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!

Kantele Spring

It's another beautiful Spring day in Minnesota. The sky is blue and the breeze is blowing dandelion fluff all around. Too bad we don't like dandelions too much in these parts, I liked them well enough as a child. In the neighborhood I grew up in, we would pick the dandelions when they were in full seed, make a wish and blow them off the stem. If the seeds traveled all the way around the world and back again, your wish would come true.

The wish I have now is to take some of the traditional Finnish tunes I've learned on my lovely five string kantele, and create TAB for the mountain dulcimer with it. I've tried struggling with MusEdit, which is a free program with some nifty features. The problem is it doesn't always do what I tell it to do, and since it's free, there isn't a manual. Let's just say it has a few glitches that are not about to go away. In fact the website appears to be gone, so it looks like it's time to get real and pay for TablEdit.

My order has been placed, so I know what I will be doing on the rainy days this Spring, getting all my music down in TAB format. It's a wonderful tool, and now that I've written 1 2/3 songs (really, can't seem to get the middle part of that second song down yet) I'm excited to see them written in music. It's an exciting time for me while I wait for my Dream Autoharp. They have received my first payment, so they can start building it any time. For some reason the mail took it's own sweet time, so the check sent on the 24th of April didn't arrive until the 10th of May. So my dream was in limbo during that wait, now it's in Pete's capable hands. So my zither obsession continues, complete with dreams of obscure instruments in the zither family that never existed. Really, that's how deep these stringed instruments get for me, right on into my subconscious.

Well, it's not raining now, so I've spent enough times tapping away at this keyboard.

Next Week: MUSIC PARTY!!