Monthly Archives: March 2023

Sprummertime

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Sprummer

I know it’s just barely spring but it’s not too early to think about what you want to do this summer!  That means, it is Spummertime – not spring or summer but the time to think and plan now for what will come later!  And there are loads of harp events in the summer but you only have so much time (and so much money!) so here are my favorites:

Ohio Scottish Arts School (OSAS) – It’s hard to put into words how much fun OSAS is or to tell you how much you will learn at OSAS.  It starts immediately after the Ohio Scottish Games in Barea OH (just outside Cleveland.  This year’s instructors are stellar – Corrina Hewat, Haley Hewitt, Allison Miller, and me!  And fiddlers will have Elke Baker (invite your favorite fiddler to come!).  Classes will focus on basic harp technique for beginners and intermediates, repertoire at all levels, including tunes for competition sets, and Scottish style, including ornaments, lilt, and dance types.  Nylon/gut/wire harps are welcome.  We’ll study Scottish dance music, airs, and songs, focusing on ornamentation, Scottish style, accompaniment, and learning by ear. We’ll have lectures, practice time, and playing in sessions. Classes will be available for beginners who have played for a few months, intermediates, and advanced players.  It’s the 45th Anniversary so we have even more to celebrate!  Class sizes are limited and harp is getting close to being full so go to https://ohioscottishartsschool.com for more information and to register before the class fills!  24 – 30 June, Barea, OH

Somerset Folk Harp Festival – Somerset is the festival for everyone!  There are workshops for you no matter if you’re beginning or advanced.  There are workshops in different genres, covering topics you might even know that you wanted to know! And it is in person and online – a hybrid we can all love.  There are options which can help you tailor the event to you.  In person is in Parsippany NJ and you’ll be able to wander the (very large) Exhibit hall where you can see harps, listen to harps, play harps, talk harps, meet harp makers, compare harps…and (maybe best of all) buy harps! And Harpstuff (including exquisite jewelry, music, learn about other training experiences available, and more.   And did I mention that in addition to a huge cadre of great instructors – every day there are concerts!  What’s not to love?  Go to https://www.somersetharpfest.com for more information and to register so you don’t miss out.  20 – 23 July, Parsippany NJ

Harp Quest – We are excited to begin another Harp Quest in 2023!  Our quests are each different as we seek to learn what our harp is there to teach us, so plan to join us for a new Journey forward with our harps – becoming what we’re meant to be.  The Quest will remain easily accessible to harpers from anywhere and at any level.  Our focus will be a short and intense experience that we will each take with us into the coming months and years – perhaps not fully appreciating what we have learned until much later.  But secure in knowing that we will get there – each of us.  And we’ll get there together!  This year kids will quest together, and adults will follow their own quest.  In the pastoral and relaxing valleys of South Central, the setting is just the thing to learn and grow and go a little farther on the road we travel. Harp Quest focuses on very personalized time sharing and learning.  We will have fun, support one another, and work together to expand technical skills and exercise our brains.  As always, we will work on building healthy self-esteem and encourage ourselves to try new things.  Our format is tailored to assure that the journey is not rocky – not that you won’t work hard or occasionally need to breathe!  We’ll work individually in a limited sized group and together experiencing three days of creativity, sharing, and fun.  Kids Quest 25 – 27 August, Adults Quest 8 – 10 September.  For more information contact me. 

What do you want to do for your summer?  Are you going to register for any of these?  Are there other events we should be considering?  Let me know in the comments!

Just one thing

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Just one thing

When you have an unexpected variation occur (less charitable people might refer to this as a mistake) what do you do? 

If you’re like most people, you might do a bunch of things all at once.  You wince, you stop playing, you look at your hands, you look at your harp, you look at the music, you look at your teacher (or other audience), and you panic a little. 

And then you might try to fix everything – all at once. But is this the best thing to do?  Probably not.  Because what’s the most important thing to come away from a mistake with?

The lesson that was buried in it. 

To learn the lessons the “variation” can teach you, you need to unpack it from all the detritus in which you found it.  And to do that, you have to look at each thing – just one thing at a time. 

What things are you going to look at?  Well you need to know how you ended up there.  Were you going too fast? Was your fingering not solid? Did you lose focus? What happened once you ended up there? Was it a trainwreck or were you just off a little? Did you know where you were?  Were you able to quickly determine what happened or were you completely lost? Were you surprised or did you know it was coming and were hoping you could ride it out? Did you have a solution immediately or did you need to figure a bunch of stuff out?

Of course, there are a nearly infinite pool of possible questions but to get at the answers, try to answer one question at a time – don’t try to solve everything at once. Parse the problem and identify solutions. And then go from there.  The solution for going too fast is a very different than for losing focus, for example. 

So, the next time you have an “opportunity to excel” try doing one thing at a time in pursuit of an answer or a way forward.  Stop! Don’t move.  Be still.  Rather than be a flurry of activity, take a breath.  Because being a flurry of activity works well – until it doesn’t and something doesn’t go right.  Now you can think, observe, and assess what’s happened.

Give it a try yourself – it does take a little practice to pause, but that gets you time to replay in your mind’s ear what you heard and feel where you are in space.  Commit to only doing one thing to get your bearings! Don’t fall prey to the impulse to fix everything – because you probably don’t know what is wrong, so how can you fix it?  If you forge ahead you’ll just confuse yourself and make it more difficult to find the solution.

