Are you a good tuner? Those of us who have been at it a while don’t seem to give it much thought – it’s a habit. The problem is, those of us who are acting from habit probably assume that everyone else has the same habits and know how to tune too (but you know what they say about assuming).
But one thing we should all appreciate is why tuning is so important.
Tuning serves a number of purposes both functional and aesthetic. The harp is designed to work together as an entity so the size, shape, and selection of wood, the hardware, the strings are all central to that sound. Tuning is essential to ensure that the integration is tight – it is one of many elements of achieving the tone and one we can easily control.
If each of your strings is not in tune, it challenges that integration. If the strings are note in tune, the sound of each string will “fight” with the sounds of the other strings. When they are only slightly off, you might hear a little twangy-ness, but you can definitely hear it. To me it sounds ever so slightly metallic. When the tuning is even farther off, it is clearly detectable and can be downright unpleasant to hear. Of course, if you are in tune, you will instantly sound better!
Current convention is to tune the A above middle C to 440Hz. You can tune to any frequency you choose – many historical musicians tune A to 432 (which might sound very flat to you if you tuned there). Using this as a convention allows us to easily come together as a group and play or to play with other instruments. Be sure to check that your tuner is calibrated to A440 or you’ll be in for a nasty surprise when you do meet up with others. All the other notes are then relative to that A440.
I mentioned that each harp is designed with specific tensions in mind. Harp makers go through a great deal of work to develop the shape and sound of the harp and these calculations all account for the specific tension of each string as well as the overall forces of all the strings working together. Keeping your harp in tune will keep all the strings at their appropriate tensions and will allow the harp to work together as the harp maker designed it.
And perhaps my favorite reason for regular tuning is that frequent tuning improves things. The more you tune – the more you practice tuning – the better you will be at it. You will get faster at getting to pitch, your strings will be closer requiring less input from you (most of the time), and you will learn your harp better (so you’ll know how much to turn the harp key). The more you tune, the better the strings will stay in pitch. Frequent tuning makes you faster, surer, and more accurate, so you can get to playing!
So, if you’re not a frequent or regular tuner, here’s your chance – get to it! If this is news to you, let me know in the comments if you want to learn more about tuning. But if this isn’t news but you aren’t tuning, let me know why – I’m curious and would love to hear it!
Do you ever feel like you’re floundering? Like you should be playing but just can’t seem to get onto the bench? In a quiet inner voice are you asking, “why am I doing this?” and not coming up with an answer?
This might be especially true as we come out of the summer season when there are so many workshops and learning opportunities. We see our harp buddies, we sit through the courses. Everyone seems so on fire. At least it seems like it. So we have to ask why we’re not all lit up like everyone else?
It happens – probably to all of us. Sometimes we might lose sight of our why. It’s not a bad thing – if you didn’t care, the question wouldn’t even occur to you.
Everyone else might be lit up because they aren’t adrift at this moment. Or they could be on autopilot and not thinking about it. Or they could be hiding that they are asking themselves the very same question.
It’s ok for your relationship with your harp and your music to go through phases. It’s ok to be all ate up and it’s ok to need a break and it’s ok to be happy as a clam and it’s ok to wonder how come you are stuck. It is not ok, however, to look at everyone else and wonder why they’re not.
We can talk about comparison another time, but for now – if you’re wallowing, not making progress, or even wondering if you should just give up, what should you do?
Start by acknowledging that you’ve got this feeling and you need to explore it. Then you can just ask more questions. Like how are you really feeling? Are you listless? Are you just practicing to say you did but not really engaging? Are you so busy watching other people play (I’m talking to you scrollers who are wondering why you can’t do that thing you saw on FaceTikGram)? Are you thinking you need to do something, but don’t know what? Are you afraid that you’re doing it wrong?
This is a very real struggle. And it can be concerning because it can come and go, attacking when you’re low and disappearing when you’re not. It’s also insidious because it tends to point us to asking the wrong questions to get ourselves back on track. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re not making zero progress.
You’re not lost. You might just need to find some new questions.
