Harping On A List

Cinnamon Peppo plays the harp
First United Methodist Church, Middletown, Ohio

As I listened to Cinnamon Peppo perform a Christmas concert on the harp, I debated whether I should add learning to play the harp to my Bucket List. I have always loved the harp. It sounds absolutely beautiful; like music from heaven. I've always thought it would be neat to play one. As I listened to Cinnamon play, I thought: this is it. This is my one lifetime, so if I'm going to learn to play, then I need to learn to play.

I watched her fingers pluck and strum the strings. I'd never noticed how many strings there were before. Or how her two hands were playing two entirely different sets of music. I sat and watched her and wondered whether she also plays piano, because it made me think of piano music and learning to play one line of music with your right hand and chords and other music with your left. Not just play them but look at two sets of music on the page at the same time. This would be difficult.

Then Cinnamon said she was going to play something particularly difficult from "The Nutcracker" because it involved a lot of footwork on the seven pedals. Seven pedals plus two lines of music and two hands doing two entirely different things. Hhhm. Should I or shouldn't I put this on my Bucket List?

When she finished playing she answered a few questions from the audience. We learned that her fingers used to get calloused and blistered, but not so much anymore. And we learned that harps cost between $13,000-$30,000. Whoa. This wouldn't just be tinkering around with a guitar. This would be a major commitment. But I do love the sound of a harp.

Maybe my Bucket List could be earning enough money to hire a harpist to play background music in my mansion all the time. Possibly, possibly. Or maybe I'd move "learning to play the harp" from my Bucket List to "getting a CD of harp music" to my Christmas List. That's probably the only way I'll get to hear one.