I'm looking forward to reading your posts Deirdre. My name is Greg, I'm 65 and I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I rediscovered the Jew's harp about 3 1/2 years ago having more or less forgotten about it for 40 years. I had bought a couple of cheap Austrian harps when I was about 20, but they weren't very interesting musically, and pre internet there simply wasn't any easily available information about the instrument. Then in 2021, I happened upon a video on YouTube featuring Olena Uutai, and I knew straight away that I had to know more about the instrument. So here I am, 100+ harps from makers from around the world and countless thousands of hours of practice later, and I'm more enthusiastic than ever to know more. Funny thing is, in 65 years I've never met face to face with another Jew's harp player. In South Australia, the harp is completely obscure and very few people show any curiosity for it. So I guess I'm a bit of weirdo in my little corner of the universe, but then again, I always was. Cheers Deirdre.
Hi Greg, great to meet you! This story of isolated obsession is a common one amongst harp nerds, I think. The internet has really opened things up for us to connect more (before that, the community centred around a small journal that was sent out to subscribers by snail mail). And the availability and selection of good jew's harps in recent years has made the pursuit a lot more rewarding and interesting for a lot of players. It's great to have you here!
excited for this!
Yay, great to see you here! Would love to have you on for an interview once I get the podcast aspect sorted out :D
that would be lovely!
I'm looking forward to reading your posts Deirdre. My name is Greg, I'm 65 and I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I rediscovered the Jew's harp about 3 1/2 years ago having more or less forgotten about it for 40 years. I had bought a couple of cheap Austrian harps when I was about 20, but they weren't very interesting musically, and pre internet there simply wasn't any easily available information about the instrument. Then in 2021, I happened upon a video on YouTube featuring Olena Uutai, and I knew straight away that I had to know more about the instrument. So here I am, 100+ harps from makers from around the world and countless thousands of hours of practice later, and I'm more enthusiastic than ever to know more. Funny thing is, in 65 years I've never met face to face with another Jew's harp player. In South Australia, the harp is completely obscure and very few people show any curiosity for it. So I guess I'm a bit of weirdo in my little corner of the universe, but then again, I always was. Cheers Deirdre.
Hi Greg, great to meet you! This story of isolated obsession is a common one amongst harp nerds, I think. The internet has really opened things up for us to connect more (before that, the community centred around a small journal that was sent out to subscribers by snail mail). And the availability and selection of good jew's harps in recent years has made the pursuit a lot more rewarding and interesting for a lot of players. It's great to have you here!
Hey, Deirdre! I’m excited to see the places we’ll go!!