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  • Practice made simple – Make and Keep a Schedule

    I’m always nattering on at you about how important practice is – for lots of reasons. And you probably laugh and think (or say out loud?) “easy for you – that’s what you do for a living!” Well, let’s pull that thread, shall we?

    First, like you, I have a life – a home and house that need care and tending. And perhaps like you, I’m not big on housework or tending to anything! But these things must be done. Groceries, call my Mom, laundry, prune the dog, take out the trash – it’s all there.

    Second – only in my dreams do I have all day to play the harp! Yes, I’m a professional, so yes, it is work and it is a business. And yes, that means I often get trapped in Administrivialand – doing paperwork, making phone calls, sending email.  On the package its all flowers and hearts, but on the inside, it’s still work! Booking students, gigs, networking, advertising, blogging, website maintenance, teaching students, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera*.

    Third – I have a day job too – just like you. With its commutes and joys and challenges.

    And somewhere in there – I still need to fit in practicing. So, how to do that?  I find a schedule is very very helpful. But you need more than that. You need to keep the schedule. And in doing that you will allow yourself to meet some other gates as well:

    • You will be better able to focus – this is time you have set aside, so you don’t need to be thinking about how it’s time to wash the dog or vacuum the garden. Focus on your practicing.
    • You will have built in time for self-evaluation – because you have dedicated time, you can apportion it to include self-evaluation. Are you playing as well as you’d like? If not, how should you change your practice to improve? If you are playing as well as you’d like – what should you take on as a new challenge?
    • You will have time to get stuff done – because you have identified time to work, you won’t have to just “cross stuff off the list” but rather, you can bear down and work on individual elements of your playing until they are smoothed out while you also identify other things that need work.
    • You will have time to be generous – to yourself (and by extension others) you will have dedicated time to play more fluidly so you can be more comfortable while performing, all the while learning to be nice to yourself as you progress and develop as a harper.
    • You will have time to schedule for your best – you control your schedule so you decide when to practice. If you’re not a morning person, do not bother scheduling your practice for 6am! It’s your day, if you need to practice from midnight – do it! Just be sure you work with yourself. And be flexible – if you need to change the schedule, change the schedule!
    • You will have built in time to capture everything – be sure to include journaling and recording as part of your practice time. They need to be – and if you plan them that way, they will get done.
    • You will have built in time to be creative – creativity requires time and tools and time – if you add creativity time into your practice – you will have the time!

    That is a lot to schedule in so it’s important to remember that there are seven days in a week. You don’t have to do the same thing every day.

    Having a schedule means that you can have hard days and easy days, days that focus on a specific thing and days when you “play around”. Having a schedule means that you know which days are which, and that you are actually getting to all the things you have identified as important.

    Be prepared to do work when you have scheduled it and include some “free time” to enjoy yourself! And what could be more simple than that?

    * be the first to identify  the source of this quote in a comment for a prize!

  • Do you smell that? Ten ways to make it through the Dog Days of Summer

    It’s summer. Ok, it’s epically hot (or maybe it’s epochally hot) – after all, it is August. One might argue that it is most augustly August. One thing is for certain – it is one of those times in the year when it is challenging to get motivated to do work.

    I get it. It’s a bit of a lull – school hasn’t started, the holidays are forever away (ha!), everyone is on vacation or wishing they were on vacation – and working hard just is not appealing. And these are the Dog Days of summer. Despite all this, we don’t want to our playing to stink – to smell like something left over from the Dog (days ????). So maybe take a moment for something better – take time to smell the roses.

    Huh? What does smelling the roses have to do with playing the harp? Nothing. And everything!

    When it’s too hot to even think about sitting down and doing the work – maybe you need to not. Maybe it is better to take the time to smell the roses (of your harp playing) if only to remember why you even do the work. After all, if you aren’t motivated, you’re not going to get much work done anyway. And a lot of us do this for fun (even though it can be work) – so it’s important to, on occasion, remember what it is you enjoy about it.

