Because my stress level went down by the 4th day of not being at work I could see without my glasses.    It was very nice, I can see up close even.  

Its amazing what stress will do to your body.   Don't forget to take a vacation and see different sights or plan time to just let your hair down. Or in my case since my hair seems to be falling out,  I just let my skin droop!

Shouldn't be a problem right?  Just follow directions drive up to the front door, unload the harp and play for the event.

Wrong!!!

On this afternoon a huge funeral to honor a St. Paul Policeman shot in the line of duty, snarled traffic with hundreds of police cars coming from downtown St. Paul to file in parade past his former work place which was a few blocks down the street from my destination.

Everything was blocked off none of the driveways or entrances were available so I ended up driving over hill and dale parking in a distant parking lot down a steep grade and hiking with my harp to the the appointed place.

Whew! I'm  glad I brought my Renaissance Harp Gothic 31. I made it a little bit late and still managed to play the gig to the satisfaction of the Volunteer banquet planners.

This is what I'm used to doing being there when you want me to despite the odds and the difficulties I will make it happen for you.

  One of my favorite memories is of a young couple's Grandmother who decided to surprise them with me.  She had me show up to play music at their reception.

All while they were getting their pictures taken and the guests were munching on appetizers, they kept looking at me and talking to each other then glancing my way, then exchanging worried glances and words.

   Then finally the groom walked over to me and said we are really enjoying your music, but we know we didn't hire you and are wondering if you realize that you are at the wrong wedding.

    I burst out laughing and told him not to worry, because his Grandmother had hired me as a surprise.   They were very surprised and very happy and after that their picture taking session was much happier.

  And grandma got lots of hugs and kisses.

   The difference between what I do and other teachers is that I travel to their homes so they can be less stressed out when they begin their lesson.   I used to have them come to my home which is kind of like walking into the lion's den.  The nerves start long before the ring the doorbell.

   They never really seemed to get a full lesson then because of all the time it took to unpack the harp from its case,  retune it and calm down from the traffic they had to fight coming to my home.  Now I just walk in, we get preliminary greetings out of the way, do a little diversionary stress relief and then we plunge into the lesson.

   The harp has very specific basic technique so I like to start slowly.   But along the way we have a lot of fun and laugh alot.

  I almost always tell the story of when I first started playing the harp.  My first teacher showed me how to do a glissando with a five tone scale.  I was learning on a pedal harp and the string tension is very strong.

  It was such an exotic beautiful sound that I wanted to keep doing it but she warned me that I'd get blisters and told me to only play a glissando once a day until my skin toughened up enough.

  I played piano and tuba and had no knowledge of how damaging strings could be to one's fingers, so as soon as she was out the door and off school grounds I began to make beautiful glissandos ring through the halls of the practice level at my college.

   In the next few hours it became apparent that my teacher was right and I was terribly wrong.  My fingers were swelling at an alarming rate and the next day it looked like I had little fish bowls developing on the tips of my fingers.  I almost expected to see little tiny fish swimming by.

  Needless to say I had a lot of lessons to catch up on as it took over a week for my fingers to return to normal.  I had to have classmates take notes for me it was painful.   Lesson Learned!

  Since then in a matter of two weeks or less, I have almost sold more cds online than I did all of last year.   I wish I had figured out how to link my cds before Christmas, but I was working in every direction with gigs, students, full time job and family and couldn't even have begun to have the strength or brain power to figure that process out.

Oh well now that its done I am quite happy that it is working. Maybe my goal of getting 1 million listeners this year will not be so impossible.

   I don't think that I have ever taught so much in such a little amount of time, but it was a rewarding and productive hour.

   If you are ever in town and would like to meet with me, do give a jingle or email me at rubatomanmusic2@aol.com.   I'd be delighted to share the little bit that I know and learn from you as well.

Happy New Year

Reuben

Hello Everybody:   I hope you can eke out some fun times with your family in this very busy time of year.  

This is my favorite picture under the lights of the Wildhorse Saloon Performing at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards in Nashville, TN.

I think it will become my next CD cover. I hope you can tell I am very excited and having a lot of fun.