My wife (Mrs Ptarmigan) plays her 24 string knee harp, in local sessions with us every week.
Now she does play the odd tune herself but most of her time is spent accompanying the music and I just wondered how common this was.
It certainly adds a very different sound to that of the usual Guitar & Bouzouki.
So do you have a harp player in your session?
If so, do they politely wait for a quiet moment & then slip in a relaxing planxty or air?
Or do they rattle out the reels & jigs with the rest of you?
We used to, he was great, but he moved north to the Boston area. He was ambidextrous, he could play the airs in a way that took your breath away, and he could also accompany and play the melodies of jigs and reels.
We have a wonderful harpist at our sessions. She's great at both playing melodies and accompanying. Jigs, reels all types of tunes, except the planxty and airs. She doesn't really care much for that much O'Carolan and the like, although she can play them beautifully.
We had a great harp player, Gerry Vesey. He made his own harp out of chiken wire strung over two old wooden coat hangers nailed to half an old wardrobe. He would sometimes strum the strings with his teeth, and got a great sound out of them.
He could also simultaneously whilst playing into the harp pee into a range of bottles filled with varying amounts of fluid, althought he would have to get a volunteer from the audience to hold and aim his lad. It made a very effective set of chanters to accompany his harping. The peeing harpist, some called him.
Gerry died after having a stroke in 1996.
Yeah guys, I reckon having a Harp in your session adds a touch of class to the proceedings and creates a slightly different ambiance to that created by the presence of a Djembe, Cajon or Shakey Egg!
The young harpist Harriet Earis once turned up in Oxford & played some mental tunes.
Enough jibes at shakey eggs! It's taking sweets off children. I'll start playing it out of contrariness & insist that the boundaries of the instrument can be expanded.... more seriously, I wonder what a really versatile percussionist could do with Irish music? Even if bodhran & feet are Best it'd be interesting to hear.
Hey, joking apart & on percussion - did you ever see Coolfin live S1obhan?
Wow!!!!!!
Now there was a rhythm section!
COOL WAS the word.
I nearly wet myself!
When those guys spent ages laying down a vibe for Sharon, or McSherry to come in on - I just thought I'd died & gone to heaven.
Donal, you are a genius!
On the shakey eggs, I'd say their boundaries should be exploded!
Coolfin no I haven't; I must get a CD to add to my measly collection... also feel a bit 'fick' because rhythm guitar & many other instruments perform a percussive function without being something you hit with a stick.
It's just I've been reading about Evelyn Glennie, & also been having ideas about getting a little Lambeg drum...!!!
Nice to see Harriet Earis getting a mention.
She is the harpist in the band I also play in, Siansa.
She is a terrific player and graces any session as she does know some amazing tunes (and she's written some crackers too).
Well S1obhan, Coolfins rhythm section consisted of a Drummer with a FULL kit, a percusionist with everything around him, (yes, I swear I saw a kitchen sink in there too!), a great Electric Bass player in between them plus Donal Lunny himself twhacking the bjeasus out of his Bouzouki - & I kid you not it was absolutely brilliant!!!
The stuff musical orgasms are made of!
Can I say that? Och well it just popped out - as they do!!
There are a group from SCAT in Aberdeen, "Harpies" I think who sometimes turn up mob-handed, three of them.
S1obhan mentioned Evelyn Glennie which gives me a chance to repeat the story from when she recorded a sesssion at the Prince of Wales a couple of years ago, for a TV show. She was sitting there patiently while some arhythmic knobheid thumped away endlessly on a bodhran.
I mean, man, the world's greatest solo percussionist sitting across the table, could you not just give it a rest for *five f@@king minutes"!!!
We have a guy who plays a small harp at our session, sometimes, when he's not playing mandolin, tenor banjo, or singing a bawdy song (or drinking a pint--yep, he's a busy guy). He does a nice job on Carolan tunes. He said that his harp isn't a "celtic harp" (it was made in Pakistan, I think) but it sounds good to me.
