Announcing the Harp the Highlands and Islands trip for 2020!

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We are so excited to be planning the Harp the Highlands and Islands trip for 2020.  It sounds so far away – and it is…until it isn’t!

This is your chance to see Scotland in the glorious early summer—when days are bright, and temperatures are nothing like you experience at home!  Our trip will run 9– 16 June when the flowers are blooming but before the tourists have arrived in earnest!

If you’re not familiar with our trips – it’s your opportunity to tour Scotland with our amazing guide and driver – native (and harp appreciator) David Leitch.  And I really look forward to sharing Scottish tunes each day!  David continues to build on the resounding success of his customized Scottish Highlands and Islands tours, and we have worked together to expand his tour to include elements that inspired the tunes that harpers love to play.

Each day we’ll see more of the Highlands and Islands while learning tunes related to our travels.  You will enjoy an intimate group setting – we never take more than six travelers which allows you to see the real Scotland.  And you certainly see, and experience more than you would from the heights of a giant tour bus.

The itinerary includes the natural beauty and manmade testaments to Scotland’s history, as well as the prospect to learn more about history and the harp.

The trip includes all bed and breakfast accommodations, dinners, David’s enchanting guiding, entrance to group attractions, a small harp for your use and harp tunes from Jen. The very small group size allows flexibility so that each day you can see the very best Scotland has to offer!

Each trip David crafts an itinerary to assure that you see the wonders of Scotland.  But we also know that a number of you have come with us before and are thinking of coming again – so if you come along, he has planned some new amazing things for you to see!  A sample itinerary might include:

David and Jen will meet you in Edinburgh and our adventure begins — on to Perth, one of Scotland’s seven cities!  The next day we might see the scenic beauty of the Falls of Dochart, the enigmatic splendor of Glencoe.  We could follow the Great Glen and the Caledonian Canal, then head westwards in pursuit of the Islands.  We will see a lovely island including unique and stunning scenery and possibly gain an insight into the people who live there now and over time.  And of course we’ll see loads of magnificent views through the Mountains.  But the Highlands are calling and we could see incomparable Eilean Donan Castle or meander through the glens to Inverness.  We could explore a dark, mysterious, and well storied Loch or wander the coast and it’s quaint fishing villages.  Our final night, David and his beautiful wife Heather will welcome you to dinner in their home for authentic Scottish cuisine and hospitality. Then we’ll head back to Edinburgh for the journey home…or you might decide to explore Edinburgh on your own. Our final itinerary will be determined by you!  If our group includes old friends who have traveled with us previously, we will have an itinerary that promises all of us new delights and sites that we will all enjoy – without repeating a previous itinerary! 

Music is central – each day you’ll learn a new tune, add to your harp lore and experience the history of our harp heritage.  The tunes taught will be associated with the places we see, the history we uncover, and the incredible Scots we meet.  And your travel will be easier with a lovely small loaner harp waiting for you, so you don’t have to travel with your harp and all the worries that brings! 

Invite another harp player or bring a harp loving companion!  There will be activities both for harp players and for harp appreciators. Not a harp player?  We welcome other small traditional instruments!

The price includes seven nights dinner, bed and breakfast accommodation, tour and guide, admissions, lend of a harp for your exclusive use, harp tuition, and special treats.  Price per person double is $3499.  If you prefer to have a room to yourself, single supplement is $350. A $1000 deposit will hold your place (remember there are only 6 places per tour), with the balance due two months prior to your trip.  Discount for early booking — book by 15 October and pay just $3200.  Got a crowd that will fill the minibus? Call for discount booking, but hurry before the bus is booked up.

Meet me in Parsippany!

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I hope you’re planning on participating in the Somerset Folk Harp Festival July 18-21 2019 in Parsippany, NJ. I am so very much looking forward to being there!

The Somerset Folk Harp Festival is (to quote the website), “an amazing 4-day conference celebrating the diversity of music, talent and experience of the folk harp world. Whether you want to focus on one style or type of music, solidify some specific skills, or try out something new, the breadth of this year’s workshop offerings is sure to expand your musical horizon. Our Exhibit Hall is the best harp and music shopping under one roof you’ll find anywhere on the East Coast. Daily concerts will inspire you…”

That’s pretty succinct – and true.  I am looking forward to seeing you there! There’s so much on – it’s hard to get to everything, but I’ll also be at the Scottish Harp Society of America booth in the Exhibit Hall. Stop by and say hello…or even better, introduce yourself!

