CUL-DE-SAC

Most musical instruments are pretty compact. They don’t take up a lot of space and they travel easy.

It becomes more difficult when you play a drum set or a stand-up bass. A piano isn’t a big deal because transporting it to gigs isn’t even part of the discussion. You play whatever piano is there, and if they don’t have one you don’t play.

And then there’s the harp. I just got my daughter a new harp since she grew out of the old one. I got a call from a delivery guy who said he was on his way, and I asked him if he was bringing the harp.

“I have no idea what it is,” he said. “All I know is it weighs seventy pounds.”

Now it’s in our living room. It’s like a piece of furniture… kind of the way a piano is.  You need to put in a place where you can get at it, where it’s going to look good and where it’s not going to get in the way.

Lifting it is not too hard, but toting 70 pounds in the shape of a harp through doorways and trying to get it into a car is either a two-person job or something that requires a dolly. Add 10-20 pounds and you’ve got a full-sized concert harp, something my little girl isn’t quite ready for.

This one has a gilded crown and two stabilizing feet at the bottom in the shape of lion’s paws. Sophie wanted that. And her teacher told us it’s important for a young player to love her harp.

My family is a musical one and Sophie may or may not become a serious harp player. But she works at it and she enjoys performing because she likes to be special.  Meantime the harp will look good and give our house the air of refined artistry.

This entry was posted on November 10, 2012 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.