Hey, I don't know about them all, but Mrs Ptarmigan has one of those little Harps from Pakistan.
It cost less than £300 & apart from some initial work on the half-tone keys it's been great value for the past three or four years now.
Far more practical then those usual sized free standing jobs you see folk playing. They are an ideal lap size which means she takes up nop more room than anyone else round the table, & the volume from them is not overpowering.
My harp is a real harp - the early Irish harp. It's a model of the student Trinity, a guy called David Kortier makes them for the Historical Harp Society of Ireland (www.irishharp.org), and it's portable. 29 strings.... Just because it's not huge doesn't mean it's not a real harp.
I used to drag a lap harp around and play alongside, back when I didn't know many tunes up to speed on the fiddle.
I'd just play drone notes and diad, the rippledy chords, yr supposed to play don't fit. I never did go in for that waterfall cr^p. I have been in sesh with harp players that indulge in it, and it's just a lot of noise, like spoons and S.E.s.
The golden, shining sesh was once when the only other people to show up had were a piper and a bodraniste. We played everything the piper knew (about 1.5 hr ( I don't know how to convert that to metric)) then the picked up the whistle...
GREAT CRAIC!!! and we nearly drowned in the Black Stuff.
I gravitated away from it for a number of reasons, mostly stemming from trying to do it the "Proper" way. Looking back I realize that even the Alpha Fiddler doesn't have as many free drinks magically appear as an average harper.
Might be time for a rethink....
Actually my response was partly tongue-in-cheek too, but mainly for the sake of people who would like a harp but think only of those big gut-strung ones. Every opportunity to emphasize that the other sort exists! Sorry if it came across as a rant...
Well, as a result of a weird synchronicity involving this thread and one in the parallel universe over at C & F, I spent much of yesterday browsing harp sites instead of doing my lesson planning.
I want a Gothic harp. Now. Those "bray pins" are just too cool. Sounds like it would actually fit into a session decently too. I wonder if one could have sharping levers installed on a Gothic harp.
You can have hooks (not levers) installed on the Gothic harp. IIt is not authentic but it is physically possible. I looked at a large Gothic harp based on an 18th (!) century model--it has a full harp sound, plenty of strings and the maker said he could put in the sharping hooks-- the real advantage is that it is much more portable and can taken rucksack-style on the train.
No I don't have 3K either, alas--
Wowza. . .a response to something obscure as a question on Gothic harps.. .
I've been checking out makers on the web. . . not cheap. MOst of them seem to be in Germany except for Lynne Lewandowski.. . but she doesn;t publish price lists. DO you have a sense of which makers are reputable?
The ultimate session harp would be tuned to D with an extra string for Cnatural instead of Bb. .. that would be fun.
Used to play harp - a 32-string Witcher 'Celtic' - in quite a few sessions in the NYC area years and years ago, mostly accompanying, with the occasional Carolan tune or slow air when someone would ask for a solo on the harp. Then it sat gathering dust for over a decade, but took it out and dusted it off and am trying to get back up to speed again, and also to learn to play more dance tunes at - or as near as possible - to tempo. I missed it. Awkward to get around with, though - just fit in the trunk of the car, heavy to carry and tough to find a spot in a session.
I think the sound of the harp, with the resonance and harmonics, is gorgeous in a session with all the other instruments. And they are making some really great-sounding small harps now, with a lot of tone.
I drive a Honda Civic Hybrid, so my back seat and a good chunk of the trunk are in fact batteries for the electric motor. So that imposes a somewhat fixed limit on the size of anything I can take in the trunk or back seat, which doesn;t fold down.
Duh! Never heard of a 'ROOF RACK'? I played with three Polish Guys & we toured around the cafes of West Berlin, busking, and travelled from cafe to cafe in a V W Beetle (is there any other kind?). Anyway, the instruments all came with us, including the Double Bass which used to stand with head, neck & part body sticking out through the sun roof. So, please don't make such FEEEBLE excuses!
