It has to be more than a crush – It must be love.  This feeling has lasted through good and bad.  Through great lessons and broken strings.  You love your harp!  What else could explain it?!

Maybe more importantly, how do you stay in love with your harp?  Well, like any relationship, you have to nurture and care for it!  After all, you want to feel that exhilaration of being in love, but you also just want to have that connection that stems from a love that lasts.

How?  Well, the same ways you’d be sure to stay connected to any other love in your life!  Here are five things that might help:

1. Focus on it – a lot!  Make sure you spend a little time with your harp every day.  Some days you will have more time than you know what to do with – and woohoo, those are great days full of practicing and playing!  Other days, you might only have time to gaze longingly and possibly run your hand over the column.  Value both of those types of time (just try to keep the very short days infrequent!).  We all know that while absence may make the heart grow fonder, long-distance relationships are hard.
2. Make (and keep) regular “dates” …and show up!  Ok, that might seem corny, but you know that you need to spend time together. One way to fit that time into the rest of your busy life is to make a date (or a meeting if you’re not romantical (not a typo, I meant romantical)).  And when you’re on your date – be present.  If you have time to spend with your harp – be there!  And pay attention to it while you’re playing.
3. Actually listen.  It can be easy to listen without hearing. Like being present when you’re spending time with your harp, be sure to hear what your harp is telling you – whether it’s that you need to practice more or that your strings are getting old or that tuning might be in order – or whatever it wants to say to you.
4. Go away together.  It’s amazing what a weekend getaway can do for your relationship!  There are loads of events all over the world, opportunities to take part in workshops and other events.  These are really helpful, so be sure to take them!  You’ll learn something and the time away can sweeten your relationship with your harp!
5. 5. Be explicit about your needs – good relationships are built on caring for each other and meeting needs. Your harp has needs – to be maintained (and maybe occasionally dusted?) and you do too. So be clear what your needs are – whether it’s more practice time, more emphasis on a particular technique, changing up your approach to your music, better lighting, taking regular lessons, setting a goal for yourself, whatever else you need – make sure you know what you need – so your harp can help you get there.

If you’ve been feeling like your harp love is slipping away, try some of these to rekindle that romance.  Remember that all loves take some effort and work – but it’s worth it.  Do you have other ways to keep the love alive?  Share them in the comments!

(I probably should have written this last week for Valentine’s Day – but honestly, it didn’t occur to me in time!)