Quantity or Quality?

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Jen

Which is better – Quantity or Quality?

Sometimes Quantity is all it takes. Cash is a good example – most of us would rather have a high Quantity of it than a few pristine pieces (unless you are a numismatist!).

And sometimes Quality is really what’s needed. A cashmere sweater is a good example – the Quality is important and will make a difference.

But what about when it comes to your practice time? Then, which is more important?

I frequently implore you to have a practice journal and to use it to make better use of your practice time. I suggest to you that you learn by ear, that you learn by reading, that you do whatever you need to do to learn the music and to help yourself become a better musician.

And if you focus on that you’d think that I think that Quality practice time is essential.

But think more on it. Think of all the times I have also implored you simply to sit at your harp and touch it. To noodle, even if you didn’t feel like playing. To stay in touch with your instrument, even if for a very brief time.

And if you focus on that you’d think that I think that Quantity practice time is essential.

And you’d be right!

WHAAAAAAT?

Yup. You’re Quality and Quantity of practice time are both important. Because each results in different gains – and all the gains are helpful.

First, we can start with the much-maligned Quantity of practice. Don’t “people who know” always tell us not to waste time on garbage practice? Typically, yes, they do.

But let’s take a page from successful writers (did you see what a phenomenally bad pun I laid in there? Yes, I did!). Successful writers often differ from less successful writers in that they write more. And they have “tricks” to do that. They set aside time to write, they guard that time jealously, they use the time to write (not to sharpen pencils or check internet sources, or daydream, or to surf Facedegram for “inspiration”). And when they have no idea what to write, they just write. And they just write junk until something better comes to them. Because sometimes Quantity is helpful.

When you’re practicing, this is time that you might not be “productive”, you’re not focusing on the intervals, or pursing musicality. You might not even be trying to learn the tune – you are just playing. But you have showed up. You are at your harp. You might be playing just junk – and that’s ok because it’s you, playing and spending time on the bench. And if you keep sitting there playing, maybe the junk will transform into something else. Or maybe not. What you don’t know is when the “something else” will show up as “something better”. Just because it doesn’t appear right at that moment when you’re at the harp doesn’t mean that it won’t appear later, or in another tune, or just by preparing your mind for something yet to come. You’re going for Quantity.

So, yes, Quantity practice days are good. Some of the time.

But what about Quality? This is so talked about I feel like I almost don’t have to mention it. But I do. Because you need to have defined what a Quality practice session consists of. And this is trickier than it sounds – because Qality today may be Quantity tomorrow (and vice versa, see “something better” above). Quality is not a monolith. There are some general parts of practice that will help define a Quality practice session, but they are just big categories (warm up, technique, learn new stuff, solidify somewhat learned stuff, polish solidified stuff, performance practice, etc.) and within in each of these you will need to define what is Quality for that particular practice session. For instance, this is where you define what “settling” is – you don’t want to settle for good enough when you’re seeking Quality (but you would if you’re in a Quantity practice session). In a Quality practice session, you will not accept settling, you will expect yourself to accomplish something (have the phrase learned, smooth out the fingering in the tricky spot, have figured out how to get the left hand moving in rhythm, etc.) and you will work until you get it. You’re going for Quality.

The most important thing about Quality and Quantity is that they are both needed – at different points for different reasons. You can’t skip one and rely solely on the other. And no, one is not better than the other – they are two faces of the same coin. They both have value. And there is room for both in your practice sessions.

I’ve heard from some of you (not in so many words) that in the last year you have been stuck in Quantity practice rather than Quality practice. And some of you are pillorying yourselves over it. If this is you, stop. Instead, think about all the time you have spent on your bench – not losing ground, not giving up, not letting your playing slip away. That is Quantity practicing serving its very useful function. You will resume Quality practicing when your time is right. And not a moment sooner. And that’s ok.

So, if you find yourself “stuck” and not moving forward but you’re still playing, rejoice in your Quantity practice. When you’re ready you’ll resume Quality practice. And if you’re preening over your all Quality all the time approach, you might want to think about the occasional Quantity session, if only to enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Are you stuck in Quantity time or Quality time? Or do you have a mix in your practice sessions? What do you use Quality time for? How about your Quantity time? Let me know in the comments – I’m looking forward to learning from you!