Quite correct 'drin'. The answer for sessions is a small 'Knee Harp' which takes up no more room than any other instrument & actually less than a Guitar! I agree that they add something special to the session sound.
It's also good to have one of the ancient Irish sounds in there too. I wonder, have you played a metal strung harp too. Probably not too practical for sessions but boy is that 'olde worlde' sound evocative!! Bit like the Hammered Dulcimer effect, without the HUGE resonance of that instrument, unless it's fitted with dampers.
Anyway, good luck with getting back into the session groove with your harp.
Is this old by now? But I am a harp that plays in sessions!!! I'm in with all the harp players and theres very few of us about who wud play in sesssions. Its quite hard work playing the tunes, though that wat i do most, because if you accompany u have to keep it interesting and everyone prefers guitar accomp anyway, so i dont bother competing.
Och 'Angel', that's a sad story. You must have some ignorant, ill mannered types in your session. I think there's nothing nicer than a harp tinkling around amongst the other sounds of the session.
I'm all for loads of different 'voices' at a session & to be honest, far too many guitar players these days treat the thing as only a rhythm instrument, to them it is simply a bodhran with strings - subtlety is the enemy for them!
They are only interested in beating the bejaysus out of it.
So I'd say forget about them, if they don't have the manners & common sense to see the value of a harp in their session, they don't deserve to have a session!
Let's start a campaign for 'MORE HARPS AT SESSIONS'
I play harp at session, both tunes if I know them but more often accompaniment. I agree that the tinkly waterfall stuff doesn't work, it lacks enough punch. Often I am drowned out, not the other way round. I tend to do stuff like off beat chords, or play bass strings very low so they push out more. As long as your very rhythmic you can get away with a lot.
The only thing I find frustrating is that the tunes that fit under the fingers of harps, real harp tunes aren't common tunes so if I start one I'm often on my own.
I've played the wire-strung harp for about ten years, but I've never attended a session. I'd really like to. . . at this point I think I could keep up, but I doubt I know many of the right tunes.
What should I learn; where should I start? How many different tunes should I know? I have about thirty performance pieces, and plenty more that I could fake all right, but they are mostly planxties & aires, &c. I'd hate to show up somewhere just to take away from everyone else's playingtime.
I sat in on my first sessions at a harp festival. All I could do was sit in awe and be an active listener. The players were: Kim Robertson, Kerri Zwicker, Sue Richards, Seamus Ganges, and Aryeh Frankfurter--and others, like me, who were just blown away.
I wish there was a list of session standards; though, this site recommends you look at the "most downloaded" tunes.
There is a short video that shows this session on YouTube under Big Sky Folk Harp Festival.--Lisa Lynn put it together.
Something to aspire to.
Do you have a Harp in your session?
Do you have a Harp in your session?
My wife (Mrs Ptarmigan) plays her 24 string knee harp, in local sessions with us every week.
Now she does play the odd tune herself but most of her time is spent accompanying the music and I just wondered how common this was.
It certainly adds a very different sound to that of the usual Guitar & Bouzouki.
So do you have a harp player in your session?
If so, do they politely wait for a quiet moment & then slip in a relaxing planxty or air?
Or do they rattle out the reels & jigs with the rest of you?
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
We used to, he was great, but he moved north to the Boston area. He was ambidextrous, he could play the airs in a way that took your breath away, and he could also accompany and play the melodies of jigs and reels.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
We have a wonderful harpist at our sessions. She's great at both playing melodies and accompanying. Jigs, reels all types of tunes, except the planxty and airs. She doesn't really care much for that much O'Carolan and the like, although she can play them beautifully.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by RogueFiddler
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
We had a great harp player, Gerry Vesey. He made his own harp out of chiken wire strung over two old wooden coat hangers nailed to half an old wardrobe. He would sometimes strum the strings with his teeth, and got a great sound out of them.