What questions could you be asking yourself? Note that no one else can answer these for you. Also, you’re not telling anyone the answers (or the questions), so there’s no comparisons to anyone else. Give yourself time to answer these, they deserve thoughtful, not flip, answers. How about:
If I could do anything right now, what would it be? (NB – doesn’t have to be harp related, but that’s kinda where we’re looking)
If there was a shiny object, what would it be? (adult version: what do I want to be doing that I’m not, but I could be if I let myself?)
What is my harp nirvana (what would make me be so enthralled that I’d completely lose track of time, hunger, and thirst?!)
What do I hate so bad that I’d rather skip playing to avoid it?
What could I do daily to make my harp life align with my vision of my perfect harp life?
What could I do if I was infinitely patient with myself, gave up my should and treated myself as a student or mentee who is allowed to experiment, explore, create, and fail gently?
What other questions should I be asking myself to keep progressing?
It’s only by continuing to ask ourselves questions that we’ll continue to grow (ok, that and practicing!). There is no end to the questions you might ask yourself.
Of course, you don’t have to be adrift to ask these questions. You can always be answering them at any time. But when you’re rudderless, it’s easy to focus on not going anywhere – and that’s where the questions come in, helping you get yourself back on course. What questions should I have included? Have you had the opportunity to grow like this? I love hearing from you, send me a comment!
Everyone is impressed when you walk up to your instrument empty handed, sit, and proceed to play a zillion tunes – without sheet music.
Your audience just thinks, “Wow, where did they put all that music?!” and You think, “Yay – if I’m not reading, I don’t have to worry about getting lost on the page!” and Everyone thinks, “That’s impressive”. And we all swoon at the wonderfulness of carrying all that stuff in your head.
And let’s be honest, even if you try not to be, it’s hard to avoid smugness when you just waltz to the harp and start to play. Almost all of us think that having memorized all your music is the most important skill to have. While that is debatable, many of us do struggle to remember music.
While it’s debatable that memorization is the most important skill to develop, it is important that we all work on having a strong memory of our music. Problem is, memory can be tricky. It can be solid for a coon’s age and then all of a sudden it can skip town on a whim, leaving you stranded.
There are many reasons for being deserted by your memory – poor preparation, stress, injury, illness, age. You might have experienced one or all of these (and others). Some are preventable, others are not. Let’s take a look:
Poor Planning – no matter if you learn tunes lickety-split or need years to really get a tune in your head, you need to know how you go – then you can plan appropriately and leave yourself enough time. If you do need a great deal of time and repetition, make sure you leave it for yourself! Don’t think that this tune will be the one that you soak up like a desiccated sponge – be reasonable and give yourself enough time to learn and be comfortable with it before you must be able to play it in public!
Stress – nothing will knock you for six like stress. If you’ve ever been stressed, you know that it feels inevitable and unending. Your heart may pound. Your hands may shake. The strings may swim in your vision. None of that helps you remember what comes next. Stress will get you every time, so you have to work around it (more on that in a sec).
Injury – this might be the most challenging of all because sustaining an injury can be frustrating for many reasons. Whether it’s a concussion or a stroke, brain insults will definitely impact your ability to form and use memory. You might not even know you’ve sustained an injury, you just notice you have a problem you didn’t have before. If you have a bigger incident, you may well know that you have had an injury and now have to deal with “fixing” it. Being a musician is very helpful for recovery because it requires using your whole brain. Working on playing will help you heal (both physically and spiritually). It can be slow and frustrating and difficult and you might not return to your previous proficiency, but you can keep playing and stay mindful of your progress.
Illness – like injury, illness can also impact your ability to remember your music. Whether it’s an infection, a lack of sleep, or a chronic illness, you may find that your memory is impaired (even if briefly). Your best defense is to know to expect a dip in your recall and plan ahead.
Age – it happens to everyone – even when you think it won’t happen to you! Forgetfulness is a natural part of aging, but other aging related things can also affect your memory such as your medical status, medication affects, and major life events. Your thinking will slow down as you get older, which can alter how well you can do complex tasks (like playing the harp). All those things you already know to do will help keep yourself in the game – like eating appropriately, getting exercise, and taking time to be creative (at least I didn’t suggest a list of additional tasks, just one’s you already know!).
There are other impactors, but these are the biggies (and the ones you’ve asked about). So, what can you do about it? Well, we already said you can:
Plan ahead and give yourself enough time to learn
Take good care of yourself to stay healthy and whole.
