Jenius Creations

Blog

  • Veterans Day 2020

    Veterans Day – the holiday with no big celebration, special foods, or symbols.  The US Military is the biggest employer of musicians in the world!  This Veterans Day – thank a Vet!

    Veterans Day 2020
    Happy Veterans Day to our sailors, soldiers, and airmen past and present. We owe you our thanks, but more than that, we owe you our freedom

  • There’s always a curve

    There’s been a lot going on this year – for everyone.  It can be challenging to remain positive in the face of so much stuff.  But still you must…because there’s always a curve. Possibly just around the corner!

    We’re running up on the holiday season.  There are weddings and carol sings and church services.  There are a million things to practice for – including those that we can’t see on the calendar, but we do know will happen again soon (after COVID).

    Amy is sporting a fancy brace that allows more movement – but we might be limited to left hand only play for a little while. Good thing we know what to do!

    But what happens when something happens to you?  When life throws you a curve?  Just this week I have learned of two people in my harp world who are recovering from injury – one has suffered a broken arm!

    But that doesn’t mean no playing! However, it does mean taking time for injury recovery. There are plenty of ways to continue with music and plenty of reasons to persist*

    First the reasons:

    1. You can be your own therapeutic musician
    2. You can only watch so many Christmas movies as you recover (or whatever your mindless guilty pleasure is!).
    3. You know you need to practice (and you know that there are ways for your to do so, even without playing your harp)
    4. You can gain a new skill – you could be the only one at your next harp circle that can actually pull off what will look like a party trick – playing an entire tune in one hand!
    5. You know that it will just make you feel better to spend a little time with your harp!

    And now, the ways:

    1. You’ve only injured one hand/arm/shoulder – but the other one is fine.  You can’t go wrong by keeping that side playing.  Work on skills that are more prominent in that hand – drill frequent finger patterns, work on rhythm, focus on articulation – there’s loads to do!
    2. Don’t fret over what you can’t do – focus on what you can.  You’re fortunate that this is an injury from which you will recover so you will be able to get back.  Your best bet is to not lose ground through inaction and atrophy.
    3. Dust off your theory – if you’re only using one hand, you will need to leverage all your understanding of chord structure to build a harmony in that hand.  You can use simple harmony, practice more complex chords or maybe explore jazzier harmonies.
    4. Dust off your basics – you might have gotten away from fundamentals – basic technique, strengthening, and stretching.  Add this back into your routine so you don’t end up with another injury to overcome. 
    5. Dust off your other basics – you might have gotten away from structural work on intervals in one hand.  So, work that in – do the exercises to work your thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, etc.  You will be making all your harmonies from these intervals, so you might as well focus on making them as good (and solid) as you can – no fumbling around!  It’s never too late to open Sylvia Woods’ Teach yourself book, Maria Grossi’s book, Sue Richards’ exercises, or whatever your favorite basics book is**.
    6. Dust off your musicality – here’s a real opportunity to focus on the tune and rendering more musically.  Without all the other stuff to focus on (two hands mostly!) you can really hone in on your musicality.
    7. Work on (and write down!) your arranging skills.

    You can see that focusing on one hand might be a bit of bother while you recover but it can open your eyes to some other important aspects of playing.  You might even consider giving it a go before you’re injured!  And it can’t hurt to have a plan in the event of injury – and you’ll have something to look forward to!

    One final thought on recovering while injured – be very careful to monitor your posture and technique while you’re recovery – no need to develop an overuse injury on top of everything else!

    Have you been injured and needed to modify how you play or practice?  What did you do and how did it work for you?  If you haven’t been injured, do you have a plan just in case life throws you a curve?  Let me know in the comments below.

     

    * please don’t do anything dumb – I’m not that kind of doctor, this is not medical advice.  If you are recovering from an injury or surgery, follow the instructions of your physician, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and other health care providers.  But don’t forget to ask those same providers to help you recover by explaining that you are a harp player and you are keen to get back to your harp – for your mental, emotional, and physical health.  They can’t give you useful advice if you don’t tell them you need to play your harp!  Be prepared to explain what you need to be able to do while you’re playing.