He could also simultaneously whilst playing into the harp pee into a range of bottles filled with varying amounts of fluid, althought he would have to get a volunteer from the audience to hold and aim his lad. It made a very effective set of chanters to accompany his harping. The peeing harpist, some called him.
Gerry died after having a stroke in 1996.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by howsshecutting
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
ROTFLMAO....
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
We do not have a regular harpist in these parts but I have had the pleasure once or twice. NOthing like playing a fast dance set with a good one.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Yeah guys, I reckon having a Harp in your session adds a touch of class to the proceedings and creates a slightly different ambiance to that created by the presence of a Djembe, Cajon or Shakey Egg!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
class? Away to the conservatory with you
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Some of the lads drink nothing else but I'll stick with the Guinness, I find lager too gassy.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Bernie
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Conservatory? Is that like some kind of high class name for a bog? (toilet)
Hey come on now guys, stop messing up my serious thread!
You know I wouldn't do that to your threads!
Do it again & I'll take away your privilages!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
The young harpist Harriet Earis once turned up in Oxford & played some mental tunes.
Enough jibes at shakey eggs! It's taking sweets off children. I'll start playing it out of contrariness & insist that the boundaries of the instrument can be expanded.... more seriously, I wonder what a really versatile percussionist could do with Irish music? Even if bodhran & feet are Best it'd be interesting to hear.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by S1obhan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Hey, joking apart & on percussion - did you ever see Coolfin live S1obhan?
Wow!!!!!!
Now there was a rhythm section!
COOL WAS the word.
I nearly wet myself!
When those guys spent ages laying down a vibe for Sharon, or McSherry to come in on - I just thought I'd died & gone to heaven.
Donal, you are a genius!
On the shakey eggs, I'd say their boundaries should be exploded!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Give me a year or two, and there'll certainly be a harp joining in our sessions....
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by tumeltyni
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Good Luck tumeltyni!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Coolfin no I haven't; I must get a CD to add to my measly collection... also feel a bit 'fick' because rhythm guitar & many other instruments perform a percussive function without being something you hit with a stick.
It's just I've been reading about Evelyn Glennie, & also been having ideas about getting a little Lambeg drum...!!!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by S1obhan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Nice to see Harriet Earis getting a mention.
She is the harpist in the band I also play in, Siansa.
She is a terrific player and graces any session as she does know some amazing tunes (and she's written some crackers too).
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Lucky, Lucky you Geoff!
Well S1obhan, Coolfins rhythm section consisted of a Drummer with a FULL kit, a percusionist with everything around him, (yes, I swear I saw a kitchen sink in there too!), a great Electric Bass player in between them plus Donal Lunny himself twhacking the bjeasus out of his Bouzouki - & I kid you not it was absolutely brilliant!!!
The stuff musical orgasms are made of!
Can I say that? Och well it just popped out - as they do!!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
There are a group from SCAT in Aberdeen, "Harpies" I think who sometimes turn up mob-handed, three of them.
S1obhan mentioned Evelyn Glennie which gives me a chance to repeat the story from when she recorded a sesssion at the Prince of Wales a couple of years ago, for a TV show. She was sitting there patiently while some arhythmic knobheid thumped away endlessly on a bodhran.
I mean, man, the world's greatest solo percussionist sitting across the table, could you not just give it a rest for *five f@@king minutes"!!!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Bren
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
We have a guy who plays a small harp at our session, sometimes, when he's not playing mandolin, tenor banjo, or singing a bawdy song (or drinking a pint--yep, he's a busy guy). He does a nice job on Carolan tunes. He said that his harp isn't a "celtic harp" (it was made in Pakistan, I think) but it sounds good to me.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by tuckered out
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Man, a har would be fun as a 2nd instrument. How much does a non-Asian (AKA decent beginner's) model run for a solid lap harp?
The problem with a "real" harp is the portability issue (and cost :()
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Hey, I don't know about them all, but Mrs Ptarmigan has one of those little Harps from Pakistan.