Spring Sharing

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Jen

This week, Spring is trying to hard to break forth! The time has changed (and so we’re probably logy as we have discussed here and here. It’s never a great time – we have to adjust to the change in the daylight and the clocks, and our schedules and our rhythms and the apparently never ending discussion of disposing of time changes all together.

But this year also continues the ongoing pandemic with the promises of vaccines and longer days and potential end to the ridiculousness all around us. But the reality is that it isn’t over yet. This gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves how we can contribute – to make this Spring a little easier for those around us.

Now, I know that Spring isn’t ready to burst out everywhere, but in my little corner of the world, the days are growing more glorious, sunny and warmer. And I’m excited about inviting my neighbors to join me for regular weekly concerts #LiveintheDrive. My neighbors are stalwart, coming out each week to share time together while I played – just short, informal, but fairly regular, concerts – just me and my harp – for friends.

So, I’d like to encourage you to do the same thing where you live (when the weather is cooperative – it is Spring after all – possibly the most contentious season!).

There’s something in you that the world needs.

Before you begin the litany of NO, I made you a little plate of courage (below) to which you should feel free to refer if your resolve wobbles. It’s really just meant to remind you that you have a gift and the sharing of that gift just might improve someone else’s day. It is your opportunity to do something to care for others. Don’t just spend time – invest it.

If you’re really enamored with this graphic, leave me a message and I’ll send you a full page printable of it*. Or you can leave it here and visit the site when you need a reminder to overcome your practicing hiccups, your performing woes, your fears, your insecurities…and just share your music with those near you! I hope you’ll put yourself out there to care for others. And if you’re willing, send me a photo of you sharing, or just tell me here what you decided to do!

*I’m sure there’s some law somewhere that will require me to tell you that if you are not currently subscribed and would like the printable version that I will add you to the subscription list. But hey, you’re already here and that will just save you a step.

Apples or Oranges

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Jen

Do you want to be a better musician? It’s a not unreasonable question. But if I answer honestly, I would say, “Better than what?”

I DO want to be better. Better than I am today. And even better than that on the day after. At this point, I’d like to call your attention to two things about what I have said –

The inward focus – I’d like to be better I am
The forward look – Tomorrow, I’d like to be better I am today

Let’s start with the inward focus. The question, “Better than what?” is really important. I hope that you’re in a place in your harp life that your better-than-what is you. Better than you yourself are right now, not focused on anyone else.

This can be a hard thing to learn. Especially if you spend any time on any kind of media – the information (and the temptation) is ever present. Whether it’s your harp hero or someone you don’t even know on Facedegram who’s been playing for 15 minutes and has already uploaded 50 videos of their triumphant harpysteria*, it can be easy to develop an envy of someone else’s progress (and their unmitigated willingness to share it).

But none of that matters. What matters is you. How YOU are coming along. How YOU are developing. How YOU are progressing to where it is YOU want to go. How YOU have improved today.

This can be particularly vexing if you’re not at the beginning of your harp life. When you’re harp-young, every day you can find something to notice that is a little better than it was. Your tuning isn’t from some alien planet anymore. You actually landed on the string you meant to on the first try. You no longer confuse the sound box and the pillar. You closed on the string rather than snapping back from it like it bit you. Heck, you used more than one finger! Every day has success potential. When you’re harp-young there are so many things to improve and they’re so obvious, even to you – a newb. Every day when you practice you can see some improvement.

But after a while, as you progress, you begin to realize that while it was easy to not sound like an injured animal right off the line, the internet didn’t lie. The harp is one of the most difficult instruments to learn to play well. Your obvious improvements (the kind you can’t miss) seem to be farther and farther apart. And it’s easy to forget the small advances after they happen**.

This is also a time when many people begin to go out and meet other harpers (or in the time of plague, seek them out online). You have an opportunity to see others play and you might begin to compare yourself to them. I have a story to share on why this comparison is such a very bad idea.

In my harp youth, I was on the verge of quitting (again). My incredibly wise teacher strongly suggested that I attend an adult beginners event and specifically suggested a workshop with the fabulous Sue Richards. I was extremely nervous, and struck up a conversation with the person sitting next to me. I shared that I had only been playing a few months and I thought she said she had too. I held my own for the first tune and was extremely pleased with myself. But when we got to the second tune, I was lost. My brain was full. My new friend, with whom I had kept pace in the first tune, sailed through the second, even playing the left hand harmony! I was devastated, clearly in way over my head, never going to learn the play, I should just go home.

