It’s that time of the year when we pause to be thankful. It is always good to give thanks for the bounties in our lives – family, friends, community. I hope that you know how much I appreciate you being a part of my community, all of you. Thank you for spending time with me each week and for sharing your thoughts, questions, and insights. I am grateful for you and your time. Happy Thanksgiving!
How to Host a Harp Circle –
Harp Circles are one of those lovely pleasures of playing the harp. They are the ultimate all-in-one thing because they include socializing, performing, collaborating, sharing, laughter, and snacks. What is not to love about that?
Harp Circles come in a variety of forms – they can be recitals dressed up as a social event, they can be “additional lessons” driven by your teacher, or they can be a harp party. In my mind the harp party is the best form because they are just fun – low stress, low anxiety, low prep, and high fun.
Organizing a harp circle can be pretty simple. The first two types are the easiest because they are completely organized by the teacher so as an attendee your only real job is to show up and be tuned when everyone’s ready to start.
But not everyone has a teacher. Not every teacher wants to host these events. In either of those cases, you might want to host the Harp Circle yourself! After all, some people just like to host parties. And some people just want to have an opportunity to share music. So, what would you need to do? Here are some suggestions:
Have you hosted a Harp Circle before? Did I leave anything out? If not, are you motivated to schedule one (maybe after the holidays)? Was this list comprehensive enough to start your own planning? Let me know in the comments!
The Hand Trap –
Aren’t we fortunate to play with two hands? When you look at them dispassionately, they are pretty cool – mechanical artwork that also bring joy (by which I mean they bring cookies to your mouth…oh, and they help you play too!). But for good or bad, there is also a hand trap.
That trap exists in the roles we assign to each hand as we play. You know the thinking – the right hand takes the melody while the left hand provides the “color commentary” of harmony. But that thinking can be really limiting. And it creates a box (read: trap) that can be hard to get out of.
The box is complicated and has at least three faces (it’s a metaphorical box!) which are interrelated – musical, physical, and mental. If the hands get trapped in one (or more) that will curb the potential to do amazing things.
What are the sides of the trap? Musical, Physical, and Mental. What are those limits? How about:
Musical – using only one hand for melody may artificially bound what you play. And the same could be true for the harmony you generate as well. In addition, each hand has its strengths and weaknesses and keeping each role confined to each hand closes off options for the other. The other impact of sticking to specific roles is that you may not make use of the whole harp.
Physical – We can start by going back to those individual strengths and weaknesses. These will impact your control, power, and balance of each hand as well as your speed accuracy, and confidence. As above, keeping the hands assigned to roles makes it more difficult to use the entire range of the instrument.
Mental – holding the music separately in your hands will impact how you think about it and potentially change how you might think about it. This self-limitation may prevent you from identifying and using elements of your creativity.
It would be a shame to allow a rigid adherence to “handedness” limit your musicality and trap you into playing everything pretty much the same way. Changing things up can help you expand musically, physically, and mentally by helping you develop more strengths and become more flexible. It’s worth a try!
Like every change, if you decide to try to make a move, give yourself time to work through the kinks. The first time you try something new it might go well – or it might run off the tracks so fast it makes your head spin! So go slowly, carefully, thoughtfully, and gently. An easy way to start is to play a simple tune you already know with your left hand. Don’t worry about harmonies or tempo – or anything really. You just want to muddle through the tune until it becomes easier (aka practice!). Once you’re comfortable, then you can try playing the melody in both hands together. After the melody is solid, you could then transition to putting the harmony in the right hand (after all, the left hand’s got this). And just like that, you’ll have pulled a switcheroo! All the while, you’ll probably learn more about the tune, how you think about it, and how you present it (which might change how you approach it…and you can see a whole iteration starting just by switching hands!).
Make it easy on yourself. You could start with something like Frere Jacques or Katie Bairdie. Once you’ve done it once, each subsequent trial will be easier.
