Ohio Scottish Games

Master Harp Competitors: Cindy Shelhart, Jen Narkevicous, and me.

After the competition, Jo Morrison gave a workshop. Then harpers played through several favorite tunes together. Pictured here are Jen Narkevicous, Karen Babb, Jo Morrison, and Sue Richards.

I planned on being a spectator at the Ohio Scottish Games this year instead of being in the harp competition. Like many other harpers, I arrived on Friday night. Then we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. While Jen and I enjoyed our margaritas,  Jo Morrison (the judge for tomorrow’s competition) lamented that no competitors had signed up in the Master’s Division. With the competition being low on competitors, the scholarship awards would not be given out. Jen (former president of the Scottish Harp Society of America) quickly said that she would enter the competition. Then she pressed me into service. Since she and I were going to compete without having prepared, we decided to get Cindy Shelhart (former National Scottish Harp Champion of America) to compete with us. 

The next morning was amusing. A string on my harp broke. After I replaced it and ran through my tunes, I realized that this string’s note featured prominently in every tune I would be playing. This new string would be continually going out of pitch for the next few days. Besides that, I usually have my nails clipped way ahead of time. Because of needing to replace the broken string, I was clipping my nails before the competition. Beside me, a new competitor was having a nervous breakdown. Her mother had decided to help by tuning her harp while she was gone. She was having trouble because she was using an app on her iPad that was picking up every sound echoing in the building. After I offered her the use of my electronic tuner and clip on sensor, I found out that her mother was tuning the harp using a completely different tuning scheme. They were ready to pack things in. Amidst all the tension, I offered to re-tune the harp. After getting the harp tuned up, the competition began without me having time to get my thoughts focused and having a chance to play through my tunes again. 

It was all so comical, that I had no choice but to resign myself to the fact that things were just going to come out the way they did. Amazingly, that helped me to relax more and feel less tension. And, it turned out to be a very good performance for me. I was awarded 2nd place in the Solo Harp-Master Level. I placed 1st in the Harp with Vocal category singing a song I’d not performed publicly before. And I was awarded the Bardic Cup for continuing the bardic traditions of singing or storytelling with the harp. Thank goodness for daily practice which helped things to come out right when the need arose. And thank goodness for the lack of prep time to become nervous!