I’ll be teaching two workshops on Friday and they should both be fun and interesting.

Donna Bennett and I will teach Creativity Tools to Improve Practice & Performance at 3:30 in Room 2. This is a hands on, any level, companions welcome workshop. We’ll be sharing skills, tools, and techniques to help bring creativity to your music or teaching. We’ll show you how to actively apply creativity tools and techniques that will improve your personal work processes and your overall approach to harping. With these tools you can prepare projects and gigs and we’ll also give you techniques to help generate better ideas to expand your arrangements and repertoire without adding to your learning load. We are planning some fun learning activities as well as packing in tons of useful content – you will leave with your head full of how to generate new ideas!

Before that, I will be teaching Sounding Scottish at 1:30 in Room 1. This any level workshop is designed to help you take your love of Scottish music and apply it to your own playing. Scotland has captivated people for hundreds of years and inspired composers, artists, and authors. I’ll share specific elements and techniques to help your tunes sound Scottish. I’ll also be sharing tunes to apply and practice those techniques and I’ll use images, video, language, sounds, geography, myths and legends of Scotland as muses to provide inspiration for your own take on the music.

But that’s not all!  On Friday night, Donna and I are closing out the day by hosting the Scottish Seisean!  We’ll kick off about 10pm in Room 11 and go ’til we’re done.  Here’s your chance to trot out all that great music that gets you stared at blankly when you’re in an Irish session.  We’ll start slowly so everyone can join in and ramp it up as the evening goes.  Come out to play!

And – on Saturday, Scottish Harp Society of America is proud to present a lunchtime concert at 11:30.  Members Donna Bennett, Rachel Clemente and I will be performing – so come see us.  Bring a lunch! 

Can’t wait!

If you haven’t already signed up, you’re too late – the Festival has sold out and you should start planning for next year. However, you can still register for the Sunday add-ons. And you can always come to the Exhibit Hall. If you’re in the market for a harp or if you need more harp kitsch (because you can never have enough of that!) this is the place to be!

Are you coming? If so, let me know in the comments so I can be sure to look for you –

OSAS 2019 – Having a blast!

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Teaching, learning, having fun and more fun! Just a little photo montage (some phots unceremoniously swiped from Ruth Pearce’s facebook page – she’s taking some great photos when I was in the middle of something and wasn’t able to capture it!).  I am so fortunate to be teaching some incredible talent – Sue Richards, Rachel Hair and Rachel Clemente!

If you aren’t here – you’re missing out – start planning for 2020!

 

Off to Ohio

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Is not a tune title (although it could be!).

I’m so excited to be leaving for Ohio soon.  I’ll be teaching at the Ohio Scottish Arts School! An entire week of tunestunestunes and funfunfun!  I have some cool tunes, some new lesson items, and a crazy idea that just might work (a la McGiver).

Loads of excellent people, wonderful music, and lots of learning – can’t wait!  Oh, and snacks 🙂

And before that, the US National Scottish Harp ChampionshipTM.  It’s going to be a jam-packed week!

And a long drive – what a great time for a variety of types of practicing.  There’s listening to music, rehearsing in my head, “tapping out” the melody against the steering wheel, and my favorite – listening to something completely different looking for new ideas for arranging.

How do you use your car time? Let me know in the comments.

Next week – scenes from OSAS!

Now what?

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Hopefully you believed me and at least started making your index card file. If so, you’ll have started the cards going, and once you’re caught up, adding your new material will require a less herculean effort!

But you’ve asked – now what? What are you supposed to do with this?

Well, there’s a reason I suggested this card catalog rather than just a list (however, if you opted for a list, that’s ok too – keep reading, it’s down below!). If you’ve made a card catalog, no matter if you are sorting by title or by tune type – you should also include another set of divisions:

Know |  Don’t Know  |  Needs Polish

(you can also add additional dividers if you want to be more specific or to fit the way you think about it)

At each practice, you can pull the cards you need. Clearly, you will put the things you are actively working (from the “Don’t Know” section). The tricky bit is what else to pull. It is tempting to think the “Needs Polish” should come out infrequently, but you’d be wrong. These should be in your regular rotation for practice.

