Q & A with harpist Alice Roberts

One might ask who Alice Roberts is; she is the harpist who plays with Jasmine Myra. I've tried to contact JM though various channels without success, and it occurred to me a few days ago that I might have more luck in contacting one of the musicians who play with her. Harpist Alice does have her own web site (she is also available to play at weddings, bar mitzvas, etc) and through this site I was able to ask a few questions. 

Q: How do you manage to concentrate and maintain your timing in the long pieces when you are playing continuous arpeggios?

A: A lot of playing the harp is just muscle memory so I’m not really thinking too hard about the repeating patterns, I’ll usually be listening out for certain other cues that trigger the next part of the song. When we play live I tend to sort of riff on the patterns a bit more and we can be a bit more reactive as a band than on the recordings.

Q: How do you manage touring with a harp? Do you take your own or do you hire at every venue? And if so, what is it like playing different harps?

A: When we tour outside of the UK we typically hire a harp [at] every venue. It can be quite interesting haha! Sometimes the harps haven’t been very well maintained so it can be a bit stressful getting them to a playable state in a few hours before the gig, but sometimes they’re amazing instruments - even better than mine. So it just depends and I always make sure I’m at soundcheck in plenty of time with a tuning key in hand.

Q: It took me quite a while to realise that 'Words left unspoken' is in 54 as I found it difficult to find the '1'. I'm also having trouble with 'Glimmers' in finding the '1'; the other day I realised that this probably is in 44, albeit with some oddly placed accents.

A: Yes, Glimmers is in 4/4 and Words Left Unspoken is in 5/4. Hope that helps!

So there you have it. At the moment I don't have any more specific questions, and my assumption that everyone in the JM Band is occupied with their own projects at the moment whilst Jasmine writes some new tunes was not adressed. On the other hand, Alice did write Jasmine’s music is so beautiful and I’m really thrilled to be a part of it.

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