Nomi is coming back

I received an email yesterday from Nomi and she is coming this and will be here for the summer.I think I wrote about her but I will recap. She studied here for a year a few years ago. She studied on a big pedal harp for I think 7 years. Towards the end of her stay she found me and played on my harp Big pedal harps are not so easily transported so she had been harpless for almost a year. Although she had studied for years, and had beautiful technique, she had never played by ear or really done any improvisation. I showed her some things in that area and then she got a folk harp to have a more portable one. The last night before she left to go back she brought her harp out and we had two harps playing on Ben Yehuda. It was really wonderful. I hope she will be bringing her folk harp. Either way She will be playing on Ben Yehuda some. either her harp or mine. I am anxious to see what she has done with the improvisation.

Cloud Nine

Last night was so good I am still on cloud nine. I wish I was better with words so I could convey better what happens sometimes on the street when I have my harp there. Also that I can remember things better. Last night was so full I'm not sure I can remember everyone that played my harp. If ever you are one of the ones I let play and I don;t mention it or don't convey it will please don't think badly of me. I try and I do the best I can.

Last night was purely magical.I know I can't remember every one that played, but K was there and because I didn't have my violin I played along with her on my recorder. I've never really done backup with recorder that I can remember so it was a new experience. I don't have the confidence on recorder that I do on violin. Well, she was playing Pachebelle chords and I started playing and I was amazed at how easy it was. It was fun too. I'm really going to try to do that much more. Also, of the three instruments, the recorder is the easiest on my arms. But I can still overdo it on recorder so I still must be careful.

Well, along came these 3, two guys and a girl, Atam , Hagai, and Hila. Atam had a guitar and said he played Flamencco guitar, and they all studied at Musrarach (I must check on the name, that's not exactly right, but it id the Arabic music school nearby-over the years I have had many young people tell me they were studying there.) Atam (I will call him that until he comes back and I get his name straight- it was a new name for me and I don't remember it.) Well, Atam sat down and started playing on my harp and it wasn't long before this most beautiful sound was coming out. Now, the harp is always magical, but Atam's fingers just added to that magic. After a while I started playing my recorder with him and that was really fun. and people were enjoying it. Then he stopped a minute and attention was brought to Hila's violin, which I hadn't noticed before. She was a bit shy, but we convinced her to play a bit, and she played very well. The violin was tuned in Arabic tuning GDgd, and when after a few minutes Hila didn't want to play anymore, she let me try. I had never played a violin in Arabic tuning before so it was very interesting. The lower two strings are the same, the higher two are tuned down one whole step. It actually was very easy to play. I just did some improvisation and I think it sounded a bit Arabic. It was sooo much fun. After a while Atam joined in and we played together for quite some time, just jamming, then Hagai joined in on harp and it was just beautiful. Just a blanket of beautiful music. Well, good things usually end sometime and it came time we had to stop, but I would have loved to have gone on all night. They promised they would come back, and when they do I will get my violin if I don't have it and then there will be two violins. I will, of course, tune it to Arabic tuning. That will be such fun. We talked about videoing something for you tube so you will be able to see it. Something to look forward to I hope.

First Lesson

A number of people played last night. One of them was a young girl who comes every so often to listen to me. She said she had no musical training so last night she had her very first lesson. I think she may be hooked.

Who do I let play on my harp? Not just everyone. Anyone who comes up and asks to play gets an immediate answer of NO. I more quickly let a musician play, but that is not guaranteed. I must first talk to them and get a feel of them. I do not let rude or pushy people play,

Harp is OK

Liza has finished my harp. It was more complicated than she thought because there was glue in the rivet that was causing the problem. She had to actually take the harp apart a little to fix it
But she didn't get to me till 11 PM on Sunday and Monday morning is my earliest morning so I have been tired all week
The good thing besides the harp being fixed is Liza went over with me some things about adjusting the harp myself and now I feel more confident about it.And the harp will sound better on the street.

