sausage fingers

Ben Creighton Griffiths is a total star, and there doesn't seem to be much he can't do... including teaching sporting legend and ex Wales Rugby captain, Gareth Thomas, to play the harp for ITV's Born to Shine programme.

I particularly liked the way Gareth said it "was hard to play the harp when you have finger's like cumberland sausages."

Above is a short trailer clip for the show, but you can see a video of Gareth and Ben playing by clicking on this link scroll down the page and click on "Gareth Thomas"

Well done Gareth & Ben !!

Ben has been doing amazing things for charity for years and is a brilliant ambassador for the harp, as well as being a really great harp player.

After a crazy summer where there has been rioting on the streets in the UK, isn't it great to see a positive role model on TV for a young male teenager?

bad gliss notation

Nice typesetting!!!!!

(double click on image for closer view if you really want to...)

So that'll just be 7 bars of hollywood glisses then??

pitch bending harp

Mariano Gonzalez is a very interesting musician playing on what seems to be (his own design) a unique custom made electric pitch bending paraguayan midi harp!

A great video on his website here

Plus a YouTube clip playing with Pianist Bob Rozario and Percussionist Alfredo Albarenga. El Cumbanchero composed by Rafael Hernadez.

check out about 2'20 in after the percussion solo for the pitch bending.

No pitch bending here - but a lovely YouTube of Mariano playing the Recuerdos de la Alhambra

harp congress videos

Trust Camac to come up with the great idea of doing a series of interviews during the world harp congress in Vancouver and posting them on YouTube!

They have a series of interviews with harpists during the congress which can be viewed on their YouTube channel here

A great way to give those of us who couldn't go a flavour of the congress!!

Just one here - Florence Sitruk explaining about her fascinating talk about the Hindemith Sonata

To Pirastro... or not to Pirastro?

I've finally finished my run of operas last night and Billy (the harp doctor) has been round today and just finished servicing my harps and putting on some new bass wires.

I've always used Pirastro wires, but the last few sets of Pirastro I've had on my harps I've been really unhappy with. It's been really disappointing as you use to be able to put on a set of Pirastro and know you were getting really good strings.

When I got my new Iris, it came strung with nylon top two octaves - YUK - I changed those to gut straight away. Plus it had Bow Brand standard nickel wires.

I did keep the nickel wires on the Iris for a while thinking that maybe they would get better, or it was the harp settling in, but in the end changed over to Pirastro wires. The Pirastros were a great improvement for a while, but less than a year on they sounded dead.

For the price a set of Pirastro cost, you would have thought you'd get at least 18 months to two years out of them!

So today Billy has put on new silver wires which he has re-designed with Bow Brand only a couple of months ago, (so not the usual silver wires, super new ones!!!).

I'll see how they settle in and sound in a few weeks....

....at £195 for a set of these new silvers, I don't mind if I only get a years use out of them.

After a lifetime of only ever using Pirastro wires, it will be interesting to see if these new Bow Brand silvers change my mind about using Pirastro.

Harp Summit

It looks like it's going to be an amazing World Harp Congress in Vancouver in a couple of weeks!

As much as I would love to go, I must confess I've never been to a harp congress.

Although I have been to a saxophone congress in Slovenia where I learnt how they made saxophone reeds from scratch, and a Jazz conference in New York where I was nearly mown down by a bunch of enthusiastic jazz supporters running into a concert room trying to get the best seats (don't ask!!!).

Work commitments make it impossible to get away at this time of year, but having looked at the schedule for this conference coming up there are loads of performances I really wish I could go to.

I am really disappointed I won't get to see the performance by Park Stickney and Rudiger Oppermann.

Their CD, Harp Summit is one of my favourite harp recordings. The opening track, Cool Harmonics with its incredible descending chromatic bass lines and stunning harmonics is a track which makes me go "WOW" each and every time I hear it. My favourite though is Conscious Streaming which for some reason nearly brings me to tears each time.

Fingers crossed I can make the next congress, and hopefully see them play live at some point.

being calm

I have had to dig deep into my big bucket of inner calmness lately and have just about managed to get through the last couple of days without losing my temper.

Despite......

• having to sightread a community opera - an unmarked horrendous harp part in open key signature with loads and loads of notes... and accidentals
• having a 3 session day yesterday, enough to make anyone tired and frazzled
• being blocked in the car park at 9.30pm by some silly woman who was refusing to move her car
• being told I could park in a specific space this morning, and then being told by someone else 5 minutes before rehearsal that I had to move my car
• trying to play and watch the monitor at the side of stage so I could follow the conductor for the off stage harp part, only for loads of crew to suddenly stand in front of it and block my view as soon as I start playing
• finding the person who was looking after my harp outside the backstage door whilst I got my car had buggered off by time I got back with the car

I could go on..... but.....

We've now got a dog! She's a retired guide dog, and she's fab. Great temperament, fantastically clever dog of course, and a real joy. Plus she seems to love all the coming and going of our household, being fussed over by loads of teenagers who hang round our house, and seems to enjoy all the music. We are one noisy household with harp, sax, guitar, bass guitar, double bass and piano, it's never quiet for long!

Nothing like a wonderful dog to calm you down. ;-)

Inspiring

I've been running around like a lunatic lately, and have been flinging the harp into the back of the car at ungodly hours each morning for what seems like ages. Much needed day off tomorrow - hooray!!

And instead of feeling frazzled, I'm still buzzing after a brilliant concert by Catriona MacKay & Chris Stout at the Sandbach Concert Series on Wednesday.

What an amazing player with really incredible extended techniques and exceptional musicality! If you have the chance to hear her play live...... do go and see her. Chris & Catriona are an exceptional duo and the audience loved them. Hopefully they will come back and play for us again in a few years.

Lots of my students came to the gig on Wednesday and it was lovely to see how much her and Chris's playing inspired them.

Their latest CD, White Nights is brilliant and I'll be listening to it again in the car on the way to work today.

Laser harp

Ok, so they aren't actual harps....... but have you noticed how laser harps (that are actually built to look like a harp) seem to be popping up everywhere? With lots of science centres now having one.

I've not actually seen one in the flesh, but wouldn't an encounter with one in a museum be fun, and inspiring?

Glen Hill of Mountain Glen Harps seems to be building some great laser harps. Here he is explaining about one he has built for a children's Hospital.

What an amazing and therapeutic thing it would be in that situation. There is lots of info on Glens website about how they work. Essentially it's much like the midi harp in that each "string" triggers whatever is programmed on the software running it, but in this case of course you break the laser beam to make the trigger. Glen also has a blog with some pretty cool pictures of custom harps he is building.

A more traditional laser harp (without it being in confines of a harp shaped box) is nothing new, but I really like this next YouTube clip. Arpa di Luce is a collaboration between Gianpietro Grossi- Laser Engineer, Francesco Murano-Light Designer and Pietro Pirelli-Musician and visual artist.

Hijab Initiation

How about this then!

Hijab Initiation No 2 for harp trio by Amir Konjani

harpists - Claire Iselin, Federica Mossone, Soraya Vermeolen

also a solo harp piece by Amir played by Sioned Williams