Jenius Creations

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  • Put your music on a diet

    Do you ever get overwhelmed with the amount of music you are trying to learn?  Does it ever seem like you have too many tunes only partially learned and none of them are ever going to “get there”.  That you’ll never get the tunes down well enough to actually enjoy playing them?


    If so, maybe you need to put your music on a diet.  You know, cut back.  Only take in a little bit at a time.  Really savor those few tunes and sink your teeth into learning them, getting comfortable with them, and settling on your basic arrangement.


    This doesn’t mean that you don’t learn all the things you want to, it just means that you don’t stack 10 or 15 or 30 new tunes on your music stand.  You winnow that down to a manageable few and really work on those.  When you’re happy and comfortable with the first few you can add another couple on – and build up slowly.  And don’t forget to keep practicing the tunes you’ve just learned – otherwise you won’t get them into your fingers in a way that will get your comfortable enough to play them.



    This slow and gradual buildup of repertoire will allow you to enjoy the tunes you’re learning, fight overwhelm, actually learn the tunes, and have successes with your new tunes.  Unless, of course, you prefer that feeling of drowning in dots that can stem from not being able to play any of your tunes at all.  For me, I prefer to actually play tunes rather than swim in them.

  • Holiday Celebration

    It’s the Independence Day holiday here – celebrate!

  • Off to OSAS

    It is Ohio Scottish Arts School week!  Always a great week –  playing tunes we have learned before, learning new ones, staying up too late, practice, jamming, and a lot of laughter! 

    Each year we look forward to a week of learning from amazing tutors – this year is no exception with Corrina Hewat and Abby Palmer, Sue Richards Ann Heymann and Charlie Heymann bringing their unique perspectives and experiences…and wonderful tunes!  It’s difficult to not be effusive! 

    And there is the broader view, sharing and hanging out with other harpers as well as fiddlers, dancers, pipers, and drummers.  What looks like a fun jam session will also be a full rich opportunity to learn skills all musicians need, to practice musicality, adaptability, and flexibility.

    Start of last year – photo unceremoniously pinched from Steve Schack, a fellow OSAS alum
    (http://stevetheharper.blogspot.com/2012/06/ohio-scottish-arts-school-day-1.html)

    If you’ve been to OSAS before but weren’t able to come this year, be there in spirit by playing through the tunes from your summer and brush them up and remember the great times you had. 

    And if you’ve never been before, I sure hope you figure out a way to work it into your schedule next year.  It is not just a learning experience but also just  FUN!

    I’ll trying to remember to take photos to share with you – but sometimes I get too caught up in the fun so no promises!  Thanks for understanding!  See you soon.

  • Keeping track

    It is very easy to stay I am forward looking.  We are often suckered into only looking forward without equally considering our progress.  This is not a very good way to go about assessing one’s progress in any endeavor.  It can also become discouraging.

    So, how does one overcome this?  How do you collect information on progress (without swelling your own head with details of only successes)?  Here are three ways to collect useful documentation of your development that will help you not only improve but also assure you you’re not wasting your time (oh, come on, we’ve all had that feeling on particularly bad days!):

    1.      Journal – keep a record of your practice and performance.  Make notes about your (honest) assessment of your practice, things that have gone well and not so well, what you would like to focus the next time.  Use what you write to help you.

     
    2.      Record – this is fairly foolproof – record yourself (you can use your phone!) and listen…and learn.

     
    3.      Perform – this is a double edged sword…there is a lot of focus in performing and it isn’t necessarily on collecting useable feedback.  However, there is feedback everywhere – accept the comments you receive and weight those carefully against your overly accurate accounting of any inconsistencies you might have had.

     

    Any way you select, be sure to make careful assessment of not only where you’re going but the path you have followed to get there. 

  • Harpa 2013

    I am so fortunate – lucky really – to have participated in the 2013 Harpa Tour.  It was a wonderful opportunity to travel and work with some amazing musicians. I’m back now and still reveling in the glow of memories.

    Here are just a couple of photos (which the other performers shared on facebook) that really sum up the fantastic vibe we had going – a great group, a lovely place, and lots and lots and lots of tunes!

    Isn’t just playing for fun the point!
     
    Of course playing for an audience is a real joy too!

    We had a successful kickstarter campaign and warm appreciative audiences at every venue.  What more could you ask! 

    Look for the CD later this summer! There will also be a DVD that will be a snapshot of the fun we had.  While Beth says never again – I think you might be surprised…

    If you’re looking to have your own Harp Adventure this year – there isn’t much time remaining to get in on the Harp the Highlands and Islands tour! Go to http://www.jeniuscreations.com/harp-tours-of-scotland/tour-2013/ for details and information. 

