Hey Jessie,JessieK wrote:Hi, Kathy.
I have not been playing the autoharp enough (not every day), but I did a concert on it about a month ago. It's a wonderful instrument. In fact, now I've gotten my sister-in-law into it (I gave her a lesson and she totally took to it) and I just got her one for her birthday (it hasn't arrived yet). Strings don't come naturally to me...I wonder if my strumming will ever sound like anything other than a beginner.
That is great the you did a concert with it already!
I think strumming is a rhythm thing and I am sure that you have great rhythm. It will come in time.
If you ever get a chance to go to hear Karla Armstrong play the autoharp, you won't believe how great she is. She can play the melody along with the strumming! She says that you just have to find the individual note and use muscle memory to figure out the reach for the next melody note, but she is also strumming along with it too! It's just so neat to hear. One thing you have going for you is that you have a beautiful voice so you can get away with just strumming. I think the hardest part to get use to, would be wearing the finger picks! They just feel weird to me.
Karla is giving an autoharp workshop on August 6th in Ligoner, PA and I am hoping I get to go to it. I am borrowing a friends autoharp right now but it doesn't have a strap on it and it is really hard to hold it up where it is suppose to be. It is an old Oscar Schmidt.
Now that Joey is playing that big whistle, you and she can do duets!
Cheers,
Kathy
