I have two ‘gigs’ this month:

A Lessons & Carols service at my church (I’m playing with two friends, one of which is playing the violin and one of which will sing). We are considering different songs at the moment (we have three weeks) but here are some of my favorites:

O, Holy Night
In the Bleak Midwinter
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

I’ve also got a wedding at the end of December. I’m playing through “Maybe” and it is not as difficult as I was expecting. I need to go through and label the higher notes (waaaay above high C) for easier learning, but I expect it will be somewhat smoother sailing from there. I’m also going to be listening to it so I can get the timing right.

There are also several pieces that I want to play & sing, which might be good for that tea party I was thinking about…

“Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from Phantom of the Opera
“Into the West” from The Lord of the Rings
“My Love’s an Arbutus” (the arrangement from “Folk Harp With a Friend” by Patricia Jaeger)

I have played them all but I have not worked on voice/harp together so I am curious to see how that changes my practicing and performance.

So, what are you practicing/performing during the holidays? Any favorite songs?

I’m always excited for Halloween (Costumes! Candy! Halloween movies!), but the past few years I’ve been excited because of what’s coming NEXT: National Novel Writing Month (or, NaNoWriMo – visit nanowrimo.org and join in the crazy!).  Writers all over the globe take part in the November race toward the goal of typing/writing 50,000 words.  I am writing a Young Adult Fantasy novel (as I usually do), and I am highly excited about weekly write-ins with my local chapter.

That being said, I also need to up my practicing — I’ve got a friend’s wedding in December and she has selected a lovely piece – Maybe by Yiruma.

So, I am making two goals for this fall:

1. Write a 50,000 word novel

2. Practice “Maybe” every day, for at least twenty minutes (hopefully more like a half-hour, but my life schedule has been wacky lately), along with some old favorites with a look forward into January where I will begin learning new pieces – hopefully some with a voice accompaniment since my voice lessons are progressing so nicely.

I’m considering doing an afternoon tea of some kind where I can showcase new pieces — which will hopefully put a fire under me to learn them!  Wouldn’t a nice Valetine’s tea party be perfect with some lush harp music?

So, that’s the goal.  Harp practice + writing = Productive Fall

Time to put the finishing touches on my novel plot and strum a few notes on my harp!

Last weekend I was able to participate in a gorgeous outside wedding at Irmo Town Park.  It was shaded and the weather had cooled by the time we got there to set up, and it was perfect.  I have not been to a prettier outside wedding!!  I got to play some great classical and soundtrack pieces (Star Wars! Canon in D!  Two of my personal favorites…!), and it was just nice.

This weekend I’ll be doing two weddings – looking forward to playing the music they picked out as well!  I should hopefully have pictures from at least one wedding this weekend…I know I keep going on about pictures but I always forget to take the camera…

And as for my goals the rest of the summer?

• Learn at least two pieces that I can sing with – and perform!
• Put together a list of songs I want to play with my sister (harp duets!  Violin and harp!  Violin and piano!)
• Compose a new piece – or at least, come up with an idea/theme for one.

I think that’s enough for now. 

I’ll also be brushing up on some old favorites…Forrest Gump’s “Feather Theme”, “Memory” from Cats, and the classic and always-popular Ode to Joy, Canon in D, and Clair D’Lune.

Here’s to three sure-to-be-radiant brides, their loving grooms, and some beautiful music!

(Also, I’m hoping to post pictures soon…Elizabeth and Caspian [my harps] are much too pretty/handsome to not be displayed proudly on my site!)

New projects this year include making business cards (I had some long ago and they were all given out…and I have as yet to make more), a Demo CD (culled from my Christmas project, perhaps?), and practicing some solo pieces for private concerts.  And yes, also preparing for the lovely weddings I’m taking part in – two are very dear friends and several are through my delightful wedding planner friend, Lori (HI LORI!!!). 

I love taking part in weddings.  2011 will be the year I’ve had the most weddings, and I’m ever so grateful.  They definitely help pay the bills and I get to participate in one of the most important parts of peoples’ lives.  I love helping brides choose music, and I do have some really awful (and some really wonderful) stories afterward!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to practice harp every day.  I usually practice every few days but with so much going on, I am feeling the need to keep my fingers limber as well as learning new pieces to add to my repertoire.  I’ve also got fewer hours at my job now (from 37 to 28, which means I get Mondays off, a real blessing since I am the last person who needs to be working a full-time job) which will most definitely help.

Anyway…all of that to say, I am looking forward to several harp-related activities in 2011!  BRING IT ON!

Um, YES???

Not only do I love Saint-Saens, but the chance to work with organ, voice and strings is not often possible for harpists.

I absolutely love working with others on music, but harpists are often solo artists and this makes me a wee bit sad.

So, of course I jumped at the chance to play with them.  Hopefully they’ll be happy to have me!  I’ve got roughly six weeks to learn the Saint-Saens piece and some Carols, so once I move (FINALLY), I will be working my regular job in the day-time and practicing my rear off in the evenings.

What fun!

My favorite holiday is Christmas and this was the perfect present.

I can’t wait!!

Some of them are older pieces I’ve had for a while, that I’ve been meaning to re-learn/memorize, and others are pieces I’ve never played but wanted to learn.

A few days ago, I was practicing and had a revolutionary thought.  It wasn’t revolutionary to anybody but me, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before (I’m completely daft?), but as I progressed from playing a French piece, to a Spanish piece, to a Russian piece, I thought, “These all sound different!”

What I mean by that is…

All of these pieces are classical; BUT they are from different countries, and different composers living in those different countries each had an idea of what a classical piece needed to have.

