Clayton Village Hall phoned today all embarassed - they had double-booked the 11th December. We had sold over 30 tickets already so are looking for another venue. If we don't find one we are re-arranging for Clayton in the New Year so I will keep you posted.
I am busy - again!!! I have again managed to confine all the harps into the music room but there are a few laid down like coffins taking up all the floor space. The trouble is that yesterday I had a 'gluing day'. I had an old Barometer to mend, a coffee table and 3 harps. I found a strip of oak that just fitted onto the forepillar of Mystic-Al. It had come off an old piano I had stripped for pegs etc last year. The pegs are going to be used in my version of small 'Cimbalas' - like a small zither that can sit on your lap but with harp strings - not wire ones. I have 4 old drawers from an old wardrobe. They are labelled 'gloves' and 'socks'!
That is my next project. I am being asked to go into more and more Schools which I love. I am booked as a 'birthday' surprise for a local Special Needs School.
I have glued a pupil's harp - the soundboard had popped off after it was left by a window in full sunlight whilst they were on holiday ... whoops ... not a good idea. Fingers crossed for me that the glue is strong enough!
The other harp had to be 'paper mached'. The new quad design gives a slightly wider neck at the top of the soundboard so I am left with a few gaps to fill. The expanding glue was a near-disaster so a new method was needed. Fingers crossed again please!!!
Showing posts with label radio leeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radio leeds. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Monday, 30 August 2010
it sounds ok
I had a blast at Limetree thanks to a brilliant sound engineer. I cannot say how many times I have been on stage and the sound has been terrible - even after I have asked them to use a certain mic and told them the exact settings... I am the last to know as I am quite deaf - I only know if it sounds right by the reaction of the audience... A classic comment from Burnley the other week as my husband Dave tried to help the engineers, after they had blown up the pick-up in the harp and were frantically trying to stick mics into the harp as I was playing on the main stage - 'but we can't make it sound like a harp' - NO!!! - that is the whole point actually! They got it right for the last tune ...
I took my inspiration from a medieval poem about the storytellers who played harp after battles - their strings 'shook the floor'. The resonance builds up as you play and on single strung harps you can 'damp' it with either hand - not so on the multi-strung harp as you have separate strings for each hand. The trick is to have longer strings with a wonderful 'bass' tone and to damp as you play.
As I write I am about to go on the radio yet again - Radio Leeds 3-4 pm Bank Holiday Monday - The Making of the Symphony for Yorkshire. I am hoping that they are able to fit in some of my music that originally impressed Benjamin Till so much - I am adding this just after listening to it - and thank you Benjamin Till and Ian Clayton ... as my step daughter, Olivia, used to say 'you can't grumble at that' !!!
Oh yes, I nearly forgot to say - I am booked at Limetree 'every year' now!
I took my inspiration from a medieval poem about the storytellers who played harp after battles - their strings 'shook the floor'. The resonance builds up as you play and on single strung harps you can 'damp' it with either hand - not so on the multi-strung harp as you have separate strings for each hand. The trick is to have longer strings with a wonderful 'bass' tone and to damp as you play.
As I write I am about to go on the radio yet again - Radio Leeds 3-4 pm Bank Holiday Monday - The Making of the Symphony for Yorkshire. I am hoping that they are able to fit in some of my music that originally impressed Benjamin Till so much - I am adding this just after listening to it - and thank you Benjamin Till and Ian Clayton ... as my step daughter, Olivia, used to say 'you can't grumble at that' !!!
Oh yes, I nearly forgot to say - I am booked at Limetree 'every year' now!
Friday, 6 August 2010
Gluing the Laurel and Hardy way
It took a whole week to get the glue off my hands! I am making my new 'Elizabethan' harp, Mystical, with 4 sets of strings which means it will have a luted soundboard and therefore a different design. I started joining the top of the soundbox to the 'neck' of the harp and discovered a problem ... screws and drillbits are just not long enough. I tried to buy some - must be very specialist as the local DIY shop couldn't help. Nevermind I thought - I will use some of that expanding glue.....arghhhhhhh....(as it turned out).
The plastic container of glue had been put deliberately to the back of the cupboard after the last attempt. It sets so fast that I could feel that the top half was solid, but, if I sawed the bottle in half (I am impossibly practical - 'waste not, want not'). I thought I was prepared - a metal tray, old honey jar at hand to pour it into, masking tape and plastic stuck all over the harp, newspaper on the floor, etc etc.
Two hours later it had finally set hard and I had finished scraping all the 'runs' off the harp and had trimmed my hair from its new fashion of 'christmas-tree-like' baubles. It burst straight through the masking tape, managed to fill the tray and expand to the table and all attempts at keeping my hands clean were futile. ... BUT ... it did solve the problem ... however ... do I do this again or can a better method be found?
The plastic container of glue had been put deliberately to the back of the cupboard after the last attempt. It sets so fast that I could feel that the top half was solid, but, if I sawed the bottle in half (I am impossibly practical - 'waste not, want not'). I thought I was prepared - a metal tray, old honey jar at hand to pour it into, masking tape and plastic stuck all over the harp, newspaper on the floor, etc etc.
Two hours later it had finally set hard and I had finished scraping all the 'runs' off the harp and had trimmed my hair from its new fashion of 'christmas-tree-like' baubles. It burst straight through the masking tape, managed to fill the tray and expand to the table and all attempts at keeping my hands clean were futile. ... BUT ... it did solve the problem ... however ... do I do this again or can a better method be found?
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