    ** Not a paid endorsement and there are lots of books – I like these and I think you might too.

  • Trick or Treat – Harpy Halloween

    Still a weird year, still an odd time.

    But it’s Halloween.  No trick or treating.  No Halloween gigs or parties.  But let’s have some Halloween fun anyway!

    How are we going to do that?  Well, we’ll do all the things!  Well, most of them, modified.  We can still have a Harpy Halloween and here are five ways you can try:

    1. Make a costume. My favorite part of Halloween is seeing the children in their costumes.  Whether they are homemade or store bought, whimsical, goofy, or terrifying, it’s really the highlight of the night.  So, why not generate your own costume.  What could you be?  You could dress up as your favorite composer.  Or you could make a costume of the title of your favorite tune.  Or do something silly (be a Harp Surgeon?
      Dress as one of your favorite tunes, like Debussy’s Clare de Lune

      or be a silly harp joke!
    2. Well, this one is easy – get some of your favorite(s) candy.  Feel the need to “work” for it?  You can give yourself a piece for every trick (or mistake) and two for each treat (every correctly played repetition)?  It’s your candy – you decide how you trick or treat!
    3. Play Halloween music – play the old tunes – you know the ones – the creepy, eerie, ghostly ones like Tam Linn, She Moved Through the Fair, Earl Richard, and all the other creepy ones (and you know there are quite a few!) or the seasonal ones like Samhain Samhain.
    4. Do a musical Ghosting – put on that cool costume and play a “pop up” concert outside your house. Want to be really popular – put a bag of candy out for the people who might stop to listen so they can have a little trick or treat fun without getting too close.

      Fairy or Angel harp player – be whatever you like, it’s Halloween!
    5. Pumpkins! Get some of those adorable tiny pumpkins and make a “tableau” at the foot of your harp to make it feel more festive

    How will you have a Harpy Halloween?  I know there are more ways than this!  Let me know how you celebrate – and if you have a photo, even better – please share.  I’ll post mine here later when I have my costume on ????  Looking forward to seeing your celebrations!

  • Ensure Insurance is Assured

    insurance

    I have yet to meet a harp player who is blasé about their harp.  There are people who name their harps.  Some people talk to their harp.  We all love our harps.  We do our utmost to care for them.  But have we done everything we can to protect them?

    (that sounds like one of those cheesy tv commercials for medicine, medical assistance devices, and just about anything you can get 2 for $19.99 + a small additional fee)

    Anyway, no matter how much we love our harps, how careful we are to keep them from harm and to pamper them – they are not our children, or our friends.  They are, however, unbelievably valuable musical instruments!  And as such, you should ensure that your harp(s) are fully insured. You need to insure against all the same things you ensure other valuable things against – theft, damage, or other disasters.   

    The best way to get started is to talk with your current insurance carrier.

    How you insure your harps will be bounded by some other factors. Here are some suggestions on ensuring your insurance is assured.  The goal is Goldilocks – not too much coverage, not too little…you want your coverage to be just right:

    1. If you are a hobbyist – that is, you play only for the cat and the curtains (and perhaps the occasional family member?).
      1. start with a call to your homeowner’s/renter’s insurance provider. If you are playing at home, only rarely taking your harp out and then only going to workshops or lessons, then this is probably your best solution.  They will likely sell you a rider to cover valuable personal property/musical instrument.  Be sure you include all your harps! 
      2. If you’re traveling with your harp a great deal you might also check with your auto insurer – you need to be sure you have enough coverage should you harp be in the car if you are in an accident.
    2. If you are a professional – that is, if you are leaving your house to perform and being paid (regardless of your opinion of your level of performance!):
      1. Still start with your homeowner’s/renter’s and auto insurers, just be aware that they are likely to tell you no.  This would be appropriate – you need professional coverage!   If you are not a full time musician, this is where you might be tempted to fib. If you are a professional (even if you’re just starting out or only play one gig a year) be frank and honest.  If something happens to your harp and you make a claim, the insurance company will not quibble over your level of performance.  You don’t want to find that your very small prevarication when buying the insurance invalidates your claim!
      2. There are insurance companies that specialize in musical instruments. You will need to provide an estimate of the value of each of your instruments which will require someone give you a valuation (I have gotten these from my instrument maker or by sending a copy of the bill of sale).
      3. You will get the best rate on your premiums if you are a member of an organization such as International Association of Folk Harpers and Craftsman (IAFHC) or American Harp Society (AHS). You can find other available coverages by searching musical instrument insurance.
      4. When researching your choices, focus on what is covered and the coverage of the instrument specifically. Some companies (such as Anderson) offer harp-specific coverage while others have more general coverage.

