Late in 2019 I started to notice a feeling.  I was feeling an imbalance between what I was creating versus what I was consuming.  It was a nagging feeling that wouldn’t go away.  I noticed that I am consuming all the time, endlessly.  Books, TV, music, food, the internet, technology.  And like an addict or the hungry ghosts in Buddhism, this continuous consumption never satisfies.   

That feeling of imbalance, quite naturally, fueled a desire to create; to put something new in the world.  I have no…

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Maybe you want to explore playing your Reverie Harp tuned to A=432Hz.   Or maybe you have tried to play your Reverie Harp along with another instrument but it just sounded a little off.   These are both situations where you'll want to calibrate your tuner.  Knowing how to calibrate your tuner is a useful skill and super easy to do.  Below is a short video that shows you how to do it.

Here's a few tuners I recommend.

Great Electronic Tuner to keep in your case: Korg CA2

Some great free tuner apps for your…

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Click the Tuning Chart to download the PDF

 

 

 

 

Click the Tuning Chart to download the PDF

 

 

I asked Sam if he would play handpan in a video with me.  He said no.  I said we could dress up fancy.  He said yes. 

After 11 takes and some technical issues, we finally got a good take.  

The Handpan is tuned to D minor pentatonic.  The Meditation Tuning for the Reverie Harp is in C Minor.  So I modified that tuning and created a Meditation Tuning in D Minor. 

I used hammered dulcimer hammers in the middle section which work great on the Reverie Harp. 

Every few months I would say to myself - "I should record an album of Reverie Harp Music."  This has been going on for years.  Well I finally decided to make it happen.  I challenged myself to record 12 tracks that feature the Reverie Harp.  I wanted to dig deep into this instrument and find out how much it had to offer.

I explored the different tunings and even developed a new tuning (see Mallets).  I rarely knew what I was going to do when I sat down to start a new track;  I would just tune the instrument and start to play.  I was constantly surprised by how an idea would eventually surface and turn itself into a new song.  

1) SPACE

Tuning:  Reverie Tuning in C

This was the first track recorded for this album.  I created a bed of atmospheric synthesizer sounds and then improvised on the Reverie Harp using the standard pentatonic Reverie Tuning in the Key of C

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The year was 2007.  I had been working at Musicmakers for about 9 years.   I had been thinking that we should design a musical instrument that could be useful in Music Therapy but wasn't sure what that instrument should be.  It was at this time that I was paid a visit by a mysterious stranger.

Well, he wasn't actually that mysterious.  His name was Peter Roberts and he was (and still is) a music thanatologist living and working in Australia.  His primary instrument was a Gothic Harp built by Musicmakers.  He was back in the states at that time re-connecting with his fellow classmates and made a detour to visit the shop where his harp was built.  

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