. And again congratulations on the TV gig.
Sounds wonderful. And personally I think the Irish version of Silent Night is one of the prettiest.
By the way, since you are a lover of the language I was wondering if you know of any good resources for learning Irish in the Bay Area? My grandmother spoke it and my father could but almost never did. It was offered at City College in San Francisco
Sid,
Being expected to haul a Concert Grand 12 blocks is unreasonable. You didn’t say if this was a paid job or if this is a volunteer gig with your own church. If you are being paid then I would say it is up to you to find your own transportation, but if you are doing this just as another member of the Choir then someone needs to lend a hand. I would think that of all musical groups a Choir would know how to pull together and help one another out.
As someone else said, I would tell them that if no one can give you a ride then there will be no harp, period.
I once carried a 30 string lever harp 20 blocks in Manhattan and it barely made it. If I had to do that and then play I would have been toast. A concert grand for 12 blocks? Not only hard on you but I can’t see that being a particularly good thing for the harp either. That’s a big monetary investment to be hauling by hand that distance.
Hi Tonie,
In order to post a picture you first need to host it on a web server somehwhere. I have my own server space from my ISP but there are several free photo hosting sites.
Once you have it hosted on a server you need to use HTML to display it in the post. After you write your post check the Edit HTML box in the top right corner of the text body window and it will display your post with all the HTML tags. Put in the HTML code to display a photo from the hosting site. The code is:
<IMG SRC=http://(url of your photo here)>
Then uncheck the Edit HTML box and will see how the post will look with the image showing.
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks again everyone for the kind words. And Briggsie, yes it is new. Shipped direct from Lyon & Healy. In fact when I first inquired they had several ebony ones on the floor. I took about two days to consider and when I called back to finalize the order they had all been sold so I had to wait another month for them to finish the next batch. So it’s so new it hasn’t even sat on the showroom floor.
Learn everything you can about music. Do you know how to read music? Being able to read will give you a leg up when you can start learning to play, so if you don’t get a book on reading music.
Also learn about music theory in general. An understanding of how music works will definitely be helpful. In fact learning to read music and learning the basics of music theory doesn’t even require you to buy a book if you don’t want to (although there are some excellent beginners books on the subjects). You can probably find tons of information on the Internet.
Also learn about the music you are interested in playing. The history, the characteristics, the composers and songwriters who had the greatest impact. Knowing a bit about the music you want to play in an historical and cultural context gives you better insight into performing it.
For now I am working on relearning some of the more chromatic pieces I play on lever harp on the pedals just to get back in to the habit of using my feet. That way I can pay more attention to my feet and my hands basically know what to do without too much direction (except I keep going to flip levers out of habit).
After that I am going to work on some Jazz pieces I have been playing around with arranging but couldn’t pull off on levers. I may also relearn some classical pieces I know on lever harp, but where there are some other great arrangements for pedal harp, such as the Handel Bb Concerto and some of my favorite Debussy pieces.
Thanks Williams. Yes, it’s ebony. I actually don’t name my instruments (I have been called a spoilsport before because of that), but truth is I have a hard enough time remembering peoples’ names. I usually just refer to my instruments by their color. It helps that all my harps are different colors.
Thanks for the ‘inside’ information Sam.
Definitely I can understand the usefulness of the DVD. She plays this one on her Invention and Alchemy DVD and I have to admit to having replayed sections over and over just to try to see how she is doing certain things.
A DVD specifically to show these techniques would be incredibly helpful.
Not yet. We had to wait for the weather to cool off before it could be shipped. It was shipped last night so I should have it before too long. It is taking all my self control to not look up the shipping number every five minutes to see where it is.
Hi Kay,
No, I don’t have a Clio, although I have tried several and like them. The Cleo was on my short list of harps to consider for my next purchase, but I got too good a deal on a different harp.
The only Camac harp I have is the Camac Electroharp (which I love), but I am fond of their harps overall.
Well I find most of these things either in or nearby my own home in San Francisco.
The temperature here does not fluctuate much throughout the year and makes it possible to participate in outdoor activity year round (one of the reasons we always rank near to top of the list of most fit US cities every year).
In addition we are ahead of most of the country regarding green issues.
For a major urban center our air is relatively clean. Our water in extreamly clean.
We have a world class symphony, opera, ballet, and numerous other musical opportunities. Also some of the best museums and other cultural activities. Not only do we have them but we appreciate them. When the new DeYoung museum opened it took months for the crowds to die down enough to be able to get in without a reservation, and when the new science museum opened last week the line on opening day was a mile long. And did I mention the Asian art museum has the largest collection if Asian art out side of Asia?
Anything you can’t find in the immediate area you can find a short distance away. You can surf in the morning and be on the ski slopes by afternoon If you really want.
And for harp stuff there are few places with as much going on as northern California. We have an annual harp festival, many great local performers, teachers, and writers. Chapters of all the harp organizations, and various harp circles and other opportunities. Right now I am sitting on tickets to the International Festival Of Harps, Patrick Ball, and Deborah Henson-Conant, not to mention season tickets to the symphony (where David Rioth is principal harpist and he is a fantastic harpist ).
To me this place has it all and is the most beautiful of all US cities.
I am going to second Barbara Brundage’s arrangements. They are by far my favorites. It was always a chore to find good classical arrangements for lever harp until I found her books. Particularly her transcriptions of Debussy. Outstanding.
When I play them people who have an understanding of music are surprised that I am playing them on a lever harp they sound so true to the original feel of the pieces.
Carl,
Your example of wall eye reminds me of a study done on kittens. Kittens were taken and each raised in a room with only vertical lines for the firsts year of their life. When removed from that single environment they were unable to navigate correctly and when put in a room with all horizontal lines they tested the same as kittens who were blind.
They never developed the ability to see normally after that. The elasticity of the brain decreases with age. There are numerous cases where young people who suffered brain damage were able to compensate over time while adults with similar damage were unable to. The younger we are the easier it is for other parts of the brain to take over for damaged parts, and this gets more difficult as we get older. It is just the physical effects of aging on the brain.