    Maybe you need to give yourself a mini-vacation to beat the heat.  If you do need a vacation – here are ten ways you can give yourself a little break, to take time to smell the roses here at the height of the dog days:

    1. Just start playing – then see what comes of it. I get it, simply getting started is difficult. Because – ugh. Even with the air conditioner on, you are facing sticking to the bench, sweating on the soundboard, having your fingers feel tacky on the strings. So, maybe, just sit down for 10 minutes. That’s quick enough to be done before the sweat starts to drip. Just feel your harp, hear the sweetness, and smell the wood….
    2. Rest when you need it. As I mentioned above – school will be starting, and the holidays are coming – and you’ll be inundated with life before you know it – so set this time aside to get a little rest.  It will help you enjoy being at your harp to practice so much more when you’re ready to start up again.
    3. Make a list – so you don’t forget what you wanted to do. Especially if you are resting – that doesn’t mean you’re not thinking. Use the rest time away from the harp to think – about what you are playing, what you’d like to be playing, what skills you need to work on (really – be honest – are your arpeggios smooth and flowing? Are your glisses accurate? You know what I mean – there’s always something that needs work!). Capture that in a list so you can be focused when you are ready to buckle down after your break.
    4. Replan. We were very careful to not set goals this winter but you have had half the year to progress – are you on target? You can take this time to evaluate if you’re doing the things you think you need to do to make progress to get when you’d like to be.
    5. Indulge yourself. Yes, this could be pack it in and get a cookie. Or you could simply play what you want – play things you know well, or things you haven’t played in a while, or things that just make you smile.
    6. Switch it up. Switching up can take a number of forms – you could turn your practice “upside down” (do all the activities backwards – end with exercises, start with polishing). You could take your practice in 10-minute segments throughout the day. You could practice at some other time of the day than you usually do. Just do something different to help you bring fresh perspective to your playing.
    7. Take a walk. I know, I’m always telling you to go for a walk. So maybe actually do it this time!
    8. Read a book. You can learn so much away from the harp. There are prose books about the harp (have you read Tree of Strings? Or Pentacle: The Story of Carlos Salzedo and the Harp?) and about music (have you read Lies My Music Teacher Told Me?). Learning new things might help you learn your music more quickly, or better, or just bring a new feel to your playing.
    9. Go shopping – buy some new music! Take yourself out for a music spree. Buy some new downloads or some sheet music – having something to look forward to will be fun.
    10. Smell the roses – literally! Buy yourself some flowers for your harp room! Brighten up the space. Enjoy the scent and sight while you’re playing. Try to play the flowers (make an improv that reflects what you see, what you smell, how you feel). Alternately – find some while you’re out walking.

    No reason to let the Dog Days of summer be the dog doo days. Smell the roses, treat yourself gently, and enjoy the time when you maybe don’t feel like playing. What other things do you do to help motivate yourself through these doldrums? I’d love to hear from you – I can always use new tips to avoid slacking.

  • Technical Ecstasy

    I’m sure that your teacher has exhorted you to work on your technique. I have too. And hopefully, you too, urge yourself to work on developing, strengthening, and enhancing your technique.

    I know I have, on many occasions over the last few years (ok, way more than a few). And we all know that technique is central to playing. It is essential to growing and developing as a player. And while you might see a brilliant musician play with less than exemplary technique, those tend to be rarer than not. While you might aspire to play like that person – you could just smarten up your technique – so you don’t have to work so hard to pull it off!

    So, I’m sure we are agreed – Technique is important!

    Technique is important – but you have to watch carefully that you make music!

    Technique is important – but you have to watch carefully that you make music!

    I’m not going to debate that.

    However….

    Technique is not where we make music!

    W – H – A – T?!?!?

    You read that right – and I mean it! Technique is not where you make music. Technique is the hard work you do so that your ability to play becomes effortless. It is a tool – a means to an end.

    I once saw a video of a cellist making an A440*. There he sat, tuner on the floor just below the cello, playing an A over and over – watching the needle on the tuner, working (very hard) to make an A accurately, consistently, repeatedly. [Note: this video also made me so grateful to play the harp where we set and forget (sort of) our tuning. I’m delighted that the pitch part of the intonation is not part of the deal!]

