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Author Archives: Jen
Watching your nails grow – Two steps for progress
We’re already into February! That magical time when reality has set in and all our lofty plans for betterment have been shelved.
Typically.
Because, even though lots of people don’t set New Year’s Resolutions, with all the hype around the start of winter and the new year, it’s easy to think about whether one might find areas worthy of tinkering.
Not you, of course. You’re just right as you are. But others, certainly.
One of the reasons people feel that way (not you, of course, but others) is because they cannot perceive any changes in their ability to play. And that is frustrating. For them, of course, not for you.
Because these changes typically come about very slowly. You might call them “micro-changes” (nano-changes?). The farther you are from your first experience playing, the smaller the changes are in absolute terms. And this might make those changes difficult to detect.
When you first start playing, every day brings new discoveries! Closing your fingers is an amazing activity. Placing ahead is a magical mystery which actually does make getting the music out of the harp a little easier. What you tried to learn yesterday is actually recognizable today! All great victories.
But after a while, days of work may not result in a change you can observe. You don’t remember when you started learning that tune, but you’re sure it was weeks ago (or was it yesterday?). When did your technique take a nosedive?!? Why is your repertoire not growing by leaps and bounds?
It’s like watching your nails grow. You know they are growing. But you can’t feel it. And they sure look the same today as they did yesterday.
If you measured that growth and marked it on a chart, you would find that your nails grow about 2 hairsbreadths a day. And yet, while you can see two hairs (in the brush, in the sink, on your sweater, whatever) you don’t see your nails growing. But they make slow steady progress…and soon you need to cut them!
The growth is there. Every day. You just can’t see it. But there is a way to get a better view and it has two steps.
Step 1. Decide what you’re looking for. Too often we decide we’re going to watch e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. We’re going to perfect our technique while learning ten tunes all at once, sight read another 7 arrangements and work on our posture, finesse gesturing, while practicing 2 hours more every day. And we’ll know – and remember – everything from today when we next sit to practice tomorrow (or the next day) so we know where to pick up again.
I get it, there’s so much work to be done! But focusing on everything is actually focusing on nothing. Focus, by definition, is paying attention to a narrow swath. You are already multitasking by the nature of playing since you need to place both hands, remember the tune, keep ahead of what comes next, stay upright on the bench, breathe, etc.
If you have a lot of things to work on – write each of them down. Then prioritize them. Be smart – prioritize so that the fundamentals (technique) will be ironed out first, since everything else will grow from there. After you have finished prioritizing, for each item, write down what “done” will look like. DO NOT WRITE “always in work”! If your technique is terrible (!), break it down into the components that need attention and decide when you will declare victory so you can move on. [BTW – “I’m bored” is not victory! Being able to perform some element accurately might be your victory.] Decide if your focus needs an action finish or a time end.
Step 2. Mark that! Do what works for you – you could write in your practice journal. You could make a progression video recording. You could make a chart with colored stars. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as it works for you – and you do it.
So, the important parts of watching your nails grow? Focus and document.
What are you going to focus on? How will you capture it? Share your ideas in the comments!
PS – yes, I know the nails in the photo are horrifyingly long, but you try to paint harps on shorter nails! And I was trying to make a point!
Since you asked… Connections and Patterns
In December, I wrote about learning versus memorizing. You left some great comments, and one of you asked how one would go about actually doing this (learning rather than memorizing). You graciously waited through the madness that is the holidays and the reset that is the new year. But now, it’s your turn!
Let’s start by acknowledging that learning music is not really different from learning anything else. And just like in school, when you try to brute force memorize – everything deserts you when the pressure is on. And because memorization is so fragile, you can’t even salvage the memory gap – because there is noting of substance behind it.
So we’re back to learning. The first thing to understand is that learning is not passive. You have to be engaged, checked in, and thinking to learn!
The easiest way to do this is to do some analysis. I don’t mean a big research study. To analyze – ask yourself some questions. these questions will help you make connections and discover patterns.
- Does any of the piece remind you of anything else? That could be anything. Those of you who have had lessons from me have experienced this – “chocolate chords”, “the Oreo phrase”, “the donut part”, “the walk in the park”, and “this is just like in that other tune”. These are all just things the tune remind me of (never mind that most of them are food!). Do parts of the tune bring something to mind – waterfalls? sheep? fairies? storms at sea? If so, these are all things you can connect to that bit of the tune which will help you hang on to it (learn it!). You can also say the connection (e.g. “this is the Oreo part”) out loud while you’re playing that part will also create another connection that you can learn.