What do you think – are you willing to give it a try? I’d love to hear what you get up to – what tune did you try? How’d it go at first? Are you going to keep at it? Let me know in the comments!
Silly Warmups and Stretches
When it’s time to sit down and practice, do you plop down on the bench and start flailing away at something you’ve been working on? Or do you ease gently into the hard work of playing your instrument? Do you start by banging away or with silly warmups and stretches?
I hope you do start with warmups and stretches, but if you don’t, I hope to change your mind (and your approach). And if you have typically started right in with the hard work, I hope you’ll consider these suggestions.
There are plenty of good reasons to begin each practice by performing warmups and stretches. Leon Fleischer, the concert pianist who overcame a potentially career ending overuse injury was quoted as saying,
“Musicians are athletes
of the small muscles.”
And he was completely correct! While traditional athletes are best known for their use of their largest muscles in the body to play football, basketball, baseball, curling, hurling, fencing or other sport, we musicians leverage our numerous smaller muscles in the hands and arms. Don’t be fooled – we also use our large muscles, but differently than sport players do. Just as there are pregame warmups for sports, we need to get ourselves warmed up and ready to go before we work hard to.
First let’s also distinguish between physical warmups and technical warmups. Today we’re talking about physical warmups. Physical warmups are gentle movements to increase blood flow to the muscles and stretches to limber up. They help your body prepare to work and also help you avoid injury and overuse. Technical warmups are active playing to strengthen a particular technical skill (e.g., scales, arpeggios, exercises).*
There are loads of warmups and stretches you can do but I wanted to share a few of my favorites for hands and wrists here. I call these silly because when I use them with kids, they giggle. Adults aren’t as inclined to giggle – but they should! I also made a brief video (5 min) for you. Remember that, like all athletes, we start small and work our way into greater gains. Don’t overdo your warmups. Do each of these only as long as you need to feel the muscles warming and getting more pliable before (or after) you play. Take care of you!
The first is the simplest – wiggle your fingers. Yup, just wiggle your fingers. Start small but as you go on, make sure your wiggles are getting bigger and that each finger (including thumbs) is getting in on the action. After you begin to feel warmer, straighten your arms out to the side and continue to wiggle your fingers.
Next throw and catch water – this will make more sense when you watch the video, but the point is to contract your hands quickly (gather into fists) and extend just as quickly (like you’re flicking water at someone). Then go about catching the water being flung at you.
Now, make baby waves! This is the motion of closing that I learned when I started to play the harp. If you didn’t learn this, it’s a great way to help new people understand the movement we strive to make while playing.
Let’s move onto wrists – close your hands and make circles with your wrists. After a bit, try extending your arms to your sides to deepen the stretch.
Now clasp your hands together and make figure 8s. Go slowly enough that you can make it through your entire range of motion. If you’re hands and wrists are tight this will be difficult but will get easier with practice.
Finally, we’re going to be superheroes! Watch the video to learn how to do these. These may be difficult at first but they will definitely help you loosen up with practice. And they’re fun and may make you giggle!
As I said, there are loads of silly warmups and stretches. These are just the tip of the iceberg. Consider adding them to your daily practice routine as a way to get started. Start small and grow as you gain flexibility and strength. And always take care of you – discomfort as you learn and grow are teaching you about your body but pain is a message to stop.
Which of these do you like? Which ones were hard? If you did them every day, which seemed to maybe start to feel like they were getting easier? Do you have any stretches or warmups to share? Let me know in the comments!
* If you’d like to talk about technical warmups another time – let me know!
Somethings in the air
I don’t know that any of us don’t have a deep love for our instruments. It might not be the same as our love for our families, friends, pets, or cheesecake (maybe that last one is just me) but we typically share a profound caring for our harps that leads us to want to take good care of them! And one way is to manage all the somethings in the air.
