[Harp-L] This has made my day

[Eliza Doolittle <eliza.doolittle@xxxxxxxx>]

I just wanted to tell you that I've felt SO proud this morning. I have not been
able to practice much with the harp for the last weeks, and it is only a
couple of days ago that I got back into trying to learn to play bendings
all right. I was talking harps with a pianist friend, and he was telling me
he wouldn't believe that notes other than those produced by normal
blowing and drawing could be played with a diatonic harp. So I took my
harp out of my pocket, and demonstrated by playing something resembling
a C sharp in the first hole. My friend said 'OK, let's call that almost a C
sharp'. I moved then on to the second hole, played a rather good F (friend'
eyebrows raised), and then an F sharp (friend's eyes open wide while
eyebrows still raised). Then I said I was still working on the third hole's
bendings. Although I'm still far from being able to play all the bendings, and
from playing them well in a 'music' context (not only playing them as
isolated notes), I think this has boosted my confidence. Small as this step
forward may look, it is the kind of thing that keeps you going when you
start to feel you're stuck. Once again, I'm SO proud!

Eliza Doolittle