I played my first wedding ceremony while I was in high school, for young friends in love who hired me to play Pachelbel’s Canon on harp. It was a traditional church wedding, and since then, I can estimate I’ve played over 500 weddings. It certainly is something I enjoy offering to others and I feel honored to be invited to play music for these ceremonies.
The first thing I always ask my clients when they are choosing wedding music is: what is the general feel of your wedding? A wedding theme can help a bride and groom pick out songs, and it can help me better understand who they are as a couple. Is the ceremony rustic? Is it upscale? Boho? A traditional church ceremony? Is there a cultural theme?
Answers to these questions help narrow in the vibe that the music will create. A rustic farm wedding might call for Americana or Irish folk songs. An upscale downtown hotel might call for classical pieces or jazz. A traditional church wedding will likely involve Bach and pieces you might think of synonymous with weddings (Here Comes the Bride/Bridal March) as well as religious. Finally, a culturally themed wedding will include songs from that nationality or region of the world. For instance, a Chinese wedding might include old world folk songs like Cherry Blossom, with a modern flair like video game songs, or movie theme music. For a traditional Indian wedding, I improvised a lot in Eastern keys.
The next question I ask a couple, and perhaps more obvious, is what kind of music do you like?
Volume 7 of Harp Escape features two traditional Irish songs in a therapeutic harp style: Banish Misfortune and The Parting Glass. Therapeutic music is an art based on the science of sound. It it typically slow and simple, for easy listening. For the past decade, I’ve been focusing much of my time on soothing music of this nature. As a Certified Clinical Musician, I have played music at the bedside for over 500 patients in outpatient dialysis clinics; general hospital; skilled nursing facilities; and for hospice.
Harp Escape is a series of videos and recordings dedicated to relaxing music. Therapeutic music is preferably played in-person (to adjust to in-the-moment responses of patients and caregivers). However, remote harp therapy can still be enjoyable! The Harp Escape series is calming harp music stylized to: relieve pain, release anxiety, diminish nausea, and stabilize heart rate. Healing harp music has also been shown to improve sleep and calm the environment.
In this volume, I’ve slowed down a traditional Irish jig, Banish Misfortune. (Jigs are typically an upbeat dance tune in 6/8.) Here, the song has been slowed down in the therapeutic style and partnered with another Irish tune, The Parting Glass. Fun fact (according to thesession.org): Banish Misfortune has other names: The Horse Under The Stairs, The Little Bag Of Meal, Mammy’s Horse Is Dying, The Mangled Badger, The Stoat That Ate Me Sandals, and my favorite: The Whore Amongst The Nettles Roaring.
Banishing misfortune with a little harper.
I was originally called to play this song because of its well-known name, rather than its melody. Though I had heard it before, I really got into playing Banish Misfortune during lockdown of the pandemic. I thought that by playing a song of this name I could dispel some of the negative things happening in the outer world. It gave me some personal power while playing it, and made me feel hopeful.
I invite you as well to meditate on good fortune as you listen to this version.
For the musician out there, this tune is in D Mixolydian mode. So, it is in the key of D with two sharps; however, the root is not on do (D). Instead, the root is on sol (G). Starting on the fifth of the scale (sol) would be called Mixolydian mode. The result is upbeat and refreshing sounding. I like to play Banish Misfortune syncopated, so it has a sort of Grateful Dead feel.
Goodwill in this recording extends into the second song, The Parting Glass, which has lyrics that reflect a night well-spent with friends. The first stanza is:
Diversity is the spice of life. My client list is a wide range, from getting hired directly by corporations, to nurses & doctors, couples getting married, playing for hospital patients, in department stores, at transit centers, farm events, before city hall leaders, in historic hotels, for humanitarian non-profits, and GRAMMY winners. Over the last 20 years, I feel fortunate to have met so many people, to have collaborated on events with them, to help create an event where there wasn’t one, or one that needed help planning.
In no particular order, I’m sharing some 2021 highlights playing harp, teaching, and writing.
Centrum Artist Residency I spent the month of March 2021, in Port Townsend, WA, on a truly regenerative and inspiring retreat. Through Centrum Foundation and Fort Worden, I was able to live in a cabin on the edge of the woods where the Straight of Juan de Fuca flows into Puget Sound, watch eagles and deer at my door every day, beachcomb, hike, and oh, yeah, squeeze in a little work! Focus of my work was on Harp Escape compositions and arrangements, as well as solo improvisations (like this one) and with my friend Josh Rawlings.
Harp Escape Make-Over Since 2019, I have been working on Harp Escape, a therapeutic harp series of meditative audio and video. During this time, I’ve recorded nearly 200 audio tracks and done over 60 posts of writing, video and sheet music arrangements for Patrons! That is a lot for me to feel good about, as far as general productivity goes. Harp Escape is having a make-over this winter. In 2022, I’ll be moving forward with edits on individual tunes, then releasing singles on the various streaming platforms.
