Monthly Archives: March 2020

From me to you

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The tyranny of the invisible thingies continues.  And this makes many remain feeling a little unsettled.  We pretend that words like AloneTogether make us feel better – but really, they don’t.  The upside is that we have the technology to keep reaching out to one another – to maintain contact and be together even though we’re at least six feet apart.

Since we have this connection, I wanted to reach out to you my subscribers – with a little poster you might want to print out.  I made it to help cheer you when you’re not feeling so much like playing…even while you know playing will probably help you feel a little bit better and help you to count your joys.

This whole thing won’t last long (in the grand scheme), so stay safe, stay the course, stay home.  And keep practicing.  Maybe take your harp out to the sunshine and play for your neighbors to help cheer them as well and share a joy for them to count as well.

Not a subscriber yet?  You can sign up here.

Breathe

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There’s not much that I can tell you that you haven’t already heard about the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.  If you need information, there’s loads available in all the usual outlets.

What I can do though, is strongly encourage you to take care of yourself and those in your life.  There all the usual precautions – avoid others, wash your hands, disinfect surfaces.

You might be surprised I don’t have a lot to say – especially since I usually do.  In this case, I just don’t have a lot to add.

But one thing I can stress to you is that this is a time of turmoil.  And in those tumultuous times, the importance of spending time with your harp only increases. 

No, this is not my usual exhortation that you practice.  This time, I strongly encourage you to play for you.  To bolster your spirits – and the spirits of those around you.  Never underestimate the succor your harp can provide you and those in your household in times of turmoil.

The anxiety and stress of times of uncertainty may leave you feeling like you don’t want to (or don’t have time to) play.  Don’t allow stress and concern to convince you that you “must” practice – because you might not want to.  Don’t let your anxiety pull you away!

Whatever you do, just play.  Allow the music and the reverberation flow over you and soothe frayed nerves.  Enjoy the feel of the harp itself.  Revel in the meditation of tuning and the simple joy of warming up.  Play what helps you feel centered.  There are many opportunities to share your music and I encourage you to do that but if you’re not interested in doing that, just play.  If you are of a mind, share video in the usual places to help others (don’t have a usual place? send it to me and I’ll be happy to share it for you).

Help others by sharing your gift.  We will all be better for it.   And of course, if you’re playing, you are likely social distancing!  Are you playing for yourself? For others?  Let us know in the comments below.

March is National Noodle Month – I’m SO Tired!

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Who knew?!  Yes, March is National Noodle Month, and with the return to Daylight Saving Time, we’ll need it!

I always warn you about the time changes.  Especially those of you that live far from the equator where you gain or lose multiple minutes of daylight each day.  The imposed time change is hard on people, and we are no exception.

But you’re in luck!  If you’re playing along with the four week composition challenge, you’ve now established noodling at every practice session.  That noodling might just help save your practicing while you adjust to the new weird daylight that isn’t happening when it is supposed to.

March is National Noodle Month...Noodling can lead to composing!Because…

  • you can noodle when you are tired. 
  • there’s no right in noodling.  And possibly more importantly
  • there is also no wrong in noodling either! 

It’s just the thing for when your brain and your hands are just not up to working together.  Or working at all.  Perhaps best of all – noodling is still playing, so it totally counts as practice!

One of the first things I learned as a fledgling harper was the pentatonic improvisation.  I typically share it with my students in their first or second lesson (they might use a different verb than share – a verb like impose or coerce!). 

If you’re not familiar with pentatonic improv, the pentatonic scale has five notes (from the Greek – penta (five) and tonic (note)).  On the piano (if you’re so inclined) the black keys make a lovely, easy to find pentatonic scale.  On the harp, set yourself to the C major scale and PLAY ONLY THE WHITE STRINGS!  This will give you a lovely pentatonic scale from which to easily work.* 

Go ahead, give it a try.  I’ll wait.

What you’ll notice about a pentatonic scale is that there’s no “ugly”.  You truly cannot make a bad noise if you stay in the scale (that is, play only the white strings).  Everything you play within the scale sounds pretty good.