    By the end of the video, it was clear that the work on technique had helped to play better. But it was also clear that it was not music. It was carefully executed sound.

    Because music isn’t just sound (yes, I know you already know that, but it bears repeating). It has been said that the music actually happens in between the notes.

    What?!

    Music is not just the notes. It is not just putting noise into the air. Music includes putting in the silences, the spaces in between. It also includes adding the breathing, the inflections, the dynamics, the pulse, the tempo. It includes all the shading, highlighting, and storytelling you can get in there!

    Of course, you can see that your good technique will make it easier for you to do all those things. Technique is necessary but not sufficient to achieve making music. I’m sure you have all heard some people who play technically accurately but with no music. They achieve Technical Ecstasy (with apologies to Black Sabbath). They try to master the music, but instead the music (typically via the tyranny of the dots) has mastered them. In fact, when you see these performances or hear these recordings, you have no doubt that all the notes have been delivered – but you are left empty – hungry for and bereft of the feelings you get from a lesser (technically) performance delivered with heart.

    So, I encourage you to continue to work on technique (of course) but also to devote practice time to breaking out and rendering music – not just notes. This is easiest if you record yourself to reveal what is coming out of you – and working on that too.

    After all, technical ecstasy won’t give you music, but music may just lead to ecstasy, technically!

    * I wish I could remember who that cellist is – I’d give credit if I could!

  • Contributing to the diversity of a minor

    So, now you know that the minor scale is related to the major scale in that it uses the same notes but starts instead on the sixth. And you know, from your playing, that the minor scale is used a great deal. Although in modern western music the minor scale is considered dark, sad, lamenting, etc. earlier in western civilization the scale was considered happy. Things change.

    The minor scale remains a very useful convention. But what you might not know is that one of the things that the minor brings is diversity – there are a number of minor scales.  Yikes! But with a little bit of explanation, you’ll soon understand (and be able to use) the different types of minor scales.

    First, there are different minors! And there are terms that can be confusing. But once you get the lay of the land, you’ll be able to participate in those high-falutin’ music conversations with anyone!

    There are the relative minor, the natural minor, the parallel minor, the harmonic minor, and the melodic minor. First off, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. Sort of like the Future Perfect Continuous Conditional verb tense – it sounds terrifying but you use it all the time (I would have been practicing…). Like last week, now, we’re just learning the formalized rules. So, here we go! We’ll work from C major (again, because with no sharps or flats, it’s easy to see and write). 

    Relative minor. On the harp this is the easy one. Start at the root of the major scale and walk your way to the sixth of the scale. If you’re lazy (and flexible), you’ll just go down three (in our example, from the C go down to the A) and start the scale from there (of course, you can also go up to the a above and start there). Because you’re clever, you’ve already figured out that this is the Aeolian scale that we talked about last week. The intervals in this scale are: W(whole), H (half), W, W, H, W, and W and the notes of the scale are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. This is also referred to as the Natural minor. 

    Parallel minor. This minor scale is “parallel” because it starts on the same note as major scale in consideration. In our C example, the parallel minor starts on C – so you can already see that something else will have to change – we are going to have to engage some levers. The intervals in this scale are W, H, W, W, H, W, and W, while the notes of the scale are: C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, and B♭. You’ll see that the key signature has three flats. Let’s think that one through. That means that this is the relative minor of E♭! 

    Harmonic minor. This scale is close to, but different from, the relative (or natural) minor. In this scale you raise the 7th up ½ step. The intervals are W, H,W, W, H, W+H, H (you can see the “big jump” going to the raised 7th).  In our example working from the C major scale, the notes become A, B, C, D, E, F, and G#. This scale allows you develop some delicious harmonies when you use it to build up the chords for the scale. 