I learned later that I had misheard her – she wasn’t a beginner. She was a professional. And already knew that tune. She was so encouraging to me throughout the workshop – but my confidence had gone. I was comparing myself to her – and falling miserably short. I thought I was never going to learn to play the harp.

I spent a while nursing that hurt and comparing myself to everyone else I met. Except there was one thing even I couldn’t overlook. When you meet other people – it becomes clear that you have NO IDEA what they are on the inside. Playing a week? Or 20 years? Or 20 years, but really only 5, due to interruptions? Practice 15 minutes every other day or 4 hours every day? Health issues? Complicated existence? Love the harp? Like it? Endure it? YOU DO NOT KNOW.

And if you don’t know – you can never compare apples to apples.

If you can never compare apples to apples –

why bother to even look at your orange?

The only thing to do is look forward – where are you going? Everyone else’s progress has no bearing on yours. Nothing is as it seems (especially on facedegram) (and quit scrollcrastinating – go practice!). You can only work on your goals, your dreams, your growth. Your harp playing.

When I finally got it, I practiced in my time. I learned at my pace. I got bold in my tempo. I kept meeting people – some more developed than me, some not yet as far along.

Sometimes I see someone play and feel a twang of impatience at my own growth. But then I remember that what they are doing is not what I was hoping to do. It’s just cool…and I’m happy for them! Sometimes I become aware of someone comparing themself to me…and try to encourage them focus on their goals rather than mine.

This is the real reason I’m always suggesting you focus on your goals, your progress, and tracking that – so you’ll know you are making that progress and don’t fall victim to the comparison trap. How about you? How are your apples? Let me know!

* Why, yes, I did notice that I’ve already made up two words in one sentence. Go with me, it’s one of my superpowers. Facedegram is any social media cesspool brain drain and harpysteria is not a person who makes harps in a coffee shop, but rather is a portmanteau of harp and hysteria.

** Those tools I’m always suggesting? All ways to help keep focused on what you want rather than on what someone else might.

Five Things I Can’t Live Without

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Jen

Harp players cannot live on practice alone. There is, after all, more to life. Like performing. Or maintenance. Or just plain enjoyment. We all have those things we need to have – things that are essential to us. Stuff that makes the difference between a good day and a less than stellar outcome. Have you ever thought about what you just can’t live without at when it comes to playing your harp?

Well, I have. We all have those things that we really rely on. And since you asked (after all, where do you think I come up with these ideas for blog posts?) – here’s my things I can’t live without, my essentials* –

Tuner – there are loads of tuners out there. They range from fairly simple to awfully complicated. I have four – a Snark ST-2 (the red one), a Korg CA-1 with a pickup, a free app download (G-Strings), and a tuning fork. Clearly each one has a different application. I like the Snark because it’s small. The Korg is great in a group. I love that the app is almost overly precise. The tuning fork is just for fun – and when I feel like I need a challenge I use it to tune by ear and then double check my accuracy of the tuning with one of the other tuners.
Spare strings – ok, this is a “duh”, but I am always surprised when someone tells me they don’t have a spare string. My strong recommendation is that you get a spare set of strings – an entire set. And, if you have already broken a string, don’t forget to order an extra with the set (one to go on the harp and one to complete the set). That can be kinda pricey, but it’s the only way to have a string on hand when one breaks.
Recorder – I am always suggesting that you record yourself – so you can hear what you haven’t heard, so you can see what you can’t see, and so you can know what you would otherwise know if you weren’t too busy playing when you needed to know it. I use a(nother) free app). It doesn’t have a lot of features, but it does have my favorite – the big red DELETE button. We’re not recording for posterity – just to learn…and then we ditch it!
Notebook/journal – You didn’t think I’d leave this off the list, did you? We’re all busy and it can feel like we don’t have time to journal our playing, but that’s a missed opportunity. Be reflective, think about your playing, practice, and performance. Be active, not passive, and write it down.
Great tunes – All that stuff is really in service of great tunes. After all, it’s more fun to play really great tunes you love than to just bang through stuff you don’t like. An incredibly wise teacher once told me to play music I like and leave the rest. Someone else will like the tunes that don’t beg you to play them – focus on the ones you love.

