Happy Christmas…to YOU!

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It’s that time of year – the run up to the holidays.  Everyone is stressed!  If you are like most people you are way behind in your shopping, your decorating, your baking, and possibly running short of good will toward your fellow man. 

In the midst of what is, for most people certainly, chaos, it is important for you to take a little time for yourself.  Do something you enjoy.  Breathe.

Why don’t I feel like that?

If you’re reading this, it is likely that you find playing your harp to be a great way to take some time for yourself…as long as you are not preparing for a gig or struggling to play a piece of music you find challenging.  This is a great time to play those Christmas carols you love, the tunes you know really solidly, and to indulge in the simple pleasures of the easy tunes (Twinkle, anyone?).

Take some time to remind yourself why you play.  Use it as a time to fall in love with your harp again (especially if the two of you haven’t been seeing eye to eye when your stress level has increased!).  Play barefoot to let the vibration tickle your feet! Just play with your harp – and enjoy.

And if what is best for you is to take a little time away from your harp – do that.  Read a book, take a walk, bake come cookies.  Do something you enjoy just for the joy of it – to help refresh yourself.  You know the new year will bring new goals and challenges – so take a breather now!

Christmas shopping?

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Are you looking for just the right gift, one that will fit perfectly, amaze the recipient and thereby delight you?  Looking for that perfect gift that a harper or harp-lover will enjoy immensely? 

Give the gift of travel –
Come with us on the 2013 Harp the Highlands and Islands Tour! 

We will be traveling in September which is a wonderful time of year – long beautiful days and lovely tunes to share.  All the information is available on http://www.jeniuscreations.com/harp-tours-of-scotland/.

Need more inspiration or a good reason to go?  Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6chtMBxLFug – this isn’t a my video, but it made my heart go pitter-pat and I can barely wait to go to Scotland.  I hope you’ll join us!

Where do good ideas come from?

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It’s that time of year when you need a good idea – at the holidays we play the same music over and over.  It’s the same music everyone else is playing for the same holiday celebrated every year.  It is tradition but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring.  So it is essential that we do something to make the tunes fresh – so our listeners can bear to hear them again and so we can bear to play them again.  But where do those good ideas come from?
 


Everyone knows that good ideas come from the shower!

There’s something about taking a shower that seems to steam open the pores of creativity.  Actually while it isn’t the shower itself, there are a number of elements that you can recreate to get to the same outcome:

1. Easy tasks that are repetitive and require no thinking.  These tasks allow your mind to wander into more interesting areas – and that seems to help you come up with ideas.  You can do the same thing taking a walk, knitting, or practicing scales.  Set yourself up to let your mind wander – wash dishes (or your car), take that walk, or get in the shower!

2. Quiet (ok the shower isn’t really all that quiet, but it is relatively quiet).  Be quiet in quiet – turn off the radio while driving, be outdoors, or find another way to have some quiet to let your mind be quiet – the quiet seems to attract new ideas.

3. Time alone – ‘nough said.  Even the most lovely people can be a distraction (caveat – sometimes they can also be an inspiration – there are no rigidities here!)

4. No expectations – you don’t go into the shower thinking that by the end of the shower you will have developed a completed composition (or solved world hunger).  Be fanciful – in effect you can have your own brainstorming session with no idea rejected until a later phase.

So, if you need help to generate good ideas for arrangements for Christmas music, generate a virtual shower: and (this is important) capture the outcomes (so you can build on them).  If you are actually in your shower, you can use a grease pencil or water based marker to write on the tile or just keep singing a motif to yourself!

Stealing ideas from the knitters again!

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You might know that I have a real like for knitting.  Of course, it doesn’t show in my knitting because I very unreasonably expect to be able to knit like a pro with no practice or experience!  However, this does not blind me to the great philosophy, knowledge, or understanding that knitters have and share.

I have stolen ideas from my wonderful local knitting lady, Ellen, before and I’m going to do so again!  She recently wrote about muscle memory and how people who haven’t knitted in a long while can, once they get started, knit “from memory” because their hands haven’t forgotten how, even if their mind tells them they have.

We have the same thing you know.  It is called muscle memory – when your hands remember how to play a tune the rest of you is pretty sure you’ve forgotten.  I’m sure you have had the experience of playing a tune you haven’t played in a long while.  You sit and try to find it, and (if you’ve well learned it) it comes back out with just a little coaxing.  This is your muscle memory (ok, it is a little more complicated than that – you’ll also need your auditory memory, but we’ll save that for another time). 

How do you build muscle memory?  You already know what I’m going to say – Practice!

But (just as the knitters would tell you) you also have to be mindful – let yourself pay attention to where you are in the world and in relation to your harp and the strings – how does your elbow feel? where are your fingers? how are you breathing?

