Day 21 - 'On-hold' music

Another Sunday and another trip to London and this time I took the car. This meant no reading on the journey but I played the CD that came with the Harps and Harpists book. This was the first time I had listened to harp recital music. There was a wide variety from an arrangement of a Bach Violin Partita to a piece for electric harp and everything in between. It was inspiring yet somewhat disappointing as I can't ever imagine my fingers going that fast or that evenly. First port of call was Palace Band, my woodwind ensemble, and here was a chance to personally thank the members who have already sponsored and a chance to inform those who had not read their latest bulletin of what I was up to. They were all very interested and liked the idea of me taking the harp to a rehearsal. I told them there would have to be a big enough donation though for that to happen! It was a fun rehearsal and I put them through their paces in some recent pieces and we also started some brand new arrangements. Next up was a rehearsal with Ernest Read Symphony Orchestra who are giving a performance of Mahler 10 next week. I'm on bass clarinet and remembered I had thought about advertising my forthcoming concerts here as there are a few in the next month or so. On the way home I put the harp CD on again as the drive out of London can be a tad stressful. Arriving home I unloaded my car got a few minutes practise in before dinner (all prepared by Chris today. He's very well trained y'know!). I had a donation from Barbara G (one of the four or more Barbaras at Palace Band), a clarinet and saxophone player and the 10 minutes before dinner was for her, as was the 10 minutes afterwards as they were both quite short sessions. As this was the last session of the week, and that I knew I had beaten my weekly practise record I took it easy and after playing a scale and arpeggio with the metronome set at 72 played pieces. I had a phone call from my sister just as I was finishing. I asked if she wanted to hear a tune so she switched to speaker phone and the three of them listened to Swedish Folk Dance. The applause at the end was deafening although I wasn't sure if this was because they enjoyed it or just appreciation that I had finished and they could go and watch Top Gear. She said it sounded like the music you might hear when you are on hold on the phone. I think that was meant as a compliment. All in all another enjoyable day. Roll on week 4!