Jenius Creations

Month: October 2025

  • I thought you’d never ask!

    I have been writing to you since 2009 (!) and I hope some of those topics have been interesting and informative. And I hope you know that I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to spend here. It is important to me that we talk about things that are important to you. When you share your thoughts and concerns, I click into teacher mode – but sometimes I also fall into beginner mode and learn something! It’s an honor for me to try to put myself on your bench (metaphorically) in an attempt to help you grow.

    A while ago, I asked you what sorts of things you were interested in learning about here. You gave me great replies, and I have used many of them to write posts. There are a couple I haven’t gotten to, either because I don’t feel like I can give you a good answer or because a video would be better (and I hate making videos so I have put them off).

    But really, I have covered nearly everything you asked, so, today I’d like to ask you to provide some more feedback. We’re all a little older, a little wiser, and a little farther down the road in our development so your questions may have changed. It’s also possible that when I answered your question (from the survey) you then had other questions, further questions, or would just like a fuller answer.

    If you could please complete this short, not-very-scientific-but-good-enough-for-our-purposes survey, I could home in on topics that interest you. I genuinely want to know what you think. I also know there are some of you who read but don’t send comments or questions and I’d really like to be sure I hear from you. There are no questions that are beneath me (and if I pretend there are, it’s because I feel awkward from not having a ready answer!).

    I try to not ask you for a lot but in this case – bring it on! Whether you’re hitting peak stride, are feeling a little bit like you’ve possibly made a wrong choice of instrument, are foundering a bit, or just want to see what I’ll come up with next, I sincerely hope you’ll reply! Just fill in the form on the website and I’ll take it from there!

    Please tell me what you’d like to know more about. What gives you trouble? What is interesting to you?  What do you need to learn? What do you want to learn? Is there anything you don’t want to know? What are you tired of hearing me go on-and-on-and-on about? What do you need to hear more of? Please (pretty please!) let me know your thoughts so we can continue to talk about important stuff!

    Just fill in the blanks with your brilliant thoughts and I will be ever so grateful.  It’s the best (and easiest) comments section ever! No one will see your responses except me, so please be honest (brutally even). I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and staying focused on what’s important to you –

  • Home again

    I’m back home after two glorious weeks in Ireland and Scotland. We had a wonderful group who made every nook and cranny of each day so much fun! This time I decided to be fully present and not worry about posting here. Even so, I – as usual – didn’t take many photos (I find that bring present means that “take a photo” doesn’t enter my mind!). But I did take a few, so I’ll share some that I love. Now that we’re back, it’s time to plan the next trip so let me know if you’re interested and I’ll share the details as the trip forms! Until then, here are a smattering of snaps from our adventure –

    Being back also means getting back to practicing. There are some real benefits of being away from your harp for a manageable amount of time. There’s the clarity that a break brings. You have time to think about what you’ve been playing, what you would like to be playing, and seeing a little better what you might need to spend some focus on. You hear tunes you don’t know and would like to. You hear tunes you don’t know and are happy to keep that way.

    One thing that I also noticed was that I really enjoy having my harp handy, ready for me to slide onto the bench and play whatever comes to mind. I don’t notice that regularly, but I feel it keenly when I am without. With all that time away, what do I think I need to focus on now? I thought you would never ask! I’m wanting to get back to basics – with dedicated time for exercises, etudes, and book work. You know, those things that are so easy to put aside when you convince yourself that you don’t have time (right along with getting some movement in and eating carefully!).

    It would be easy to set these things aside. After all, the holiday season is racing up so there’s so much to prepare. Granted, much of it is review and polish, but there are also so many new tunes to learn and learn and the calendar isn’t getting any bigger! However, that is e-x-a-c-t-l-y when you should return to basics. Because what are exercises and etudes, after all? They are really just a bunch of patterns linked together. And those patterns can be linked together in a bunch of ways…which make up tunes (like holiday music!). For instance, before I play Carol of the Bells, I could spend a little time on a fingering exercise of 1-2-1-3-1-2-1-3 while moving around the scale. Before I try to take on Ding Dong Merrily on High, I could spend focused time with partials scales so I can play Glooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooria smoothly, comfortably, and confidently!

    So the next time you try to convince yourself that you don’t have time to do exercises and etudes, remember that they are just the types of patterns you’re going to call on (repeatedly) as you get your music pulled together. No matter what time of year, you’ll be using that stuff so you might as well get to it! What exercises will you add to your day? Let me know in the comments – I love learning new patterns!