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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Elin Wyn Jones
Location: Anglesey, North Wales
Instruments: triple harp
Music: Welsh folk
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSIC听听听听听听听听听听WHERE I PLAY听听听听听听听听听听A FAVOURITE SONG |
  
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 听听Listen (2'33) to 'Malltraeth', performed by Elin Wyn Jones.
听听Listen (2'17) to 'Dafydd y garreg wen', performed by Llio Rhydderch (Fflach, 2000).
听听Listen (2'15) to Elin Wyn Jones talk about her music
'My teacher, Llio, plays the tune. I listen and make up my own variations. That way I'm more creative with the music'
How I came to this music:
I started playing when I was about 8 years old. I'm now 17. A close family friend, Llio Rhydderch, is a well-known Welsh triple harpist. With her encouragement, I started messing about with harps and making up my own tunes. She was so impressed by my efforts that she offered to teach me.
We rented a small celtic harp at first to establish if I was talented enough for my parents to invest in a harp for me. Soon I was doing my own variations and got on really well with Llio.
Llio comes from an ancient unbroken aural tradition of triple harp playing unique to Wales. She was taught by the renowned harpist, Nansi Richards. Nansi can trace her own musical lineage back to the 14th century. Though I tried to learn to read music, I never really took to it so I've learned how to play harp by ear. That's how it's always been with this particular tradition. Llio plays the tunes. I watch and listen. Then I go home and practise them. If I'm playing a piece and something nice floats into my head, then I figure out how I'll play it. Sometimes, I'll play it against Llio's variations. It makes me more creative in my music.
The triple harp has a set of three strings hence the name. The two outer strings are tuned exactly like the white notes on a piano while the middle string is like the black notes - the sharps and the flats. The double-string creates the rich tone which can only be achieved on the classical harp with a pedal. It's quite a tricky technique as you've got to slip your fingers between the rows of strings. Of course, it's always possible to have a harp made that's customised to your own size.
Long ago, the triple harp was played mainly by men. By the mid 1780's they began to burn these harps in favour of more modern instruments. Luckily though, there's always been a core of triple harpists who've kept the tradition alive and it's in an increasingly healthy state. According to the two triple harp makers in Wales, orders are on the up.
Nansi Richards, Llio Rydderch's teacher, was hugely instrumental in reviving an interest in the past century. Llio now teaches six of us here on the island of Anglesey. She's even had us record an album with her. Together with Huw Roberts, another famous triple harpist, she's written a book called Telynorion Llanerch-y-Medd (The Harpers of Llanerch-y-Medd, published by Anglesey County Council). All of this inspires me so that I'm determined to pass on the tradition in my own lifetime. For some, being Welsh might be about rugby or choral singing. For me, it's about playing the triple harp.
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