- Find the shapes. This can be as basic is up or down. Or as complex as “this reminds me of Katahdin” – I didn’t get that, but he did, and that’s what matters. If you’re reading, you can see the shape. You can also see the shape when you put your hands on the harp. Have you already learned the shape in some other tune? Does the shape repeat through the tune. Learning the shapes is another way to learn.
- Find the story in the music. If you’re not sure, make up your own. That story can be another set of connections. Tell yourself the story as you play. You can also do this with songs. Sing the lyrics as you play – they are another set of connections that will help you learn the tune.
- Break it down. If you are more advanced, you may be able to learn an entire 8-bar phrase in one go. If you are less experienced, you may need to look at one measure at a time. Size doesn’t matter – break the music into pieces you can successfully ingest. Because….
- You’re going to stick those pieces back together eventually! As with breaking it down, stitch it back together in portions you can handle. Don’t overdo it. These are more connections…and patterns – and you have a chance to connect the patterns! This is true for challenging tunes, but its also true for “easy” tunes with their nearly identical phrases which come together differently in parts of the tune. Make specific links between the parts – be sure to connect the various pieces to each other.
- Savor. Take it slowly We are always in a rush. We want it to be instantly performance ready, faster, more complicated, showier than anyone else – we want to have the tune now! But rushing leads to a half-learned tune that is wobbly with wishy-washy fingering and phrases built on momentum not confidence, all of which can lead to heartache.
Need more specifics? How about:
Fingering is one of the greatest losses of not analyzing your music enough before you start and then moving out too fast. I wish I could remember who taught me this trick (and if you know who it is, tell me so I can give credit!): place the shape (all the fingers needed in that direction…all of them, even the 4 if needed!); squeeze the strings a couple of times; then play the shape. Think about the shape, where it sits in the phrase and the tune, where else you might use that same shape in the tune. Replace the next shape, and repeat. Yes, it can be frustrating (especially if you didn’t actually analyze it first). Yes, it means you can’t just bang out the tune.
But equally, yes, you will get the fingering. Yes, you will be preplaced and ready to go. Yes, you won’t be chasing strings with fingers that weren’t quite ready. And yes, you will learn the tune more quickly – because you don’t have to relearn any of it!
That might sound suspiciously like practice. Because it is. Learning must be active. Analysis is not a nice to have – it’s one of the things will distinguish your learning. Each time you run through the piece you will be building connections – in your brain but also you’re your eyes, ears, fingers, and your entire body. If you have some knowledge of theory, that will also help you make connections and notice patterns. Talking out loud creates connections in another modality.
The more connections you have and the more patterns you have found, the easier time you will have learning the tune. And by extension, the more confident you’ll be when you play it – because it won’t desert you under pressure!
Give some of these ideas a try and let me know what you think. Do you have any other ways to learn you’d like to share? Make the connection via the comments below!
You’re not a cat!
You know how cats are. You can buy them a gagillion fancy (and expensive) toys and a princely bed and an over-the-top “cat condo” and they will eschew it all for a discarded cardboard box. And typically, the mankier the box, the better they like it.
Who knows why? They’re cats, it’s what they do.
But you? You’re no cat. At best, you’re staff to a cat, the human tasked with finding towers of treats, truckloads of toys, loads of litter, in the vain hope that your cat will deign to love you back. So, why are you in a box?
“What box?” you ask. The box of your playing life! We express this box in many ways:
- “I’m not very good”
- “I’m going to be a beginner forever”
- “I could never learn by ear”
- “I’ll never be able to read”
- “I will only ever play in my living room”
- “I know lots of tunes; I just can’t play them”
- “I’ll never be prepared enough to play on stage”
- “I don’t want to get too good”
- “There’s so much I haven’t learned yet – I’m not ready”
- “I only play well documented, ancient, traditional cadenzas published by Schirmer”
I have heard all of these (ok, except that last one, I made that one up). But here’s what I hear you actually saying:
“I’m afraid”
I’m scared. That’s why I sit here in this manky, tattered old box. I have convinced myself that I like it here. And even though it’s small, I’d rather be smooshed in here than free in the unknown.
Because fear is a powerful force. Just a tiny kernel of fear can paralyze a fully grown, capable, talented, inquisitive smart person. And we plant that little bit of fear in the box with us so we can grow together – so we forget where we end and the fear begins.
So, how are you going to break out of the box? There are many ways but here are seven that are may help with your harping:
- Acknowledge you’re in a box. It’s not a bad thing, it just is (unless it’s preventing you from growing and moving – then it is bad).
