“Achoo,” I sneezed, turning my face away from my duet partner and over my harp.
He stopped playing his saxophone. “You can’t sneeze and play harp!”
I raised my eyebrows, then grinned. “You have no idea what all I can do while I play!”
Playing the harp is already multitasking. I use both hands independently, press one or two of the seven pedals with my feet, turn pages and sight read two clefs of music.
But that is just the beginning of what I can do while I play. When I am providing background music and not under a spotlight center stage before an audience, I have been known to introduce songs, carry on conversations, hand out business cards and book new harp events. With my small harp, I not only walk but waltz to the music I play. From experience I know I can hold children, hug little old ladies and push wheel chairs. I can eat, drink, blow my nose, put a pony tail in my hair, move furniture, use a camera, hold an umbrella and clothespin my music to keep it from blowing away in the wind, all without ever stopping the melodious stream of notes. If I really concentrate I can even smile at the same time.
Maybe I should do all this while on stage. It might be a pretty entertaining show.
Multitasking is the reason harp music is such perfect background music for receptions, open houses and weddings. It is beautiful and soothing to provide an elegant atmosphere but soft enough not to disrupt the conversations. It saturates stressed situations at nursing facilities, replacing them with smiles.
We keep a level of background music in our own lives, an interior monologue usually consisting of insecurities, doubt and disappointment. Multitasking, we perform our activities and duties without ever turning off that interior noise. My purpose in playing harp is to glorify Jesus but my interior background noise disrupts even as the praise of the harp builds up. If I can do all of the variety of listed things while playing my instrument, can I do my daily tasks and maintain better background music? I want to re-tune my interior instrument to do all life’s activities–sneezing, talking and holding an umbrella–all without ever stopping the melodious stream of praise.
My friend and I restarted our duet, an arrangement of the spiritual “Were You There?”
“Were you there when Jesus rose up from the grave
Sometimes it makes me want to shout
Were you there when He rose up from the grave?”
What is your multitasking music? And if you need harp as background or as a featured item call me at 574-875-0795.