Author Archives: Jen

What are you going to play?

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It’s March.  And if you play traditional music, you know what that means…. St. Patrick’s Day is coming and we’re about to become very popular (briefly).

What a blessing – a holiday seemingly tailor made for us!

What a curse – stuck playing tunes that can feel almost as trite as Christmas can.

So, what are you going to do about it?  Well, you have to start by figuring out what you’re going to play.  It’s fairly safe to stick to the tradition but that still leaves a lot of tunes to choose from.

What to play?  How about this:

Start with tunes you actually know!  It’s really hard to get a tune learned and ready to go in a short time (after all St. Patrick’s Day is a week away!) – especially if you’re playing solo or are tasked with carrying the melody in a group.  Jot down all the Irish (or near Irish) tunes you know.  Some may not actually be Irish, but if you hear it a session or in the pub, it’ll do.

Then list them AND include what type of tune they are and what they go with or if they stand alone.  The Derry Air is a standalone, The Rights of Man maybe needs some company.

How long are you to play?  That will help you figure out how many tunes are needed.  For a 30-minute set you will be sitting pretty to have ten or so (don’t just wing it – time it!), for an hour, maybe 20 – 25 (again, don’t wing it but also be ready to have to go a little longer).  If you’re a background gig, you’ll need more than if you’re a performance because performing includes more vocal interaction with the audience.

Go back to your list and count up not only how many you have but how many of each type.  If you’re playing a dinner background you can get away with more songs and airs but if you’re performing on stage, you need to keep your audience engaged and interested so more fast stuff.  By more fast stuff I don’t mean an unending torrent of one type of tune – mix up jigs and reels and hornpipes and marches if you have them. (If you don’t have that kind of diversity, now you know what to be practicing to build out your rep!).

Once you can see where your holes are you can endeavor to fill them (although, note above, with one week to go, you will probably fill those holes next time).  And even if you’re not playing for St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll have a good representation of what you do and don’t know and what you should add as you continue to learn.

Think about your audience.  It is said that on St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish.  If your audience is from the national Irish Historical Society, they may have a greater familiarity with the music.  But if everyone is Irish that day, they may have only a passing familiarity with traditional Irish music (many fall into the categories of “I love Celtic music” or “it all sounds the same to me”) in which case, you can draw from other parts of your repertoire to make your set list.

Practice like crazy (of course).  Work on your technique and your idiom.  Be sure it looks good and sounds right!

Finally, when it’s time to play, relax and enjoy.  After all this is fun music and that’s why people love it.  They’ll enjoy it even more if it seems that you are enjoying playing it!

Are you playing for St. Patrick’s Day this year?  What are you going be play? Let me know if in the comments!

Play for peace

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It’s not a good time just now.  (Another) War has broken out.  (Un)Fortunately, we have 24/7 media coverage, so you can be forgiven for being unable to escape the reporting.  Its relentless drumbeat is likely to wear on you.  And while you might think it’s stupid/pointless/misguided – now is the time to play for peace.

For your own peace. 

play for peaceThere are plenty of stressors available in our worlds and if the lingering crisis of the last two years wasn’t wearing on us enough, this latest one is a doozy. 

Regardless of your politics, your “side”, or your more general thinking, these events aren’t usually good for most of the people involved.  But for those on the outside, looking in, incapable of drawing away from the window, it will also take a toll.

Because we are all “involved” – some just have the luxury of pretending that they’re not going to be touched.  At this point though, there is not much we can do about it.  It is far away.  The diplomats are doing whatever it is they do over coffee in fancy meeting rooms.  And it’s been a long time since a “mighty war harp” was needed on a battlefield.

But just like there’s a tiger inside your kitten and a wolf in your puppy, inside your harp might be your best defense while we wait and watch and wonder what will come next. 

You have music.  It can help shield you from the ugly.   You can play the music of sorrow and the music of respite and make ready to play the music of joy…eventually.  You can play for yourself – as a balm for your soul.  And you can play for others who find themselves also locked in the thrall of the media, needing the succor you can provide.