It cost less than £300 & apart from some initial work on the half-tone keys it's been great value for the past three or four years now.
Far more practical then those usual sized free standing jobs you see folk playing. They are an ideal lap size which means she takes up nop more room than anyone else round the table, & the volume from them is not overpowering.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
My harp is a real harp - the early Irish harp. It's a model of the student Trinity, a guy called David Kortier makes them for the Historical Harp Society of Ireland (www.irishharp.org), and it's portable. 29 strings.... Just because it's not huge doesn't mean it's not a real harp.
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by tumeltyni
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
I'm never done telling Mrs Ptarmigan that very thing tumeltyni - size isn't everything!
It's not about how big your 'Harp' is, it's how you use it that counts!
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by tumeltyni
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Um. . . the "real" part was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. . . but apparently that wasn't clear. My mistake
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Rap thy self on thy knuckles wormdiet!
There, there poor tumeltyni.
Was the nasty worm rude about your big harpy warpy?
# Posted on August 29th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
I used to drag a lap harp around and play alongside, back when I didn't know many tunes up to speed on the fiddle.
I'd just play drone notes and diad, the rippledy chords, yr supposed to play don't fit. I never did go in for that waterfall cr^p. I have been in sesh with harp players that indulge in it, and it's just a lot of noise, like spoons and S.E.s.
The golden, shining sesh was once when the only other people to show up had were a piper and a bodraniste. We played everything the piper knew (about 1.5 hr ( I don't know how to convert that to metric)) then the picked up the whistle...
GREAT CRAIC!!! and we nearly drowned in the Black Stuff.
I gravitated away from it for a number of reasons, mostly stemming from trying to do it the "Proper" way. Looking back I realize that even the Alpha Fiddler doesn't have as many free drinks magically appear as an average harper.
Might be time for a rethink....
# Posted on August 30th 2005 by Owell Mabee
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Actually my response was partly tongue-in-cheek too, but mainly for the sake of people who would like a harp but think only of those big gut-strung ones. Every opportunity to emphasize that the other sort exists! Sorry if it came across as a rant...
# Posted on August 30th 2005 by tumeltyni
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Well, as a result of a weird synchronicity involving this thread and one in the parallel universe over at C & F, I spent much of yesterday browsing harp sites instead of doing my lesson planning.
I want a Gothic harp. Now. Those "bray pins" are just too cool. Sounds like it would actually fit into a session decently too. I wonder if one could have sharping levers installed on a Gothic harp.
Anybody have $3K to spare?
# Posted on August 30th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
You can have hooks (not levers) installed on the Gothic harp. IIt is not authentic but it is physically possible. I looked at a large Gothic harp based on an 18th (!) century model--it has a full harp sound, plenty of strings and the maker said he could put in the sharping hooks-- the real advantage is that it is much more portable and can taken rucksack-style on the train.
No I don't have 3K either, alas--
# Posted on September 4th 2005 by La_grotte
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Wowza. . .a response to something obscure as a question on Gothic harps.. .
I've been checking out makers on the web. . . not cheap. MOst of them seem to be in Germany except for Lynne Lewandowski.. . but she doesn;t publish price lists. DO you have a sense of which makers are reputable?
The ultimate session harp would be tuned to D with an extra string for Cnatural instead of Bb. .. that would be fun.
# Posted on September 5th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Used to play harp - a 32-string Witcher 'Celtic' - in quite a few sessions in the NYC area years and years ago, mostly accompanying, with the occasional Carolan tune or slow air when someone would ask for a solo on the harp. Then it sat gathering dust for over a decade, but took it out and dusted it off and am trying to get back up to speed again, and also to learn to play more dance tunes at - or as near as possible - to tempo. I missed it. Awkward to get around with, though - just fit in the trunk of the car, heavy to carry and tough to find a spot in a session.
I think the sound of the harp, with the resonance and harmonics, is gorgeous in a session with all the other instruments. And they are making some really great-sounding small harps now, with a lot of tone.