There are, of course, load of other things that could be on this list – like a harp, the tuning key, the perfect bench, that light that makes everything easier, and more. What do you find essential? What can you not live without? Let me know in the comments.

*I’m not smart enough to be paid to endorse stuff, so these are my opinions – do with them what you will. I really am interested to know what your favorites are – I’ll learn something and possibly shift my list!

Reading Reading Reading

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Jen

Last week we talked about music from paper. But for adults who don’t read yet, this can be intimidating. Reading does take practice. It always has. It’s just been a (long) while since you were at this same stage with letters. But if you think back to when you learned to read words, you will remember the big pictures of the letters over the board that showed you (constantly) what the letters looked like. Over time you learned to associate each shape with “its” sound. Then you learned how the shapes could be joined together and that you could link the sounds for the shapes and soon they were just like the words that came out of your mouth. And you learned the rules (and the exceptions!). You practiced every day. With time you got much better at it!

Let’s do a little math – if you practiced reading for 20 minutes every day at school when you first started reading, that means that you practiced about 60 hours just in the first-grade! That doesn’t count weekends. Most of us are significantly past first-grade, so if you did about 20 minutes of reading every day (granted, an estimation) you will have practiced reading nearly 500,000 hours by the time you eligible to retire! So, if you’re just learning to read music, you may still be at the stage of identifying shapes and linking them to their associate meaning. And if you get 60 hours of practice reading in the year, you will likely be at that first-grade proficiency. If you get more practice, you will become more proficient.

Keep in mind that each musical note has more information than each letter – you get pitch and rhythm and direction, so you might expect it to take more time to get easy with reading. And that’s ok – because it’s something you can add to your practice time!

If you’re struggling with your reading, here’s a suggestion. Find a piece of music (or use a Notespeller). Make a few copies so you can repeat the page – yup, we’re making “workbooks” just like we had in school. Start at the beginning and for each note:

Point to the note on the paper.
Say the name of the note out loud.
Point to the string on the harp – make sure you’re in the right octave!
Play the note.
Use all the tools/help you have (e.g., if you know the “tail” of the G-clef wraps around the G line, then start there and use your finger to move up or down the staff until your finger is on the right note. If you know the blue string is the F use your fingers to keep track of the distance to the note you’re pointing to on the paper.
Double check your work.
Move on to the next note.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

Because I’m parsimonious, you can do this “straight” (the way you would normally read the page) and then later, turn the page upside down – and make the staves whichever you like (treble or bass) and go through again (a whole new workbook page!).

One reason to do the same page multiple times is to just get more practice at the same level. You might remember that Dick and Jane ran up and down the street a lot. So, you can point to and play the G above middle C just as many times as Jane said, “Oh, look!” (or more)! And the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. Another reason to do the same page again and again is to get more confident – the more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll be as you test and then incorporate those linkages.

Don’t be cowed by dense music either – when you’re learning to read, use music made for young readers – the notes are bigger and there are fewer of them so you can practice your reading more easily. Even if you’re a significantly experienced human, you might be very young in harp years and possibly even younger in music reading years! And just like word reading, as you get more practiced and confident you can work your way up to the “chapter book” types of music (densely populated with too many measures on each line and too many lines on a page!).

So, how about you? Do you practice your reading? Do you read as well as you’d like to? If not, what’s holding you back? Let me know!

Ah, Paper

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Jen

There is a lot of music out there. Probably millions of tunes through the ages. Last week we talked about the joys of learning by ear, which are many.

But for all the lovely tunes available out there, if you’re going to learn them by ear, you have to find a source from which to learn. And that’s not always a possibility. You might live in the hinterlands. Your SpotiTube could be clogged. You might have eaten your Apple tunes. It might be that no one has thought to record the tune. Or possibly that no one remembers it?

And this is where writing music down is so helpful. I’m sure even the most amazing of harper bards of old would have been hard pressed to learn, know, and use all the tunes available – then or now. So, I hope we can agree that writing the music down is a helpful thing – if only to try to keep track of (at least a little corner of) the universe of tunes. Ah, Paper.