    Melodic minor. Ok, there’s no way to dress this one up – it’s a little bit challenging to understand and to remember because going up the scale is different than coming down!  Except when it doesn’t. It is often expressed that for the melodic minor, on the way up the scale the 6th and 7th are raised. But on the way down, scale goes back to “normal” (with the 6th and 7th lowered). In this case the intervals are W, H, W, W, W, W, and H on the way up and W, W, H, W, W, H, and W on the way down. For the A minor scale, the notes would be A, B, C, D, E, F#, G# on the way up and on the way down, the scale is A, G, F, E, D, C, and B (you’ll see that it goes back to the natural minor). Of course, some of the weird comes because sometimes the scale is the same up and down. You might hear that this is a jazz scale – and it is, but it is also quite present in classical music as well. In addition, you might find that sometimes this scale is played the same in both directions. I told you it was a bit challenging.

    Play with these scales. Really give them a working through so that you can find what you like and what you think you can use. The diversity in these versions of the minor scale will give you plenty to work with as you work through tunes and as you develop arrangements – you’ll be delighted with the things you find!

  • In the Mode – Useful theory

    Ok, first, let’s be honest – simply saying “Music Theory” in a room may cause you to come out with no friends. Most people don’t like theory. They don’t understand theory. They probably don’t actually know anything about theory, but they have heard the stories…and those stories are terrifying!

    But really, theory is just a way to have a common language to talk about music. Think of it as the “English Class” of music. It’s where all the rules and conventions are held so that you don’t have to find out the rules every time you use them (or abuse them). And, of course, if you’re a rule-breaker, that’s bad. But if you know the rules and elect to bend them, that’s avant guard!

    So, knowing the rules becomes a first step. You don’t have to learn theory by sweating over a badly written book. In fact, some of the best theory lessons can come right at your harp. But you’ll be faster at learning all the rules if you use a mixed approach of reading about it and sitting at your instrument and exploring.

    Melody is one of the basic elements of music.  Melodies are built from scales. So, it can only help to know what the scales are. This is where some of you will be shuddering – because you know I’m about to talk about…modes (dun-dun-duhhhh).

    The modes have a rich (and depending on who you read, varied) history. Much of this history is interesting. And it doesn’t seem to have much to do with music today. But we do still use the names.

    Modes are not really that mysterious. They really are just variations of a scale. Let’s work in C for this example (everything will be applicable to any scale – but C doesn’t require a lot of #s and bs!).

    Think of what we call the C Major Scale. It consists of: C D E F G A B. The relationships of the interval are either whole steps (W) or half steps (H). Therefore this scale is: W W H W W W H and it is called the Ionian mode.

    BLAHBLAHBLAH, yeah, we know that.  This is a good time to bring your harp in so you can play along at home.  If you have a piano (or keyboard or piano app) this might be easier to visualize.

    So, if you started on the D instead, now the scale is: D E F G A B C and the interval relationships become W H W W W H W. It’s a totally different sound – and it’s called Dorian. It sounds sort of “jazzy”.

    And if you started on the E, now we’re at E F G A B C D. The intervals are H W W W H W W and we call it Phrygian. This scale sounds a little dark.

    Starting on the F we get: F G A B C D E and the intervals are W W W H W W H which gives us the Lydian mode which is pretty peppy.

    If we begin on G the scale becomes: G A B C D E F and W W H W W H W. This is the Mixolydian mode – and for those playing Scottish and Irish traditional music, it probably sounds very familiar – it has the flatted 7th that we’re so used to hearing.

    By starting on the 6th we get: A B C D E F G with intervals W H W W H W W. This may also sound hauntingly familiar – this is what we usually call “minor” – it is the Aeolian mode.

    The last mode is the Locrian – it begins on the 7th: B C D E F G A, and the intervals are: H W W H W W W. This mode is just weird (to us) and you don’t hear many songs in that scale typically because it doesn’t resolve which we don’t really like in western music (of course, other cultures have different scales and many include “unresolving” scales that we might shy away from).

    No one scale is “better” than another, although you might prefer the sound of some over others. And that’s ok – music is a cultural thing so what you’re used to will likely sound better to you than something that is new and different.