# Posted on September 9th 2005 by drinharp
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
I drive a Honda Civic Hybrid, so my back seat and a good chunk of the trunk are in fact batteries for the electric motor. So that imposes a somewhat fixed limit on the size of anything I can take in the trunk or back seat, which doesn;t fold down.
# Posted on September 10th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Duh! Never heard of a 'ROOF RACK'? I played with three Polish Guys & we toured around the cafes of West Berlin, busking, and travelled from cafe to cafe in a V W Beetle (is there any other kind?). Anyway, the instruments all came with us, including the Double Bass which used to stand with head, neck & part body sticking out through the sun roof. So, please don't make such FEEEBLE excuses!
# Posted on September 10th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Quite correct 'drin'. The answer for sessions is a small 'Knee Harp' which takes up no more room than any other instrument & actually less than a Guitar! I agree that they add something special to the session sound.
It's also good to have one of the ancient Irish sounds in there too. I wonder, have you played a metal strung harp too. Probably not too practical for sessions but boy is that 'olde worlde' sound evocative!! Bit like the Hammered Dulcimer effect, without the HUGE resonance of that instrument, unless it's fitted with dampers.
Anyway, good luck with getting back into the session groove with your harp.
# Posted on September 10th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
I wonder if anybody have ever had to use an instrument trailer to haul all their crap around to a session....
Wire-strung harps . . . what a sound. COmpletely in a different class than most instruments today.
# Posted on September 10th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
Is this old by now? But I am a harp that plays in sessions!!! I'm in with all the harp players and theres very few of us about who wud play in sesssions. Its quite hard work playing the tunes, though that wat i do most, because if you accompany u have to keep it interesting and everyone prefers guitar accomp anyway, so i dont bother competing.
# Posted on September 14th 2005 by harp-playing-angel
Another name for a 'Stringed Bodhran'?
Och 'Angel', that's a sad story. You must have some ignorant, ill mannered types in your session. I think there's nothing nicer than a harp tinkling around amongst the other sounds of the session.
I'm all for loads of different 'voices' at a session & to be honest, far too many guitar players these days treat the thing as only a rhythm instrument, to them it is simply a bodhran with strings - subtlety is the enemy for them!
They are only interested in beating the bejaysus out of it.
So I'd say forget about them, if they don't have the manners & common sense to see the value of a harp in their session, they don't deserve to have a session!
Let's start a campaign for 'MORE HARPS AT SESSIONS'
# Posted on September 18th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
I play harp at session, both tunes if I know them but more often accompaniment. I agree that the tinkly waterfall stuff doesn't work, it lacks enough punch. Often I am drowned out, not the other way round. I tend to do stuff like off beat chords, or play bass strings very low so they push out more. As long as your very rhythmic you can get away with a lot.
The only thing I find frustrating is that the tunes that fit under the fingers of harps, real harp tunes aren't common tunes so if I start one I'm often on my own.
# Posted on May 16th 2007 by telyn
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
I've played the wire-strung harp for about ten years, but I've never attended a session. I'd really like to. . . at this point I think I could keep up, but I doubt I know many of the right tunes.
What should I learn; where should I start? How many different tunes should I know? I have about thirty performance pieces, and plenty more that I could fake all right, but they are mostly planxties & aires, &c. I'd hate to show up somewhere just to take away from everyone else's playingtime.
# Posted on May 22nd 2007 by lighthouse
Re: Do you have a Harp in your session?
I sat in on my first sessions at a harp festival. All I could do was sit in awe and be an active listener. The players were: Kim Robertson, Kerri Zwicker, Sue Richards, Seamus Ganges, and Aryeh Frankfurter--and others, like me, who were just blown away.
I wish there was a list of session standards; though, this site recommends you look at the "most downloaded" tunes.
There is a short video that shows this session on YouTube under Big Sky Folk Harp Festival.--Lisa Lynn put it together.
Something to aspire to.
# Posted on January 16th 2008 by Megan Coffin