A Wedding that Led to Love at a Crossroads

Once, I was booked for a wedding that led to love at a crossroads. Back then, I lived in an easy-to-get-to Seattle neighborhood. I had a home studio that I used for teaching harp lessons at the back of my house, and I also had wedding couples visit me there for in-person consultations, which was a popular perk that people took me up on.

Before the Wedding

One couple came to see me a few months before their wedding. They told me a few songs they liked and wanted to hear me play them. I also played a few of my suggestions, and we made a plan for their processional and recessional (arguably the two main songs of a wedding ceremony).

The week of the wedding arrived. Customarily, I do a check-in with my client 1-2 days before the event to confirm the details I cannot err on: arrival time, play time, and song details to name a few. I spoke with the bride, and everything was good to go!

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My First Wedding Gig on the Harp

My first wedding gig on the harp lead me to learn two of the most traditionally popular pieces of wedding music of all time. Lapiz lazuli was the color of the sky of the stained glass window next to me in the church. When I was 17 years old, I had been playing the harp for three years, and I had a decade of piano experience. Also, I had been playing pipe organ for mass since the 7th grade, so I had a pretty good understanding of how ceremony worked.

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Harp Side of the Moon Harp Escape vol. 12

Get ready for a Pink Floyd reference; we’re going to the harp side of the moon. Harp Escape vol. 12 is “A Saucerful of Secrets” by Pink Floyd. I started Harp Escape videos in 2019, before the pandemic hit our world, because even then, I thought we need the space to heal ourselves. Times have definitely gotten more complex and stressful, so I continue to make therapeutic harp music on YouTube.

Specifically, Harp Escape is relaxing music that provides an aural getaway. Harp Escape is created just for you to: get ready for bed, practice yoga, meditate, nap, read, and add quiet to your daily personal rituals.

Monica Schley wedding harpist Seattle Tacoma harp therapy healthcare music teacher jazz music

Calming music of this nature has been scientifically proven to increase deep breathing, which in turn increases blood flow, decreases stress, and promotes deeper sleep. I prepared this song in the style and manner as I would play it at the therapeutic bedside, so this song is at a particularly slow tempo, and intended for deep relaxing. By finding inner peace, we get to outer peace.

That said, I’m not feeling so great today. This is my third cold of the winter and I’m in bed at 8:30pm. I hope to feel better by Saturday, so I can play my gig at Muckleshoot Casino (a totally different style of music I play!).

Because my brain was at half-mast today with this cold, I tried unsuccessfully to write this blog several times. The funny thing about my version of the Pink Floyd song, I started to second guess myself that it was the correct song title.

I saved the video as “A Saucerful of Secrets” – a song by the same name from their 1968 album. My video has been up on YouTube since 2021 and is one of my least popular videos. I thought it might just be too obscure and atonal, both fair assumptions. Then I listened again to their song “Echos” on the album Meddle. They two songs sounded so similar. Had I put up the video with the wrong title? Did I have a cold back in 2021 too when I did all this work?

I’m really second-guessing myself in this foggy cold brain of mine. After re-listening to both songs, I do the know the correct answer, but if you want to chime up, let me know –  is this song “Echos” from Pink Floyd’s album Meddle, or “A Saucerful of Secrets?”

Either way, I hope this volume of Harp Escape brings some intentional results of peace of mind and relaxation. If you want to know more about these videos, please subscribe to the Harp Escape YouTube channel.