Monthly Archives: October 2020

Trick or Treat – Harpy Halloween

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Still a weird year, still an odd time.

But it’s Halloween.  No trick or treating.  No Halloween gigs or parties.  But let’s have some Halloween fun anyway!

How are we going to do that?  Well, we’ll do all the things!  Well, most of them, modified.  We can still have a Harpy Halloween and here are five ways you can try:

  1. Make a costume. My favorite part of Halloween is seeing the children in their costumes.  Whether they are homemade or store bought, whimsical, goofy, or terrifying, it’s really the highlight of the night.  So, why not generate your own costume.  What could you be?  You could dress up as your favorite composer.  Or you could make a costume of the title of your favorite tune.  Or do something silly (be a Harp Surgeon?

    Dress as one of your favorite tunes, like Debussy’s Clare de Lune

    or be a silly harp joke!

  2. Well, this one is easy – get some of your favorite(s) candy.  Feel the need to “work” for it?  You can give yourself a piece for every trick (or mistake) and two for each treat (every correctly played repetition)?  It’s your candy – you decide how you trick or treat!
  3. Play Halloween music – play the old tunes – you know the ones – the creepy, eerie, ghostly ones like Tam Linn, She Moved Through the Fair, Earl Richard, and all the other creepy ones (and you know there are quite a few!) or the seasonal ones like Samhain Samhain.
  4. Do a musical Ghosting – put on that cool costume and play a “pop up” concert outside your house. Want to be really popular – put a bag of candy out for the people who might stop to listen so they can have a little trick or treat fun without getting too close.

    Fairy or Angel harp player – be whatever you like, it’s Halloween!

  5. Pumpkins! Get some of those adorable tiny pumpkins and make a “tableau” at the foot of your harp to make it feel more festive

How will you have a Harpy Halloween?  I know there are more ways than this!  Let me know how you celebrate – and if you have a photo, even better – please share.  I’ll post mine here later when I have my costume on 😊  Looking forward to seeing your celebrations!

Ensure Insurance is Assured

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insurance

I have yet to meet a harp player who is blasé about their harp.  There are people who name their harps.  Some people talk to their harp.  We all love our harps.  We do our utmost to care for them.  But have we done everything we can to protect them?

(that sounds like one of those cheesy tv commercials for medicine, medical assistance devices, and just about anything you can get 2 for $19.99 + a small additional fee)

Anyway, no matter how much we love our harps, how careful we are to keep them from harm and to pamper them – they are not our children, or our friends.  They are, however, unbelievably valuable musical instruments!  And as such, you should ensure that your harp(s) are fully insured. You need to insure against all the same things you ensure other valuable things against – theft, damage, or other disasters.   

The best way to get started is to talk with your current insurance carrier.

How you insure your harps will be bounded by some other factors. Here are some suggestions on ensuring your insurance is assured.  The goal is Goldilocks – not too much coverage, not too little…you want your coverage to be just right:

  1. If you are a hobbyist – that is, you play only for the cat and the curtains (and perhaps the occasional family member?).
    1. start with a call to your homeowner’s/renter’s insurance provider. If you are playing at home, only rarely taking your harp out and then only going to workshops or lessons, then this is probably your best solution.  They will likely sell you a rider to cover valuable personal property/musical instrument.  Be sure you include all your harps! 
    2. If you’re traveling with your harp a great deal you might also check with your auto insurer – you need to be sure you have enough coverage should you harp be in the car if you are in an accident.
  2. If you are a professional – that is, if you are leaving your house to perform and being paid (regardless of your opinion of your level of performance!):
    1. Still start with your homeowner’s/renter’s and auto insurers, just be aware that they are likely to tell you no.  This would be appropriate – you need professional coverage!   If you are not a full time musician, this is where you might be tempted to fib. If you are a professional (even if you’re just starting out or only play one gig a year) be frank and honest.  If something happens to your harp and you make a claim, the insurance company will not quibble over your level of performance.  You don’t want to find that your very small prevarication when buying the insurance invalidates your claim!
    2. There are insurance companies that specialize in musical instruments. You will need to provide an estimate of the value of each of your instruments which will require someone give you a valuation (I have gotten these from my instrument maker or by sending a copy of the bill of sale).
    3. You will get the best rate on your premiums if you are a member of an organization such as International Association of Folk Harpers and Craftsman (IAFHC) or American Harp Society (AHS). You can find other available coverages by searching musical instrument insurance.
    4. When researching your choices, focus on what is covered and the coverage of the instrument specifically. Some companies (such as Anderson) offer harp-specific coverage while others have more general coverage.

We never want anything bad to happen to our harps, but they are expensive as well as being important to our daily lives so ensure that assure your insurance!  Make sure your coverage matches your usage.  Also focus on the policy, the exclusions, etc.  You want to feel confident that your insurance will cover you if something happens to your harp!

What’s in your harp case?

 

In case you’re wondering or interested, these are not compensated product placements – I’m not that smart a blogger.  I have Anderson Insurance and I have been happy with the price and the service.  I have not ever had to make a claim but they have received good ratings from others that have.  They are not the only insurance product available, so do your homework. 

