Strange Zithers & Autoharp Gourmet Beef Stew

There's a pot of beef stew simmering on the stove, and my fingers are itching to play autoharp. I've tried plying them with my kantele, my dulcimer, even pulling out the wood pieces for my kantele kit and I still have itchy fingers. This ailment was probably triggered by writing out a check for my next payment for my Dream Autoharp that is on layaway with d'Aigle Autoharps.

I've also had dreams of strange zithers arriving on my doorstep. Rare and wonderful, I always find they come with complete instructions and I run into people who have played them for years. Never quite an autoharp, they have unusual gizmos or strings to set them apart from the ordinary zither. So now that the little beasties are haunting my dreams and making my fingers long for them, what's a girl to do? Look over her Autoharp Gourmet book that's what!

I have the CD around here somewhere too...ah there it is...much better having the soundtrack for this blog post going. The CD came with an electronic version of the music for every song on the CD. I was just starting to learn to pick melodies on my Autoharp when I had to set it aside due to a fatal crack in the soundboard that made it un-tunable. I was working with Karen Mueller herself as my teacher and her wonderful sheet music that came on the Autoharp Gourmet.

In just a few short months I hope to resume my lessons and continue on my journey as an autoharpist. Until then, I will peruse the web for videos, pictures, and more information. If I cannot feed my fingers by giving them an autoharp to play, then I will at least feed my mind and ears with the sound of this incredible instrument. The day my new autoharp comes will be a joyous one indeed! There will be happy fingers at last, and an Autumn Music party to plan. I love starting new things in the fall, it's a great time for me to learn and enjoy the good things in life. Even though it's the height of summer, that beef stew smells really good right now. I must be anticipating the arrival of the new addition to my little zither clan with all my senses!

Still Point

Every once in a while you come across a rare and wonderful piece of work. Since 2009, I have been taking lessons on the autoharp and then on the dulcimer from Karen Mueller. During that time, I have been slowly collecting her albums. Still Point was released in 2000, and like most folk/world albums it is timeless. I was looking to listen to her play the dulcimer, since that is the instrument I am concentrating on learning right now. As a zither enthusiast, I just love to hear someone with her skill level play. This has some dulcimer tunes, but it also features other instruments that she plays as well, including autoharp.

The album opens with "30-Year Jig" which sets the tone for the entire work. On that song, Karen plays both the mountain dulcimer and the autoharp. The title for the album is a quote:

"At the still point, there the dance is..." - T.S. Eliot

For me, it emphasizes the listener. While we are still, her fingers do their lively dance on the strings of multiple instruments. This is the magic of recording, where Karen can play multiple parts on a single song. I think everyone should have this album. It has a good amount of Celtic classics along with some contemporary tunes. There are fourteen wonderful tracks, with the final song being "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" which is a joyful way to end the album, finishing everything with a statement of her incredible talent. Years of music making went into this, and it shows. Sometimes the magic is in the dedication. Being willing to focus on being the best you can be at whatever instrument you pick up. It's a great inspiration to me, and I'm looking forward to buying her newest CD Landscape of the Heart next.

The oddest part of all this for me is, right now I'm not even taking lessons! For the next few months I'm pinching pennies to pay for my Dream Autoharp, so I'm really starting to miss my visits with Karen at Homestead Pickin' Parlor. But I'm keeping myself busy with practicing my mountain dulcimer, and listening to some good music while I'm at it!

A Grey Day

Tonight after work I stopped at Homestead Pickin' Parlor and scheduled my next dulcimer lesson with Karen. When I walked in the door, right before my eyes, were a couple of albums by Mimi & Richard Farina. After updating the dulcimer page on the blog here, I knew I had to get my hands on some of their music. I chose the cheaper album which also features an autoharp. There are several instrumental songs on the album, which is exacty what I wanted.