The French classical piece (arguably one of my favorite pieces to perform) is a light, deceivingly fluffy piece that sounds like an old clock.

The Spanish piece (which is a Pavane) is a stately, strict piece that requires much finger acrobatics.

The Russian piece is flamboyant, complicated, and very long.  It is a collection of Variations on a Theme by Mozart, and although you can tell it’s based off of Mozart, at the same time, it’s very Russian, with its range on the harp, its broad sound, and blustery chords.

I can’t think why I haven’t made that discovery before, but it makes re-learning them very fun as I try to emulate the character of each piece.  An old grandfather clock, a stately dance, and a snow storm.

I have a German piece I’d like to learn (Fantasy for Harp), as well as some Sonatas (I forget where they’re from).  It will be interesting to discover their ‘personalities’!

I’m interested in playing at bookstores/for musical theatre, but as of yet I have not finished my business cards (the font is bothering me) and I do not have a vehicle capable of trundling around my big harp, Elizabeth.

So my harps are sitting at home and I am considering options about how to spend my practice time.

There are some jazz hymns I’d like to keep going through…there are 2 classical pieces I need to finish…and I’d like to try my hand at some Disney songs.  I need to keep up my repertoire as well.

I guess I’m just feeling like I need a gig to get me motivated.  Which is a horrible idea because then I’ll be too stressed out learning new pieces to learn them well.

Maybe I could have a concert for my friends and have an evening of entertainment…A Jane Austen party!  Have friends over for a reading, a movie, harp music, and food!

*runs to the harp to play the theme from A&E’s Pride & Prejudice*

All that to say, I’ve learned to accept this and to continue on with my business without worrying “When will this end?” “Will it ever end?” “Why do I feel this way?” It’s been a long process, but I’ve finally come to terms with having dry seasons, in several areas of my life. As long as I keep following my passions, I don’t feel as if this is a bad thing. Things will come full circle and some day I will return to my love of harp and enjoy practicing just as much (if not more) than I used to.

The last wedding I played at (where I had to learn several classical piano pieces) really took a toll on me. My house has been declared as a disaster area (only by me, thank goodness) because in times of stress, I physically cannot do the dishes or pick up around the house. It’s an outward sign of an inward distress that only ends once the stressful event is successfully complete.

The wedding went well – it was lovely, everything was beautiful – except that there was a song in the program that I had no idea I was supposed to play (it was not on the contract which had been signed months ago). Luckily, the song is a very, VERY common one so I simply transcribed it from memory and played it at the correct time. Although my husband was astonished (and admiring), which was nice, it didn’t seem like a very big deal to me – everybody knows the song, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to pick out a melody and chords, ESPECIALLY if it’s in the key of C, which is what I’ve played it in for years.

This event spurred some walking down memory lane and I was able to see why I didn’t think it was so special – I have three exceptionally talented siblings, all of whom show more musical ability than me. They play multiple instruments each (sister plays violin, piano, & harp; brother #1 plays guitar, piano, & violin; brother #2 plays cello and piano), and my sister can transpose in a matter of seconds.  I was the one who had to work on everything just a bit harder. True, I can sight-read much faster and better than any of them, but that doesn’t count for much when everyone expects you to do that anyway. It was hard for me, and it’s still difficult when I play something with my siblings. It’s a reminder of how much less talented I am and how little I really know.

Seeing my husband’s eyes wide in wonder as I transcribed a simple piece was flattering – not in a bad way, but in a way that I knew he appreciated what talent I do have. It was very sweet.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve been running on empty for so long; I can only go so far with no encouragement. As Mark Twain said, “I can live for 3 months on a compliment” (paraphrased). It’s been years. And finally someone appreciates what I can do, instead of focusing on what I can’t.

Thank you.

“I want Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Clair D’Lune, & that one song by Shania Twain…”

“From This Moment On?”

“Yes!  You know that one?”

“Yes, yes I do.”

Those are the easy ones.  Pieces everybody knows and has played since their first wedding when they were in their early teens.  Seriously.  Everybody knows these songs.

Sometimes, a bride has a somewhat strange request that’s still easy to learn because you know there’s a piano piece.

I’ve been asked to play The Theme from Transformers, The Pink Panther Theme, and Reflections from Mulan, as well as The Theme from Forrest Gump.  These are simply found online, purchased if necessary, and the fingerings were changed.  Not a big deal.

And then there are those brides whose husbands have bright ideas about music.  “Do you know any N’Sync songs?  How about Linkin Park?”  I kid you not, people have asked for these – multiple times!!  Regina Spektor has also made the list, as well as my newest I-really-wish-there-was-a-free-arrangement-of-this pieces I am arranging myself, “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid.

Now, I suppose I could buy an anthology of Disney songs so I’d have most of the ones people will ask for.  But when you have no money, you have to improvise [literally, I'm afraid] and just…pull it out of the strings.

So that’s my project for next month – thank goodness the wedding was booked in advance!

I like making my customers happy as well as getting the chance to learn new music, but picking out a melody and harmony that sound remotely like the orchestra Disney used to perform their beautiful music…that’s a little tricky.

My advice to anyone who ends up in this situation: FIND THE SHEET MUSIC.  Listen to a YouTube of the song while you play.  See if ANYONE has arranged it.  [And make sure the bride/whoever is paying for the wedding pays you for purchasing the music - you're doing it for them, after all!]  And write down your arrangement, copyright it, and start selling it to the rest of us who are searching everywhere for it!

Wish me luck.