But there is one more thing you can do that will help you get through? You can overlearn your music.
Overlearning can you be more prepared and to fill the gaps when your memory is faulty. Overlearning is what you get when you continue to study and master a tune past when you have “learned” it. “Knowing” a tune (tenuously) will not help you get past memory desertion. I know, by the time you “get” the tune, you just want to play it. But have you noticed that the longer you play a tune, not only does it get easier but we also discover all sorts of stuff about it? If you specifically overlearn a tune (rather than maybe letting it happen over a very long time) you will have a strong depth of memory for it. Each repetition builds more paths you can follow to find the tune when it escapes. The combination of well knowing how it goes, how it’s phrased, how the finger patterns fit together, how the chord structure underpins the melody, and more can all be built by continued study of the music.
To overlearn a tune, first you have to acknowledge that you might know it (superficially), but you don’t r-e-a-l-l-y know it. When you add more repetition, you are making a good start on overlearning. And then it’s time to really lean into the tune – actively look for its nuances, it’s nooks and crannies, and plumb them for a better understanding of the music…and then work on repetitions of each of those unfolding nuggets. Once it’s overlearned, you’ll have multiple ways to find your way if you get lost, pull a thread when you can’t remember how it starts, or bringing in the next chord when it has left the building. The more ways you can remember all the elements of your music – the more overlearned it is – the more likely you can recover when you can’t remember what comes next.
I’m not going to try to kid you, overlearning takes time, so you need to add that to your preparation time. It also requires that you stay engaged and curious about each tune you play while you’re learning it (which, oh by the way, never ends). And that will help you be a better musician!
No method of patching the leak will be foolproof, but overlearning stands as a useful tool for getting through those times. Have you actually overlearned all your tunes? Do you have other ways to build a strong memory of your music? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to have new ways to fix things!
There are so many connections between seemingly disparate things – activities, ideas, technicalities. This concept of making appropriate estimates of ourselves resonated with me.
I was reading Arnold Schwartzenegger’s email today, and he had some good points that will directly align with our harp playing. He points out that we (humans) typically overestimate ourselves at a micro level but underestimate the quality of outcome at a macro level. What could be more true with respect to our practice?!
What does overestimating the small look like? How about expecting ourselves to be able to flawlessly sight read a brand-new piece of music on the first try? Or thinking that we will thoroughly learn a new tune in a single practice session? Or expecting a short number of repetitions will result in flawless performance?
These are all clear overestimations. We would never suggest to someone else that any of the above will result in the perfection we crave. So why do we make such overestimations of our own practice?
But equally, we discount how much we can accomplish with steady, consistent practice. A little time every day will result in more learning and accomplishment because it starts small (and manageably) and builds overtime. If we apply a structure over time, we will learn more tunes and be able to play them more successfully.
In other words, 20 minutes of practice every day will result in more growth than 3 hours of practice the day before your lesson. Other things we have talked about before also make it work better to – keeping track of what you get each day, deciding (specifically) what to work on that will help you make meaningful progress in both the short and long term.
But you also get more by small and consistent – you will also be more confident of your learning and playing. Because you haven’t crammed your grasp of the music will not be tenuous!
So, if you find yourself thinking that you’re never going to learn the music, stop underestimating yourself. Acknowledge you will learn – a little bit every day. You won’t master the tune in a week. But you can gain a little mastery each day, stacking your gains – no matter how small,
Don’t lose sight of the fact that you will want to overestimate the small gains but also that you’ll underestimate what you can build with consistent practice over the month, the season, the year, and over the years.
Doubt me? Pull out your Christmas music and prove the point to yourself. This is music you have practiced (somewhat) consistently on a long-term basis with “cram practice” (November?) but also long-term practice (how long have you been playing those tunes?)
Stick with it. Put in the time – but in small bites.
Because, as Arnold says, “when you stop underestimating yourself, you start becoming unstoppable.”
What can you achieve if you take it in small, consistent bites? Let me know in the comments!
As school starts all around us, it’s easy to think back to our favorite teachers over time. I don’t know about you, but with a few (glaring) exceptions, I had wonderful teachers. Some were a kind of wonderful that I didn’t appreciate them until much later. Some made lasting impressions that arise even now, ever so many years.