Why yes, that is just another inartful way for me to introduce the topic! There’s a lot of stuff in our air and the better we manage it, the easier time we’ll have to love our harps (and play them!). There are two biggies that seem to cause confusion with respect to our harps are – humidity and dust. So, let’s look at each of them.
Dust in the Wind – Let’s start with the easy one – for good or bad, there is dust (in the wind? Maybe, but there is definitely dust in the air!). And no matter how much you filter or clean, there is dust! And that dust settles on your harp. Does it hurt it? No. Is it unsightly? Only under the lights (you know, the like ones you need to see the music!). Should you clean it? If by clean you mean wash it with a wet cloth, NO! But can you dust it? Of course – with a soft clean dry cloth. Microfiber is popular and will do the trick. I have also used a Swiffer – but those are expensive, and honestly, they don’t do a better job, they are just disposable. None of these really clears the dust you find in the “fiddly bits” around the levers and along the string rib. If you’re going to do the job, you should do it right, right? I use a natural bristle brush. You can use a blush brush or a paint brush. I prefer the paint brush because it has a longer handle which I find easier to manage – but it’s up to you. Just make sure the bristles are super soft. I like the natural bristles because I don’t feel like thr synthetics have the same softness – but what you choose is up to you. Just make sure you won’t scratch the finish of your harp. Then dust, carefully and gently. You can wash and dry the brush as you would normally. Easy-peasy. What you don’t do – use furniture polish! Just Don’t!
Saraha(rp) – Not as easy to manage is the humidity in your environment. Your harp is made of wood (unless you have a carbon fiber harp which has its own challenges, but this is not one of them). Wood, as a natural material, is impacted by the humidity in the environment. If it’s too dry you might have a saraha(rp) (a harp as dry as a desert!) with the potential for dried out wood and broken strings. Most of us live in controlled environments now which means that the air is managed at a (near) constant temperature via processes that pull moisture from the air. Plainly, if you have the A/C or the heat on, it’s dry in your house, and your harp might not like it! There are few solutions varying from cheap (but not so effective) to expensive (and fairly good). But before you decide on a solution, you might want to get yourself a hygrometer (humidity meter)– there are inexpensive (and effective) options available online or in your local hardware store. And knowing where you are starting will make changing (and maintaining) the humidity level easier. As for solutions, on the cheap end, place a wide shallow pan of water near the air source and your harp (not where you will trip over it or knock it over, obviously) replace the water as needed. At a slightly higher price is running a tabletop fountain in your harp room – it makes burbling noises which is pleasant. I had one and I had to add about a quart of water a week to keep it full (translate – I was losing a quart of water a week to the aircon). For slightly more cost you can install a room humidifier. These do a good job but require a little more maintenance to manage the levels (filling or plumbing required to keep water in it and mold or mildew can be a problem, especiallyif you are sensitive). Finally for the highest price, you can add a whole home humidifier to your HVAC system. The upside is lower maintenance and wider addition of humidity (so all the wood in your whole house will benefit, including your furniture). The downsides are cost (I won’t lie, it’s expensive), and maintaining your whole house at 45 – 55% humidity (which might result in complaints from other members of your household). But really, who is more important – your blood kin or your harp? (I’ll leave that to your discretion).
With dusting and humidity sorted, your harp will be cared for and happy. Meanwhile, a lot of harp care seems to be obvious but isn’t – what other challenges do you have with taking care of your harp? What’s in the air for you? Let me know in the comments!
Join Celtic Journeys in 2024
We have visited Scotland on the Harp the Highlands and Islands trips since 2010, so I was understandably sad when my dear friend David shared that he was ready to move along, fully retire, and enjoy more time with his lovely wife, Heather. They both had done so much to share their country with harpers and harp appreciators that I couldn’t even imagine that I would be able to continue sharing the music of my favorite place on earth with other harpers (and their fans)!
But, honestly, I didn’t want to be done, and I didn’t have a solution, which made me sad. Curiously, life in my world is always interesting, and another opportunity sprang up.
