Older Homeschoolers

Learning to Play...

for the Winter Celebration we are having on December 21st.

Learning the Celtic Harp

by Courteny Rockenbach

When I look at the Celtic pixie harp I am learning to play, the Celtic knotwork inlaid in the polished rosewood frame makes me think of stone walls and sheep, mist and green grass, or sometimes the troubadours of old. When I first saw it, I was afraid to pluck the strings, because I was sure it wouldn't sound as good as it looked. As soon as I played it, my fears melted like snow on a warm day. Its sweet and mellow sound could fill a room, or lull a baby to sleep. Learning to play the harp is a bit tricky because it is hard to just pluck one string and not "bump" any of the others. The part I find most challenging though, is "keeping the beat" of the song while I shift the little nickel and silver levers from natural to sharp or vice versa. I am quite fortunate that the harp has color-coded nylon strings. The C strings are red, the F strings are blue, and all the others are white. Without that I probably wouldn't have even started playing.

I am quite exited with getting to be a part of the Winter Celebration. I love the idea of having a huge celebration on the shortest day of the year, when all is dull and dark. It's almost a declaration of strength and will that instead of giving into the cold darkness, huddling in our homes, we defy it, and go to live it up at a celebration!

Learning the Tenor Recorder

by Jack Carlson

When my grandma recently sent me a tenor recorder, I was shocked to see how large it was. The tenor recorder is just under two times longer then my soprano recorder, and the mouthpiece is two to three times as thick. It is a wooden recorder, made out of white maple. Needless to say, it is a light color, almost white, in fact. The tenor recorder is kind of hard to play because I have to spread my fingers so far apart. The really low notes are quite hard to play because I have to breathe so softly into the mouthpiece - any softer and there will not be enough air blowing through the recorder, any harder and the recorder will squeak. Unfortunately, in the songs I am learning, there are a lot of these really low notes. On the plus side, all the songs themselves are have been pretty easy because I am the bass. The bass part is easier because it mostly just keeps the rhythm. Then everyone thinks I'm working really hard but I am actually not. Sort of like being vice-president. Not to say that it's really easy, but just not as hard as it might seem at first glance.

I am learning to play this recorder with other people because the "Old Lady Inda Shoe Players" are going to be in a winter solstice play. I don't know a whole lot about it yet, but the songs will be similar to the ones we played at the Silver Leaf Renaissance Faire last July. It will be like the Revels, which is a winter solstice/Christmas audience-participation musical that goes on in Chicago, and also other places like Boston and Oakland, California.