Harpist, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Reuben Correa, Twin Cities, Minnesota, Weddings, Worship, Party, Background Music, Harp Concerts, Harp Lessons, Receptions, Composer, Harp Music Recordings:

    I haven't decided on a title for my learning to play the the harp in 250,000 somewhat easy lessons series in 5 or so books. Be sure to get a teacher because after the 5th lesson and 24th week of playing that lesson you will realize that you haven't learned much and should have got a teacher in the first place.  Because now you have to unlearn all the bad habits you learned by doing it yourself and relearn it the correct way and that's really frustrating.  Yea for harp teachers.

Should I be Marginally serious and name it "Spread Your Wings and Fly."  Because on the har,p the technique for playing really well involves learning to spread your elbows out so that you don't cave inward and scrunch your shoulders.  And you won't suffer in your later years.

  Or shall I give it an odd or a silly name like "One String Missing."  Because on a harp more often than not especially if you play it and tune it a lot you end up with strings missing and stuff like that.

I like them both,   Maybe I'll choose one and subtitle it with the other.  Gosh I don't know.  In the meantime I am sort of starting at both ends. 

 I have a lot of compositions and arrangements on my cds. So I am in the process of writing them out.   As I get them written, I'll decide on their level of difficulty and put them in the appropriate book.

Today I am working on the piece I submitted to the International Harp Competition in Dinan -Brittany France in 1993.  I titled it Oceana Ballet, thinking that by putting a French word (Ballet) might actually give me a better chance to win.   (Shameful)

Actually I have been working on it for about a month, transcribing it from its old form done on an ancient computer and written by hand then cut out, glued and assembled and copied on a Kinko's copy machine.I had to create a lot of symbols for what I was trying to convey.  And the computer program I was using didn't have all the options I have now on a modern program.

The piece officially tied 4th place with a spanish composer who didn't even know how to tune his harp. (watch me grimace and bare my teeth.) What a learning experience that was!( a bitter one at that for many years). Now of course it doesn't matter.

  But because of all the politics involved, (it was the tenth year of the competition and they wanted a French winner).  They had already awarded the first prize, to a French lady, and put her name on the winning check 2,000.00FR and a certificate before the competition. So they couldn't award the 1st place and they didn't, only 2nd through 5th.

  Unfortunately for them, she disqualified herself by playing her piece too fast and coming in at 06:20minutes under the timed minimum.   The parameters of the competition, were based on the timed length of the piece.   It had to be original, and it had to be longer than 7 minutes but less than 10 minutes.

They tied all of the other French competitors in the second and third places so it would be a French sweep.   What they didn't count on was that the other French competitors didn't want to be tied.  And an uproar ensued. 

  For us competitors from different countries, approximately ten including one all the way from Australia.  We had no idea what was going on, and why they didn't award the first place, since we had all received the finalist letter telling us (in French) that we were all worth of the top prize.  And all we had to do was show up in Dinan- Brittany, France, to play the World Premiere.

The furious four French winners who didn't win 1st and could speak English and other languages gave us a top notch description of the goings on. Oh  - My - Gosh!! and a few other choice words, in Spanish, Scottish, German, Irish, English, Swiss, Belgian, Luxembourgian . . .  talk about a Fiasco!!

  You know when you win your first competition (Mine was the Scottish Highlander Games in San Diego the year berfore) 1st place in the professional division, and 1st place over all the other competitors, you have certain beliefs about your ability, and therefore certain expectations. Really Really High ones.

  To be bumped down to fourth because of politics, really fries your brain especially after spending your lifetime savings to get to France (a not so cordial place towards foreigners in the first place),  gosh what should have been my first clue!

Well Okay, I was really bummed out, but I really did learn some valueable lessons and I got to meet some really great people who have gone on to be really great performers.

So I don't do live competitions anymore, though I think it has been long enough now 18 years that I could do a competition for the fun of it to learn something new, and not get all bent if I don't even place.  There is a Scottish Festival coming up in May that has a competition on all things Scottish.   I don't even know how to do anything remotely stylistically Scottish the way they would be judging it, but it might be fun to stretch the envelope and go for it.

I'll keep you posted.