Dan A. wrote:
I'd be at a loss if I tried to play a harp!
The first time I ever put my paws on one - this was many, many years ago - I was repelled as if I'd received an electric shock. But that's an easy reaction when you already have another instrumental direction with which you have experience, skills, and motivation. Take that away, and the game changes: A beginner is a beginner is a beginner. The only difference was that I knew intuitively that I'd take to flute and whistle like a duck to water; I never had that with harp. But I work on it only for myself without any audience yet in mind, so with the pressure off, there is only practice. Expectations are pretty distant, so the rest is discovery. I do want to be able to play/accompany Xmas tunes for family gatherings, though. With harp, that's almost a requirement.
fatmac wrote:
I think you should keep an alto/mezzo whistle handy, just in case you get frustrated with the strings, (or break some).
What I get frustrated with first is my damned fingers. Second is the patterns. But these things aren't complicated; they're just different. It's only a matter of familiarity and habituation, and that's where I'm at at this time. It'll be a while before I can play well enough not to have to think much about it if at all, to say nothing of doing so on the fly. Occasionally one wishes one had the learner's advantage of being in one's early youth, but there's no time for that waste of energy.
When I put aside my instruments everyone was aghast and said, "But what will you DO?", as if my identity were at stake. Trust me, it ain't. So partly to get them off my back, and partly because it was too late in the game to take up fiddle, and partly because I'd long lost interest in sessions and public performing, for a Tradster the harp presented a most sensible choice; besides, I'd always wanted to be able to play melody and accompany it at the same time. Anyway, when they heard this news they were aghast all over again, with "
HARP!?!?" being the first thing out of everyone's mouth. Jayzus. I just can't win.
If I do get whistles again, they will probably be a C and/or a Bb. I lay odds that the first tune I'll automatically come out with - or at least try to - will probably be Banish Misfortune. Now because of this thread I feel almost obligated to get one, just so I can try it and report back.