Next time you find you’re in a “variation” give yourself a beat to stop, be still, think, and decide what to fix first.  Give it a try and let me know what you learn in the comments!

Should you have a lesson if you haven’t practiced?

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No practice?

There must be something in the air (besides pollen) because last week a disproportionately large number of my students sent some version of this message:

“I think I should skip my lesson this week because I haven’t practiced at all.”

I get it – I even remember uttering those same words myself.  It’s easy to think that.  After all, when you have had a “week from hell” (that seem to occur more and more frequently), you won’t have had time to practice. 

But this is incredibly wrongheaded.  Why you ask? Well….

It comes from thinking of your lesson as a mini performance.  But if you think of your lesson that way, then you do need all the practice you can get to be ready to be on that stage with the critic sitting in immediate proximity!

But that’s not what a lesson is! 

A lesson (especially if you’re an adult) is an opportunity to glean knowledge and information from someone who is guiding you to grow into the musician you profess to wanting to become.  I sum it up this way,

“I’m telling you these things so you can avoid my mistakes and I expect you to go on and make your own, new, original mistakes!”

A lesson couldn’t be farther from a mini-performance for your worst critic (you) and your perceived harshest critic (your teacher).  It is meant to be a learning opportunity.  In fact, if you come into your lesson and play flawlessly, then what’s the point?  It’s in the lesson you want to fail – spectacularly!  That way you can receive additional instruction that moves you forward.  You’re not a dog, you don’t need a pat and a biscuit – you need constructive feedback and tuition, so you can keep moving!

In addition – playing the harp isn’t just about flinging out the sounds of choice, is it?  Of course not!  There is so much more to being a musician and all those things can also be a part of your lesson when, due to other circumstances, you’re not prepared to play tunes in various states of dishabille.  What, you might ask?  Here’s a long but not exhaustive list of things you could work on:

  • Reading and Notation
  • Theory
  • History
  • Listening
  • Composing and Improvisation
  • Harmonizing
  • Rhythm
  • Effects
  • Tuning
  • Techniques
  • New pop tunes*

So, the next time you’re not feeling prepared, or feel as if you’re going to be “wasting” your teacher’s time, or like you are setting yourself up for humiliation, remember that there are loads of things to be taught that might not get covered when you are more prepared to play a piece and the focus is on learning or perfecting.  Also remember that your teacher has many things to teach to and share with you and this could introduce time to cover some of those (especially since there’s never enough time in lessons to cover everything). 

Have you ever canceled a lesson because you felt like you were not prepared? Have you ever thought you should have, but then had a great lesson in spite of your misgivings? Do you remember a time when you were dreading going to your lesson but it ended up being a great time?  I’d love to hear your take – leave a comment!

 

PS – Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!

* No really, your teacher is still a person and might actually have other interests…but you’ll never know if you only ever talk about harp!

 

Pencil me in

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Pencil me in

There are some mistakes that get made all the time by an awful lot of people.  And some of those are the ones that leave you shaking your head because the solution is so simple and so easy.  But despite how easy the fix is, it still doesn’t happen, for some reason.

No, I’m not talking about something complicated like putting the coffee and water into the maker at night before you go to bed so the morning is smoother.  I’m talking about something even simpler.  Something that can make you a better musician.  Something you can do with the stroke of a pen.  Well, a pencil, actually.

MARK YOUR MUSIC!

You’ll be amazed at how simple your life becomes when you embrace this fix!  It has three steps –

First, make a copy of your music (Do Not write on your original!).  If you have a download, print a couple. Or use your home printer to copy it.  Or go to the local big box office supply store and use the self-copy machines.  There is no excuse! (Of course, this is you making a copy of music you have bought for your use – no violating copyrights!).

Second, now that you have extra copies to write on – find a pencil.  Not a pen!  Any ol’ pencil will work (or buy some while you’re in the big box office supply store making copies). 

Third, and this one is a biggie – use the pencil on the copies!  Mark anything you need to have marked.  Forgetting a fingering? Write it in.  Not used to reading all those ledger lines?  Mark them. Missing a dynamic? Circle it.  Any time you have a hitch in your reading, leave yourself a note so that you have a smoother experience as you continue to play.

Why not a pen?  Well, you want to be able to correct errors in your marking. But you also might change your mind as you continue to work on the music. Or you might completely change your understanding of the music and decide to mark it differently.  Or you might no longer need the notations.  There are a ton of reasons that at some time in the future you might want to erase what you’ve written.

A quick point – consider using colored pencils to highlight different items.  I usually use black for fingering, yellow for lever changes, red for dynamics, blue for repeats, etc.  This is your system for you to play your best so do whatever it takes for you to feel comfortable and confident while looking at your music. 

If you’re not a strong reader, then make two copies and use one as a “note speller” which will help you read the music and will improve your reading (because like everything else, reading gets better with practice too!). My students suggest putting the note speller copy in a sheet protector and use a dry erase marker so you can read, reread, and rereread – as often as needed until you build your reading strength. 

Remember, it’s not a library book.  You can write all over the music – it’s your copy!  Feel free to mark it up, erase it, mark it up again – as often as you need.   And if you want to, you can even leave yourself a sticker for doing a good job!   If you’re one of those people who tries to remember what you were doing before (and forgotten) – are you ready to mark your music now?  If you already mark your music – what do you do?  Let me know in the comments!