You might think that you aren’t doing anything – but you’d be wrong. 

Every act of beauty will counter an act of ugliness.  Each beautiful note you play near an ear will send out sound waves that will bang into and deform the shock waves of a bomb detonating too near the ear of another. 

You might consider playing those simple but beautiful tunes.  Let them act as a salve for your mind.  If you aren’t sure what tune that might be, I’m sending subscribers one of my favorites.  It is the simply beautiful Crodh-laoigh nam Bodach (The Old Man’s Young Cows).  Play it to pour out all your emotions and once they are in front of you, play to move around in your feelings.  No good, no bad, just you, your harp and the defense of the music. 

In the end, which tune is not important – play anything you like that allows you to expel your emotions.  And once again we have a lovely opportunity to share with others who might not have the facility to play the music but will be comforted if you decide to share.

Times are troubled – again, more. Play your harp to help you get through the time and possibly to help others as well.

What do you think of the tune?  What other tunes you would play to feel the same things?  Are you letting your harp get you through (another) trying time?  Let me know in the comments.

Do you love your harp?

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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.

Do you love your harp?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!)

 

Cards against remembering

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I recently had the extreme good fortune to get to hang out with friends with the sole intention of playing tunes – lots and lots of tunes.   It was great!

It was horrible.

Like every social music interaction we know, we shared by taking turns starting a tune and then we all join in and have a blast!  And then it happens.  I know my turn is coming.  It’s exciting. I’ll get to suggest a tune that I know and love and can’t wait to play with my friends.And just like that, in our wonderful, marvelous, delectable tune sharing, I’m wracking my brain fussing over what tune I should suggest when it’s my turn.  And it’s a tussle…because I can’t remember any tunes that I know!!!

ARGH!

When you have a vast, amorphous collection of tunes in your head (or even if it isn’t that vast), it’s easy to forget what you do know.   It’s the same when you’re practicing and you get to that part of your practice time when you’ve finished the work and now get to play for fun. It strikes again, that remember-y thing and you can’t think of anything you know.  You know you have a library – just not what’s in it. 

How are you ever going to remember what tunes you know?  How will you know the contents of your library?  And frankly, how do you know if you have the Library of Congress in your head or if it’s more like a neighborhood Little Library?

You need a card catalog!

Each time you learn a new tune, start an index card and write all the useful and relevant information – the title of the tune (you could also include what you call it if you don’t think of it by it’s actual title – like if the title is in Gaelic or Irish), the key you play it in, the type of tune it is, maybe what you like to pair it with.  You might even get fancy and include the first couple of measures (trust me, it can help!).  Make a card for every tune you have learned.  Watch your catalog fill up!  And don’t forget that you can “pre-make” cards for the tunes you want to learn but haven’t gotten to yet.

Like any card catalog, you’ll be better able to use if it it’s organized.  The organization approach is up to you – organize it how you think about tunes.  You can do it alphabetical by title.  Or by tune type or by country of origin.  Or by where you learned it? Whatever, as long as you can find it when you need to.

You might be a Thoroughly Modern Millie and have already turned up your nose at my index cards.  No matter.  Make a spreadsheet.  Keep a paper list.  Generate your own code from Legos. I don’t care how, so long as you can use it!  The point is to keep what you know close to hand so you can use it – all of it. 

When you know what you know, you can be more clear on what you haven’t learned yet.  And you can be more deliberate about what you practice.  All of which might make it easier to remember anything you can play the next time you get to play for fun with friends!

How do you keep track of what you already can play?  Do you have a system to keep track? Let me know in the comments!

Have you got the Temperament?

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So, we’ve talked about the tools you might use to tune and a few approaches to assuring you tune all your strings to particular pitches.  But last week, Sara brought up a good point that I had been dancing around. 

Why?  Because it’s easy, but not simple.  What?!