Go Wide

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One of the best things about teaching is how much you learn from your students.  I’ve told you that before and it only becomes more true with each passing day.

Another thing I’m always going on about is practicing.  Of course you need to practice.  You know that.  You know you need to practice most every day.  The more you practice, the better you’ll play – you’ll know more, you’ll be more confident, and you’ll just have more to show for your time.

Duh.

But then I have a student say something really profound in its simplicity.  And I realize I have to tell you more.

Go WideMy student and I were talking about “old stuff”.   The stuff she knows.  The stuff she didn’t really practice any more.  Tunes she knows, maybe even loves, but have fallen by the wayside of her mind/list/index card library.  The stuff is dying in her repertoire.  She was struggling to figure out how to keep those tunes from dying!  You have probably also had this experience.

What?  How should you structure your practice?

You already know that the longer something you have learned sits, the less well it’s going to go when you give it a dust off.  You might be able to pull it out of your head, buy you’re likely to be unimpressed.  Or (in my opinion, worse) it’s brilliant…the first time.  But when you play it again immediately after, it’s a nightmare!  So discouraging.

But if you spend all your time practicing your old stuff, you won’t have time to practice your new stuff.  You’ll be stuck.  Ugh.  How are you ever supposed to move on?

Well, the path forward is through practice.  (You knew I would say that).

We often talk about practicing – but we focus on the daily level – the simple, day to day of sitting down, warming up, doing exercise, working through tunes, polishing, and finalizing music before finishing by playing a little something for yourself.

But after you have learned more than about five tunes, this schedule is going to leave you with not nearly enough time to work on every tune based on where in development each tune is.

So you’ll have to go longer each day.  Or you can change your focus.  Your practice planning will have to expand beyond what you do each day.  You will need to think about your practice time across the week.  And across the weeks!

Rather than the list we have above, your week plan might include a different focus for each day.  That means that while each day holds the basic outline (from warm up to playing for you), the “work” part in the middle of the practice might have a specific concentration.  Some examples –

  • Monday Musing – make sure your plan for the week fits what you’d like to work on just then
  • Tuesday Technique – you know the little bad habits sneak up on you, this day helps conquer that
  • Wednesday Work – focus on really working the tunes so you identify the fingering, rhythm, etc you need to work on
  • Thursday Throughplay – play through all your old tunes (you don’t have to save this for the weekend!)
  • Friday Furbish – take a day to burnish the tunes that are nearly there
  • Saturday Survey – assess what you’ve worked on and tweak things from the week that might need a little more time and attention
  • Sunday Sport and Merry-making – you need to have one day that you just play for fun!

This is just a set of suggestions.  You know where you want to go, so build your map for you.  Taking this wider view of your practice may help you to be proactive while learning.

Of course, you probably also have your sights set higher.  If you’re in a development phase (for instance), you might need to think even wider and build a collection of weeks.  But this week’s suggestion will work just fine for learning new tunes to increase your repertoire and help you keep your tunes in your hands.

How would you structure your week?  Let me know in the comments!

Composition Challenge – Whew!

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You always amaze me!

Here we are at the end of the Composition Challenge – and WOW.  Just WOW!

First, THANK YOU for all of you who sent compositions, a noodle, an idea.  I am so gratified to be entrusted with your art.

For those that sent something but were not ready to share with the world, I encourage you to keep going!  And eventually I’d further encourage you to share, share, share!  It always amazes me how receptive people are to new music – but you won’t know if you don’t share and ask the question!

And, believe me — I know, that sometimes the deadline sneaks up on us and we are a little bit flat-footed.  So if you’re not quite ready to share, but you will be in future – you keep working on it and let me know when you’re ready.  I’ll be happy to share my platform with you!

Share your compositions!

I’d also like to remind you of one really important thing.  Like playing, composing requires p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e!  We have talked before about ways to get that practice in – improv, noodling, brute force.  I guarantee that it gets easier with practice.  It does.  With practice it will feel less like you’re forcing it.  Less like pulling teeth.  Less like work.  And with time and practice, it will feel more like joy.  More like expression.  More like breathing.  Why yes, it might even begin to feel like music is literally oozing from your pores!  But you have to let it.

Here are some of the amazing things some of you were willing to share.  Some carefully composed (or carelessly composed!) and some noodling.  Some a combination of the two.

The first is titled Noodling BADGE from Barb Costello –

Then we have Sue Richards Herself, using the technique Sue shared and I posted last week –

Sue Richards HerselfThen we have Ca’ the Meows – a playful take on a classic –

and our last share this week is from me, Dimitri’s Revenge, from my deep and abiding love of Shostakovitch but in a mock Celtoid style –

Be sure to give these pieces a listen and a play through.  And PLEASE – leave comments – be lavish with your praise for the music and the sharing (and frankly the bravery!) of the people who contributed.  I know all who shared will enjoy your feedback and encouragement.   And remember, if you do take these pieces on and begin to play them for others – attribute the work.  A little acknowledgement is nice to receive and a little respect is well deserved!

*All rights held by the composers and shared with permission.  Please give credit where it is due!

** If you particularly like one of these and have a hard time getting it downloaded, let me know and I’ll think of a solution!