Swampwater Debutante

So my friend Raevyn decided a few weeks ago that the time was ripe to have another House Concert with everyone’s favorite Autoharping Bard, Marc Gunn. Marc’s recently moved to New Orleans, so we all miss him a great deal.

I admit I squee’d when Raevyn announced it, because come on, it was scheduled for three days before my birthday, and what better way for the universe to demonstrate that it isn’t ALWAYS fucking with me than by arranging for my favorite Bard to be in town then? Then Rae said she would bake a cake, and, well. Cake And A Bard, With Friends.  That’s my idea of a very awesome birthday.

And so it came to pass that Kate and I trekked out to Watauga to hear Marc sing; Hope was originally set to come, too, but multiple sicknesses in her house canceled that, so it was only us two. Which is, I am sure everyone agrees, MORE than enough Damsel to cause trouble.

Of course, we were late. Mea culpa as always. I do actually try to get to places on time, you know, I really do. After many years, I have finally gotten getting to work on time down, so I figure everything else will fall into place eventually.

Anyway. We were late. But we did get there, and it was a very good concert. It was lovely to see Marc again. Even if he DID spend several verses of “Roll The Old Chariot Along” picking on me.

(I HAD NO IDEA HE READ THE BLOG. NONE. HE HAS NEVER SAID A WORD. But it came up in the song, I tell you that. I cannot begin to imagine how many shades of red I turned)

The promised cake was beyond sublime – a Blackberry Wine cake. Raevyn sent me home with half of it, for which I am sure I shall thank AND curse her. Seriously, it’s just…mrrrrrmmmmm. I am surprised there was half of it to send home with me, because we all liked it muchly.

And we sat around after drinking a little and talking. Somewhere in there the fact that I am learning the guitar came up and I confessed that it was pretty difficult going (and that I had swung it in the general direction of my hellbeast of a kitten in order to startle her into not hanging on things anymore).

“Have you ever thought of trying the autoharp?” Marc asked.

I was stunned. I really never had. Next thing I knew, I was sitting there with one in my lap and he was showing me how easy it could be – you press a button and strike the strings and voila, you just played a chord. If you learned the chordbar and tuning, and you have a good ear for putting a chord progression together, you can be set relatively quickly. Plus it is way, WAY easier to hold than a guitar – especially the honkin’ huge classical acoustic I am currently practicing on.

I sat there for a while, nervous as usual about messing it up, but not able to stop holding it and occasionally trying a quiet chord out. I found that I liked holding it, it felt very comfortable and it was nice to be able to just hold down a button and strum and suddenly something that sounded a lot more like music than my guitar efforts came out.

“I could probably even let you borrow one,” Marc offered. “I have a houseful of the things.”

I am still nervous about using other people’s instruments (because of my occasional ineptitude), but I am actually considering taking him up on that, if I don’t just locate an autoharp on my own. By year’s end I had already planned to at least have a payment plan started on a guitar, why not add an autoharp as well?

I’m actually really, really excited about this! I went from an intense interest in musical instruments, but an inability to play them…to slowly figuring out guitar and then having the notion of autoharp plunked (literally) into my lap. I have always felt like something was missing in me, with my inability to play a musical instrument. Like there was some crucial mode of expression going lacking.

But I have had such a hard time with instruments, some critical bit of wiring in my brain is loose, I think, because my ability to use both hands at once while trying to think and read music is…well. It is awful (Great Piano Jury Meltdown Of 1996, anyone?). Hell, even without adding in thinking and reading music it’s terrible. I have always managed (dubiously) best with playing by ear, and the autoharp seems to suit that pretty well. I can’t believe it never once occurred to me to TRY it. I just saw that someone I admired very much as a musician was very, very good at playing it and therefore assumed it would of course be well out of my reach, because I am not a musician.

Apparently, I have a fighting chance with this one. While I will keep up with the guitar, I am also going to be taking up the autoharp. This is ten kinds of awesome trouble just waiting to happen. But Marc is good for trouble – I wrote my first song parody shortly after meeting him, and for some reason after spending any amount of time around him I have the vicious urge to Screw A Classic Song Up. And now I shall have instrumental backup for my shenanigans. Marc, darling, what in heaven’s name made you think it was a good idea to inflict this on the world?

I’m giggling madly. I can’t WAIT to get this started. IT IS GOING TO BE SO AWESOME YOU GUYS JUST WAIT AND SEE IF IT ISN’T.