This is true for any type of music. Don’t be fooled – even the hallowed classical music is not meant to be played strictly as written. Mozart made his stock and trade writing and performing his music. And when he performed – his shtick was improvisation – that is not found in the writing! And he is just one example.

There is an easy trap in believing that the printed music is better than aurally transmitted tunes. It absolves one of all need to really internalize the music. And unquestioning devotion to the dots (the notes) excuses us from putting in the effort to make the music our own.

Written music is simply a tool. It can serve as a memory aid or it can act as a framework from which to pull the music. But it isn’t unassailable, nor does it require strict adherence. Ick.

As a tool it has myriad uses including keeping a record of a tune for later use, holding a tune for others not present when it’s being played, and for memory keeping. Writing it down allows one to capture of ideas, snippets, measures (and other stuff), even if they’re not “interesting” just now (not everything is popular all the time – but eventually the wheel turns).

Like any tool, the written music has limitations. For instance, it can’t capture all the feeling or the interestingness with which individual players imbue a tune. It will, with time, lose parts of its meaning, leaving future generations to conjecture (ok, just guess) what was meant by what was written, how it was played and what it was for. Don’t think that’s true? Look at the Song of Seikilos (found on a grave marker) – I’m pretty sure they thought they were capturing that for posterity*….

Which highlights another limitation – the written music can’t really capture the “à la mode” or “dépêche mode” (like how I did that?!) for the tune – you’ll get the bones but not the juicy cultural meat – you have to research (or guess) what the tune might have meant. You can have dogmatic discussions all day long but, in the end, you’re going to play it the way you hear it in your head – because that’s all you can do with the dots.

But most importantly, the dots can serve another function – that is helpful in the concrete, rather than in the abstract. This visual representation of the music makes music more accessible to those who are not good at hearing (don’t process auditory information well). When you look at the dots you have another avenue to getting at the tune – the relationships between the notes are spaced in the plane of the staff rather than over time (as in auditory representation). Some people can better understand the relationships of pitch and rhythm when looking at them than when listening to them.

Perhaps the most important point is that there is no “better” – learning the tune by ear has many benefits and some drawbacks. Learning from the paper also has many benefits and some drawbacks. These benefits and drawbacks maybe different, but they point to a potential strength – using both!

Using both auditory learning (learning by ear) and visual learning (learning by reading) may help you learn even more faster and more better (yes, I meant to say it that way). Just like learning by ear, the more you read, the better you’ll get at it.

Ah paper, a wonderful tool!

* If you’re not familiar with the Song of the Seikilos, it is the oldest surviving musical composition, believed to be from the 1st or 2nd century. The composition was found on an ancient Greek grave marker https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/oldest-song-in-the-world/

Hear Hear!

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Jen

One of the most interesting things you might hear a musician say is that they can’t learn by ear.

Ok, when I say interesting, I really mean odd (and maybe a little horrifying).

Because it is kind of funny that people who enjoy making and sharing sound admit that they don’t think of themselves as being able to learn via that same sound! And I’ve heard a lot of harpers say they are not able to learn by ear. Typically, I hear this as I prepare to teach them … you guessed it, by ear.

But learning by ear is an important skill. It really is central to playing. And like any skill, it can be learned and needs to be practiced – and the more you do it, the easier it will feel and the better you will get at it.

You might be one of those who resists learning by ear. You might wonder why you should bother. After all, there’s loads of written music and it tells you everything you need to know. Or you might not be interested in playing traditional tunes, focusing on classical or modern music – and that’s all written*.

But there are loads of reasons to learn to play by ear:

You will learn music faster. After all, making music is an auditory activity, so listening is pretty much essential!
You will think about the music differently (than if you’re simply reading). Of course, when you look at the music you see relationships of the notes and rhythm, but when you listen you perceive those relationships differently and detect other relationships.
You might just be more playful and creative with the music – without the tyranny of the dots telling you what you must do, you might just branch out and play what you feel rather than what’s written.
You may learn things about your instrument while you’re playing (and maybe about yourself?).
You will learn to hear. Really hear, not just listen.
You will become a better musician (ear training is taught at conservatories!).
You will understand theory better – because you’ll be experiencing it in a new way.
You will gain confidence as you become more proficient…and you’ll not be held back by a lack of (sheet) music again!

All this for the low, low price of – listening.

Just listen.