Why are other people playing my harp so much now?

couple with guitar
young man from Golan

I'm trying tp let other people play my harp more because of pain in my arm from playing too much.I have fibromyalgia, so if you see other people playing a lot you know why.
There was an Israeli couple with a guitar, they both played guitar and so I let both of them play on my harp. It was nice what they did. I believe they now have harp fever, something people get when they play on a harp, and then they start dreaming about harps
A nice young man from the Golan also played. He did not have so much musical training. It seemed to have touched him very much to play on the harp.

Texas Harpist

Last night I really didn't feel so much like going out to play but I did anyway. I'm still very tired fromthevisit of the harp doctor, combined with the problem I'm currently having with my arm. But I'mvery glad I went because Diane from Texas is here. She's going back Friday so If I wasn't out last night I would have missed her. Diane is a harpist and I met her on her last trip to Israel 2 years ago.

The Harp Doctor is Here

Liza is back in the country for a week only. She is the harp technician from NY that the harp circle helped to bring here last year in January. She came for one week and there was so much work she ended up staying 3 and regulated all the harps in Israel that needed it.

She made a house call Thursday morning to help fix a problem with a rivet and then, instead of just regulating my harp, she is teaching me some things so I can adjust it myself. With all the moving, taking it out to Ben Yehuda almost every night, it gets unadjusted quite easily, between that and the weather, there is always something that doesn't sound right.

Harp, Violin and Recorder

Thursday night a young lady was there and said she played the violin so I let her play mine and she played quite lovely. Then we were going t try to do something together and there was this young man who said he played recorder, so I gave him mine and he played very well, so the three of us played Yerushalayim Shel Zahav(Jerusalem of Gold) together and it was fun and beautiful.
Also K. was by and we played together, me on violin and her on my harp. Too bad she is going back to the states in July.

K

K stopped by tonight and played. Which was good because my arms were hurting. She has been here for a number of months and has a harp back in the states. I let her play my harp and she plays it very nicely. It is very obvious from watching her she has studied Her hand position look good .

Jewish Harp Music From Israel

I had an inquiry about where was the best place in Israel to get Jewish music arranged for harp. I was very happy to tell him about Sunita. For those of you who are interested, Sunita lives in Israel now (originally from the states), and she has arranged lots of Jewish music for harp. She is a very accomplished harpist, both lever and pedal harps. She does tours in the states as well as other parts of the world, doing both concerts and workshops. She was the harpist for the Jerusalem Symphony one year.

There is a link from this site to Sunita's web site. Just scroll down to recommended links.

Two Guest Harpists Tonight

I had two guest harpists tonight, both from California. The first
is here with Birthright and has studied pedal harp for 8 years. As with most harpists who are used to playing on a pedal harp, she was not sure she could play anything without pedals I told her to play arpeggios, which she did beautifully. Then I showed her some chord progressions that she could improvise to and she did quite well for someone not used to improvising.
Ari was the second one. He was on a class trip. Ari plays cello and is planning on studying to be a conductor. He had never played a harp before so I sort of gave him a brief beginning lesson. He really seemed to enjoy it.

A Visit From Eilat

While I was playing a group of young people stopped to listen. From the second group, I learned they were from Eilat. Three groups altogether. I played songs they knew and told them a bit about the harp. The seemed to really like it.

Playing for Momi

I am not so good at writing but I will try yo get better, and who knows, with practice......

Anyway, so many times I really want to write something and it's hard to get to it. But tonight was really good and I must get it written. A certain lady comes by and sits and listens and sometimes she has her cat with her. Very sweet, white, named Momi I found out tonight. Momi is 18 years old and is carried on a cloth cat basket of sorts. Well, tonight i got the lady to put the basket on my carpet while I played. Momi likes music. Well, after a it she turned and was facing me, or my harp, and it really looked like she was listening to me. Her ears were pointed forward and she was really paying attention. It as so neat. I hope she does it more and I hope to video it.