So, let’s start with a caveat.  I’m not an expert in tuning or the mathematics and music theory behind tuning.  I’ll share what I know but please understand that this will be a skimming of the topic*.  Here goes.

The Social Component.  You might not have known there’s a social component to tuning, but there is.  We use A= 440Hz as we mentioned before.  But why?  Because this is the current convention.  Translation,

“We do it that way because that’s the way we do it.” 

In times past A = 432Hz, and who knows what it was before that (ok, someone probably knows, but I don’t).  This consensus on what “in tune” means is the social component of tuning – we’ve agreed,  we’ve come to consensus that we will use this standard (A = 440Hz) to tune our instruments. 

After all, why do we tune at all?  Because making music is social – and we want to enjoy playing together. 

Having said that, there are other elements of this social consensus.  More plainly, there is more than one “tuning system.”   These tuning systems “define” the scales you tune to.  There are loads of systems, and variants on them, and like every other human endeavor they have grown, developed, and changed (morphed?) over time.  Here are the two Temperaments you are most likely to bump into playing the harp.  I’m presenting them here as fait accompli but realize that they are all defined through and across music, philosophy, culture, and history.

Equal Temperament.  I’ve started here because this is the system you have likely always used (and unless you have changed a setting on your tuner, it’s what most electronic tuners use).  This system has the twelve tones that match the keys on the piano (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B) and the pitches are distributed equally.  This is the tuning that makes it possible for the piano to be played in each major key**.  The upside is that everyone can play together.  The downside is that when you smush the pitches like that, they are no longer mathematically “correct” and when this was first used, it “sounded funny” (or more likely slightly off because when they did that, the notes all moved a little, sort of like kindergartners shifting around in line for cookies).  If you’re not sure, look at your tuner (or at the paperwork) –  it likely says it’s equal temperament.

Pythagorean Temperament.  You’ve heard of the Pythagorean Theorem?  Pythagoras thought that all beauty could be captured in mathematical ratios – the right triangle, the movements of the planets, and the arrangement of pitches.  This tuning is based on tuning “pure 5ths”.  This is the tuning you might use if you worked with a tuning fork.  This is the temperament that is easiest to tune by ear – you listen for the glorious pure 5th (remember – an in-tune 5th will “ring” and be audibly in tune.  You can’t miss it – and if you’re not hearing the ringing, you’re not in tune yet).  Each pitch will be near its cousin from equal temperament but only the octaves and 5ths will be exactly the same.    

There are other Temperament Systems including Meantone, all the variations of Equal Temperament (the 12 tone we’ve talked about above and including a lot of others counting up to 72 tone, Well Temperament (which Bach used to make a set of tunes for all 24 major and minor scales available on the keyboard at the time), Just Intonation (which I’ve never run into but is a thing), and many more.  Remember too that the temperament selected might have more to do with the music being played (renaissance had a different sense than modern) or the instrument being played (remember, it’s hard to retain theory that doesn’t apply to you!). 

Here’s a suggestion – play around with your tuning and see what you think.  If you’re typically using Equal Temperament, try Pythagorean and see what you think.  You might make lemon face because, it will be slightly different.  It probably will sound out of tune, but if you’re interested, give it a try.

Which type of tuning do you use and why?  “Because that’s what I was taught” is a perfectly good answer!  Did you try another approach?  What did you think?  Let me know in the comments.

 

*If you’re interested, there are many books on tuning, but one of my favorites is Lies My Music Teacher Told Me by Gerald Eskelin.  It’s a really fun book, and a short read, weighing in under 175 pages, but it is dense going – and having an interest in math will help.   Alternately, you can choose the path many do and stick with the theory you have learned by rote from teachers who have learned by rote.  Another way to say that is,

It has always been thus….

You will do fine if you want to keep it there, but read the book if you’ve always wondered.

 

** if the wording starts to be a little stilted, please note that is me attempting to be correct in an area that I don’t fully understand (nor do purport to), and is language that many musicians have bandied about but is actually quite technical – kind of like you call it a bruise but your physician calls it a hematoma – they’re both right, but one is more technically accurate than the other!