- Define the box(es). What does your box look like? Remember that a box can be made of many things and have multiple sides – so try to get them all. Always play solo/alone? Never really mailed down a particular phrase? Only play one type of music? Always playing a 1 – 5 – 8? Never leave your home? Call your box by its name.
- Pick one of the less terrifying fears you’ve just identified. Really break it down – why does it scare you? Be honest. For example, are you afraid to read because everyone else reads better? This common fear has a fairly simple solution – first, remember that reading takes practice (even though no one wants to do stuff that is hard – keep practicing and it will get easier…remember first grade? you learned to read books by practicing e-v-e-r-y day) so add some reading into your practice schedule. Second, the next time you’re with other people reading music, spend a moment watching them – and notice that you are likely not the only one having a bit of a struggle. Don’t compare yourself, just notice that you’re not alone.
- Get to work! Now that you know what you’re fear is and how to take action on it, actually take it on! Do the work.
- As the fear recedes (and the sides of the box get lower) – rejoice! Enjoy the feeling.
- Move on to the next fear – lather, rinse, repeat.
- Be vigilant – these little fears can build a box so quickly and quietly, you might not notice a new fear building a new box around you. So, check in occasionally, see what you’re avoiding and take it on.
And if you’re not really ready to get out of your box, you can still acknowledge that it exists and learn what it looks like – then you’ll be that much farther ahead when you decide you’d like to move!
What’s printed on the side of your box? Willing to share it in the comments? Think your musical fear is a little more than you can take on by yourself? You can work with me to learn and apply approaches to take those fears on and cut down the box – just contact me for coaching.
It’s “Make Your Dreams Come True” Day – don’t waste it!
Today is “Make Your Dreams Come True” Day. Wow!
Ok, first, who knew?!? Second, how cool is that? A whole day dedicated to that thing everyone always says they want. Third, I could not make this up!
Which begs the question – how will you observe this auspicious day? Because, hey, it says right on the calendar that this is the day. And it only comes once a year. I didn’t set to to go on about development again, but hey – you might as well use this day as intended.
Of course, to make your dreams come true, you have to know what your dreams are. I have found though, that when I ask people what their dreams are, the answers are often empty unsatisfying nonexistent. That is, either I get a (clearly) ridiculous answer (“my dream is to be the Queen of Siberia” – duh, not a country, and no monarch, and no pathway!) or the more likely response which is…no answer at all.
That’s horrifying to me. No dream? Not “I’d rather not say” or “I don’t want to tell you, you’ll think it’s silly”. Just a blank stare. Ouch!
I hope you have a dream for your harp life. A desire (secret or not) for yourself and your harp. If you don’t, don’t despair – you can make one. Today is not too late.
Having a dream will help keep you motivated and can help guide your growth…and by extension, your entire harp life.
Need to build a dream? You can. And more importantly, you can build dreams again and again. What you dreamt of as a baby harper (as a friend of mine likes to call budding beginners) may not be what you dream of as a musician of mature harp years. If you were a child when you began to play, you may view the landscape of your dreams differently later in your life. If you began to play as an adult, you might have thought you needed to govern your dreams because you were starting later (BTW – don’t fall for that cop out!).
You have dreams that change. You can have multiple dreams. You can have evolving dreams. They’re your dreams – make them what you need and want them to be! But I hope you have some.
How do you form a dream? First, you don’t force it. Just collect some ideas. Spend a little bit of time (probably quietly and by yourself – but do it your way). Gather your thoughts about what you dream of doing. You could sleep and actually dream of your dream. Or make a dream board of images that express your dreams. Or draw/paint/sculpt a representation of your dream. Or write it out. The point is simply to capture that dream so you can hold onto it. You may discard this later if needed, but as your dream is forming, this will help you hold on to the wisps of it.
Your dream does not have to be enormous or grand – it just needs to be yours.
Ok, now that you have a dream, how do you move toward it? Well, if you have captured it (as above) you might be getting some ideas. But perhaps most importantly, you have to believe that you can actually move toward this dream.
Note – I didn’t say achieve. This is not another whack at goal setting in a different guise! This is about identifying what you think would be a cool potential outcome and moving in that direction. I dream of playing Smetana’s Vltava at the Musikverein in Vienna. It might seem unlikely, but at least I could define a path to make that dream come true! (for instance, I could start by learning Vltava!)
Define what about the dream is the “dream” part and what is the “work” part. You can definitely do the work part. You might have to break it down into small, manageable, bite-sized chunks, but you can do it. Of course, making a plan will help – otherwise, you’ll only dream but never make a dream come true.