Making Music a Healing Process This pandemic time continues to challenge all of us, so how can we include well-being in our daily work? I was asked to be guest speaker for Seattle Music Teacher’s Association in March of last year, talking about how to merge teaching with healing. It almost seems imperative to do so. As a Certified Clinical Musician, I thought about the mindset I put myself in, in order to play bedside music for people in physical pain or suffering from anxiety and grief. Much of that mindset can be applied to how I play music in general, so I like to share that with students. In this post, I wrote up 5 ways how to make playing music a healing process.
1st Live Concert in 20 months! In December 2021, I played my first public concert since March 2020 lockdown. Looking Glass Coffee, a sweet café in Snohomish, WA offered the perfect backdrop for an afternoon harp music: red velvet curtain stage, high vintage tin ceilings, and killer coffee. We were all so pleased, I’ll definitely be making another Sunday afternoon come back in the New Year. The pandemic continues to be a dicey time for performing live music, and I am thrilled to have a found a welcoming venue that matches harp music so well!
10 Tips on How to Improvise on Harp I’ve been a fan of creative self-help inspirational books for years. From Natalie Goldberg to Stephen Nachmanovich, I’ve been studying prompts, quotes from the masters, and artist psychology for a long time. This Top 10 list for harpists helps unleash the timid player – many harpists are classically trained or play traditional Celtic tunes. Improvising for anyone can feel like uncertain territory. These tips take you back to “beginner’s mind.”
Circle of 5ths 2.0 Virtual Harp Course on Udemy I pre-recorded a workshop for the first time! This is a major accomplishment for me, and I put many hours into creating a class on demystifying a tricky musical topic: The Circle of Fifths. The class is available on Udemy and is at advanced beginner – advanced intermediate level.
with some students from Let’s Harp Together! workshop in October 2021 at Dusty Strings
Harp Seattle Workshop – Let’s Harp Together Another first: I taught my first in person group workshop in over 2 years! The theme of Let’s Harp Together, got everyone playing songs together – something none of us had done since the pandemic. It was wonderful hearing all the harps vibrating together (it was a few hundred strings!). Thanks go to Harp Seattle and Dusty Strings.
Return of the Wedding Cermony
Return of the Wedding Ceremony My guess is that I’ve played music for about 500 weddings and counting. Most of my summers are booked out for months. 2020 was different. By the end, I had played a mere three weddings, which I suppose was good all considering. While 2020 ceremonies were very intimate and minimal, 2021 was a return to my usual full calendar, larger gatherings (though masked of course). I played for more than one couple who had re-booked their ceremony more than three times! Once more, it was such a pleasure to return to playing harp for another season of wedding of couples, including some really amazing natural scenery at the Treehouse Point, Leavenworth and at Mount Rainier. I feel so lucky!
You might be asking yourself, “How can I improvise? How do I start?” These are questions students ask me, and honestly, I have been working on finding answers to these same questions for decades!
As a harpist, most of us learn how to read all of the little black dots on the page with accuracy. We often have practiced with such scrutiny that to play something off the page feels strange or wrong. I have met many classically-trained musicians who would agree.
Before I give you a couple of tips on how to improvise, let’s look back to our beginnings of playing music, to a time before we “knew” how to “play.” I am willing to bet that the first time you touched your instrument, you were as curious as a child. Have you ever watched a group of pre-schoolers play? They naturally grab objects and play pretend, never second-guessing themselves. With this “beginner’s mind,” let’s start improvisation.
Tip #1 Own it. Act like every sound you make is intentional, even if it surprises you.
#2 Use chord symbols in the music notation to give you clues on what notes might sound good, in addition to the notes written.
#3 Know the scale you are playing and don’t leave it.
#4 Know the scale you are playing and leave it. (I know! What I said above also applies, but if you want to stretch your boundaries, you should.) Brazilian writer Paulo Coehlo said “A boat is safe in the harbor. But this is not the purpose of a boat.” What I mean is: Explore. You can always come back to dock in your comfort zone original key. But you are not anchored down.
Umbra means shadow. In particular, it is the darkest part of a shadow. It also means a shadow cast by something that is opaque, not a solid state. I think about how even things we don’t see as being solid can take shape, like our thoughts becoming real. You know that phrase by Emerson, “You become what you think about all day long?” – I think that is true. Those shadows are thoughts, and those thoughts become beliefs.
We are all made up of light and dark, just like the equinox, a fine balance of sun and moon within. I find shadows so evocative. Perhaps that is why I have written more than one song about them.
