There’s a new video up on my Youtube channel – a little vlog of a recent weekend where I had a couple of weddings to play for. Firstly I was playing in Liverpool’s gorgeous St. George’s Hall, then the following day I was playing for a church wedding ceremony up in Chorley.
Summer is a busy time for harpists and it feels so good to have a full diary for the rest of the season.
For this week’s video, I’m playing a cover of Moonriver from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Another very popular wedding choice. I hope you enjoy.
A x
I hope you enjoy this video of my Chasing Cars harp cover, music by Snow Patrol. It is one of the most requested wedding songs of my career so far.
If you haven’t already, please do subscribe to my Youtube channel, where I upload new videos… from time to time. If you have any requests for future videos (playing or just chatting) do let me know in the comments below. I want to create content that we both love, so leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.
Brides often ask me what music they should choose for their wedding ceremony. My answer is usually the same, whatever you want! The more personal a wedding ceremony can be, the more memorable it will be in the years to come. Some couples want to keep things traditional, and that is beautiful too.
This Chasing Cars harp cover works so well because not only is it a beautiful and romantic song, it sounds really lovely on the harp and adds that extra touch to the day. Personally I think it works especially well for the Bride’s entrance music. For your exit music, it is wise to choose something upbeat and loud, as your guests will be applauding as you walk back down the aisle.
I am now taking bookings for 2023 and still have a few slots available for the rest of 2022 – although it is looking like a busy year! It’s so wonderful to see couples finally tying the knot after months and months of cancellations and uncertainty. Let’s hope that’s all in the past now and we can move on. Contact me here if you’d like to enquire about having harp music at your wedding.
What music are you going to have at your wedding? Leave a comment below, you might just inspire other brides too.
Can you believe I’ve been writing this blog for over six years now??! I can’t. I began writing it when I was fresh out of college, had no idea if I could ‘make-it’ as a freelance musician, and had a bar job on the side to supplement my income. My RNCM days were just behind me, and Chet’s was not too far in the past either.
I did bits and bobs of teaching here and there but felt like I wasn’t experienced enough to teach with much authority. Maybe I had imposter syndrome. I thought, why come to me when you could go to someone who’s been teaching for longer than me? Why come to me when I don’t have that many students and am obviously not in high demand?
It’s pretty hard starting out.
Slowly though, confidence grows and I started to see my students doing well. I thought, they must be enjoying my lessons because they keep coming back. Some took exams, some did really, really well in them. Some don’t want to take exams, they just have a passion for music and love the harp or the piano, and these students are every bit as rewarding as the conventional high achievers.
I feel so proud of the little group of students I have, every, single, one of them. Thank you for choosing me to help guide you through this part of your musical journey. I learn from you just as much as you learn from me. Thank you for working hard, thank you for forgiving me when I make mistakes. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for sharing your love of music with me.
There is one student who I’d like to give a little mention to. Isabelle Halstead. Earlier this year I had the idea that she should apply for Chetham’s School of Music. I attended Chets for sixth form and going there was one of the best decisions that has been made in my life (at this point I’d like to thank the teachers who prepared me for my Chets audition, Rachel Dent and Honor Wright). While at Chets my playing transformed under the tutelage of Eira Lynn Jones, and it proved to be a spring-board into music college and beyond (and it was a lot of fun). Plus, as one of the best music schools in the country (and maybe even the world) it doesn’t look too bad on the old curriculum vitae either.
So you can imagine the pride I feel when, as a teacher, one of my students is offered a place there from September this year. I’m absolutely over the moon for her, and grateful that I was trusted to guide her on this path. She’s worked so hard, with a lovely and supportive family behind her, and she thoroughly deserves her place there. I’m so excited for you, Isabelle!
It’s easy to slip into a funk sometimes and think how far I have to go in my career. Here I am, almost seven years after graduating and almost thirty years old, still no full-time playing job, bank balance still far from healthy, still living from month to month, no ‘big breaks’ and plenty of failed auditions under my belt. But, just for now, I’d like to look at the positives. My student has been offered a place at one of the best music schools there is. And that’s pretty awesome.
As ever, thanks for reading.
A x
I’m writing this week’s post in a Caffe Nero in Alderley Edge. I’m here to play with Alderley Edge Orchestra for a concert tonight, we are performing Holst’s The Planets and Elinor Nicholson and I are the harp section.
We arrived early to get good parking spots (harp life), warmed up, and are now both catching up on some admin over cups of tea/coffee.
How’s everyone coping with the Beast from the East? Where I am in south Manchester it hasn’t been too bad, and I’m thrilled that I haven’t lost out on any work due to snow. It can be super frustrating when snow means cancelled gigs, which means no payment, not ideal.