Tune it – Now What?

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Now that you know more about tuners that you ever wanted to, you might be wondering what you should be doing with the one you selected!  Because no matter how ritualized you make your tuning, in the end, you want to get to playing – so you might be wondering,

“I have a tuner…now what?”

Tuning your harpGood question.  Since tuning is pretty essential, people who’ve been at it a while might forget to initiate others into the mysteries of it all – like what you should do when you sit down to tune.

First, some ground rules:

  • There is no one way to tune. Just like there is no single way to play the harp, there are multiple ways to approach tuning. Play around with the suggestions here and find the approach that works for you.  Or hybridize them, or make up your own.
  • No matter how you go about the act of tuning, in the end, be focused on the goal – which is to have a harp that is in tune. Anything that pulls you away from that goal is not serving you as a musician.
  • It is a good idea to tune your harp with all the levers OFF – no matter to what scale you’re tuned. Tuning with the levers engaged doesn’t make a lot of sense – if the levers are doing their job, turning the pin to tighten or loosen the string will have to work against the lever which is designed to hold the string in place – tautly!  Just don’t. Take the levers off and then tune.

So here are some thoughts on the HOW of tuning:

  • The Linear Method* – Start at the bottom of your harp and tune each string, in order, until you get to the top. Yup, easy-peasy. There’s no getting lost or forgetting where you were.  And if you do get lost, as soon as you hear the string you think was next, you’ll have auditory proof that you’re right (or not).  You can also go from top to bottom – there’s no magic in starting at the bottom, so it’s up to you.
  • The Linear Octave Method – Start at the bottom of your harp (my bottom string is a C) and tune that string. Then tune each successive string of that note up your harp (e.g., C6 – C5 – C4 – C3 – C2 – C1). Once at the top of your harp, go back to the bottom and do the next string (e.g., D6 – D5 – etc.).  Iterate until you get to C5) and you’re done.  As with the Linear Method, you could also start at the top and work your way down.
  • The Circle of 5ths Simple Method – This approach is a little more complicated in that it assumes you know and are comfortable with the complete Circle of 5ths**. In addition, you have to pay attention so you don’t forget where you are! Start with your favorite pitch (I start with Ab) (If that doesn’t mean anything to you, and if your harp is not tuned to Bb or Eb, start with A)( If that doesn’t mean anything to you, and your harp is tuned to Bb or Eb, let me know and I’ll address it another time!).  Tune all of the strings of that pitch, then move to it’s 5th and tune all those, move to its 5th and tune all those, etc. until you get back where you started. 
  • The Circle of 5ths Less Simple Method – This method is a little more complicated. Here you really have to pay attention so you don’t get lost! Again, start with your favorite string (I start with Ab3) (If that doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s the Ab above middle C).  Then tune the octave below it (for me, Ab4).  Next tune the octave above it (for me, Ab2), back and forth until all of the strings of that pitch have been tuned.  Then move to its 5th and tune all those, again going below then above, etc. around the Circle until you get back where you started.  This really does require that you pay attention because you have to remember what you have tuned and where you’re going (both direction and 5ths).
  • The Random Walk – I don’t recommend this approach, but I have seen some beginners use no pattern. They just pick a string and tune it and then go on to some other string (and it appears random to me, with no discernable pattern). This really would take a great deal of concentration and it’s likely that you’ll miss a string (or 6).  But I’m not going to tell you not to do it this way – as long as when you’re finished your harp is actually in tune!

Since you might ask, my favorite way to tune is the Less Simple Circle of 5ths Method.  I like it best because everything about it helps me tune – tuning the strings against each other helps me hear them better, using the Circle makes harmonic sense, and for me, not going straight up an octave helps me focus more.  But to be honest, I use all these approaches at various times, depending on the circumstances.  The best method is the one you’ll actually use!  In addition, even the most complicated approach becomes easy if you practice doing it!