This is especially true of my harp teachers – some as my “regular” tutors that taught me to play the harp (and so much more) and the ones I think of as “pop-ups” – those workshop teachers that gifted me with some nugget that pushed me a little farther along my path, or over a hump, or around an obstacle. I’m a lucky, lucky harper!
But not all teachers are brilliant. And sometimes a great teacher has a bad day. There are also some times that a teacher is just not attuned to what a student needs. Without more data I hesitate to call anyone a bad teacher – although I am sure they exist. But one of you shared that your teacher had compared your performance nerves to being like when a dog knows it’s going to the vet! You added, “Very discouraging, to say the least.”
I beg to differ. While yes, it’s discouraging, it is much worse. It is needlessly pointless. Worst of all – it was not helpful. Not having a solution to offer does not equate to saying something hurtful. There were so many other things to say in that moment, but the comment chosen certainly didn’t move you forward.
We can talk another time about ways to deal with getting shaky in the face of performing but right now, that comment just sticks out and I can’t leave it be.
When you get comments like that, they shift your focus – and not in a good way. Those types of comments take away from playing and growing. Those are words that push you down and can, left untreated, pull you under. Especially when they come from your teacher, the person meant to nurture your growth and development. What should you do?
When you get unhelpful (and hurtful) feedback, you will need to manage yourself and serve as your own substitute teacher. You can pick or nix the comments you receive. You might need a tool to help you determine how to use the feedback. One useful tool would be to make yourself a decision matrix so you can determine what of the comments is useful and what should just be canned as quickly as possible! Here are the questions for your matrix –
Is your teacher having a bad day?
(Can you ignore it?)
Are you having a bad day?
(Can you ignore the sting?)
Is this the first time you have heard something like this?
(Should you let it slide?)
Was there an element of “joking” in the air?
(Did the joke just fall flat?)
How proportional is this comment?
(How many positive vs negative comments have you received, how does this fit in)?
How could you take the sting out of the words?
(Was it just poorly stated)?
What can you take what was said and learn from?
(Is there something useful behind the sting-y words?)
What question could you follow up with to learn more that would be helpful?
(Is there a way to salvage the intent and stay focused on your development rather than on negative questions?)
You can probably think of even better ways to use the comments you get, even when they’re hurtful or poorly constructed – hope you’ll share them (you know the drill – email me a comment!).
One of the most important holidays of the year is coming up on Saturday. Are you ready? Got your decorations up? Now that you’re wondering how you could have missed being ready – you might be asking yourself what holiday happens at the end of August?!
Play Music on the Porch Day is August 30, 2025! Could there be a better time to celebrate? I think not!
If you’re not familiar with this amazing holiday, you might want to prepare – because it’s a wonderful day. All you need to do is….
Go outside and share your music with whoever happens by.
Ok, to celebrate fully there is a little more to it than that.
What if for one day everything stopped? And we all just listened to the music.
To participate just go outside and play music! You can invite friends or play alone. Make the day as big or as small as you want! Then share a video on any social media with #playmusicontheporchday.
Follow the hashtag #playmusicontheporchday to see musicians from around the world participating!
As it says, you can celebrate in ways big or small. As a sole creator or as a member of a group. And post it on social media (probably because for organizers, if you don’t post it, it didn’t happen).
But if you want to hold to the spirit of the holiday without all the fuss, muss, and bother of the organized event, you can just go outside, sit on your step (or wherever) and play. No telling yourself you’re not ready. No comparing yourself to your harp crush. No thinking too hard. Just play. Let others bask in the beauty you create. Enjoy being the maker. Create a moment – and share it with others.
You don’t have to be fancy; you can just play what you’ve been working on. Or you can set a time, set a stage, invite your audience, and make a production of it. Not feeling so brave? Invite a friend to join you! It’s up to you. The focus is on making music and sharing it with others.
Need more inspiration? Think of it as a history exhibit – after all, it wasn’t that long ago that this was just the way of it. In a time before hashtags and constant media, we (people) were the media. And the fortunate had music as a regular part of that. So, you’re not performing, you’re reenacting!
It’s not about perfection, it’s about connection – with your music, with your community, with your history. And with such a low barrier to entry – you just need to move outside – we can all do it!