The 10k race that I’ve been training for however, that has had to be cancelled. I can totally see why the organisers took the decision as lots of people were no doubt travelling from a good distance away. It’s a bit gutting to have trained in snow, wind, hail and freezing cold to end up not doing the race, but training is never wasted is it? I’m still fitter and stronger than before and that was the whole idea of competing. I’d decided to treat myself to some new gear after the race, so when I heard that it was cancelled I went ahead and ordered them anyway, maybe I’ll chat about them in the next post. Totally off-brand but exciting anyway…
On the house front, I do have exciting news, a house that we viewed back in January has finally accepted our offer! Hurray! The house is in Prestwich – north Manchester – and I’m keeping everything crossed that this time everything goes smoothly. This is the third house we’ve had an offer accepted on so hopefully it’ll be a case of third time lucky… I’m simply far too excited about actually having a music room/office, and I know Tim is looking forward to having his own gym in the garage.
Could this be the new music room??
I wasn’t expecting buying a house to take this long and we’ve certainly learned a lot along the way. But maybe, just maybe, we’ve finally found our home.
I think that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading as ever, and if you’d like these posts to go straight to your inbox, just pop your email address in the box at the top of the page. I’d love to connect with you that way. These posts sometimes get sent out a day or two early to my email list – so if you fancy that then do sign up.
As always, you can follow me on Patreon, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook to keep up with harpy and other shenanigans.
Ax
Sometimes, as musicians, we are reminded of the fact that we do not get sick pay. It’s not possible for us to pull a certain number of sick days and know that we’ll still be paid our salary.
This has been my story this week, last Wednesday I literally could not get out of bed because of achiness and fever. The following day, I had to play for a wedding. Leaving a couple without music on their wedding day is not an option – so I had to go and do it.
It’s now a full week later and I’m still not 100% but I’m much better than I was. Thank goodness!
It’s been another month of regular YouTube uploads! Thank you to those of you who have subscribed to my channel. We are slowly growing and already I’ve had a surge in enquiries so that’s absolutely brilliant.
The first video to be uploaded onto my channel in February was a tutorial giving a basic overview of how to sit at the harp and how to actually play the harp:
Next up, Vlog #5:
This was a big week as it was the first week of being completely freelance after quitting my part-time ‘side-hustle’. So give it a watch and follow along for a week of musical adventures. This was the first time I’ve attempted a weekly vlog and I had no idea how long it would get! I had to cut out a lot of footage to keep it a reasonable length. Let me know what you think.
I’ve talked about this next video in a previous post but didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share it again – I made another CLOUDS video:
CLOUDS are going on tour in June and we are very excited to be bringing you a whole new programme of music (I’m sure some old favourites will be in there too). We’ve been busy rehearsing and learning all the new music that Esther has written ready for summer. Tour dates are up on our website so check those out.
Last but not least, I couldn’t let the month slide by without uploading a classic wedding favourite. Here is my performance of Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. I get asked to play this very often, and it’s particularly fitting for the couple’s exit from their Wedding Ceremony:
I had the bright idea of recording these videos from memory. I know this piece so well and yet it still took ages to get a full take! I think it’s definitely worth the extra work to have memorised performances, but what do you guys think? Also, I’d like to say a big thank you to my housemate Chris for letting me use his fancy DSLR to record this last video. I love the quality but still need to learn how to use the camera properly (beyond just zooming in and pressing Record).
I’d like to say a big thank you to all of you for reading, watching, and just generally supporting me along the way. I know some of you have been reading this blog since it started back in 2012 – that’s five years folks! Your support is much appreciated. I adore having a writing outlet and getting the chance to share my musings with you.
Chat soon,
Ax
p.s. I’d also like to ask you for some feedback. If you received this post via email, did the links to the videos work ok? Did you just receive the one email? I’m transferring my email list to MailChimp so please bear with me while I sort any niggles out!
Last weekend was a busy one. As well as having gigs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I was busy making a new video too:
If you have yet to visit Don Giovanni’s restaurant in Manchester city centre – make it a top priority. It’s been one of my favourite restaurants for as long as I’ve lived in Manchester (longer than I care to admit). Although I will say that playing whilst hungry is not a good idea when you are literally surrounded by the sight and smell of your favourite food (garlic bread).
Friday’s wedding in Lymm was a relatively short gig as I was only playing for the ceremony. Big congratulations to Amy and Peter for a beautiful day. Amy’s dress was stunning and took up the whole aisle. I actually thought the staff were kidding when they said I would have to move my harp to make way for The Dress.
Saturday’s gig was an orchestral concert in Southport. I mention in the video but I want to say here as well that, after learning the cadenza from Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers years and years ago, playing it with an orchestra is always such a treat. It makes me so happy. What also made me happy was the children’s choir who were also performing. To see them utterly mesmerised by the music was absolutely wonderful. Hopefully the orchestra will have inspired them to carry on with music and to keep learning.
December 2016 is shaping up to be one of the busiest ever. Watch this space for more exciting projects, videos and gigs.
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Cheerio for now!
Ax