Additional Thoughts

Remember there’s more to tuning that slavishly adhering to the tool. Your tuner is not smart. And while it “listens” it doesn’t “hear”!  So, when I have “finished” tuning, I have an additional step to hear that my harp is in tune.  I use this step to correct tuning that might be off.  There are a couple of ways to do it:

  • Play octaves – play a 2 handed one octave scale of octaves from the bottom to the top of your harp. You know how to do this, you learned when you were first playing the harp – play the lowest octave in the left hand (e.g., C6 and C5) and the next higher octave in the right (e.g., C4 and C3) and play a scale straight up until you get to the top of your harp. Listen to what’s coming out of your harp and fix any notes that aren’t sweet. 
  • Play triads – just like above but with triads rather than scales. I like this method best because it really helps me hear when a note is not right. Sometimes, that note will have read right on the tuner and sounded good in the octaves, but played against its 5th (or sometimes its 3rd) then I can hear that it’s just not quite right.  The other advantage is that I can quickly tell exactly which string isn’t right (not just which note) so I don’t have to guess or redo them all (it’s not all the Bs, it’s just B3, for example).  And it’s typically not out by, much so I can correct it fairly easily.

Handy hint – harps are built to be resonant. I place my hand flat against the lowest strings when I’m tuning the middle (remember, I usually start in the middle) – this way the tuner (and my ear) hears the string I’m playing. Otherwise, those lower strings are resonating sympathetically and the tuner hears that, but since, at that point I haven’t tuned those lower strings yet, what the tuner hears might lead me astray.  Then my tuned string is not actually as well tuned as I think and I will have to go back and retune it after I’ve finished tuning – how pointless is that!?!

How do you go about tuning?  Do you have another approach?  Anything that just really doesn’t work?  Let me know in the comments!

 

* I’ve made up these names, they aren’t “official” but feel free to use them 😉

** Whether you use this method of tuning or not, you need to know and be comfortable and facile with the Circle of 5ths – it’s something we use a lot!

Tune it

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Last week after I exhorted you to tune every day, you asked about tuners – good question!

A tuner is certainly an important tool.  Unless you are born with perfect pitch, you’ll need one (and only about .0001% of the population does – that’s only about 775,000 people in the world!).  But a quick internet search for tuners may set your head spinning – there are so many, and they are all shiny, and they all do different things, and are they even right for the harp?!

So, this week, a little walk through the veritable Candyland of tuner types.  Hopefully this will help you decide which one is right for you.  We should start with the (boring but required) caveats – all of this is my opinion,  If you click on a link and buy one, I won’t get anything and I have no endorsement arrangements with any organizations (because I’m an idiot and I don’t make any money by “influencing” you!). 

Tuners are simply tools.  They range from simple and old school to amazingly complicated and precise.  I have tried here to cover the basic types.  I have included some to improve your knowledge even though you are unlikely to need or want them.  Here goes.

First, you DO need a tuner of some kind.  You will, of course, also use your ears, but since the pitches of the notes are mathematically related to one another, some level of precision is needed.  When you are tuning, you will consult with the tool but you will also want to hear that your harp is in tune – that your octaves are aligned and that you are getting harmonics where you expect them. 

Second, no matter which tuning tool you select, you will get better, faster, and more precise if you practice using it. That tuning every day thing will really help with that.  In addition, the more you tune your harp, the better it will stay in tune.  Yes, this is an infinite loop but it ensures you get better at it!

The first tuning tool you could use is a Tuning Fork like this one.  Definitely old school.  Also, it’s a tuning fork not a pitch fork!  You can buy them at the behemoths or at a music shop.  For harps tuned to C, F, or other major scale that keep the A string open, get a 440Hz fork (because they do, in fact, come in pitches) (Note that if you are tuned to Eb, you will want to get a G# like this one because you’ll want to tune with the levers off).  I’d suggest the ones from a music shop because they have the rubberized handle which lets the fork vibrate while you hold it without impacting its frequency.  To use the tuning fork, strike the tines on your arm or leg and then hold the base (the single end) to the sound board.  You’ll hear the reference pitch emanating from the soundboard.  Now play A3 (the A above middle C) and tune the string until you only hear one sound.  If you can hear two separate tones, the string is not in tune.  Once that string is in tune, then tune all the other A’s to A3.  Then you can use the Circle of 5ths to tune the rest of the harp.   