    We never want anything bad to happen to our harps, but they are expensive as well as being important to our daily lives so ensure that assure your insurance!  Make sure your coverage matches your usage.  Also focus on the policy, the exclusions, etc.  You want to feel confident that your insurance will cover you if something happens to your harp!

    What’s in your harp case?

     

    In case you’re wondering or interested, these are not compensated product placements – I’m not that smart a blogger.  I have Anderson Insurance and I have been happy with the price and the service.  I have not ever had to make a claim but they have received good ratings from others that have.  They are not the only insurance product available, so do your homework. 

  • Go Wide

    One of the best things about teaching is how much you learn from your students.  I’ve told you that before and it only becomes more true with each passing day.

    Another thing I’m always going on about is practicing.  Of course you need to practice.  You know that.  You know you need to practice most every day.  The more you practice, the better you’ll play – you’ll know more, you’ll be more confident, and you’ll just have more to show for your time.

    Duh.

    But then I have a student say something really profound in its simplicity.  And I realize I have to tell you more.

    Go WideMy student and I were talking about “old stuff”.   The stuff she knows.  The stuff she didn’t really practice any more.  Tunes she knows, maybe even loves, but have fallen by the wayside of her mind/list/index card library.  The stuff is dying in her repertoire.  She was struggling to figure out how to keep those tunes from dying!  You have probably also had this experience.

    What?  How should you structure your practice?

    You already know that the longer something you have learned sits, the less well it’s going to go when you give it a dust off.  You might be able to pull it out of your head, buy you’re likely to be unimpressed.  Or (in my opinion, worse) it’s brilliant…the first time.  But when you play it again immediately after, it’s a nightmare!  So discouraging.

    But if you spend all your time practicing your old stuff, you won’t have time to practice your new stuff.  You’ll be stuck.  Ugh.  How are you ever supposed to move on?

    Well, the path forward is through practice.  (You knew I would say that).

    We often talk about practicing – but we focus on the daily level – the simple, day to day of sitting down, warming up, doing exercise, working through tunes, polishing, and finalizing music before finishing by playing a little something for yourself.

    But after you have learned more than about five tunes, this schedule is going to leave you with not nearly enough time to work on every tune based on where in development each tune is.

    So you’ll have to go longer each day.  Or you can change your focus.  Your practice planning will have to expand beyond what you do each day.  You will need to think about your practice time across the week.  And across the weeks!

    Rather than the list we have above, your week plan might include a different focus for each day.  That means that while each day holds the basic outline (from warm up to playing for you), the “work” part in the middle of the practice might have a specific concentration.  Some examples –

    • Monday Musing – make sure your plan for the week fits what you’d like to work on just then
    • Tuesday Technique – you know the little bad habits sneak up on you, this day helps conquer that
    • Wednesday Work – focus on really working the tunes so you identify the fingering, rhythm, etc you need to work on
    • Thursday Throughplay – play through all your old tunes (you don’t have to save this for the weekend!)
    • Friday Furbish – take a day to burnish the tunes that are nearly there
    • Saturday Survey – assess what you’ve worked on and tweak things from the week that might need a little more time and attention
    • Sunday Sport and Merry-making – you need to have one day that you just play for fun!

    This is just a set of suggestions.  You know where you want to go, so build your map for you.  Taking this wider view of your practice may help you to be proactive while learning.

    Of course, you probably also have your sights set higher.  If you’re in a development phase (for instance), you might need to think even wider and build a collection of weeks.  But this week’s suggestion will work just fine for learning new tunes to increase your repertoire and help you keep your tunes in your hands.

