Don’t confuse your bloopers with everyone else’s highlights –

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I saw this quote a while ago and it grabbed my attention.  It really points out an activity many of us do – often without thinking or questioning.

You’ve been there – you are performing – at Carnegie Hall, at a local festival, in your church, for your cat – and you make a “unintended jazz improvisation”, an out of mode musical variation, an exciting opportunity to explore the entirety of the scale, a mistake!

In your head this diversion is accompanied by a cymbal clash, a thunderclap, and an accusatory glare from everyone within earshot.  You replay it in your head in a heart wrenching loop – you focus all your energy in reliving the moment. You play it in slo-mo.  You play it over and over and over.  You reconfirm all your fears that you are not a good harp player.

Picture1But then you make the real mistake – you point out to yourself that (insert your Harp Hero here) never makes those errors.  Your Harp Hero is perfect – you have never heard a wrong note emerge from HH’s harp!  It is not possible!

The mistake you make is to replay your blooper reel incessantly with the occasional quick glance to focus on someone else’s highlights reel.  You fuel your inner narrative that you are not now, nor will you ever be, as good as (insert Harp Hero here).

This is pointless and silly and you need to stop!  Next time you are in the presence of a Harp Hero – really listen.  It was incredibly freeing the first time I heard (and did not dismiss) my Harp Hero’s musical diversion – it helped me see that we are alike.  Ok, we are separated by years of experience and practice – but underneath all that – we both have bloopers and highlights –

So the next time its Bloopers Showtime in your head, make some popcorn and watch your “Funniest Home Videos”.

Then practice and gain experience – because you never know whose Harp Hero you might be!

Close your eyes…give me your hand

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Most harpers have some concept of the (likely romanticized) history of the harper – an important contributor to life in the home of the Laird, carrier of news, stories, lore, and intrigue, and provider of music for all events and perhaps for everyday living.  Likely you know that at some point harping was an excellent profession for the blind – a job that didn’t require being sighted to be excellent.  And of course, we have the Rory’s in history.  We are ever so slightly proud of that heritage.

So why then, do I so often hear, “Oh, I have to look!” or “I can’t play without seeing the strings” or some variation on these?   I’ve also hear, “I’ll make a complete mess of it if I don’t look!”Picture4

And you know what I’ll say to that – you simply need to practice to play without looking!  There are so many reasons to play without looking:

  • Candle light/poor lighting
  • Power cuts
  • Outdoor, dusk weddings
  • Poor or changing vision

But if you practice playing in low or no light situations you will see a number of improvements:

  • Your body will know where the notes are (and will learn that better than if you are always looking)
  • You’ll be more confident in a number of situations (listed above)
  • You don’t have to remember to carry a light (of course, this assumes you don’t need the music stand!)

If you need a little nudge to start playing in low light, start by practicing at dusk by natural light – and let the night come.  It will be very gradual.  You’ll learn this way that you can in fact play with little light.

Don’t get discouraged – you had to learn to play by looking – and this is no different…and enjoy – you’ll impress your harp friends too!

Get some exercise – three good reasons

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As the winter comes, we want to burrow in, swaddled in sweaters, nursing steaming cups of lovely tea.  And we’re likely, given the chill, to get some practicing in which is good given that ‘tis nearly the season and we’ll be asked to play more often.  The days are shortening, the nights getting deeper.

It would be easy to crawl back under the duvet, to snuggle in to our beds.  But all that snuggling and all that nestling needs to be combated.  For your general health and well-being you need to get a little exercise and some fresh air*.  And a little exercise and fresh air won’t be amiss in your playing either.

We’re not talking about running a marathon or training for the World’s Strongest Man competition.  You can just go for a short walk to gain a benefit.  There are three good reasons to get a little exercise this season:

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  1. The simple act of taking a walk outdoors in the winter will help lift your mood.  Evidence suggests that even 10 minutes of sunlight a day can help stave off seasonal affective disorder.
  2. A little time outside can invigorate you (and thereby, your practicing).  Think of it as a little wake from your potential long winter’s nap! A short walk can enhance your energy (again directly contributing to your practicing).
  3. A little extra exercise will also help exorcise those extra cookies that appear in the season and allow you a small measure of perceived virtue! And everything you do to take care of yourself will be reflected in your time at the harp.

So use these three good reasons to get a little light exercise outside, even as the winter deepens and the cold settles in – you’ll be glad of it when you sit at your harp – to practice, to share or to perform.

* Of course, this is not medical advice, nor should you pursue this approach if it is in direct contradiction to advice received from your physician.  This post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Duh.

You are what you think. Now get ready to change your mind.

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How do you think about yourself as a musician? A harp player? A performer? A person? Do you ever think about how what you think about you impacts the you that is present?

Are you open and accepting of yourself? How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk to anyone else that way?

Many of us talk to ourselves in a very negative way. But here are 7 ways to turn that around:

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  1. Make time during your practice to provide constructive feedback
  2. Make kind and gentle feedback comments to yourself in a positive way
  3. Write down your feedback….and read it again later
  4. Record yourself so you can provide more objective inputs at a later time and from a different perspective
  5. When you are not very nice to yourself, stop, correct yourself, and restate your thought in a positive, constructive way – the way you would to another person
  6. Take your time not only observing yourself and the way you think, but also to reconstruct the kernel of the original message in a positive and useful way.
  7. Lather, rinse, repeat!