  • Benefits of the Tuning fork –
    • Works in any light
    • Needs no batteries
    • Lightweight, sturdy, and easy to carry
  • Drawbacks –
    • Only as accurate as your hearing and discipline
    • Difficult to use in a noisy environment (like with other instruments also tuning).
    • Significant learning and practice curve

The second tuning tool you could use is the Strobe tuner like this one.  Honestly, I have seen these but have never used one.  They are an electronic tuner which displays the difference between the reference frequency (what the note should be) and what you’re playing.  They are a “gold standard” for tuning. They are scary very accurate.

  • Benefits of the Strobe tuner:
    • Accuracy!  More accurate than any other tuner (likely more accurate that you can hear)
    • Easy to determine if you’re in tune and if your harmonics are in (or out) of tune
    • Easy to see the display and what’s going on
    • Easy to use in a noisy environment
  • Drawbacks –
    • Expensive (even the smaller ones)
    • Challenging (if you don’t fully understand how it works, you’re not easily going to find another harper to explain it to you)
    • High precision can lead to “chasing” the pitch up and down around the center

Third we have Chromatic tuners.  This is probably the most prevalent type of tuner you’ll see at any harp event.  Chromatic tuners allow you to tune your strings to the closest note of the twelve-note chromatic scale (think going up the piano playing C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G# – A – A# – B – B# – c).  These are called semi-tones.  This allows you to tune to whatever major scale you happen to tune to (C, F, Eb, or whatever you have chosen). 

There is the handheld.  This is probably the type of tuner you have.  They come in a lot of forms but most of us are familiar with the Korg like this one.   There is a more complicated Korg like this one. 

  • Benefits –
    • Inexpensive
    • Easy to read
    • Easy to use
    • Can be used in noisy environments if include a pick up (a small microphone you plug into the tuner like this one)
  • Drawbacks –
    • Battery powered
    • Likely to break if you drop it

Another increasingly popular chromatic tuner is Clip On such as the Snark ST-2 like this one.  You can clip it onto the tuning key or onto one of the sound holes on the back of the harp (which can be a challenge to see while you’re tuning).  The microphone is in the clip, so they work well in noisy or quiet environments.  These are flexible and work well – just make sure you get the right (red) one – the others are for guitars and don’t have the response you need.  Same benefits and drawbacks as other chromatic tuners, but additionally even lighter, easier to carry, don’t need a pickup, and they’re just cute!

Finally, the last type of Chromatic tuner I’ll mention is a Phone App.  There are plenty of free versions for Android and for Apple.  I use gStrings but I don’t think there are vast differences between the available apps.  These work as well as your phone can hear (so, pretty well) and are easy to read.  Like the Snark, they have the same benefits as other chromatic tuners, the display may be more precise than your handheld (mine is at the single Hz so much more precise than my handheld) which can be good but may lead you to chase the pitch.  The benefits are enhanced by the ubiquity of the phone – if you’ve forgotten your tuner, you’ll probably still have your phone!  The don’t have a pickup so in a noisy room you may (or may not) be able to use it. 