The song Umbra comes on the return of a trip to see my family home for the first time in two years. This song had a dark feeling to it, it starts off minor but then ascends into a Major place. When I ask my students if they can hear the difference between minor and Major, we often describe feeling of minor as Halloween, sad, spooky, or lonely. Being in the shadows of not knowing can feel similar.
I don’t speak French, but I can tell by the way she sings, that it is a love song of the most high devotion. She is smitten and lovestruck to the core. As she sings, she idolizes her lover, seeing him through rose-colored glasses. This is why I love playing that tune at weddings and recommending it to people even if they say they don’t know the song. Once I start playing for them, they soon realize they’ve heard it in some movie or commercial. The thing is, “La Vie En Rose” is sort of timeless.
The song plays to our highest ideals, not just about love, but about life in general. “La Vie en Rose” is looking at life optimistically. It is living rosie dreams and seeing the beauty in every day life. It is stopping to smell the roses. It is embracing imperfections and loving despite them. La vie en rose is “live and let live.” It is having ideals. Dreaming big. Finding joy in one’s life and being in the present moment. In literal translation, la vie en rose means the “pink life.”
My Wedding May 3, 2008 (Seattle, WA)
Some say the meaning of the song is that of naïveté, that everything will be fine without paying attention to details. Assuming that situations will unfold in your favor doesn’t inherently mean that you are not paying attention, or working towards a positive outcome. In fact, I have found that the more I am invested in my situations, the better I feel through involvement.
A version of sheet music for “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” came into my possession in 2020 Lockdown, as I was taking yet another neighborhood stroll. (1/10/22 update: download your own sheet music of this song.) I stopped to look at a Little Free Library. I found an unassuming prayer book (whose name I have since forgotten because I’ve returned the book), and in the back of it were songs with notation, hymnal style. As I spent some time learning “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” I was intrigued by the somber lyrics and the story they told. The struggle of the character in the song felt very relatable (and still does) compared to what the world has been going through in Pandemic Times.
Hidden gems of the LFL
History of the tune “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” comes from Civil War Era American, folk and gospel. It is possible that the song may have traveled to America with a German immigrant and been adopted into early 19th Century American folk singing. It is also possible that, given the time frame and the gospel nature of this tune, that “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” morphed into a Negro Spiritual, as it has a strong Christian message and speaks of a troubled world.
My solo harp version of “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”
Melodically, this folk tune probably traveled by oral tradition, meaning the notation wasn’t written down. The first time words of the song officially show up in America, they were inscribed inside of Libby Prison by a dying Union soldier. For this reason, “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” was also known as “Libby Prison Hymn,” however that name didn’t stick. More commonly, the song is also known as “Wayfaring Stranger,” “The Wayfaring Stranger,” or “I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” In the 20th Century, this song was recorded by musicians Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Jack White, and Eva Cassidy.
“Poor Wayfaring Stranger” speaks to the trying times of the human spirit on the verge of death. The tune is part Christian hymn, part prayer, part woeful song, part ode to Everyman’s journey,
If we look at the lyrics (which also have nuances like the title), the 1st verse is:
One of my all -time favorite poets, Laurence Ferlinghetti, the great American bard and book publisher, died this spring just shy of his 102nd birthday. From his poem “A Sweet Flying Dream” We drifted wafted easily We flew wingless Full of air our hair Buoyed us We trailed our slim legs In streams of silver air There Was nothing blowing us down Or away From each other
We cannot escape one another. Even though we haven’t been able to physically congregate for a year, we also cannot ignore each other. Though we may feel isolated, worried, and fearful as some of the outer world opens up, we are all floating in this unknown realm together. And if indeed we are flying, it brings us levity and sometimes loss of control. At times it might be easier to just let go.
I have wild dreams about what I’d like to see happen next in my life. Partly encouraged by an artist residency at Centrum; partly in response to the pandemic, I sense a new beginning on the horizon. A new chapter of life for us all is imminent. It is here in fact. There is no holding back, so, best fly with the tricks of our highest ability.
We are in the darkest time of a very challenging year. As we enter this winter season, we celebrate the light within and travel to inward time. Harp Escape taps into an old use of music, used as sound healing for your self care. Sufi mystic, Hazrat Inayat Khan said “The use of music for spiritual attainment and healing of the soul, which was prevalent in ancient times, is not found to the same extent now. Music has been made a pastime…”
Join me on Patreon for Harp Escape’s Meditative audio recordings, sheet music and more. Once a month, I bring you high quality Meditative Harp Music audio recordings (ranging from 25-55 minutes), a Relaxing Music Video from my harp studio and places in nature, and sheet music arrangements. All of this music is recorded intentionally for you to find a relaxing space for meditation and mindful daily ritual, for you to take a break from the demands of your life and breath deeply, while listening to the healing sounds of the harp’s vibrations.
