Hi, I’m a harpist, singer and composer and excited to be starting my own blog about my life as a ‘muso’.
I get loads of different freelance work, including orchestral concerts, folk concerts, recitals, commissions, weddings..(only the odd one these days as they’re pretty soul destroying after 15 years, wow I already sound like an OAP) etc. and do some teaching as well. I’m based in Scotland but I do travel a lot, much to the concern of my dear Grandad, who always gets me to take a tin of baked beans in the car “should you get yourself into a spot of bother”…always been confused by this, as he doesn’t insist on a tin opener or an oven of any description, so they are really pretty devoid of use, unless my spot of bother were to include a very conveniently placed tin-opener and roaring fire with a non-stick pot and some fresh bread and a toaster, oh and some lurpack, by the side of the road…but I do it because my Grandad is now 93 and he does still climb his apple tree and walk around in his greying pants and go on the roof from time to time. In other words I respect him enormously!
Whilst travelling I think about my granded sometimes. I think about his precarious lifestyle- he is almost blind but he still remains fearless when it comes to doing ‘house chores’ i.e. scampering into the drains, going up ladders to change bulbs etc. There are quite a number of things my Grandad and I have in common, for example the enjoyment of a re-re-re-telling of a good yarn, a nice whisky at 5 o’clock, a good dog or 3 to tell off and generally feel authoratative over. But we share the whole live-life-by-the-seat-of-your-graying-pants, live-on-the-edge, full-steam-ahead attitude 100%.
I think this is quite a necessary thing to have as a freelance musicians, as you are constantly travelling and changing plans last minute or trying to cram loads in at once and having to eat a quick pie by the side of the road- thankyou teebay services for all your support with my career so far.
But there are also many things about being a harpist that make me feel like an old women. There’s the fact that I always have to drive everywhere, park right beside the venue to unload, take a long time to get in and out, get doors held open for me, block everyone’s way because I’m being so slow, ask for help constantly, grumble about the inconvenience of things in general, and end the day with a sore back and a nice quiet glass of whisky.
I do like a good grumble, particularly when it comes to help with the harp. I have been lifting my harp on my own for about 10 years so sometimes its just the mere assumption by the odd bidding-to-be-butch man that they know how best to lift it, and that a little weakling like me will just step aside and look helpless, while he expertlessly does the heavy lifting. Inevitably there is often a terrifying moment when the harp looks like its going to fall over, despite my explanation that ‘its quite an uneven weight and if you lift it by the bottom it does tend to topple over’. A very nice looking young man (yes I am an old women) once kindly tried to help me up a couple of steps, but our brief rendezvous was short lived when I screamed cold-blooded obscenities in his face, just before my harp would have fallen down a flight of marble steps. Of course I tried to recover the situation by being instantly normal again and smiling manically but he just thought I was a massive nutter and quickly disappeared in terror.
Similar to your average OAP I am onto my 3rd car now. The first was my families old people carrier and I crashed it after 6 months of driving it in Manchester. The 2nd exploded on the slip road…not my proudest moment. I was far too attached and I know I shouldn’t have let it get to that point but… I remember our last drive together…to the scrap yard! I actually wept when they told me they could only give me £90 for it. HOWEVER my tears obviously worked because then they upped it to £100, either because they felt sorry for me or because they bought my ‘look how great the body work is’ line. LOOK WHOSE LAUGHING NOW! I then took the wrong bus home and was late for a rehearsal and left my tax disc on the bus…but that’s another blog post!
But I do love this lifestyle mostly. No danger of getting bored that’s for sure. Once when the electricity went my Grandad used a blow torch to cook his eggs. I like to think I am that resourceful in a crisis. I like to think I will someday cook my beans, perhaps even with a blow torch, when I next get into a spot o bother. The music side of being a musician is just great, but I enjoy the lifestyle as well. I always fancied myself a Tom Cruise Mission Impossible type of job when I was about 8. And when you actually get down to playing the music its a real treat. All those long dark journeys in the car suddenly pay off. Its like the calm after the storm, the prize at the end for all my own personal mission impossible scenarios. And it keeps me young deary. Ha! As if, I am on OAP and proud! If I’m a patch on my Granded I’m delighted.
And so I would just like to end by saying, for the last time, to all those who have ever said this to me (I have literally heard it at every single concert I have played in), or think this might be the time to make this witty little aside, and for harpists of the world who will hear this phrase ringing in their ears on their death bed- NO! I DON’T BET I WISHED I’D PLAYED THE PICCOLO!!
Merry 2014!
estherkateswift 