“Needs Polish” is code for, “I’d like to think I know this, but if push came to shove, I’d have to admit that I don’t really know it cold”. So, add those tunes to your regular practice. Also acknowledge that “Needs Polish” may be the weirdest/broadest category, so don’t despair. You will get there if you keep working on these tunes!

But how do you use the “Know” cards? Pull one at random from the box at each practice. Play the tune and see how it goes. If you play it well – Yea! and put it back into the box. If it is wobbly when you play it, it goes into the “Needs Polish” section so you can get it back to scratch. And if it is a struggle (or you don’t remember large chunks of it*) put it back into “Don’t Know”. The number of “Knows” you pull out in each practice is up to you (and typically based on how much time you have each day).

If you’ve made a list (or set of lists) here are some other ideas. I’d suggest you use a spreadsheet (so you can move tunes easily from one section to another), but any format that works for you is the right one! You’ll still need to identify your categories and all that is above still applies.  When it comes to choosing a tune from the “Know” pile, just close your eyes and point to a title. Or use a random number generator. Or roll some dice. Whatever works – just so you can select a tune to include each day.

No matter if you make cards or lists, you might want to make another, more flexible category and label it ❤ – these are the tunes you’re currently in love with (or just infatuated). We all have them. They are like summer loves – they make your heart go pitter pat just thinking about them. You play them obsessively and to the exclusion of many others. They quickly make the “Know” category. You can even put a ❤ on the card – you love them that much! I suggest this because, as so often happens with summer loves, they flame out quickly, only to be forgotten. When you pull one of these out, it is fun – like pulling out old summer photos. You can play these with a bit of wistfulness, and a chuckle at what you had become so obsessed with at the time. Some will make it back into your repertoire which will be fun. And even if you don’t put it back into your regular repertoire, it will be fun to see how you’ve grown!

You need to manage the number of pieces you’re working on at a time. It is very easy to attempt to work on too many tunes (especially after a great summer event like Ohio Scottish Arts School when you come home with boatloads of new tunes!). You want to work on them all – but you need to pace yourself or you’ll end up with nothing.  Using the cards gives you an easy way to keep track of what you need to work on, what you need to polish, what you need to review, and what you want to get to soon.

If you make a plan for each practice you will be able to add tunes, move them along in learning and make strong additions to your repertoire. What are you adding right now?

How do you know that you know what you know? The trap of the large repertoire

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There is a false freedom in having a large repertoire:

  • You feel more confident when every tune in your set is a well-honed workhorse.
  • You don’t have to work too hard to play a wedding, a funeral, a tea party, and a concert back to back because you have the rep in hand.
  • The looks you get from other musicians when you play a three-hour gig with just a set list (yes, it is juvenile and silly…but also honest (and lighter than carrying a music stand and a binder or ipad)).

But that same large repertoire is a trap!

  • Because you are “set” to play just about any set, the motivation to add tunes can be pretty low.
  • Because when you play the same stuff all the time, it will get stale, no matter how much you love it.
  • Because when you put a long time between learning new tunes, it begins to feel harder to learn the tune, to master it, to smooth it out, and to eventually perform it.
  • Because when you’re not growing…you’re dying!

So, you need to walk the line between settling into a large repertoire you can confidently and comfortably pull it out at a moment’s notice and living (maybe on the edge while learning new stuff that you may not have completely comfortable with it before you walk it out on stage!*)

If you’re going to escape this repertoire trap, you need to do a couple of things:

