The Instrumentalists Thread

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Sorry! Had a crazy last two days.

The lesson went sooooooooooo well. I had a ton of fun! The only thing is the girl was CLEARLY anxious about me. I don't know if I made her nervous because I'm tall or what, but I kept wanting to say, "Calm down, I'm not going to bite you." I had a hint from our email exchanges that she seemed like the nervous type, so I went in very "calm" (as opposed to my typical cheerfulness) and by the end of the lesson she seemed to calm down a little... not sure what her reaction to my full personality would have been.

That is strange! o.0 Good thing you toned it down

The things that give me SOOOO much trouble have to do with piano. I am not used to "placing" my hands for phrases the way you have to for harp... it's a totally different mind-game from "fingerings" for piano. Then I want to put my thumbs down with my other fingers, like you do in piano, but I have to keep my thumbs up.

What did I tell ya?! Those are the two most difficult things to do, but the two most critical things to do - that's why I said take lessons RIGHT NOW BEFORE YOU PLAY THE HARP AT ALL!!!! (or did I mention the thumb spacing? I don't remember ... but yes, that's hard!) The placing thing is even harder than the thumb thing - totally unnatural, but wow, does it work!!!! Stick with it!

I think I surprised her at a few points... because three or four times I got into that musical "groove" where you suddenly aren't thinking, and everything works. I'd be moving slowly through the song, making sure I had the right strings (luckily from all my years of piano/penywhistle/singing/guitar/STUFF I can read Bass and Treble cleff without thinking, so I always knew what pitch I was aiming for, just trying to remember which string was which pitch)... and then all of the sudden I'd just play two measures in a row without stopping or thinking... and then I'd be looking for notes again. It's like, "I THINK HE'S GOT IT!... Okay wait, he's looking for "A" again..."

Good for you! You're definitely musically talented