Herut played a song last night

I wrote about Herut on September 5th. She was out tonight and is now living in Jerusalem. I let her play my harp and was happily surprised at how well she did. I believe she hadn't had any musical training. She played a few songs and is coming along nicely. On Sept. 5 she had not actually gotten her harp yet so she is a very new harpist. I look forward to seeing her progress. I have invited her to come play once in a while. I hope sometime she will bring her harp, then we can play together with two harps.

Harp And Pipa - details of the album

These are the details so far. My original tracks and Diaguo's compositions do not have names yet. They will be added later.

1) Diaguo on Chinese wind instrument and Pipa

2) Harp - original composition

3) Harp and Pipa with drum

4) Harp and Pipa with bass guitar

5) Harp original composition

6) Harp Shee Big Shee Mor

7) Harp Greensleeves

8) Harp Scarborough Fair

9) second take of tract 2


Now I will talk in more depth about each tract.

1)

Harp And Pipa - more about the recording

very soon I will write more details about harp and pipa and it's recording, Please check back.

Diana from Texas - Never give up

Diana's words,

"I was so touched to hear the beautiful and soothing music that Muriel was playing on her harp. I asked her how I could compensate for a missing finger and she encouraged me to persevere to learn, which I am going to do."

Diana was tying to learn guitar and was discouraged because of a missing finger on her left hand. That is the hand that normally does the fingering. I told her about the boy at my collage who played trumpet and bass guitar. I do not remember hes name. I did not really know him. But I saw him play his bass guitar one time in a recital. Total amazement. On his left hand he had a thumb and an index finger. I think it may have been a birth defect but I'm not sure. Well, he did more with those two fingers than most people do with a full hand.

Then I told her about two videos on you tube that I ran across. One is a woman in China. It showed her planting rice in the rice paddy, washing herself and dressing, cooking a meal and eating. The thing is, she had no arms. She did everything with her feet.

The second video was of a young man in Wales, busking (playing on the street) playing guitar and singing. He had to sit because, you see, he too had no arms. He was doing it all with his feet. I had to see a few videos before I could believe he was actually playing, but he was. See it for your self. Here's the link.


Sorry the link didn't work. Till I find out why, you can go to my youtube channel. It is on my group, Buskers from around the world. There is a link on this blog and then click on groups, and then the buskers group.

Guest Harpist from California

Two nights ago I had the pleasure of a guest harpist from California. Steven builds his own harps, with kits from Musicmakers. I have a link to their sight. My big harp is also one of their kits, the Regency. He plays on the Voyager model. He played some very beautiful music on my harp. He said it was from the Psalms.

Korean violinist

A few nights ago I had the pleasure of a young Korean violinist play with me. He was with a group, from the states actually, and had a violin so I asked him if he would play something with me. We started with Pachebelle. He played beautifully and when I asked him he said he had never played it in that key before. But you would not have known by listening. Every time we stopped they begged for one more. We played several others including Heart and Soul, Brian Boru (Irish), and ending, of course, with Yerushalaim Shel Zahav. It made it a lovely evening.

Excuse Me for being rude

Every night dozens of people ask if they can play my harp. Mostly they are teenagers but not always. Actually, they don't always ask, or they don't wait for an answer, and when the answer is no, they just can't believe it, and demand to have an explanation. Sometimes they give me a very hard time of it, and many of them come back weekly and sometimes bring friends to help them give me a hard time. They sometimes [lay the game of 'see who can touch the harp.' There are nights it is so bad, I find myself jumping at nice kids coming to give me money. There are loads of nice kids out there.

Well, a while ago, this young man, he looked to be about 20, wanted to play the harp. Like many others, he wouldn't stop asking. I am working on how to handle these kids properly. Sometimes I do a good job and sometimes I don't. He accused me of being rude. He said someone who plays an instrument like that shouldn't be rude.

So I apologize for my rudeness that night and any other time I might have been rude. And I continue to try to find better ways of handling these kids, and sometimes adults. But I am not an angel , I only play the harp.

Carlebach last night

It was a great night last night. This couple was standing listening to me playing and then we spoke and I fomnd out he played the violin. He used to play with Carlebach. So I went and got my violin for him to play and we started playing some Carlebach. He was teaching me . I've been wanting to play more of his music so this as very good. So we're playing for a while and it was good, and then this other guy walks up with a guitar. It is Eitan, whom I met in the shuk on Friday. He was playing on Agripas Street and playing Carlebach. We started talking and I told him about my playing and invited him to stop by sometime and play Carlebach with me. So the three of us were playing and it was really good. After we played a while I learned a little of Baruch's story. He had played violin with Carlebach in NY but after Carlebach died he couldn't play violin any more. He could play other instruments, but violin was too painful. He said he recieved a healing from the harp and now he is able to play the violin again. I feel so touched that I was able to play a part in this. He promised to write something about it and send it to me. When he does I will post it here.

The letter of Touch

Here is the letter from Netanel I wrote about a few weeks ago. First is the original letter in Hebrew, and then a translation by my friend Chanan. Thank you Chanan for the translation, and thank you Netaniel for these beautiful words.

מכתב הנגיעה

עוד לפני המון זמן, עוד בהיותי ילד, לפני כמה שנים הגעתי לירושלים והזדמן לי לשמוע את הצלילים הנפלאים. לאט לאט אחרי שעקבתי אחרי המילים שמעבירים הצלילים, פגשתי את האדם הנפלא שחלק בלתי נפרד מליבו הוא הנגיעות שנשמתו מעניקה לצלילים. צליליו מעניקים שלווה ויותר מהכל מספרים סיפור, את הסיפור שלי וגם שלה.

נתנאל

The letter of Touch

Along time ago, when I was a child, I arrived to Jerusalem and arrive by chance to hear your wonderful sounds. slowly, after I've followed the words that the sounds convey,
I meet the great person that the touch that his soul give to the sounds is an unseparable part of his heart. its sounds give peace and tell a story. my story, and hers too.

Nethaniel

A Delightful Thought From The Galilee Soldier

Last night The Galilee Soldier said " The harp connects you to your inner child and brings soothing notes that are fairytale like to the bottom of your soul."

A Nice Word From New Jersey

Seymour Berkowitz from New Jersey gave me a nice comment on my playing last night. He said "I've never seen so much culture on Ben Yehuda St. in all of my 12 visits to Israel"

Chogui and a visit from Equador

Last night I met a young couple from Equador. I played Elcondor Pasa not remembering it was from Equador but knowing it was from S. America. They loved it and then another young lady came along who also was from Equador. She came up when she heard the song. I try to collect songs from different countries so when I meet people from those coutries I play their song and they really like it. We got to speaking about the Paraguean harp and they gave me two songs from Parague. They are Chogui and Carpuela. Both songs are named for birds. I searched on Youtube and found lots of stuff but I wasn't able to make them link. If you will just search the name you will get loads of good music . I will work on my computor skills.


Chogui
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwZ4o2BryHA


Carpuela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGOpay6ZiKY