Regardless of the type of tuner you select – a few more sage thoughts –

  • Having a backup is a good idea (and essential if you’re gigging).  You might consider carrying two different tuners.  In my gig bag I have a Korg, a Snark, and a tuning fork…and my phone – just in case.
  • No matter how good your tuner is, carry spare batteries!
  • Since your harp life is likely going to be long and you never know what kind of music you might be playing or who you might have the opportunity to play with, make sure your tuner can be calibrated (for instance you probably tune to A440Hz as a current convention, but you might move into other music that might have a different setting (like A4 = 432Hz)).  You might also look for other types of tuning – does your tuner have non-equal temperament such as Pythagorean?
  • No matter which of these you choose – practice using it!  The more you use it to tune, the better you’ll be able to correlate what the display tells you with how much to turn the wrench.
  • Finally – nothing beats listening.  It really doesn’t matter what the display says if the harp sounds wrong!  Be prepared to retune a string that sounds off.  Do that before you start playing!

I hope some of that was helpful.  What type or brand of tuner do you have?  Do you like it?  What does it do that you like?  What is it missing?  Let me know in the comments!

 

It’s the little things

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The year is still young so we’re probably still thinking we should be setting goals.  One thing about goal setting is that it is really focused on a later time and on achieving big things.  Now, don’t get me wrong, achieving big things is good and important and really nice to accomplish. 

But the challenge is that it’s easy to get caught up in the “big goals” and forget about the smaller goals.  You know the ones.  The goals that actually provide the foundation for those big goals.  They are usually small enough that they don’t make the cut for a goals list (or a visi-mood board).  Why?  Because they are small.  But they are also essential.  After all – it’s the little things.

These are the sort of thing that I tend to write on each day’s Things To Do list.  Not because I won’t remember to do them, but rather because they are that important. What am I talking about?  Where here’s one you might want to include on your list for 2022:

Tune your Harp(s) EVERY DAY!

I know, right?!  And yet, it’s easy to just let this one slip – “I don’t have enough time,” “It’s tuned enough,” “No one is listening” – the list of excuses goes on and on. 

We know that tuning your harp is important as part of harp maintenance.  As I have mentioned before, tuning is good for your harp.  And the more you tune, the better you’ll get at it, so it will become faster and easier. 

But tuning your harp is a daily activity that has absolutely nothing to do with keeping your instrument in tune!  The biggest benefit of tuning as an activity is that it can become a ritual.   

Rituals are important – they can help you settle and become attuned to the upcoming activity.  A ritual can act to help you enter into your practice and playing time in a useful frame of mind.  A ritual is a process, repeated daily, that can aid in transitioning from your everyday life to your harp life. 

And tuning is a good ritual to build into your day – it will help you focus and prepare to play.  Think of the ritual of tuning as a quiet, focused way to make the shift (and it will make you sound better!).

Adding a ritual like tuning – a small goal performed daily – might be that all you need to be comfortable that you can get moving on those big goals.  Every time you finish tuning you will have moved a little farther along on your (small) goals and set yourself up to feel good about tackling the next step of your larger goals. 

Do you really need to tune your harp every day?  Nope – just on the days that end in “y”!

Please tell me you tune your harp!  Do you have a ritual for your playing?  Did you define small goals?  Did you have small goals?  Let me know in the comments!

 

What do you see?

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So – did you make a vision/mood (visi-mood?) board?  What do you see?

This is meant to be an exercise that allows you to explore your thinking on what you’d like to accomplish (translation – your goals) for the year.  I hope you did make a board.  It’s an interesting way to get started on moving forward to where you think you’d like to be.  It’s certainly not writing up a load of resolutions or wishes.  If nothing else, it’s a compelling way to go about thinking about what activities you’d like to contemplate for the coming time. 

I did one.  I liked that it really required thinking.  It meant not only conceiving of what to do and focus on, but also then find a graphic way to represent it – yikes! 

Going graphic meant that I really had to examine all the things I was thinking about and generate ways to represent that.  Here’s what I came up with.

Vision Mood BoardHow about yours?

Of course, mine doesn’t mean anything to you – it’s my board!  But it does incorporate all my big goals for the year for my music.  More importantly, it helped me figure out which were actual goals (things that I can actually accomplish with a defined finish line and more than just a little detail on the process for getting there) and which were just wishes (of course I’d like to do all kinds of big and exciting stuff …but a lot of those things are just colossal stretch – and more a hankering than a goal). 