It’s a wonderful alignment with a travel company that specializes in small group travel experiences – much like what David had crafted. I am so excited to join with Babcia and Yiayia who get what I wanted to share with you! I think you’ll enjoy the B&Y approach too!
The focus is on creating a thoughtfully curated package of experiences that includes site seeing, interacting with people, and enjoying history, culture, food, and events, as well as incorporating a harp events where you learn and grow! As before, the harp will be there for you (no schleping your own!). And we know that not everyone necessarily plays the harp so harp appreciators are welcome to join us! Play another small trad instrument? Also welcome!
Over the years, you had said that you’d like to see Ireland as well as Scotland and I heard you! This year we have a completely new itinerary – on this trip we will travel for nearly two weeks, starting in Ireland and ending in Scotland! The 13 day/12 night trip will include highlights of the north of Ireland and Northern Ireland with stops in Galway, Connemara, Antrim, and Belfast to see hawks, sheepdogs, giants, and glorious scenery. Then we’ll travel to Scotland to see the sites of Glasgow and Edinburgh including the Royal Mile and the Edinburgh Tattoo!
The trip will be 29 July – 10 August and there are details here on the trip page. If you have questions, ask away! I am looking forward to seeing all these fantastic things with you!
Do you agree with your metronome?
I don’t have a great sense of rhythm. Well, that might not be true, but it is true that I don’t have a good sense of time. Whether it’s estimating what time I’ll be ready to leave my house or the interval between notes within a beat, I’m usually wrong. I typically don’t leave enough time to get out the door but in between beats, I inevitably rush!
For a long time, I struggled to improve my timing by torturing my metronome. I grew up with a Seth Thomas – the classic “tick-tock”. I’ve been a musician for so long that my Seth has an actual real wood box. I look at it every day and will always be grateful to my parents for giving it to me. But it took me a long time to be grateful!
Why? Not because I wasn’t delighted to be given such a lovely gift, but because the darn thing defeated me at every turn! I found it confusing and dispiriting and frustrating. Usually I didn’t know I was off until I was done. And even on the few occasions when I knew I was off, I was never sure how or why!
GRRRR.
But one day I had a revelation. I finally figured out that I was using my trusty Seth all wrong!
Whaaaa??????
I had always set Seth to tick the quarter notes. But Seth is much more versatile than that! And one day I finally realized it. That day I was so frustrated. I was off the beat almost immediately – how the h***? I was like 2 measures in, and I was already off? Curses.
So, I decided that I wasn’t getting it and I needed to slow down (see, I don’t just say that to torture you, I say it to myself all the time!). I set Seth even slower. And then, (finally!) I realized that I could make the tick the beat and the tock to be the “e”, then the next tick could be “and” and it’s tock could be an “ah”. And suddenly all was right with the world.
Ok, not really. But because I had subdivided the beat formally, the wobbliness of my timing became crystal clear. No matter where in the subdivision I was lagging (or speeding up), it was a lot easier to find now. And then I had another thunderbolt. If I used my metronome app, I could actually set the number of ticks and tocks to be whatever I wanted – so if I needed 32nd note precision, I could have it. 16th note precision? I could put sixteen beats in. If I only wanted 8ths, I could have them. And if I counting in quarters would do the trick, I could have TICK tock tock tock, so that I was not only on the beat but on the right beat!
And perhaps best of all, I could turn the volume up really loud – and wear headphones – so that I can indeed hear the ticks and tocks, no matter how hard I was concentrating (because we only have so much brain and if I’m working more than my brain can keep up with, then I don’t hear the metronome at all!).
There was another magical property that arose from this exercise – I found that I was actually mindfully counting more/better and relying less on “getting it”. And once I was more accurately counting, then I could pick up the tempo more carefully – and accurately!
Now, as a matter of practice, once I have the rhythm down, then I can “step down” the metronome. I can go from 16ths to 8ths, and when it’s steady then I can go down to quarters. Occasionally I can test myself and go back to 16ths to see if I’m as precise as I think.