  1. You need to know what you already know. Write down that repertoire! You can make a list, or you can make a caldron: For each tune you know (and eventually those you are learning) write an index card. Include the title, composer (if appropriate), tune type, the key you play it in (or the number of sharps or flats to set), the source, and if you need it, copy the first couple of measures (and anything else that will help you remember the tune so you can play it). You can file the cards any way that helps you – alphabetical by title or by tune types (all jigs together, all reels together, etc.), or by use (all wedding prelude tunes together, all “party pieces” together, all tunes “in progress” together (helpful hints – don’t mix filing types (some by title, some by tune type); no matter what language the title is in, and no matter how many titles the tune might have, file the card under the title that you think of for the tune (for instance, although it is best titled “Crodh Laoigh nam Bodach”, I know it as “Old Man’s Young Calves” so I filed it under “O” not “C”). Once you have it going, you have a representation of your repertoire in one place and in a form that will help you make up set lists, practice, and know what you know.
  2. You need to know what you do not already know.  Make a list – of all the tunes you don’t know, but wish you did. You can wish you did because they get played in your session all the time, or because you really like the tune, or because someone has requested you play it, or because you need more hornpipes. The reason is immaterial – so long as you know what you’re going to work on next! This list will always be dauntingly large, will always grow, and will be constantly reshuffled. So, it might be a good idea for these to also be index cards (so you can seamlessly move them into the learned pile!).
  3. You need to move tunes from one group to the other.  Use these lists to organize your practice – you already know you don’t keep that much music in your head without refreshing it – but now you can actively structure your practice to include refreshers and just plain fresh (or maybe “under-ripe”?) – but this way you’re learning and building and keeping up with yourself.

What are your repertoire traps? How do you escape your repertoire traps? Let us know in the comments below.

* here you need to be completely honest with yourself – don’t put yourself into the situation of having to perform something that just is not ready! It is not kind to yourself, to the audience, or to the tune itself!

Speaking Theoretically – Inversions

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I know, I have said the “T” word (theory). But you’re still reading, so that’s a good sign! And you know that when something starts with the “T” word, you might not enjoy it, but it will probably serve you (and sooner than later). So, let’s just wade in.

I received a nice compliment the other day when someone noted that I never play a tune the same way, even in the repeats. This struck me because I had just been thinking about how I needed to really work on changing things up while playing so tunes won’t get stale to the listener! While thinking through the juxtaposition of these comments, it became clear that the space between was based on our different perceptions of the chords that underlie the tune. And that’s how we ended up here in the “T” zone.

There is an easy way to change up the accompaniment and harmony (typically in the left hand) so you to will never play something the same way every time. But it does require that you not only know some theory, but that you practice it too!

You know this stuff – let’s just make it front of mind! Let’s work in the key of C major (it works in every key, but let’s stay with a relatively simple example).

First we have the triad – in C that will be C – E – G (played with 3 – 2 – 1). This is called the “Root” position and the “name” of the scale is in the root position. This is a nice solid chord and gets used a great deal. However, after a while, you might want something new. So what to do?

Well, we could move to the “First Inversion” in which we take the Root note and pop it on the top of the chord. So now we have E – G – c (we moved the C off the bottom and replaced on the top). Listen to that – you can hear that it’s the same, but different. So now you have another option.

But only one option is just not going to be enough! So we can move the third (which is now on the bottom) up to the top – and now we have the second inversion! You’ll note that this again sounds the same, and yet has a really different “ear – taste”.

Go sit at your harp (you don’t fool me, I know you are reading and haven’t actually heard this yet!) and play these inversions (they are in the graphic if looking at the dots will help you process this). You can work your way up the harp – start by playing the Root, then reposition and play the first inversion, and then move again and play the second inversion. And it might sound a little “off” so go ahead and move the 5th to the top – and now you’re back to the root, just an octave higher.

Now, play through again and really listen to the differences between the inversions – each of them has it’s own “flavor”. See which ones you like or which ones evoke specific moods or feelings. With practice, you’ll remember which is which and you’ll be able to match that to the feeling you want to invoke with a specific tune. Of course this is more likely with an air but fast tunes also benefit with some thinking about the feeling the chord imparts to the tune.

If you haven’t done this before, you might have to work a little bit to move between the inversions. But with a little practice you’ll be able to make those movements easily. And with that practice, you will get faster at remembering which notes are included and which notes go where. The exercise can be blocked chords – Root — > 1st Inversion — > 2nd Inversion — > root (either the octave above or where you started – it’s up to you). Just remember to place, play, move, and place the next shape. When you’re solid on these blocked chords you’ll be ready to move onto broken or arpeggiated versions.

Once you’re comfortable with the inversions themselves, you can start inserting them into tunes you already know. Replace your same ol’-same ol’ root chords with the inversion you like and listen to the difference. Play around – you can also get out of the inverted triad and use ideas that might come up as you play. You could use a 10th or play just the 3rd – you get the idea. Find the things you like and work them into the tunes you play.

