Miss Shell Shocked

The coming of the holidays brings many a thing. Lights, good food, family, blah blah blah blah blah.... For me it has brought a plethera of CONCERTS. In the past 5 days I have had 3 Concerts and I also sang in church once. This is not the issue that we are discussing today.

Most musicians (mostly instumentalists) wear normal stuff. This is not true for harpists. Whenever we get together someone always feels the need for us to be matching or to have some connecting clothing item. This issue is most perfectly displayed when I went to Ireland for the World Harp Congress. Now let me clarify that not ALL harpists have to dress weird together... Apparently only my groups do. Let me describe the scene for you. We are dressed in black pants and shirts (normal you say but just wait) then we all have a swirly poncho/shoulder covering scarfy things WITH a matching flower in our hair. Now take in mind that none of our colors match (bright pink, golden brown, navy blue, sea green were just a few of the colors.) Now during my time as a harpist I have seen groups perform in horseback riding clothes, colorful broomstick skirts and various other "get ups".

Now why am I telling you this? While performing with my harp group in 2 of my 3 concerts we were designated to wear red ribbons around our waists. Now I'll admit that they weren't that bad. They looked ok, but whatever happened to concert black. You don't see the Utah Symphony with matching outfits and pink ribbons in everyones hair. It's not that I am against red ribbons-I am against the idea that is behind them. We are already connected by the harps! We are all harpists! Everyone is going to realize that we are in the same group together because we are playing together!

Keep in mind that I am refering to normal musicians-mainly instumentallists. I do think that large choirs do look good when they all look the same, and who can resist a guy in a tux? I mean come one! And many groups do wear matching outfits, and I do think it is important to be unified as a group. I would just prefer to not look like a fool while performing. Is that too much to ask?