I know some of you are planning to go out and play! Please share with us – send me a photo or jot a couple of words so we can share with this community too! And Happy Play Music on the Porch Day!
Sometimes I have no idea what I should write here. I could launch on how the blank page is terrifying but instead, I decided to poke around the web for a better idea, and in about three clicks, I had it!
I came across a page on journalling. It had a load of prompts to help goad you into writing in your journal. That’s pretty helpful. But farther down on the page, there was an interesting list that I decided could be molded into something that would be helpful here. It had a list of prompts for each day. That is, there were day specific prompts that could be used to move your journaling along.
What does that have to do with us? Well, we can use the same approach to tailor our practicing. If we view each day of the week as having a focus, we could tailor our practicing to achieve more (and maybe with less work?). As I thought about it, I was reminded of the childhood song in which each day of the week had a chore – washing clothes, ironing, sweeping. While we were singing around the Mulberry Bush we listed what we were supposed to do each day of the week. Better still, it’s changeable so we can fit in our own chores – our practice chores! If we listed our “chores”, we could be focused while still getting in all our practice, and meantime probably learn something while seeing progress over time.
What might we put in our song? Technical (scales and etudes)? Reading? Musicality (phrasing, dynamics, expression)? By the time we get to the mid-week, when we’re losing sight of what we’re doing, slogging through relentless repeats, our song could help us stay on track. We shouldn’t forget to include fun (tunes we know and love), accomplishment (tunes that are just coming along), or joy (tunes that remind us why we love to play). And by week’s end we would have gotten to everything and been left with pride or satisfaction (acknowledging our work)!
Once we know these, we can sing our song to ourselves (nothing wrong with using the melody from Mulberry Bush – or writing your own!). If you can’t recall, here’s a starting point:
Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush, Practicing on a music day.
This is the way we play our scales, play our scales, play our scales. This is the way we play our scales, Practicing on a Monday.
This is the way we phrase our tune, phrase our tune, phrase our tune, This is the way we phrase our tune, Practicing on a Tuesday.
Etc for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
This is the way we play for joy, play for joy, play for joy. This is the way we play for joy, Practicing on Sunday.
You can put your tasks in any order throughout the week. You can even use a different time frame if it’s right for you (2 weeks? 3 days? What’s right for you?). It’s up to you how many stanzas your song will have. The point is to keep focus – it might be just what your week needs.
What would your lyrics be? Can’t wait to hear! Send me some of your ideas!
It is August so I started thinking – would you eat ice cream for breakfast?
Of course, the “right” answer is no. But that would be a wrong answer.
Because the question isn’t about having ice cream for breakfast every day. Instead, it’s about being flexible to try something new. Something you will likely enjoy. Something that may not be the best choice, but could be a good treat on rare occasion.
Having a treat is a way to go about getting outside your box. Doing something to shake up your routine. Trying something unorthodox to make everything a little tastier (better!). What sorts of things can you do to “have ice cream for breakfast” for your playing? Here’s a few ideas:
Use a different approach – literally. Turn your harp around, move to a new room, play from the column. Just change it up and see what happens.
Ask someone else what they hear – or try to hear it differently. This can be through recording or just listening. Check all your judgement at the metaphorical door and really listen creatively!
Teach it – I am always amazed at how different a tune is when you’re teaching it than when you’re playing it!
Question how things have always been done – never stop asking Why? What? Why not?
Get uncomfortable – ok, really all of this is about getting uncomfortable! A little discomfort can be revealing, freeing, and uncomfortable! And it’s good for you. Just like having ice cream for breakfast could be!
Would you have ice cream for breakfast? What flavor? Let me know – I’m open to trying new tastes and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
We all do it. It’s especially clear on fast tunes, but every tune you learn goes through it.
“It” is the ugly phase. You know the ugly phase. It’s that time when, no matter what you do, it seems like you are stuck – or even going backwards – as you try to learn a tune and make it satisfying!
Your fingering falls apart. Your rhythm deserts you. Your memory fails. All the phrases sound the wrong and none are in the right order. The repeats are like torture. And when you add the harmony, nothing hangs together. It’s disheartening. It’s frustrating. And it feels like it will never end, leaving you with a tune in tatters. It’s so discouraging. It feels like the tune is winning and that you are losing.