What do you like best? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Travel is Broadening

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You already know that all of us are back from the Harpa Scotland 2019 Retreat. If the photos, videos, comments, and smiles are any indication – it was another brilliant success. Harpa is so much fun because it has a simple formula:

HARPA = 

amazing musicians + fantastic tour guide + incredible roadie = 

sharing music joy + enjoying each other + adventure!

You’ve heard the maxim that travel is broadening – and not just from delicious cakes and scones! As you travel with your harp, you develop or hone many sterling qualities including forbearance, faith and patience! Whether you like it or not, you must let go, trust the Fates, and be patient (outside the “Oversize Luggage” belt mostly!).

Most of us are control freaks (especially about our harps). Many of us do not know this about ourselves (or if we do, we underestimate).  Few things will test your mettle like traveling with your instrument and entrusting it to the TSA. And while American (airline) may hate guitars, I’m pretty sure it’s the TSA that hates harps. Or at least, hates harp cases. I qualify this, though, to say that although I have gotten my harp back partially latched or completely unlatched, it has always weathered the journey (Forbearance?  Faith?  Probably both).

But more than that, traveling with your harp opens doors you might not even know were there otherwise. We have been places we likely would have gone right by – simply because those places opened themselves up to the possibility of us playing there! We have never played anywhere dull. This openness on their parts helps us to be more open on our part – to see new things or to see familiar things differently (including toilets, refrigerators, and door locks!). And once we are opened, adventures appear around every bend.

Our trips are always small – this time we had seven. This allows us to go places often overlooked or bypassed. It also ensures we don’t travel as a band of tourists – simply observing, never venturing outside our comfort. But it also generates a community and engenders sharing with one another – we gel in ways that big groups never get. We become a traveling family, if ever so briefly. We share our experiences – and our cookies! And that sharing is part of the fun. And the more fun we have together, the more fun we find. And so it grows!

But perhaps the best bit is that we meet other people – in restaurants and cafes, at attractions, in our accommodations. We were invited along to a stramash by someone we met at one of our concerts. See how that works?! At the time we weren’t sure we knew what a stramash is, but we kinda thought we did, and we went along to it. It was a blast! We got to play tunes with local musicians, we heard some new ones, played some shared favs and heard some lovely singing. We got to share the joy of making music – in a fun, organic, very Scottish way! (Just to confirm, a stramash is a seisiun).  We met a delightful couple at a fish and chips restaurant…because they photo bombed one of our group selfies! It is these brief interactions punctuating the trip that not only make great memories, but really define good travels. While chatting with an audience member we learned of a museum that none of our research had unearthed. And later, once there, we met and chatted with more lovely locals and learned more than just looking at some displays would ever have wrought.

All that leads to learning more about yourself. You learn where your unknown assumptions and ignorances lie and have the opportunity to examine them. These assumptions and ignorances are not good or bad, but examining them means you can rethink their utility. I’m not talking about bigotry but rather biases like what we select for our concert program, how we introduce ourselves and our music to the audience, and how we meet them where they are when we perform (and appreciating when they’re not where we thought they’d be!). A small group also learns to accept more – the morning person must be patient while the not-morning person strives to not be cranky at the start of the day (and vice versa at the end of the day).  We help one another – with luggage, and art supplies, and fingering, and leftovers, and making tea (and more tea, and yet more tea!).

And best of all – each trip is different. The harp attracts all kinds – players and appreciators and audiences. We make lifelong friends and brief – but enriching acquaintances. Even if we return to a place, it is new, and we grow in it. And being invited back is a pleasure and a privilege.

So Harpa 2019 is in the books – an unqualified success. We’re all home, laundry cycled (mostly), gifts given, postcards received (mostly). And we look forward to the next time!

Once we sleep off our jetlag, we will start planning the next Harpa outing!

But we’re also finalizing plans for the 2020 Harp the Highlands and Islands trip – details coming soon. Would you like to be broadened (by travel and cakes)?  Want to be part of the action and first to know the details? Leave me a comment to that effect below!

PS: Photo credit for this week and last go to the Harpaniks and especially Donna Bennett, Therese Honey, and Robin Pettit.

Harpa 2019 wraps

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Harpa 2019 is drawing to a close and with that comes the big jumble of emotions – so much joy and discovery and laughter…and cookies!  And just a touch of sadness – another lovely vacation trip with new and old friends is in the books.  Memories to share and cherish, plans to mature for the next time and the gap of quiet once we have departed each other.