Always keep dreaming. When I was a pup (in harp years) my first dream was simply to not suck. I think I can say that I got that dream. My next dream – that I was confident would n-e-v-e-r happen – was to play on a stage with one of my harp heroes. I got that one wrong. Turns out the dream wasn’t to get to play with an amazing musician – it was to have that person as a close friend…and play on stage together!
You can keep moving toward a dream and perhaps you’ll achieve it. Whether you achieve it or simply hold on to working toward your dream, the important thing is to be enthused and to use that enthusiasm to keep on keeping on – usually with joy!
So, Make Your Dreams Come True Day is specifically for doing just that. I know you won’t want to waste it so, what will you do to further your dreams? Willing to share your dream? Leave a comment below – I’m looking forward to being inspired by you!
Clear vision for 2020
It is now 2020 – Welcome to the new year and the new decade!
Just like every new year, we are encouraged from many sides to develop resolutions – to define those things we need to “fix” to improve ourselves.
How about this – in 2020, the year of clear vision – just give it a rest. Resolve to make no resolutions. Don’t set any goals.
After all, if the goals were important, you’d have set them right when they became clear. If you need to work on specific things, you would have started right then – if you wanted that to become a goal!
There’s nothing special about short cold days for achieving anything. Up to 91% of people who set resolutions drop them, most before the middle of January! So, setting resolutions is really not a useful thing to do, unless you like to set yourself up for failure and to give yourself a specific thing to beat yourself up about not accomplishing.
Then what should you do? How about you take on just these four things:
- Just Stop. New Year’s resolutions really seem to be about false notions of self-improvement and possibly about self-aggrandizing virtue signaling. And really, unless you made a significant wager with someone, no one else really cares if you make it, so stop pillorying yourself about having resolutions, goals, visions, whatever. Use that energy to – just play!
- Be Nice. Be kind to yourself – if you’re not where you want to be, you probably not only know it, but you likely also know how to get across that gap. You might just not be ready to spend that energy. And if you are not sure how to get there, work with your teacher (or me!) and keep reading (because you know that here, we’ll talk about ways to improve!).
- Take a smarter path. The path forward that begins by recognizing the reality of your life will be a smarter path. And possibly there’s more to your life than playing the harp – like family, friends, day jobs, other hobbies, other instruments, and myriad other things you prioritize ahead of the harp (otherwise, you’d have more time to practice). By examining your real life – and using that as the foundation of your thinking about your playing – you will be more likely to be able to find the time to practice and to better fit your harp playing into your reality! Your life is a system and it needs to be kept in balance so that you can accomplish the requirements of each of its parts. That balance starts by understanding where all the pieces lie.
- Practice! You know it will all come down to this – but you need a wider definition – you have to practice:
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- Practice the instrument – probably that old saw of spending at least 30 – 90 minutes a day (depending, again, on where you’re trying to get, your level of performance and development, and your real life)
- Practice fitting everything else in too (you know, like dinner, exercise, sleep, work, chores, etc.) (after all, 3 above will not happen by magic, it will take a little work to analyze what will fit, where it will fit and how you might have to adjust things to get it all into the day).
- Practice having balance
- Practice being kind to yourself
- Practice stretching
- Practice learning
- Practice spending time away from your harp productively
- Practice being present
- Practice practicing – you can’t just sit on the bench and have magic pour out your fingers – you know you need to warm up, work on fundamentals, analyze music, think about your approach and strategy for new music, work on learning, learn new things, develop musicality, hammer out new burbles, etc.
- Practice the tunes you love
- Practice the tunes you don’t love
- Practice the way you play and developing your technique
- Practice becoming more accomplished
- Practice sharing your music
- Practice being better
- Practice enjoying the process
- Practice capturing your progress so you can see your improvement
- and practice identifying where you need to improve and practice
It’s going to be a busy year, and you’ll do exactly as much work as you fit in (and no more). Setting improbable or impossible goals will not help and could actually get in the way (by making you feel like you’re failing or not making progress when you actually are).
What will you do with all the energy you have from not developing resolutions or goals that won’t work for you? Let me know in the comments!
Happy New Year!
Hope you greet De Day Dawn and the New Year with excitement and anticipation! And a slew of new stuff you’d like to do with your harp in 2020!
Happy Christmas!
Wishing you and yours a happy and joyous Christmas! Happy Holidays, from me to you
Send a thank you note
As the year begins to draw to a close, you might want to take a moment to think about the reality that none of us makes music in a vacuum. And maybe take a moment to thank your fan club.
