Happy New Year

I don't think I have ever made a New Year's resolution, let alone kept one. As a mild procrastinator I always left it until after 1 January to think of something and then it was too late. This year I find myself with two challenges and the timing happens to coincide conveniently with the new year. The first, and major challenge is to learn the harp as I have registered to participate in a sponsored 'Grade-one-a-thon' organised in Cambridge to raise money for the Spinal Injuries Association. On Sunday 27 February around 130 musicians will take the grade 1 exam. This may sound easy as most of us have already achieved grade 8 and beyond on our regular instruments but we must do it on an instrument about which we know nothing. It must be an instrument not in the family with which we are most familiar, so for me as a clarinettist it must not be in the woodwind family.

I have chosen the harp, and have hired a lever harp, or Clarsach and the two of us will be spending a lot of time together over the next eight weeks. We start on Monday 3 January as all Grade One-a-bees (as we appear to be known) have an hour long group lesson with a specialist then we must spend the next two months preparing for the exam on our own. We must practise regularly in order to learn learn three pieces and a few scales. We must learn how to read at sight and remember to start work on the aural more than a week in advance. We must also collect as many sponsors as we can along the way. We all take our grade 1 exams on the 27 February and at the end of the day perform in a massed ensemble demonstrating our newly developed skills to friends and family. Currently I am feeling confident and so is the harp. It should be an exciting couple of months and with interesting and informative updates I should be able to meet my second New Year challenge - keep a blog!