Don’t be fooled – it isn’t easy at first. The first tune I learned from a CD took me forever. I had listened to it a lot, than then I started counting… I listened to the tune over 1000 times (after I started counting). I’d get lost. I’d be listening and then realize I was enamored with the accompaniment and hadn’t been listening to the melody. Or I couldn’t tell the parts apart (not realizing it was a four-part tune not a two parter). Even now, when I listen to music, I hear it in layers (and the most important layers hide from me until last … maybe I should have been a drummer?).

You’ve probably been told,

“If you can sing (or hum) the tune, you can play it”

If so, you have been given the nugget to begin to understand how this works. When you can sing the tune, you know the pitches, the relative lengths of those pitches, and the relationships of the pitches to one another (up or down to the next one? a small interval or a large one? a third or a sixth? (ok, that last one takes more practice)). But think about it – if you “can’t learn by ear” and I challenged you to find Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – you could do it. You know the tune and that’s a big part of the challenge. When you know where it’s going, you are a long way down the road of playing the tune!

Now, to find Twinkle, you might have to do some picking at the harp. After all, if learning by ear is new to you, you’re not practiced at finding the first note, nor are you adept at identifying intervals (yet). But you can find the tune (even if by trial and error) … because you know how it goes. And that’s all you need to get started.

Let’s not put lipstick on a pig – it does take practice and it can be frustrating. But stop comparing yourself to that person sitting next to you at a workshop – just keep at it. Practice on your own. Hear, hear. Listen and Hear. Start with something you can sing – and go from there.

If you want to build up your ear, practice, just like everything else we do –

Start by finding a tune you already know – Twinkle? Happy Birthday? Frere Jacques? Memory (from Cats)? Back in Black (from AC/DC)? What it is doesn’t matter as long as you actually know it and are patient enough to pick it out on your harp. I’d suggest you start with simple children’s tunes – they are designed to be easy to learn!
Be patient – you’re trying to capture and recreate an entire conversation (or soliloquy) – give yourself permission to take your time. And even if you’re a product person, try to enjoy the ride…because this ride will take you to many destinations!
Keep track of your progress. Remember that learning by ear is more than just finding the tune on your harp – this is just a first step to playing new music.
Don’t be afraid to mess up – if you really know the tune (can sing it) then you’ll get back on track quickly. And if you don’t – you’ll need to go back and practice listening to it more, but you also might find some cool stuff on your harp along the way.
Don’t forget to record it – use whatever mnemonic devices you need to keep what you’ve found available to you.
Like everything else we do, the more you do this, the easier it gets. But if you avoid it, when you “have to” do it you will not only not have that practice under your belt, but that lack of practice will chivvy away at your confidence.

Hear hear – work on learning by ear. You CAN do this! It might be a challenge, but you can do it. Focus on the music rather than on the voice in your head telling you that you can’t.

What are you learning by ear? How’s it going? Let me know in the comments below! Are you hopelessly lost or so frustrated you can’t speak? Let me know and we can schedule a lesson – I’d love to help you!

*BTW – classical musicians also learn ear training. Never mistake written music for instructions. If you learn to think of it as a “cheat sheet” – a quick and easy memory aid – you’ll temper your love affair with the staves! More on that another time.

The Other Modes

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Jen

It’s already February! But that’s ok, you have goals! You have thought about them, codified them, captured them – possibly in multiple ways. You’re ready to go! Woohoo! Your goals are where you’re going – mental joy ride time! But how are you going to get there?

You may have heard of the various modes of learning. You might even know what your particular strengths are. The question is – do you use these in your practice to help you learn? Before we go on, we need to agree that for our purposes, practicing is actually more about learning than anything else. And possibly even more about learning that your lesson!

In your lesson, you get the gist of what you’re meant to be learning. But even the best students learn relatively little while in the lesson. In the lesson is where you get the basic materials and the guidance needed to build your music. So, no, I’m not saying you don’t need lessons – we all need lessons! There is so much to learn. The lesson is actually not about you playing. Lessons are far more about the guidance you receive from your teacher than about anything else. This is especially true for adult learners. You are guided on how to interact with the music, how to coax sound from the box, how you might think about what you’re doing, and of course, the physical stuff you must do to accomplish your goals. Your teacher is helping you learn how to think and interact with the music so you can do it yourself.

