I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend. Although there were no official firework displays on Kauai, several families on my street had plenty of pyrotechnics to keep the neighborhood booming until late in the evening. Luckily, (from my viewpoint), it started pouring rain at about 11 pm, which brought an end to the "festivities."

I recently got tired of my long hair, so I got it chopped off. I love my new hair-do and have received lots of compliments.

I also decided it was time for my website to get a make-over and a new look, too! The company that takes care of the e-commerce and shopping cart functions on my website is now working on a complete overhaul. We're hoping it will be ready in about a month. So, don't be surprised if my site looks a bit different -- and hopefully much better -- very soon!

Aloha,

Sylvia

William Mahan is our featured composer this month. Here's what he has to say about himself and his music.

Ours was a musical family. My mother sang and played the piano. My father had a beautiful voice, and my sister could sing and harmonize in alto. By five years old, I could sing and yodel like Gene Autry, my childhood hero. At age ten, my mother wanted me to take piano lessons at school. To Sister Anne's great consternation, I learned how to play by ear but not how to read music. In high school, I borrowed a ukulele from my girlfriend's mother and learned to chord a couple of tunes. When I was drafted into the army in 1953, I bought a baritone uke, and one of my army buddies taught me a few more chords. While in architectural school at Iowa State University in 1957, I purchased a guitar and learned the five easy chords; E, E7, A, D, and B7. They fit the range of my voice and allowed me to sing my favorite folk songs: Jamaica Farewell, Sloop John B, Me and Bobby McGee, and several others. I also fell in love with classical music and began a collection of records spanning from Bach to Rachmaninoff. However, I still have hundreds of charming and romantic popular songs of the 40's and 50's spinning in my head all the time.

In 1974 we bought a spinet piano, and I took an Adult Ed class in Improvisational Piano. Our class learned C, F and G chords in the bass to harmonize with many popular songs in the key of C, along with similar accompanying chords in the keys of G and D. We learned the beginning basics of reading music; at least where middle C, E, G, B, etc. were on a musical staff. I impressed the teacher by composing an original song. As usual, I played it by ear, so I have no written copy of what it was.

After the class, I lapsed back into my laziness and didn't practice, and soon the piano was seldom used. Occasionally, I would sit down and play a couple of pieces by ear. I returned to the guitar and the several songs that I could play and sing.

The Folk Mote Music Store was in downtown Santa Barbara, selling folk harps, guitars, banjos, and other folk instruments. As I walked by the store one afternoon in 1990, I looked through the window and saw a young lady playing a beautiful harp. I stepped inside to listen to the music. She touched the strings with such ease that the music seemed to flow from her fingers. I didn't recognize the song, but it was charming. When she finished, I stepped forward and asked her the name of the piece.

" The Grenadier and the Lady," she said. "It's in Sylvia Woods' Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp book."

"And did you teach yourself to play?" I asked.

"No," she said. "I'm using the book and taking lessons from a harp teacher, Barbara Hilaire."

"That is certainly a beautiful harp," I said. "

Yes," she sighed, “I wish that I could afford it.

I purchased that harp several days later. It had 33 strings, made by James Rydeki, a renowned harp maker in the '70's and '80's. At home, I tried to play it by ear, but that didn't work. It is not like a piano where you are looking down at your hands and can see where everything is. It wouldn't play for me. It sat in the living room for several months before I yielded to the reality that I was going to have to take harp lessons.

In a little guest house on her parents' estate in Montecito, surrounded by 14 harps and 20 cats, Barbara Hilaire gave harp lessons, teaching her students to read music and pluck the strings correctly. Young students come to it quite easily, but at age 58, my eye-to-fingers coordination was very creaky. Still, I was able to memorize the music before each next lesson. We progressed through the book, and on page 40, we came to my favorite song, The Grenadier and the Lady. But I thought it was too short; only 16 measures. With the melody spinning around in my head, I composed an introduction for my next lesson. The following week I added an ending, and Barbara was very pleased. I had expanded the song to 42 measures, and it now felt like a real piece of music. I eventually added variations, expanding it to 108 measures, and numbering it my first work, Opus 1.

Next, we were working on a piece in the key of G whose melody I didn't care for, but I liked the bass very much. I composed a new melody for the bass and played it in our following lesson: Song in G, Opus 2. Once again, Barbara was very supportive.

Next, I composed a completely original song, Canyon, Opus 3, and Barbara was ecstatic. The music then started to pour forth every week: Autumn's Waltz, Opus 4, My Hometown, Opus 5, and Warm Sienna, Opus 6. I composed Far Across the Ocean, Opus 7 in the key of D. I was playing it for Barbara with great gusto -- by ear, of course -- when suddenly, I lost my way.

"Barbara, where am l?"

"I don't know," she said. "I'm mesmerized."

Later, I asked her to play it back to me, as I often did, so I could just listen to the music without worrying about playing. At the end of the session, as my fingers were thoughtlessly wandering over the strings, I heard a theme.

"Did you hear that, Barbara?" I asked. She hadn't, so I played it again.

"Doesn't that sound impressionistic?" She agreed that it did.

"Barbara," I said, "next week, I'm going to bring you an impressionistic piece."

This month's sale features PDFs by William Mahan. The code word is Mahan . 

   

To get the 15% discount on the products below, enter the code word Mahan in the Promo Code box on your shopping cart page and click "Enter Code" by July 28, 2020. For more information, see the "How to get the 15% discount" section at the bottom of this newsletter.



15% off select sale items when you use the code word Mahan

Our newsletter promo codes are redeemable online and are only valid for the William Mahan PDFs featured in the sale section of this newsletter. They are not valid for phone or email orders. This month's code word is Mahan , and it is valid for 15% off the select PDFs in the sale section above. Just because an item is mentioned somewhere in this newsletter doesn't mean that it is on sale. It must be in the sale section.  

 

Here's how to get your newsletter discount at harpcenter.com :

#1. Put the items you want to purchase in your cart. 

#2. On the page where you view the items in your cart, type this month's code word Mahan in the "Promo Code" box and click on "Enter Code."

The actual price of the featured sale products on this page will then automatically change to reflect the discount. You'll also see a note below the Promo Code box saying the name of the promo code you entered and the percentage amount of the discount.  

 

REMEMBER: you must enter this month's code word Mahan in the Promo Code box and click "Enter Code" on your shopping cart page by July 28, 2020 to get the discount!

If you forget, or if you have trouble adding it to your order, email Sylvia immediately .  

 

Offer expires at the end of the day on 7/28/2020.

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