    How would you structure your week?  Let me know in the comments!

  • Composition Challenge – Whew!

    You always amaze me!

    Here we are at the end of the Composition Challenge – and WOW.  Just WOW!

    First, THANK YOU for all of you who sent compositions, a noodle, an idea.  I am so gratified to be entrusted with your art.

    For those that sent something but were not ready to share with the world, I encourage you to keep going!  And eventually I’d further encourage you to share, share, share!  It always amazes me how receptive people are to new music – but you won’t know if you don’t share and ask the question!

    And, believe me — I know, that sometimes the deadline sneaks up on us and we are a little bit flat-footed.  So if you’re not quite ready to share, but you will be in future – you keep working on it and let me know when you’re ready.  I’ll be happy to share my platform with you!

    Share your compositions!

    I’d also like to remind you of one really important thing.  Like playing, composing requires p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e!  We have talked before about ways to get that practice in – improv, noodling, brute force.  I guarantee that it gets easier with practice.  It does.  With practice it will feel less like you’re forcing it.  Less like pulling teeth.  Less like work.  And with time and practice, it will feel more like joy.  More like expression.  More like breathing.  Why yes, it might even begin to feel like music is literally oozing from your pores!  But you have to let it.

    Here are some of the amazing things some of you were willing to share.  Some carefully composed (or carelessly composed!) and some noodling.  Some a combination of the two.

    The first is titled Noodling BADGE from Barb Costello –

    Then we have Sue Richards Herself, using the technique Sue shared and I posted last week –

    Sue Richards HerselfThen we have Ca’ the Meows – a playful take on a classic –

    and our last share this week is from me, Dimitri’s Revenge, from my deep and abiding love of Shostakovitch but in a mock Celtoid style –

    Be sure to give these pieces a listen and a play through.  And PLEASE – leave comments – be lavish with your praise for the music and the sharing (and frankly the bravery!) of the people who contributed.  I know all who shared will enjoy your feedback and encouragement.   And remember, if you do take these pieces on and begin to play them for others – attribute the work.  A little acknowledgement is nice to receive and a little respect is well deserved!

    *All rights held by the composers and shared with permission.  Please give credit where it is due!

    ** If you particularly like one of these and have a hard time getting it downloaded, let me know and I’ll think of a solution!

  • Composition Seeds

    Next week we’ll be sharing our compositions – so exciting! 

    How’s yours coming along?  Some of you have sent me delightful peeks at what you’re working on.  Some of you are already done.

    What’s that?  You haven’t started?  You don’t think you can do this? You have no idea how to get started?

    !!!

    No worries!  You CAN do this.  Please, please, please do not talk yourself out of giving this a try! 

    I realize this can be daunting.  It can be intimidating.  You may sit on your bench repeating over and over in your head a low moan: Ican’tdothisI’mnotacomposerI’mnotabrilliantartistIhavenogreat ideaswhydidIevenconsiderthis! *

    Composition SeedHere’s the thing, it might be intimidating because, unlike a writer or a painter, you have few constraints.  A writer has only the single sheet of white paper.  The painter has only to consider the single canvas.**

    But we musicians? We have time and space, pitch and rhythm, tempo and time signature, timbre and technique.  We have oodles of variables and we haven’t even started thinking about what shape we might be headed toward!

    So, to help you along, I’m going to help you narrow your scope.   Remember, you don’t have to write a masterpiece!  Just compose something.  You’re not Mozart or Shubert or J.S. Skinner!    And remember, those guys may be known for their masterpieces, but they all started somewhere!  We are all beginners at some point (side note – avoid people who forget this important fact!  They are toxic – you can do this!).

    Remember the major parts of a tune – you need rhythm and pitch.  Find that overwhelming?  Start with one and then overlay the other on top of it. 

