Blazing pedals

Sensible shoes only please...

Definately no wedges or flip-flops!

(double click on image for closer view)

I had thought re-writing this little bit from 2nd act of Intermezzo by Strauss so that you aren't reading enharmonic notes, (my personal pet hate) might make it easier.

Figure 94 in 1.

80+mm per bar!!!

Maybe shoes with little booster rockets are in order?

Locking string onto the tuning pin

A while back I posted some videos which I found online on how to tie a harp string, brilliantly demonstrated by Lyon & Healy technician Steve Moss.

However I only posted his videos on how to tie the anchor knots. Here is the other important end - locking the string on the tuning pin.

I never used to do it this way, but since using Steve's method it is brilliantly simple and straight forward, and better still, really easy to describe.

The quality of the video is a bit fuzzy, but if you listen carefully to what he says it is really simple!

Locking a string on the tuning pin, 0-4th octaves by Steve Moss

Alan Stivell

Wow - great what you can find on YouTube! Footage from 1982 of Alan Stivell with Angelo Branduardi on fiddle.

I've always loved his harp playing. A great (unofficial) website about Alan Stivell here with a page of pictures of all the different harps he's played, plus info about him through the years. Site's in French, but you can google translate it.

His official website here..

electric envy

I see the harp twins have a lovely pair of Lyon and Healy Silhouette electric harps.



I was drooling over the black version of this harp a while back......

.... I did have a quick side swipe at lusting after a see through electric harp

before remembering that I really can't afford another harp until I've paid off for my lovely Iris.

And the bride would like....

lots and lots and lots and lots of requests

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Rock on!

The indomitable Deborah Henson-Conant demonstrating her homework for the Berklee Music Online 12-week course in the guitar techniques of Steve Vai.

Blue Skies

Finally after what seems like months of rain..... blue skies!!

I took the dog for a lovely long walk yesterday along our favourite bridle path and took the opportunity to listen to Sarah Deere-Jones CD Soirbheas.

A really interesting CD of music for harps with aoelian (wind blown) harps. With the ambient noise of these aoelian harps recorded in different parts of the British Isles you also have sounds of the sea, a church bell, thunder as well as the rhythmic beat of a wind turbine. On top of this, Sarah has cleverly weaved celtic harp music & improvisation.

It would be easy to dismiss this CD as another "new age" recording, but it is so much more than that. Taking you to an "other world" it is a beautiful CD that is guaranteed to lift your spirits.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it reminded me a bit of "Peiwoh" CD by Arianna Savall for it's purity of sound.

Definitely recommended - download the CD to your iPod and go for a long walk listening to Soirbheas. You'll feel rejuvenated!

Sarah is doing a concert up at Salt Mills at a harp day at the Early Music Shop in September, put the date in your diary!

Big Bang Theory...

is the best show on television.

And just when you think it couldn't get any better (joy!) they introduce harp playing Amy in Series 4!!!

Hair raising

Just had a lovely (and slightly bonkers) lunchtime, accompanied by my charming daughter in the rather splendid setting of Tatton Park in Knutsford.

I had a call from a BBC researcher 10 days ago wanting me to play some Victorian harp music as a little musical interlude during the filming of the antiques show, Flog It! which is going to be aired some time in June.

Seeing a good opportunity to dig out my costume for my Queen Victoria Parlour's project, I've spent the past week whilst I was working up in Scotland with the RSNO practicing Victorian harp music during the breaks. And also obsessing about what to do with my hair.

After a life time of having long hair, I have recently had my hair cut short. Short, as in, doesn't really successfully tie back into a small pony tail kind of short. And if you are going to wear a rather silly Victorian costume, you have to go the whole way and do something appropriate with your hair!!

Luckily, thanks to google, I found a really helpful wig shop in Crewe yesterday and the very helpful shop assistant found at the back of the shop, a clip on hairpiece in the shape of a large bun :-) Thanks to half a can of hairspray this morning and a dozen clips, I managed to scrape my hair back and attach said bun, so it looked like a formal hair style that could have passed for Victorian.

The fact that in the end, 5 minutes before filming they didn't want me to wear my Victorian dress after all seemed a moot point. I'm now the proud owner of fetching hair piece, and you never know, there might end up being more than 1o seconds of my playing ending up on film and not on the cutting room floor!

My daughter is currently sporting my bun in a rather Lady Gaga sort of way, and as she said to me on the way home - if I bought a matching one, I could wear them on either side of my head and look like Princess Leia. Now there's an idea, a Star Wars solo harp project...... I wonder if there is any mileage in that?

Charlie the Kitten

I found this brilliant teaching book for beginners whilst browsing through the sheet music at that treasure trove of a harp shop in Paris, Le Magasin de la Harpe.

Play the Harp with Charlie the Kitten by Isabelle Frouvelle

I've been using it for the past year for teaching my (very young) students and it's perfectly paced, with a good balance of music theory, little tunes and cartoons.

Each chapter section introduces one technical idea at a time in a progressive way, with a couple of preparatory exercises and then a little tune with fun titles like Charlie goes to School, Charlie goes for a bike ride, A Flea in Charlie's coat etc.

For when little minds start to wander, you can talk about the cartoons on the page as Charlie has lots of different adventures as well little 'spot the difference' cartoons. You can very easily just work through the book in page order, but after about 30 pages in you can start to incorporate into the lessons the duets as well as the more in depth theory and exercises at the back of the book.

For teaching regular weekly half hour lessons, you can cover technique as well as music theory in an engaging way without "boring" the student, or indeed them even knowing that they are doing so. It's an excellent book for teaching young students. Also an added bonus is that you can work from just the one book for some considerable period of time, so students only need to remember to bring one book with them to lessons!

Interestingly enough I've used this book teaching young girls as well as boys, and it has worked well with both genders. Sometimes harp books for young players can be very "girly" with 'twinkly' titles, but this book appeals to both boys and girls.

It comes in various European languages, so make sure you buy the book in the English language version. I haven't found it in music shops in England yet, but it's very quick and easy to order online from the shop in Paris here.

Highly recommended!