Now, don’t be fooled. I still rush. But now I’m much more aware of where I’m rushing. I still struggle with picking up speed on triplets and with feeling like everyone else is faster than me. But at least I have a strategy for improving.
So, I challenge you to give this a try. If you want it to be easier, start with a tune you already know and can play. Set up your metronome for the subdivision you need (not the one you want) and give it a try. Remember that the metronome is a tool in service to you – set it as you need it at that point in time. Be ready to add more subdivisions, slow down or speed up, make it louder or quieter, you’re driving.
Let me know what you learn! Are you rock steady? All the way through? Is there a particular element you are always rushing (or late with)? I’d love to hear what you learn – let me know in the comments!
I recently started reading daily posts from Arnold Schwarzenegger – known for his movie line,
“I’ll be Bach”
What do you mean that’s not what he said?
I’m impressed with him because he demonstrates a single-minded focus on achieving things he thinks are important. Now, whether you agree with him on his choices or not, it’s difficult to argue with his successes. I admire that he works hard, doesn’t pretend that the work isn’t work, faces challenges head on, thinks before acting, owns his successes, moves onto other goals once he has achieved the current goals, and is relentlessly upbeat (sound familiar?)*. I’m pretty sure that if he had an interest in playing an instrument, he’d be quite good at it – for all the same reasons.
But the one thread to which he frequently returns is the importance of consistency. He champions the reality that, no matter what your focus (weightlifting, acting, authoring, playing an instrument) you have to put in not just hard work but consistent hard work. He highlights that it is the small gains that accrue day after day that are behind success. And that these daily small achievements build on each other to become what we often think of as “real success” – achieving big goals.
He doesn’t discount that these small daily increments are sometimes challenging to detect. What does he suggest? Capturing them (dare I say, in some sort of journal?). Why didn’t I say that (except maybe here, here, here, and here)?!
Consistency doesn’t have to be huge, BTW. Consistency is exactly what it sounds like – do small things with extreme regularity. It means practicing every day. Making some routine for your time at the harp so that you can complete the consistent behavior. Acknowledging that you have been consistent (whether that’s giving yourself stars on a wall chart or giving yourself a cookie – well, that’s up to you!). And don’t forget being grateful for the outcome of consistent small progress.
You can become consistent by making the commitment to yourself. You can help yourself along with a calendar reminder, a schedule, a process, a cookie (if needed. I’m sure I’m not the only one that is big on external rewards!). Keep in mind that consistent is not the same as perfect. If you mess up or get sidetracked, don’t beat yourself up, just get back on it – consistently. You don’t need excuses, just get back to it. If it helps, at the end of each practice session, tell your harp, “I’ll be Bach”.
Could you benefit from increased consistency? What do you do to keep consistent? What might help you to be more consistent? Let me know in the comments!
* if you want a daily dose of relentless optimism that’s nearly as relentless and almost as optimistic as this blog, you can get it from Arnold here in his latest thing of bringing positivity to the internet. Not an affiliate, just a fan.
Remember when Pumpkin Spice was an autumn thing? It originated with holiday pies and then after hundreds of years (somehow, I’m not going to pretend to understand the mechanics of food fashion) it moved to coffee. Then it migrated to other foods like cereal, donuts, yogurt, snack chips, etc.
This is wonderful – if you’re a pumpkin spice fan. You get more opportunities to enjoy your treat in many forms. If you wanted to, you could be awash in pumpkin spice (literally – there’s pumpkin spice body wash). You could take your freshly washed pumpkin spice self to chase your pumpkin spice donut with a pumpkin spice coffee. Pumpkin Spice Everything!
But there’s a dark side to Pumpkin Spice Everything (PSE). When PSE is all the time for everything, it’s easy to get burned out on pumpkin spice. With enough exposure you can become tired of it and PSE loses its attraction. You see a PSE item and think, “ugh” or worse, “yuk”.
