Last week I was away from home for a while while my husband was in the hospital. We knew it would be about a week but we weren’t sure about the exact chain of events, if he would have a private room, and a whole host of other questions. I wanted to bring my harp but I was unsure about too many things regarding space, logistics and weather so I decided to bring this small lap harp that I own.
Honestly, I’ve never actually been able to get comfortable with a lap harp. They are just missing too many strings! But I decided that this was a good opprtunity to spend some time with the little harp and I wouldn’t be worried about it in the space or it’s well-being. One of the issues that I always have with the lap harp is being able to translate written music on to the reduced number of strings. It takes a lot of creativity to transpose things on the fly as you are playing and to compensate for the reduced strings. Generally I am tied to written music and the relationship I know between what I see and my 34 strings so this has been a problem for me.
While we were in the hospital I took a lot of opportunities to work with the lap harp and to improvise some music. Also not one of my strengths but I really, really enjoyed myself. I came up with some fun things and I learned a lot. Sometimes it is good to step out of your comfort zone. I know the harp helped make a difficult week more tolerable and the nurses were always happy to come in when I was playing! You could certainly tell the difference in the blood pressure numbers for my husband. That was the best benefit.