The title suits me as well. "Celebrations for a Grey Day" fits my mood of late when I'm not happily strumming away at my dulcimer. It's been too long since I've seen some live folk music, and I will have to remedy that soon. Having a lesson will perk me up a bit as well, I'm sure. Visiting HPP always is a welcome retreat from the pristine world of my corporate job. They're an old school mom and pop shop with an old fashioned cash register, so after sitting all day in front of a computer with my wireless earpiece taking customer service calls, the low tech world really appeals me. I'm actually longing for old style phones with chords and everything. Oh to have a rotary phone! One of the big heavy black ones that were made out of some kind of ceramic/plastic hybrid. Glorious days of old. As I sit here at my home computer, listening the album I just Ripped to my hard-drive, I sit and wonder at the passage of time. Richard died in a motorcycle accident a few months before I was born, but here I am listening to his music.

The title track to the album is playing which is a medley jam of an assortment of tunes. It somehow works and I'm looking forward to the day when I know enough songs to choose some for a medley of my own. The liner notes are an interesting ramble, wrapped up with a folk musician's point of view.

"Time, tide, and the accident of what the statisticians call birth have conspired to provide us with a tradition barely ours and hardly it's own.  Music, if it has a mind to, can sing about things like that, and maybe set one or two of them straight, yes?" ~ Richard Farina

A passage through time forms between the drone of the dulcimer and the bass strings of the guitar. So many days pass with nothing but work, but in the evening all is music. It is my refuge in so many ways. We are having warm days this week with highs in the 80's, twenty degrees above normal for the start of an October in Minnesota. Some days I just want to go away to the woods for a while, like maybe the rest of my life, and play my dulcimer and snuggle with cats. Life has gotten so complicated, I want something simpler, something full of stories and song.

Cracked

After consulting with Karen Mueller, who gave me some tips on what to look for on my Autoharp that might indicate a more serious problem than just old strings, I found a crack. Now I knew last summer that the support straps holding up the soundboard had given way under the chord bars, but it was still playing great.

Not now, now I can't get it in tune, and what's more, the fine tuners/bridge is being pulled up and towards the tuning pegs. Because the crack is at the corner of my high C tuning peg and runs over an inch up. Boy has the soundboard sunken there! I think the only thing that's been holding it together these past six months is the heavy laquer.

When I purchased her it was in the middle of summer, July the hottest month of the year. The soundboard supports could have given way while it wiled away on my steps waiting for me to come home. Or it could have been that time I left it in my car before taking it in to have strap pegs added. That's the first time it was pointed out to me. The 'harp was hot, too hot, and homestead pickin' parlor said puppy rules apply. They pointed out the sunken area which I could see at that time when I looked from the bottom under the chord bars. I mentioned it to Karen and she said it still sounded fine, so I played it for another year until I noticed something wrong. This summer I took it camping, it was June and was not hot, just damp so I kept her in my car. I took her out and played her a couple of times, but I notice that she really needed a good tuning. After camping I left her in her case, and didn't play her again for a month, I tried to tune her but never got her very well in tune. I kept trying every week, and every week the middle and upper strings were way out of tune. Something told me this wasn't just a string thing, and now I've confirmed it.

May my darling Autoharp rest in peace. She sure does look pretty in her new stand. So now she is the first of my instruments to have died young.

A Few Words About Pixies

For some reason, maybe it's the Spring flowers in bloom, I'm all about pixies at the moment. Bear with me, there is a musical finish for the patient reader. Anyway, on my way to my ATS class last night, I decided to get my girlie girl on and get that tube of lipstick I've been planning on getting. Now you wouldn't think that lipstick would be a decision I would put off for months, but that was the case here, as it's a little more pricey than your average tube. But that's OK, because it's Vegan and Peta Certified Cruelty Free. Seriously, I'm going to be slathering my lips with this stuff every day, I don't want it to be filled with gross stuff by a company that tortures bunnies.

My beautiful new lipstick from the Elixery is named "Pixie" as in

The Pixies know no sorrow, the Pixies feel no fear... _ Nora Chesson, 19th century English poet

This now leads me to the second pixie, and the third and fourth. They are together, Tricky Pixie and have written some very beautiful and fun music together. I absolutely love the Dryad's Promise from their album Mythcreants, so I'm sharing that here:



Hopefully I will be in all the pixies good graces from now on. Because they can be very tricky at times. I really want to learn Dryad's Promise on either my autoharp or my dulcimer. I'll have to take a lesson or two with Karen and see if we can work it out together.