Don’t think you have a fan club? You probably do. You may not know it. Heck, they may not know they are your fan club. But they are.
Who are they? All those people who support you as you develop and grow as a musician. They include your family and friends. Maybe your teacher, if you’re working with one. Your friends who come to hear you play, even when your performance repertoire only includes Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Frere Jacques, and Long, Long Ago.
And hopefully your fan club includes – you!
So, for an end of year activity, you should write a thank you note for all the members of your fan club. It doesn’t need to be overly complex, but it does need to be heartfelt. Make sure to include:
Open with their name – whatever you call that person.
Be open with your thanks and express your appreciation for their support. Be specific. Did that person unfailingly make you tea after you practiced each day? Did they tell you how good you sounded? Did they pay for your lessons? Did they teach you your lessons? State what you are grateful for. A generic “thanks for helping me get there” is nice, but specifics will help share your deep appreciation of their efforts.
End by telling them how much their ongoing support means to you and your harp playing. Don’t skimp!
Sign off – maybe with a flourish! It is not possible to over-thank someone for their help in getting you where you are. And if you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you.
Thank you for being part of my fan club. I cannot express how much I value your comments and emails. Or how grateful I am that you are so willing to share with me. Knowing you’re there, reading, makes it so much easier for me to write to you. And I do picture you in my mind when I’m planning, drafting, and finalizing each post. If it weren’t for you and your continued support, I’d have packed it in a long time ago. I’m looking forward to the upcoming year – hope you are too! Jen
Tired of Christmas yet? So, what’s next?
I get it. We’ve been teaching, learning, practicing, and performing Christmas music since it was hot! It’s a limited pool of tunes. It’s a short window to share them. And they really aren’t that different from one another. It can get boring. And at this point, it is too late to start changing them up…or you’re already doing that and you’re running out of ideas for changes that you can perform on the fly. After all, by December, we’re likely to be operating on autopilot just a little.
So, while you’re on autopilot, you might be thinking about what’s next! What do you want to do? What tunes are you going to take on? Do you have a longer-term plan? Now’s your chance to make a workable plan for the post-December season.
To do what’s next, we need a plan. How do you make a plan for your music? Same as any other plan you might make, you just need to take a few (ok, 10) steps –
- Know where you are – take stock of where you are right now. Be honest and rigorous and identify where you’re starting. And it’s the foundation of the plan. If you’re not honest, you will have a hard time succeeding in the plan.
- Set realistic expectations (based on your real life). It’s easy to build a perfect and beautiful plan. But if the plan doesn’t reflect your real life, it will fail. Do not promise yourself that you will get up at 5 and practice for 2 hours if you are responsible for getting your household up, fed, prepped and out the door by 6:30 every morning! While it’s a lovely plan, it won’t fit your life. (we’re back to being honest and rigorous with yourself).
- Make a schedule. No matter how good your plan is, it will help to write it down and ensure it fits into your (real) life…the messy one with chores, and work, and meals, and traffic, and showers, and all the other stuff of daily life. Writing it down will let you see the conflicts and were you have (actual) practice time…and plan in free time – you’ll need it.
- Where are you trying to go? You should begin with the end in mind. ‘Nough said.
- What will it take to get there? You have to see the space between where you are and where you want to go. In business and engineering this is called a Gap Analysis. Be sure to note which specific, steps, techniques, etc. are missing to close the gap.
- When do you expect to arrive? While you may not know how long it will take you to master skills, techniques, or tunes on your path, you may want to develop some idea of how long you think it might take. Be prepared to be thorough, but also be ready to be wrong. Remember to be flexible too.
- How will you know when you get there? Before you begin to execute your plan, you will have had to identify where “there” is…so you’ll know when you have arrived!
- Do you know why you’re going there? It helps to define what you need to work on (where you’re trying to go), but it is also important to keep in mind why you’re trying to get there! Are there techniques you need to learn or perfect? Is there a particular repertoire element you wanted to build in? The why is essential to getting there!
- What happens if you don’t get there? Sometimes your plan is to achieve something before a specific event. Or you need to tackle a particular element on your way to nailing a particulate tune you want in your rep. But what if you don’t get there – what’s the worse that will happen. Do you have a contingency?
- Did you write any of it down? You know I’m a fan of keeping track of stuff – and this is no exception! Take notes, write on your plan, keep a calendar, make a scrap book, use a practice journal. I don’t care how you keep track, just be sure to keep track.
Like the meme says, no matter where you go, there you are. Make a plan so you’re there is somewhere you’d like to be. What are you thinking you might make a plan for? Let me know if the comments.