    Spend some time on your harp playing with these scales – see what you like. Keep at it and see if what you like changes over time, as you become more familiar with the sounds of the “different” scales. Once you get used to hearing and thinking about these, you might be more inclined to look for them or to use them. Later we’ll talk about the chord progressions that might set these different scales off if you use them for a melody. Keep practicing and the theory will work its way into your brain!

  • Work

    I am spending this week at an engineering conference. No, it is not as boring as it sounds. Yes, there are lots of very cool and interesting people there. The first session I went to was what I think of as a “hero round”. There were a few speakers who have “made it”. That is, they are recognized as being at the top of their respective heaps (in fact, that is why they were invited to come).

    They gave interesting talks that shared glimpses of challenges they have faced, how they continued to grow, what they liked best and least about working their way up. It was fairly inspiring. They were asked questions about glass ceilings, impediments, and pratfalls that might have befallen them.

    Interestingly, their answers were similar and focused.

    They both talked about the importance of doing the work.

    They talked about knowing their stuff.

    About having their fundamentals firmly in hand.

    About spending time to get their ducks in a row – whether they thought they had to prove themselves or if they already had command of the room.

    They also talked about the importance of continually learning.

    They talked about sometimes failing – and how much they learned in those instances.

    All of those things really resonated – because no matter what you do, it matters.

    Whether you are a professional or a hobbyist – it matters.

    When you do the work, when you know your stuff – you are more comfortable when it’s your turn to play.

    When you do the work, you get your fundamentals in hand – and the work becomes easier.

    When you do the work, continued learning is a joy and adds to your baseline. And you learn more quickly and possibly more thoroughly.

    And really – how much work is it? We play a beautiful instrument that (at least to the people I talk to) we really enjoy playing. Even when it’s hard. Even when we don’t have it quite right. Even when we think e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e else is better, more experienced, more competent than we are – we still enjoy playing.

    So, keep playing. Enjoy. Savor learning and growing and experiencing.

    Now, GET BACK TO WORK!

  • Happy July 4th

  • OSAS 2018!!

    Having too great a time at Ohio Scottish Arts School 2018 – the 40th Anniversary to spend too much time writing!  Here’s a quick snap of some of the goings on*.  So delighted and privileged to work with such fantastic and talented people.  Pinch me – it’s totally real!

    Snaps of Ohio Scottish Arts School 2018 – 40th Anniversary. Teaching with Sue Richards, Seumas Gagne, and Gillian Fleetwood.

    Start planning for next year!

    *Special thanks to Therese Honey for many of these photos!

  • Harp the Highlands and Islands Trip 2018 Wrap-up

    Well, we have completed another Harp the Highlands and Islands Trip.  We’re all still basking in the glow of the fun times and new friends we developed while we were in Scotland.  And of course, we’re all weathering the shocked feeling of returning to “real life”.

    We did have a great trip – good weather (for the most part), wonderful venues visited, joy and celebration together with new friends and old.  It was a blast!

    Here are a few more photos that help capture the fun we had:

    This is perhaps my favorite bathroom in all of Scotland – come with us next time to see it for yourself! We enjoyed visiting Glenfiddich Distillery – they give a really good tour.
    The sky is always breathtaking and we enjoyed the brief stop at Fort George before heading to Cawdor Castle but Clava Cairns were also a hit!
    We were privileged to have our harp event for the day in the magnificent dining room of Ballindalloch Castle. More sky – because, well, just look at it!
    On the last day there, even the sky looked sad – and we pass the Edinburgh sign, going the other direction…can’t wait ’til the next time!

    Wish you had been able to come with us?  Well, don’t despair – we’re already planning the next trip – watch this space for updates.

  • Harp the Highlands and Islands Trip 2018 Halftime report

    We’re about half the way through our trip – and as always the weather has been good, the sites have been great and our people are fantastic!  We’ve already shared some wonderful tunes as well as some delightful meals!  Here’s a peek:

    Wish you were here!