Isn’t that freeing?  Now you can noodle with abandon, regardless of how tired you are, because nothing, literally NOTHING you play will sound bad!

And because nothing will sound terrible, you have no reason not to click your recorder on while you noodle.  After all, you have a delete button so if there’s nothing inspired, no loss.  And you have a record button, so if you listen later and hear amazing – you’ll be able to reconstruct those musical thoughts and build them into a composition (or just keep them as something to amuse yourself).

All that from a little noodling when you’re too tired to practice!  Give it a try – and see if having a fun, easy poke around the harp doesn’t maybe give you a little energy boost.  Maybe even enough energy to practice when you’re tired. 

Keep noodling even after you’ve adapted to the time change – it’s a great addition to your practice and it’ll get you used to collecting your thoughts!

 

* of course there are other pentatonic scales on the harp (or the piano) but the ones I’ve presented here are so easy that you’ll have a scale that requires no effort to find.  If you prefer something other than the G major pentatonic scale, go for it!

Theory Moment – Noodling Support

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So, we’re beginning week three of our composition challenge. How’s it coming along?

Hopefully you’ve found some stuff you like in your noodling and have begun to string some of those ideas together. And hopefully you’re enjoying the creating and not pooh-pooh-ing every idea you have generated!

Some of you may be ready to keep going in your compositions and to add some harmonies. There are lots of ways to do this. You could generate countermelodies or simple harmonies. Or you might want to stick in some chords to build harmonization. Here’s where being familiar with music theory could help you along.

Come out from under the bed. Music theory isn’t scary! It sounds scary, but it really is just a way to talk about what we already know (yes, of course, we could make it scary – but why?!).

What might help you with your noodling composition? Maybe knowing what scale you’re using?  Is it one of the frequently used scales (major or minor or one of the other modes)? Or have you used (or made) a different scale? Once you know that, you can begin to fit some chords that will enhance your melody*.

Scales are defined by the relationships of the notes in them.

Whaaa?

The intervals (whole and half) are the way scales are “measured”.  Intervals are the distance between notes (if that doesn’t mean anything to you, no worries, it will eventually – you just keep noodling…and reading!).  So, a Major scale is Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half. The Major scale is also called the Ionian mode. Meanwhile, a (natural) Minor scale (or Aeolian mode) is defined as Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole. The Dorian mode is another popular scale which starts on the second with the intervals Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole. A number of traditional tunes from Scotland, Ireland, England (and others) are Dorian. We’ll stop (for now) with the Mixolydian mode which starts on the fifth and is defined as Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole (note it’s very close to the major scale). This is the bagpipe scale so loads of Scottish (and Irish) tunes are in this scale.

What about the chords? Well, that’s sort of up to you, but if you were looking for a “rule of thumb” you might consider that for the Major (Ionian) scale, you might like using the I (root/tonic), IV (the fourth), and the V (the fifth). You could actually use this for everything, and it’ll probably work.  But if you’re clearly in the Minor (Aeolian) scale, you might try the I, the VII, and the vi. And if you’re in Mixolydian, maybe the I and the VII.

Of course, there is no wrong. There might be jarring or sweet or “interesting” or perfect or harsh. This is when it’s time for your trusty recorder. Get your ideas down and listen to them over and over and over. Do they actually sound like you thought they did? You might find that what started as jarring becomes less harsh and more interesting as you listen to it more – all because you’ve become accustomed to it.  And you might find that what seemed perfect is actually a little uninteresting…

So don’t throw out ideas. Capture them. Nurture them. Let them marinate in your ear and in your mind before you decide what to do with them.

What have you heard? What did you do? Did you modify your growing melody or it’s developing harmony? Let me know in the comments.

* this post is not meant to be a comprehensive theory lesson. There are many theory resources available in bookshops and online. But this isn’t meant to be an excuse to hide in a book – go forth, be bold, make mistakes, make memories, have fun, just enjoy…the theory words can be fitted later – just make some music!