My interest in all things harp is infectious and I now have various friends and family informing me of harpists they have seen, or lending me recordings or letting me know about concerts. Chris's mum Judith sent me a link to a jazzy performance by a harpist called Catriona McKay. Apparently she was on BBC 4's Transatlantic Sessions and Judith had to let me know. She plays on a lever harp, not too dissimilar to mine. That's certainly exceeded my expectation of what my harp is capable of! On the way down to Palace Band this morning I played a CD of the Mozart Flute & Harp concerto lent to me by Jim, who brings granddaughter Georgia to her clarinet lesson once a week. It's one of his favourite pieces and has become one of my (very) long term projects. Many band members showed much more of an interest today, now they realise how serious the project is and I have promised them a performance at the next rehearsal in two weeks time. After band I went along to a Cambridge Camarata rehearsal. The programme for the orchestral concert next week is Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart and it was a real relief to play some classical pieces rather than the more modern Milhaud and Mahler of last week. I received another non-line donation from Nicki at band so this evening's session was dedicated to her. Nicki was another of my guinea pigs, er I mean participants for my study and chose to play the clarinet after hearing Mozart's clarinet concerto some years before. Even these days this Mozart is still a popular chap. At home we rarely get disturbed during Top Gear as both sides of the family know not to ring then so I set aside 40 minutes to practise and 20 to write up the blog while Chris was safely deposited in front of the telly. I wasn't too sure what to do at first so played the exam pieces and a few of the very easy ones from the start of the First Harp book. I've decided I ought to learn a new tune and try to get it up to the same standard as the others. At the moment I just play through and if I know I don't have to perform it I won't work too hard. I settled on Bluebells of Scotland as it has a few chords in. I had a little look and will start work properly tomorrow. I also had a look at the sight-reading examples provided by Rohan. The first few I found easy-peasy and I am sure I would cope, even under pressure. However the last one was twice as long as the others and had two hands playing all the time so it may be pot luck on the day as to what sort of test I'll get. I finished with La foret mysterieuse and realised I was actually feeling quite tired. Oh well, this time in three weeks it'll all be over!
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