You can change your mind by practicing reframing your comments to yourself.  And it will get easier…with practice!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas –

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It’s barely begun to cool down, the days have hardly gotten any shorter and the trees haven’t really begun to show their colors. It’s October! But it is also definitely time to start preparing for Christmas! From parties to church services, from fundraisers to celebrations, ‘tis the season to be asked to bring a little joy to people by playing for Christmas. Will you be ready? Here are 8 things you can do to be prepared this season:

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  • Start now – Christmas is right around the corner, but the holiday season is even closer. Holiday decorations had appeared in big-box retailers before Labor Day and the Christmas events will start after Thanksgiving if not before so you need to start now to be ready.
  • Make a preparation checklist – write down those things you need to do to be prepared (some of the items in this post might be helpful for that). Use your checklist to help yourself prepare.
  • Budget your time – be sure to manage your time effectively – refreshing tunes you’ve learned before, learning new material, whatever you need to spend your time on – arrange to have that time available.
  • Select your tunes – know what you are preparing for and use that information to generate a solid set of tunes (and specific tune lists).
  • Schedule practice – not kidding. The holidays are notorious for days filled up beyond reason, earlier than expected, and with way too much to do. Be sure to schedule your practice time in – or you won’t get any!
  • Use your practice time wisely – because your practice time will be at a premium, be sure you plan for that time so you can get the most out of every moment. No shillyshallying at the harp, no unfocused playing through – actually practice when you’re practicing.
  • Make notes for next year – some of your preparation will be very good, some will be no help whatsoever. Make notes to yourself for next year so have even better preparation in the future.
  • Enjoy yourself – the preparation is challenging, and the added stress of performing may get to you, but be sure to enjoy yourself. And also be sure to acknowledge any improvement in your performance, the level of difficulty of the music, the speed of refreshing tunes you had learnedin previous years – all those positive indicators that arise from your preparation.

Christmas comes but once a year – fortunately, it stays for a while and provides you a great opportunity to prepare and to play for family, friends, and customers.

Community Ties

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One of the things I like best about the harp community is that it is a community – with lovely people. There is a specific joy from coming together to share music and laughter and friendship and experiences. To that end, there is a lovely opportunity to get together with other harpers coming up soon. If you can make it, you should not miss the Washington Area Folk Harp Society Getaway (WAFHS).

The instructors this year are Seumas Gagne and Emily Mitchell.  The annual WAFHS Getaway weekend will be November 7-9, 2014 at the Wyndham Gettysburg hotel in Gettysburg, PA.

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Seumas Gagne and Emily Mitchell, photos unceremoniously snatched from www.wafhs.org

The registration fees are $105.00 for WAFHS members and $125.00 for non-members.  There is also a reduced rate for non-adutls (see the website).  There is a package deal with the host hotel that includes meals during the weekend (including the banquet).  Check http://wafhs.org/getaway for updates.

The Inspiration Club

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Jack London is quoted as saying, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Picture1

Every day we have to build our motivation to get onto that bench. Every day we have to work to maintain our proficiency and to get just a little bit better. Every day that we decide to skip sitting on the bench to do that work takes us a little farther away from what we want – in our heads and in our hearts. And every day a big something, or a hundred little somethings, get between us and that bench. And every day that we don’t make it to the bench makes the next day just a little easier to skip.

And so, every day, we have to get inspired, motivated to get on that bench. But, as Mr. London said, we cannot just sit idly by, awaiting the momentous arrival of that inspiration. Rather, we have to hunt for it…and some days, we need that club! We have to do not only the work that we set out to do, but we also have to do the additional work of digging in and finding our inspiration – the right fit for each day, and applying it to ourselves.

Some days the inspiration can be learning, another day it might be fear (the dreaded upcoming competition perhaps?), and on another day it might suffice to be the joy of being at your harp. The toughest days are those in which you can’t identify the right inspiration – but that can be just what you needed that day – some distance – but not distance from the harp!

So, don’t wait for inspiration to fall from the sky – make your own.  Apply it to your day – with (or without) a club! See you on the bench.

Friends don’t let friends play with bad technique

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Technique. Even the word makes us think, “Ugh, not that!”. It is almost the same as running out for the ice cream truck only to find it selling liver and onions!

But good technique is essential to playing well and to protecting your body. You can build good technique with, you guessed it, practice. Building good technique will allow you to get more out of you. And good technique is applicable to any instrument, not just harp. Here are five ways good technique is important to you:

  • Injury prevention – Musicians of all levels report nagging injuries. Many of these are overuse injuries and many can be prevented by good technique. Be sure to close and open your fingers, sit upright (also handy for breathing), be relaxed, keep your head up, etc.
  • Speed – we value fast playing but so many people get in their own way on the road to playing faster because of poor technique. Improving your technique will help you get faster.

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  • Agility – just like speed, so often people get in their own way because their poor technique has left their hand cramped, their arm glued to the sound board or their shoulders in their ears (either because of tension or their head is cocked).
  • Flexibility – I mean options – having good technique means that you’re in a position to have options should you experience a “jazz improvisation”. And that good technique will typically result in fewer of those experiences!
  • Improved practice time – most people don’t want to spend time on technique because it’s boring and they would rather get on to playing, but just a little time on technique will yield extensive benefit to the rest of your practice time.

Working on your technique may not be fun but it is fundamental. And building good technique is imminently easier (and less time consuming) than correcting bad technique later!  Spend just a little time each day and enjoy years of making music the way you want to!

Scotland is amazing!

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We are back from this year’s Harp the Highlands and Islands tour and did we have a great time! In fact, you could say we were “destined” to have an excellent experience.
Picture1We saw some iconic sites and learned some excellent tunes – right there where they spring from.

Picture2And then some of us were delighted to go on to the Cromarty Harp Village – WOW – so excellent I didn’t get any photos!

Watch this space, we’ll be posting the dates for next year soon – hope you’ll be able to join us.