So, of course you are being taught during your lesson. But let’s say you practice one hour each day that you don’t have a lesson. That means of the seven hours each week you spend at your harp, only 15% is spent in direct interaction with the teacher. The other 85% of the time is by yourself, leveraging what you got in your lesson so that you can learn the music. When you realize that, it’s clear that it will be while you’re practicing you need to spend your time wisely. This is when you will learn the most through implementing the information you received in your lesson.

Then the question becomes, how can you best spend that time, so you maximize your learning (while also maintaining your enjoyment)? Because now you really know that pointless, unexamined iteration is a waste of your time. What should you do then?

The first thing you might consider is how you learn best. You’ve learned lots of things over your life in many different ways. You’ve learned to talk, to read, to cook, to drive, to balance your checkbook, to play the harp, and so much more. And while being taught those things you might have noticed that you really prefer to be left alone to read the manual. Or you might instead prefer someone who knows what they’re doing tell you how to do it. Or you might want someone to do it while you watch and then watch you while you try. You might be very disciplined and work carefully through a piece. Or you might analyze and examine the tune before you start working on it. Or you might just pick at bits and pieces until something sticks. You have a preferred mode of learning.

All of those are good approaches – and using your best approach will certainly help you learn while reducing your frustration. You already know that not everyone learns the same ways and you probably intuitively know that when there’s a mismatch, you are likely to become exasperated – or just get in your own way.

So the second thing you might consider is which ways are not for you – and give those a wide berth! Using methods and approaches that you know do not work for you is just pointless (unless your intent is to learn nothing but to bother yourself in the process).

However, this leaves another pool of ways to learn – those that are neither your strengths nor your weaknesses. These all hold some (potential) promise. If you listen really well but read really poorly (that is, you are auditory but not visual), you can read the music while listening to it (yea youtube) thus combining them to give yourself a new way to think about the tune. If you are tactile but all over the place, you might set yourself the challenge of finding the similarities and differences in the fingering patterns throughout the tune. Combining modes of learning can help you learn better. This idea of pairing up two ways of doing it opens up some new ways to get the music into your head!

Next, we’ll talk a little more about some descriptions of ways of learning and how those strengths might apply. Until then, learn your practice. Are you visual? auditory? tactile? Something else (there are loads of ways to talk about how you learn) – let me know how you learn in the comments below…I’m sure between us all we have similarities and differences.

Trying things you’re not good at

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Jen

We all like to succeed. And it’s always more comfortable to do things we already know that we can do and do well. And we are, if nothing else, creatures in search of comfort.

Unfortunately, there’s no challenge in always doing stuff you’ve done before. And there’s only paltry reward in continuing to do things you’ve succeeded at before.

Last week I suggested that you should make goals for the year and capture them. I suggested you do that visually if you didn’t want to do it in writing. And I wanted to do it too. I’m

t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e

at pictures – I don’t really enjoy drawing and I never know where to start when someone says find pictures that show (just about any idea) (because you never need to find pictures of concrete things!). Ok, I really didn’t want to do it.

But I did it anyway. Here it is:

But the point is not my collaging abilities. The point is that, by doing something I’m not good at, I learned a lot.

1. I really can do anything if I just get over myself. I hemmed and hawed before getting started, but once I made up my mind to get going, it wasn’t as bad as I had feared!

2. Doing something in a medium you don’t prefer is challenging, but it also is eye-opening. In order to come up with ways to present my ideas graphically, I had a to really think about what my goals meant. I also had to get over worrying about whether you would understand what I was trying to say…when the point of the exercise is for me to understand what I was trying to say!

3. Not doing something the “easy” (or preferred) way really makes your brain work – none of your “usual tricks” work so you really have to use other techniques and strategies to get the project completed.

I hope you tried this exercise – if only to help record your ideas for what you should be focused on this year.

But perhaps the real take away is that these points also apply to our music! (you knew I’d come around to music, you just might not have known how I was going to do it!).

First, you have go get over yourself (and get out of your own way). How often do we inhibit our own learning and playing?

Second, you have to think about what you’re practicing and the music you’re playing so that you can you want to share.

Third, when you do things differently you have the potential to uncover new approaches to your old (or typical) way of doing stuff.