    I brought you some rhythm seeds that you could start with if you don’t know where to look – to get your creative juices flowing!  Use whichever ones you like or add more – there are literally loads of options!  They look like one composition (maybe they are?) but feel free to cut/paste as you like – or throw them all away or pick and mix!  It’s your composition!

    rhythm ideas

    • Keep it simple – there are only seven notes in a scale (in modern western music) so that’s fairly limiting in and of itself!
    • While we’re keeping it simple, stick to a single scale.  Like light and happy?  Use a major.  Feeling dark and moody?  Use a minor scale.  Feeling stressed? Use a pentatonic scale!
    • If you’re stuck, use a simple time signature that you’re used to playing in.  Like 4/4?  Then use that.  Always seem to be thinking in 6/8?  Then use that.
    • No source is too good for you!  In the comments last week Sue Richards shared a great starter idea.  If you missed it, she said,

    ” Recently on the Nordic FB group, we learned from Mark Harmer how to write tunes based on your name. Here’s the thing:

    Name Letters matrixSo my name, Sue, is EGE. Richards is DBCAADDE. So I made a tune out of that. You choose the time signature and key, and develop a LH. It’s pretty cool! I’ll try to post the tune I wrote. I also added my husband Bill: BBDD for the second half of the tune.  Good luck, be creative!”

    • Another way to get rhythm and pitch is to listen to yourself saying something (which might become your lyrics?).  You can use the rhythm of your words and the pitch of your voice as a guide to what you tune might shape up to be.  Use a favorite poem or saying as a starting point.
    • Finally, please do not compare your output to anyone else’s.  This is not a competition!  It is a challenge to each of us to get out of our own way, to try something different and a little bit stimulating!  In no way should anything about this make you feel bad (well, unless you told me (and yourself) that you were going to do it but you’re letting yourself slide because it’s a little uncomfortable!). 

    If you find you are still getting in your own way, sit down on your bench, BREATHE, turn on your phone recorder (the one with the really big red “DELETE” button which is ever so useful!), and tickle your harp.    And when it starts to giggle – you can giggle too.  Then you’re having a fun time and you’ll probably enjoy the whole thing (just a little…even if you won’t admit it out loud!).

    How’s your composition coming?  Remember you can send a video, an audio file, sheet music, a photo of the napkin you wrote it on.  Still stuck and want other suggestions?  Let me know in the comments below!  When you’re ready to send me your composition (which can totally be in draft form, it’s not a race after all!) – let me know in the comments and we’ll get these collected for next week!

    Happy Composing!

    *I realize this is hard to read (it was a little bit hard to type) but it says, “I can’t do this.  I’m not a composer.  I’m not a brilliant artist.  I have no great ideas.  Why did I even consider this!”  – All TOSH!

    **Yes, gross oversimplification, but the idea isn’t to turn you into a writer or a painter! 

  • The March to Autumn – Composition Challenge

    Think back.  Way back.  Think back to February when everything was “normal” (whatever that might mean).  We were starting a Composition Challenge. Remember that?  And then, in the middle of that came the beginning of where we are now.  And we were focused on other things – like staying healthy and safe and helping each other get through the beginning of a hard time we are still working our way through.

    Earlier in the year we talked about theory and technique and practice and ways to work up our own compositions and I challenged you to develop a composition of your own and I hoped you’d share them.  We talked about noodling (here) and ostinato (here).  We crossed into March (little did we know what was coming) and talked about the theory that would help you cultivate noodling into a composition (here).   Then we endured a time change and we talked about the utility of noodling when you’re tired (here).

    But then we were all consumed with trying to care for ourselves and others and the composition challenge seemed to be a little naff in light of people sickening and dying.

    Nevertheless time keeps passing and it occurs to me that we should not have abandoned the challenge.  After all, making music is helping us hang on to our sanity.  Making music gives us succor and allows us to share with others to make their lives just a little bit better.

    So, let’s rejoin our game!

    Your composition does not need to be complex or complicated.  Instead we want to celebrate the process of becoming comfortable with generating musical ideas and putting them together.  You can perhaps put together completed ideas, or possibly just fragments.  Give ostinato a try (keep in mind that this can be humbling).  Poke around the modes and roll them around in your (figurative) mouth, keeping the tasty ones and building from there.