Harpa may not be what you think it is. It is likely so much more!  Yes, it is a vacation with friends and harps.  Yes, we tour and visit and chill.  We perform to help raise money for local charities, but mostly we perform because we love to!

But Harpa is also a spirit, a way of being, a way of life.  Harpaniks (as we affectionately refer to ourselves) seem to use our harps to frame our view.  We spend time looking at the world from many perspectives.  From behind the harp we see where we can touch the world, to delight an audience, to help a charity, to draw a smile or a tear.  From beside our harps we introduce people to our instruments and our amazing music.  With our harps we meet new people- at concerts but also at the local stromach (session) or in a fish and chips shop.  And from under our harps as we carry them from the airport, to and from venues, and everywhere in between, we see the kindnesses of strangers (sometimes after they gawp at us!) who have helped us get through airports and train stations, into and out of taxis and elevators.  And through all of this, in between times we share with each other – playing tunes, rehearsing, showing off.

All because we aren’t just people who play an instrument.  We love it!

Harpa is more than a vacation – it’s a way of seeing and being.  And we have looked and we have seen!  Of course, there is so much more to look at!

 

We are privileged to have helped others and by extension have made our lives a little better. We are grateful for the opportunity and we just had fun doing it!

 

 

And in our down time, we made art together, ate a lot and laughed a lot, from titters at lame jokes to the guffaws of funny stories and separate yet shared experiences.

Through it all we missed our founder, but she’ll be healed up and ready to go for the next time.  And we’re already thinking about what next time is going to look like.  Watch this space for updates.  And visit our Facebook page for more photos and videos.

Harpa is a concept and a state of mind – travel, friends, new things, old ties, and the music that binds us all… I cannot wait for the next one!  Want to join us? Leave me a message to learn more.

 

 

 

 

Harpa Retreat 2019 has begun!

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Harpa 2019 has started! We have all arrived in Scotland and are already having a blast. We are seven this time – five harpers and two appreciators, as well as David our intrepid guide and Heather, our harp-playing roadie. We are significantly missing our lead Harpanik. Beth Kolle, who founded Harpa, is home recovering from a demonstration of gravity and we are missing her terribly. But we press on, carrying the Harpa flag!

This year we decided that we would benefit from a “vacation from our vacation” type trip and began developing the Harpa Retreat concept. We came to Scotland because – well, Scotland!! We have two concerts for different charities scheduled. And we’re planning on more down time so we can really savor our time here, make art, jam and really enjoy each other musically, and just breathe. Because that can be the problem of a vacation – you go somewhere interesting, that you want to see and soak up, and share with friends, and really experience, and you spend some short but manageable time there. But you’ve spent a lot of money to get there and you want to see it all! And you really do try, but you can’t succeed and you get very tired trying! And worst of all, in all that trying, it’s easy to miss the very thing you went there for. So this year, we are trying to take it a little slower, to chill a little. So far it’s been a great idea!

We have just started yesterday and we have an amazing group. Our performers are Sue Richards, Therese Honey, Martha Hill, Donna Bennett, and me. Sue, Therese and I started a little early in Glasgow so we could meet some of the members of the Glasgow Branch of the Clarsach Society and share a workshop (which was just an incredible day – thanks to Gillian Fleetwood for making that happen!), see some great museums, and ride trains with harps.

We took a Preparatory photo to help explain to taxi people what we were looking to get into the cab . It didn’t help the planning, but was fun to take. Photo by Therese Honey – who is a much better photographer than I!

Why yes, you c-a-n get two harps into a cab, onto a train, still have fun and enjoy the ride! Another Therese photo – she’s good about taking them!

We all met up in Endinburgh and yesterday we set off on another adventure.

And yet another photo from Therese – she finds the best photos – just the way she looks at the world is amazing!  We had the easy job. David and Heather had to figure out how to get the harps into the vehicle – puzzle for the day.

We have been posting photos on Facebook here and on the FB Harpa group. Wish you were here! More later, we’re busy having fun!  Wish you could see Scotland through a harp?  Leave a comment and let me know!

 

PS – just like if you have more than one harp, you have a favorite, I have a favorite computing device…and I chose to travel with the other one, so please forgive any errors.  I’m blaming them on the #%~*^ ipad!