Making a board also really shone light on the “shoulds” that were crowding in.  You know the sort of thing – I should do x and if I really wanted to move forward, I should do y (where x and y are things that maybe a lot of other people are doing but that I just don’t value or am just not interested in doing).  The problem with shoulds is that they weigh a lot but don’t actually help you move.  Being able to identify those shoulds let’s you set them aside and focus on the goals you want to meet rather than to fixate on things of no import.

So, did you make a visi-mood board?  Did it help you define your goals for this year?  Did you learn anything?  Do you feel ready to codify your goals for the year?  Let me know in the comments!

Vision of the new year

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Happy New Year!  It’s that time of year when it seems like everyone is setting goals and resolutions – our vision of the new year.  This year, we just don’t know.  There is still loads of uncertainty going into 2022, but we go on anyway.

Of course, the reality is that at this point of any year we have no idea what’s coming!  Our vision is limited.  It’s only in the last couple of years that we’ve been made very aware that we don’t know what’s coming, certainly in a way we haven’t been in the past.  So really, this year is beginning like every other year we’ve seen the start of.  It just seems more unavoidable this year.  Maybe it’s unavoidable, but it’s also status quo.

Vision Mood boardNow that we’ve established that this year is just like every year, we can get moving setting some goals.  Even though this year is like others before, we do feel more uncertain and actively setting some goals and writing them down may be more important this year than any other year.  After all, even though it’s the same as every other year, it still feels different.  And we could all use a little bit of support to make it through the unknown. 

But let’s not be hasty.  While we know that setting some goals will help us to keep focused throughout the year, we also know that most people don’t even get through January before those goals have been forgotten or overcome by events.  So, we can get to our goals but let’s get there smartly. 

Let’s start moving forward by looking back.  Start by asking yourself about the good that has come from our previous year.  Actively recognize your previous successes – all of them!  Might as well start on a positive note.

Now, for those goals.  You might have heard the oft reported  study that people who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them (like so much internet data, the “Harvard study” that reports only 3% of people actually achieve their goals is apparently an urban myth, but actual research has also shown this!).  Writing goals down can be broadly defined – the point is to develop the goal and get it out of your head so you can refer to it (rather than either forgetting about it or allowing it to “morph” from a goal to just an idea you had).

Let’s set ourselves up for success.  Rather than just throwing some goals on paper and then forgetting about them (whether they’re written or not), how about starting with an exercise to really help focus and define good, achievable, success-oriented goals.  Let’s bastardize the Vision Board (which captures your view of what you’d like to manifest) and the Mood Board (which is really a visual planner).  You don’t have to buy into the hype of either of these tools to use them – and smushing them together into a single entity is just more useful.  Because really all these do is help you to see:

  • a representation of where you’d like to go (these might become your goals)
  • how you might go about getting from here to there (these might become your process)
  • and the outcomes along the way (these might become products or outputs along the way). 

The important thing is to capture your thinking and then to look at it critically, make sure you have captured your thinking accurately, made changes as needed and capturing those too. 

Of course, you can use any medium – you can make a visual representation as a collage, drawing, painting, make paper dolls – whatever.  But don’t be focused on how you get it out – you could also write it out.  Use what works for you – write a puppet show, compose a song, choreograph a dance!  It really doesn’t matter as long as it helps you refine what you think you’d like your goals to be. 

This week, take some time to think about what you’d like to do this year (don’t be too focused on when you start  or how long you will be working on it.  After all the “new year” is just a calendar convention, January is when we’ve come to consensus on when the year begins).  Give yourself some time and space to do this – have a cup of tea and a slice of quiet and think about it.  When you think you have an idea, start building your board (in whatever format you choose).  Be free.  Be creative.  Be flexible.  Get it captured in your format.  Don’t just think about it – we’re going to move on from here, so you need a place to start.  Remember, you’re thinking and capturing – not committing!  And if you’re willing, share it with us – let me know in the comments.