Sakura Arigato!

My own digital art, "Cherry Blossoms"

I finally had my first experience where a patient recognized a familiar song: Sakura (means Cherry Blossoms) in Japanese. However, the conversation started out very awkward, because I'm still mastering the art of talking and playing at the same time.

An older Japanese guy came by and said "Arigato!" and what did I do? Totally caught off guard, I said "Arigato" back (then realized I probably just repeated what he said, not replied). Worst of all, I did that horrible silly cliché of an Asian bow! I felt like I wanted to run to the nearest wall and throw my head against it repeating "Arigato! Arigato! No, no , no!"

THEN, when he wanted to make sure the name of the song was what I was playing, I said, "Oh yeah, Suo Gan!" (a Welsh lullaby) and then he said "No, Sakura!" and then a repeat of said head-to-wall contact would have been appropriate after that as well. Sakura is one of the first songs I learned. I should know better!

But when one is playing the harp and la-de-dahing away, sometimes language doesn't kick in so well, and then goes the memory...

Best of all, today I got to see an old lady tippy-toe dance past me and flutter her arm-wings as she went by. Probably better to see her doing that, than this guy:

The Back Knobbler

 

I suffer from horrible shoulder/scapular pain that radiates down my spine on the right side and into the neck area. After playing the harp (especially in a bad position) the pain is so bad that I have to stop. Then I take some pain medication because the burning continues for hours and into the next day. Oh and it also likes to seize up and I can't move my neck for a scary minute.

The knot back there just gathers all my stress and puts it there for safe keeping, I guess. So I recently bought The Back Knobbler after reading some reviews that scored high. This thing is awesome and I could use it for 10 minutes several times a day without my arms getting tired!

Internship ahoy!

I thought I would post about my first couple of days playing harp at a prominent hospital. This hospital does not have a residential harpist (aka PAID harpist) yet. I hope to find some type of funding or a grant to help establish playing the harp there, so that the hospital can be just like the other hospitals...with a paid harpist. No hospital left behind!

But for now, I am a volunteer and working on completing my required 80 hours of internship in a hospital setting. So here are a couple things I've learned so far:

• Wow, it's pretty exhausting. I feel like I'm a ball of energy being drained slowly throughout the day. I need to learn to properly shield and center myself.
• I will not accept candy from strangers hovering over the harp.
• There seems to be a rebellious string in the upper octaves. I got a standing ovation for tuning in front of a patient. Why perform, when I can just tune!
• Take your free lunch voucher, every time. Even if the chicken salad sandwich has a bone in it.
• I'm already getting tired of my "regular" music I play by memory and I'm only on day 2. Better add in some new tunes stat!
• Wished I would have thought of something better to say than "nice hat" to a patient with no hair today. Oh well.

This is just a couple things that happen in one day. I played for 3 hours straight and I probably should have napped on a patient's bed in between relocating to another floor or waiting room (just kidding). 

Something happened today, that emotionally affected me already! A girl my age (30's) was coming out from her appointment and walked right past her husband. He realized this, was a bit stunned, and went after her. I watched as she broke down and cried in the hallway. I could only imagine the news she just received regarding her condition. :(

Again, I'm realizing that it's important to observe these incidents and provide appropriate music, or no music.

Welcome!

Welcome to my harp therapy blog. I hope to share some wonderful experiences that happen along the way as I become officially certified as a harp therapist in the International Harp Therapy program (next Spring, hopefully!)

As a harp therapist in training, I searched for other blogs written by other potential harpists or students, but they were hard to find. I hope that this journal will help those that are interested in taking this path, and give a real insightful look into the joys and struggles of making it as a harp therapist. I also hope to share my spiritual experiences along the way.

Part of my required reading for school includes shared experiences from other harp therapists, and their experiences are like angel-crack for me...I gotta have more! As an earth-angel-in-training, sometimes I swear and I like to be sarcastic with a side of pop-culture.  You don't wanna know how many times I swore while getting my parking ticket validated at the hospital today. It only took 4 times!

Anyway, looking forward to posting in the future (ok, ok right after this I'm doing another post) and having you all with me!