Enter: The Harp

The Banana chose to take orchestra in middle school.  Since she’s been playing the violin for a while, her teachers have been having her help other students who have their instruments in hand for the first time figure out how to hold and play their violins.  Beginning orchestra moves pretty slowly so everyone can learn, and that’s how it should be.  The Banana plays violin at lessons and in the youth orchestra, so she stays challenged that way.  But one day her teacher asked, “The school harp will be coming back from getting some repairs done.  Is there anyone who would be interested in playing the harp?”  The Banana was intensely interested.  No one else was.  So, the middle school harp has come to live at our house for a bit.

It was a surprising turn of events!  The Banana will still be playing her violin in orchestra at school, orchestra after school, and Concert Orchestra with our local youth orchestra program, but now she gets to also learn the harp.  She’s always been intrigued by the harp, even as a little girl.  There is a wonderful local harpist who plays with the symphony and has a very successful studio of harp students, and we have gotten to see the harp ensemble play on a few different occasions.   The Banana always thought it looked so interesting.

It’s been pretty crazy how everything worked out smoothly in the midst of my not-so-smooth autumn season.  The harp teacher was able to teach a very early morning lesson on a day when I don’t have early morning students myself.  The orchestra teacher was happy to send the harp home so she would have an instrument to practice.  Hooray for public schools, and our particularly great middle school orchestra teacher who is all about getting instruments into the hands of kids who want to learn.

I will add that a beginner on the harp sounds surprisingly pleasant.  It’s just a lovely, unobtrusive sound.