But are you? No, you are not.
It is actually especially important for you to get through this phase, no matter how intimidating it feels. There is a lot of learning going on. Your brain is sorting through all the inputs (the notes, the fingering, the rhythm, the series of sounds, and more) and outputs (same list mostly) on its way to figuring out what goes where, when, and how. We consistently underestimate how much we’re trying to learn, how it is related and interleaved, and how challenging it can be to make music.
To weather this phase and get to the other side with a mature, satisfying tune that you can be happy with and proud to perform you, of necessity, need to keep track of what you have done and what you need to do next. How should you keep track of your progress and assure yourself that you’re getting somewhere and are “winning” the battle to learn? Document your progress! This ensures that you will see how you are winning even when you feel like you’re losing or going backwards! And it will help you see that even when you feel like you’re going backward (losing), you’re making progress (winning!).
It’s important that you do this in a manner that will help you follow your progress. This could be keeping a written journal to capture descriptions of your work and describing progress verbally. Or you could make audio (or video) recordings of your practice to hear (and see) what has changed across time. Or you can use any medium that records your thinking and your progress – draw your concept or do a puppet show! Whatever you need to see your progress over time! The form is not important. What is important is to acknowledge your progress over time and find what you should work on next to continue your development. While it is essential that this be a tool for your use, if you are actively taking lessons, you can work this with your teacher.
I know some of you have been consistent in capturing your work – let me know what form you use and any insights you might share with others. If you have kept track but haven’t been consistent – could you let me know what you think is preventing you from being consistent? And if you’ve never done anything like this before, what do you think would work for you? Looking forward to hearing about how you keep track of your wins!
Last week I shared the list of tunes I had read through to prepare for the coming holiday season and mentioned that I didn’t love all of them but did plan to include a couple moving forward. The list I shared came from some of the books I happened to have on my shelf. I won’t lie, I didn’t use all my Christmas books, just the ones I could reach from where I was sitting (never underestimate my ability to work hard to stay lazy!).
Eagle-eyed Kate noticed that I didn’t tell you which tunes I liked and want to keep, and which were meh and I’ll ignore – and she asked which were which! So, I thought I would share that this week.
So, the list of tunes I’ll probably work on this year includes:
Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came (to be fair, I have played this but never really committed it)
The Holly and the Ivy (I have always loved this one but never play it)
New Christmas (which I had also found earlier in a bagpiping book and have been intrigued by, and Jo writes lovely arrangements, so I think it’ll be a keeper)
O Come Little Children (which I heard while in Germany at a Christmas market so it’s like a breathing souvenir!)
I also heard from Sharon Thormahlen who has a number of holiday books available too! I hadn’t seen them, but she graciously sent me copies to read through*. She sent me a book of Carols (Tis the Season) and a book of songs (Season’s Greetings) as well as a single sheet White Christmas. The carols book includes those that get a lot of play (Deck the Hall, Silent Night, What Child is This, Away in a Manger, First Noel) as well as some less often played (Celtic Carol, The Holly and The Ivy). The songs book included tunes I never think of (Christmas in Killarney, Little Drummer Boy) as well as the ones you can’t leave on the table (Let it Snow! Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Silver Bells, and a medley of O Christmas Tree/We Wish You a Merry Christmas). I found her arrangements to be approachable and readable, and best of all she has placed the lever changes really thoughtfully so you can actually play without panic! I think I’ll be adding the Christmas Song and maybe Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas as well as White Christmas!
You might note that I had suggested adding a couple of tunes this year and I have already compiled quite a list! I think it’s safe to say that some will be ready to play this year and some will be better next year – and I’m ok with that! There’s always room for more!
*Sharon also sent me a book of Jewish music and if I had occasion to play a Hanukkah gig, I’d dip into it. If you would like to dip into the holiday books, she has them available on her website. In that internet-y way (and to make sure I don’t break any laws), I need to tell you that I did receive gratis downloads of the books I mentioned. I will not get any (additional) compensation if you do (or do not) buy them. I do hope you will buy books from musicians you’re interested in (e.g. Sharon) (or me for that matter) because it’s the right thing to do.