What does this have to do with playing the harp? Well – everything, of course! Instead of coffee, donuts, and body wash, think air, jig, march and instead of pumpkin spice insert broken triads, boom chucks, or octaves.
When you introduce a left-hand pattern in a tune, it might be exciting and captivating – dare I say it – perfect. But if it appears everywhere in everything you play, it will lose that special quality that made it perfect to begin with. Not only will perhaps get bored with playing it, your listeners might lose that flare of interest they looked forward to and drew them to the music.
Don’t misunderstand – I’m not talking about how complicated the left-hand pattern is, only that it should not be used to inundate the listener (like with an overactive shake of pumpkin spice!).
If you are new to arranging your tunes, it might be uncomfortable to branch out from stuff that works and with which you feel comfortable. If you’re less experienced with playing, you may doubt your ability to play different patterns. Believe me, you will get there!
Are you maybe in a comfortable rut? Not sure? Just observe your playing. If you always use your “go to” patterns, you’re probably in a rut. You might be at the PSE stage where everything is the same all the time. But how do you keep the specialness of your left-hand patterns and make them something that captures attention? Here are a couple of ideas –
Copy/Paste! I’m sure you have books and recordings of your harp heroes. If you’re at a complete loss about where to start, listen to their recordings and read their books of arrangements. What patterns do they choose? How do those patterns mate to the melody? (and if there are patterns you don’t like, you can not do those!). You can also copy/paste from more than one harp hero.
Cheat Sheet. Put all the left-hand patterns you can think of on a single page – a cheat sheet. Keep it nearby your practice space so you can try options in different places in each of your pieces. Start with something you know well so you’re not struggling to play the tune and have smooth sailing to try something fresh (PS – if adding something in sends the melody into a tailspin – go back to learning the melody, you don’t know it as well as you think you do).
Make up your own – there’s no rule that says, “these are the sanctioned left-hand patterns, all others are forbidden”! (some might argue this point, but why are you listening to them?) Try your ideas. Some will work. Some won’t. Remember Edison? There were loads of failed attempts before there were light bulbs! Better still, record your ideas – because your ideas will dissipate into the ether whether they’re good or bad. If you’re recording, when serendipity strikes, you’ll be able to recreate it.
Have you fallen into the Pumpkin Spice Everything season with your music? Had you noticed if you had? Did you try any of these ideas? Do you have other ideas to keepbthe excitement? Let me know in the comments!
I’m not sure what it is about big round numbers, but they are kinda captivating. Like this little bit of inspiration – there are about 100 days left in the year! Woohoo!
Then the question is what should you do with them? I mean – come on – just think of all the things you could do with that time!
You could convince yourself that the year’s nearly over so you might as well coast.
Or you could dig out your goals for the year, take their measure, and decide the year is wash and maybe next year you’ll start over.
Or you could dig out your goals for the year, take their measure, and decide that you crushed that and you can cruise until January.
Or you could see that opportunity of having all that time remaining to do more cool stuff. For you. To make even more progress. How great is that?!
So what could you do in 100 days? How about:
1 Commit to learning one new thing each day (doesn’t have to be music, but that’s probably a sure bet!).
2 Commit to practicing every day. Actually practicing. It doesn’t have to be a full blown, formal practice, it could just be for fun.
3 Commit to paying a compliment each day – to yourself.
4 Commit to identifying what you’d like to do in the following 100 days after this (ok, that’s just a nice way to say get a head start on your goals for the next year).
5 Consider making an “activity board” so you don’t get stuck in a rut and can leverage your creativity!
6 Think about what you would do (differently?) if it was the beginning of the year rather than most of the way through it)
You can focus on music (after all, why are you here?) or you could take an even broader view and approach to enjoying the remainder of the year.
Which of these will you do? What did I forget to include? Let me know in the comments!