  • Regulation Nation

    Just as important as it is to take care of ourselves, we need to care for our instruments.  This includes a lot of small things like carrying insurance, keeping an even temperature and humidity in the room, and tuning frequently

    But it is also important to do the longer term maintenance.  Yup, we’re talking about Regulating your harp.  Although it sounds mysterious, regulation is simply “tuning up” or “calibrating” your levers (or discs if you’re of that persuasion) so that you get equally dulcet tones on an open string or an occluded string.

    How do you know its time to regulate? Listen to your harp – it will tell you !  If when you are well tuned on open strings and you then set your levers and you are out of tune – it’s time.  Don’t put it off, do not pass Go, just get your harp regulated…and enjoy all your notes!

    You can do it yourself or take your harp to a qualified luthier – whichever approach you want is good as long as you follow it!

  • Saw you on Facebook

    We all know we need to practice every day if we want to improve and grow and expand our technique, repertoire, and performance.  But it is so hard to find time to practice…and soon an entire week has gone by and you haven’t even looked at your harp.

    I was chatting with someone recently and in our catching up she was telling me how busy she was and also that she wasn’t seeing any improvement in her harp playing. 

    There’s a lot going on.  We are all busy.  We have work, and home, and friends…and harp.  And it is difficult to fit practicing in every day.  And she’s not getting any better.

    The kicker is, we were chatting on Facebook where she is a frequent poster*.  She always has time to post on Facebook and spends a great deal of time online each day.  I don’t know how she does it – keeping all the balls in the air!

    I’m not denying anyone time on Facebook (or any other activity) – clearly I was on Facebook too since we were chatting.  It was the complaint about the lack of progress in the face of the very time consuming (and non-productive) activity that I found interesting.

    In each day, in each moment, we choose how we spend our time.  As harpers we have chosen a beautiful, forgiving but demanding instrument.  It is a hobby or profession that requires much of us to move on and develop.  We either choose to work hard to get that reward or we must recognize that we do not get the prize without the fight.  The rewards are great – but the price is high. 

    Does your ideal match your schedule?

    * before you think it was you, this is actually a composite of people and conversations I have had recently – it’s not you, really, it’s someone else J

  • Checking in

    So, it’s about the middle of the year (already!) –

     
    how are you coming on your goals?  Give them the tune-up they probably need…and keep moving toward them!

  • Getting Ready for Summer Camp

    We talked before about getting ready for all the exciting summer harp happenings – very important stuff – you want to get as much as possible out of these learning opportunities!

    But what about your harp?  Is it ready to get schlepped all over the place?  Going out of its home?  Going for a ride in the car?  What can you do to improve your harp’s travel life?
     

    Getting schlepped is just a fact of many harps’ lives – yours may go everywhere with you or it may almost never leave the house.  Either way, make sure your harp case is ready to go –

    • Clean up your case –
    • remove the cat or dog hair (you know who you are!), pull the detritus out of the pocket
    • put your key and tuner and extra strings in the pocket
    • put the shoulder strap (or straps if you have a backpack-able case) on the ring
    • untwist the handles so you can comfortably carry it
  • Clear out your car –
    • make sure there’s a place to put your harp in your car
    • ensure that your harp is in a place that is safe for you and your harp in the event of an accident
  • Check the weather –
    • the challenge of traveling a long distance in the heat means you have to think about keeping your harp cool and out of the sun
    • going out of the house in the summer guarantees you’ll have to tune (a lot) if it is very humid where you are or where you are going

    Show your harp a little travel love and it will make your learning go more smoothly by assuring that you don’t have to stress over damaging your harp while you travel!

  • Preparing to go to Camp!

    Many of us get to spend at least part of our summer participating in Harp activities.  We have discussed some of them here.  I think we all really look forward to the excitement of seeing old friends, meeting new people, playing together and more.

    But one of the biggest challenges for us is to be fully prepared. We spend our precious free time and our money to go so it is really important that we be prepared to get as much from each event as we can. Here are five ideas to help you get more from your harp activities:

     

    1.       Increase your daily practice time – even a weekend workshop has a lot more playing time that your average practice session.  Summer always seems to sneak up on us – so start increasing your practice time from now so you won’t have to ramp up quickly and get hurt.

    2.       Increase your stretching – as much fun and as fatiguing as these activities are they still involve a lot of sitting – at the harp, at meals, while chatting.  So start increasing the amount of time you stretch each day – that way you will have developed the habit before you need it at a workshop.

    3.       Increase your listening – many of the folk harp events have an emphasis on the oral tradition and learning by ear.  Learning this way takes practice so don’t let your hard earned ability to learn languish in the winter – practice learning by ear from cds or other people playing.

    4.       Take care of yourself – start now getting enough sleep, eating carefully and taking some exercise so you have the stamina to get through the long days of harp activities.

    5.       Have a plan – before you even get to the venue have a good idea what you would like to learn and how you will go about acquiring that knowledge.  Do not wait until you arrive to select the workshops you’d like to attend or even to find out who’s teaching.  Know what you came for.

    There’s so much to learn, with a little time and effort now by the time the summer season kicks off, you’ll be more than ready!