    Let’s spend the rest of September working on this.  That’s two weeks – plenty of time.  It has been my experience that, if you don’t spend all your time telling yourself that this is hard and you can’t do it, you will put out loads of ideas.  Some will be keepers.  Some will be dreck.  And that’s ok!  I’d suggest you just set your voice recorder to go (I prop mine up on a music stand) and let your fingers do the walking!  Don’t have a voice recorder?  Just download a free app and you’re good to go.

    But don’t be timid – give it a go.  You won’t know what you’re capable of until you try!  I’d also like to encourage you to share – this is a warm and generous group and you probably will never find a more welcoming and accepting audience.  Perhaps you generate some fragments but don’t feel like you’re successful…but you might find that someone else has also made some fragments – and wouldn’t it be exciting if those fit together to make a tune?!

    We’ll finish up Sunday 4th October – send an audio, a video or a score (fancy-schmancy or handwritten!) and we’ll share them soon after – just in time to enjoy for autumn!  If you have questions or need some help let me know.   Looking forward to what we come up with!

  • Ways to do it wrong!

    I’ve told you that I am immensely lazy, and I hope you are beginning to believe it!  Take the holidays, for instance.  My favorite time of year – pretty much the same music year after year.  Once you learn it, you are good…f-o-r-e-v-e-r! (cue maniacal laughter).

    Holiday music – easy-peasy.  Or is it?  Same thing with your regular repertoire, of course, but it’s at the holidays it becomes really clear.  There are still loads of things you can do wrong – here are just 10:

    1. Don’t start practicing until right before you have to deliver.  After all, you’ve played it all before, so it won’t take too much time.  By assuring you don’t have enough time to practice everything you will be left feeling less confident – and who doesn’t like to perform feeling less than ready?  It also assures you don’t actually know the music cold – especially important because everyone you play for will definitely know the tunes, so you really have to deliver.
    2. Don’t add any new tunes.  One sure way to keep it dry is to play the same stuff year after year after year after…  That way all the tunes can be stale and as boring to you as you can get them.  And that won’t show when you play – really.
    3. Don’t keep up your “non-holiday” repertoire.  By the time the holidays are actually occurring, the people you’re playing for definitely won’t have been hearing holiday music since Halloween and they won’t be sick of the stuff.  And you won’t want to keep their interest by including a few non-holiday tunes, just to keep it fresh for them.
    4. Play everything like you always have. One of the best things about leaving practicing until the last minute is that you also won’t have time to insert some new ideas and you really won’t be able to work on new arrangements…and that way everything can be boring!
    5. Pick one holiday and stick with it.  After all, it’s not like people from varied traditions don’t all have holidays at the winter solstice time.  If you are in a widely diverse community or if you know you are likely to need music from different traditions – you wouldn’t want to be ready to serve everyone.
    6. Spend all your practice time on tunes. After all, what else is there to practice?  Working on exercises and technique builders certainly won’t help you play or learn new music.
    7. Don’t think ahead to next year.  It will be so much better to come out of the holiday season flat footed.  After all the hubbub of the season, you will not experience a motivational low or just the doldrums of the dead of winter, so failing to think ahead will definitely keep you from getting off to a good start in 2021.
    8. Definitely play all one type of tune.  There are so few options at the holidays that you will definitely want to only play Christmas carols.  Or the old tried-and-true Christmas songs.  That way you and everyone you play for can be railroaded into boredom.
    9. It’s just your family, it doesn’t have to be musical.  After all, they’ll have heard you practicing day after day –they won’t really need anything special from you.  So definitely just bang out the notes but don’t waste time on making it musical, just for them.
    10. Don’t forget that gifts are all about stuff – so no one (family, friends) would want a gift you’re your gift…or would they?

    I know there are many other ways to do it wrong – at the holidays or any time through the year.  Let me know in the comments what I forgot…and what I got wrong!

  • Celebrate Labor Day

    Happy Labor Day!  Hope you enjoy the day, celebrate the end of summer, and have a little time to play – on your harp!  What do you have planned for the day?  Thank you for spending a little time with me and I’ll look forward to seeing you next week!