You can learn new ways to think about ongoing challenges. And you can bring these new ideas to your practice (as well as to all the various parts of your life).

While trying to capture my ideas graphically I had a couple of ideas on how to look differently at scores that might help me learn more music faster. My explorations of improvisation may improve my questionable recipe modifications. And the strategies I use on the bench to push through something hard may help me improve my running.

And most importantly, I have now got multiple representations of the things I’ve identified to keep in focus throughout 2021 – so I might be even more likely to complete progress toward my goals throughout the year.

Of course, as a product person, I will need to keep referring to my captures (graphical and verbal) to keep myself on track!

Hope you were able to capture your ideas graphically – anyone want to share? Let me know in the comments!

Looking forward

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Jen

It’s one thing to know more about how you approach things to help shape your goals but it’s quite another to capture that info and use it!

I have seen research reports that indicate that only 8% of people who set goals actually achieve them. Yikes!

When you look at what helps those 8% get over the hurdle – writing it down is the prevalent shared element. Those people are no more motivated or dedicated or special than the people who don’t write their goals down, they just used a tool to help them get along.

This might sound familiar – I’m always telling you to write it down. I encourage you to have a practice journal so you can keep track of the day-to-day mundane parts of practice (what metronome setting? which phrase still isn’t right?) as well as the delights (f-i-n-a-l-l-y got through that tricky part successfully!) and the disappointments (ugh, I feel like I’ll never get that phrase….but when I look back I see I have only been working on it for 2 days, not the 2 millennia it feels like!).

All this documenting can start with the goals themselves. Now, maybe you have broken your pen, or you used all the writing paper in your house to line the hamster cage, or you just don’t want to write. Ok. I get that – you think I’m wrong (although I have multiple students who will tell you otherwise!). You might enjoy this suggestion anyway.

Once you’ve formulated a goal, you still want to capture it. Preferably in an enduring way that allows you to center and focus on it – not just now when you’re setting the goal or at the end when you’ve achieved it – but more crucially, in the middle of working on it. You know, that time when it’s so easy to lose interest or to get sidetracked (shiny object syndrome anyone?), or to begin to despair that you set a goal this is achievable, just not by you. You can think of this as the “worried in the dead of night” phase of working toward something.

Another thing those successful goal setters do (after they write it down) is to keep their goal(s) in front of themselves so they can remember what’s important to them. So, how might you go about capturing your goal(s) so you can keep your eye on them? Well, if you’re like me, you’ll write lists and maybe a narrative [of course, if you’re really like me, you’ll lose the paper, or write on the back of it and then throw it away…and then you’re stuck trying to remember what you had thought was so important to do]. But if what leads to success is keeping the goals in front of ourselves, maybe a better approach is to go with something we look at.

Maybe we take it to the wall! What if you made a visual representation of your goals instead of just writing them down?

A what?!?

Bear with me. Not everyone is verbal or likes to write. And sometimes doing something that feels a little uncomfortable actually changes your vision of the activity (for example, trying to write with your non-dominant hand makes you think about the act of writing differently). And it is a lot easier to hang a visual item on the wall to look at it frequently than it is to pin a bunch of words to the wall.

So, give it a try – this year, as you capture and form your goals make a visual representation of them. You can do this however you choose – make a collage of photos (from magazines or online), draw in your favorite medium (I’m currently shifting from my washable markers phase to crayons…but I just bought some chalk pastels, so I feel another change coming!), paint, sculpt, mixed media – whatever. I’m really keen on a mashup that is part bullet journal, part sketch book, part junk journal. You will probably need some words too – but those can be written, lettered, drawn, cut from magazines or newspapers (if you’ve never seen one of these, they are an ancient form of communication rarely seen in the modern world!) – again however you choose. When you’re done you can hang this where you’ll see it – near your harp? next to your bathroom mirror? next to your tv? Doesn’t matter as long as it’s a place you can see it, reflect, and keep your goals in mind.

And if, like me, you’re more verbal and your mind is screaming “NO!!” – try this anyway. Expressing yourself in a different medium will give you an opportunity to think differently.

Because what’s important is that you keep your goals in mind so you can become a better harp player!

I’ll be working on mine. Let me know if you’re really going to give this a try… and if you’d like to share, I’d be delighted to see how you have captured your goals! Just send a photo!

Happy Goal Setting!

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