One way to help focus on these muscle elements of playing is to practice with your eyes closed. It might be painful at first – you might be so used to looking that you might believe you can’t play without looking – but you’d be wrong! Closing your eyes really lets you focus on how your body feels. It will also make repeating those feelings (building the muscle memory) easier.

Trust yourself to know where your harp is and where the tune is on the harp. 
Of course, practice helps you develop and build that trust!

If you think you can’t go cold turkey playing without looking, I’d suggest practicing by a window at the gloaming.  Let the night come while you keep playing.  Eventually, you will be playing in the dark – just like if you had your eyes closed (this is also especially helpful for preparing for gigs at candle lit weddings and restaurants in grottoes!).

At first, it will be challenging. Start small – playing tunes you know extraordinarily well without looking.  Eventually add more of your repertoire.  Soon you’ll be able to learn tunes without looking at your harp (or your hands – trust me, they are right there at the ends of your arms, no need to watch them!).  But if you keep at it you will get better and you will build strong muscle memories that will allow you to play even things you think you have forgotten!

Did you get what you came for?

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I’m still on a high from the Washington Area Folk Harp Society Getaway that was held at the beginning of the month.  It was well executed and brilliantly taught.  The only negative comment I have is that the instructors were all so good and had so much great stuff to share that I had a really hard time trying to select which workshops to attend!

Workshops and other learning opportunities are like that – there’s so much to learn and so little time to learn it all.  The number one thing we have to do to really get the most out of a workshop is to be open to learn whatever the tutor is prepared to teach.  

That can be quite a challenge.  Don’t let these things get in your way:

  • Sometimes you’re not ready to learn what is on offer.  Just because you’re not ready doesn’t mean that you won’t learn something useful.
  • Sometimes you don’t have the ability to keep up – don’t get focused on being frustrated at what you can’t do yet, but rather focus on the concepts that are being shared.
  • Sometimes you just can’t keep up – again, don’t get frustrated.  And believe the instructor who says it’s ok if you don’t get it all right now – you have time later to come back to it.
  • Sometimes you don’t understand what was being said.  It is really hard to learn concepts if you don’t have the vocabulary yet.  Of course, the best way to build your musical vocabulary is to learn what things mean be being taught.
  • Sometimes, it just isn’t a good time to be learning – if you’re tired, stressed, or focused on other things – just sit in the workshop and absorb.  And enjoy the social aspect – nothing wrong with that!

What I find interesting though, is how much I have learned – even when I thought I wasted my time (and the instructors!).

I often say many things when I’m teaching – I talk a lot!  I have a lot to share and I want to give it all to the students!  I can tell by the looks on people’s faces if they understand what I’m saying (and when they do not).  And I typically tell them that it is ok to not “get” what I say – just listen.  All that good stuff is going in. Even if you don’t understand what is said.  Or you understand the words but don’t know what to do with the information.
Just hang on to that knowledge.  When you’re ready it will suddenly become clear – what it meant, how to use it, why you didn’t get it until now.
And don’t be frustrated if you leave thinking, “I didn’t learn a darn thing I wanted to!”  You have learned more than you know.  Sometimes you’re not ready to learn what you think you want to learn and what you did learn will prepare you for what you were looking for.  Sometimes what you are looking for (or what you think you need to learn) is not what you really needed to learn.
And why did you go to the workshop anyway?  Oh, that’s right, because someone who knows more than you about your chosen avocation came to share something with you – maybe in this instance you didn’t actually know best?
I wish I could impart to you how many times I have been sitting at my harp and have an “a-ha!” moment when something I didn’t understand just fell into place – and the sun came out and the rain stopped and I was brilliant!  That’s exactly how it feels.
Until that time, keep going to workshops, learn from the people you admire and like, take it all in, listen.  And go home and work…and wait for the A-HA!  to hit you.

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You know how I find good ideas from everywhere and just about anywhere.  The other day, I was reading the Harvard Business Review blog (because I’m a geek). Miniya Chatterji had a blog post.  I can’t remember what the overall point of that post was, but for me the takeaway was this quote,

“in the world where there are no precedents, you have to trust your own judgment.”


What a great point – the trusting your own judgment part.  We often believe that there are a lot of precedents in our world and there are.  But it seems that we tend to give those precedents too much weight. 

We should focus on our capabilities and on sharing our music with other people.  Those people who are simply ready to listen.  They are not critics waiting to pounce on our flaws.  They are open to whatever you choose to share.  And that’s where your judgment comes in.

Here are three ways to shift your focus away from judging yourself and your music and find yourself wanting:

  1. Play what sounds good (don’t say “duh” – you’d be amazed how many people don’t do this!)

  2. Record your ideas, review those ideas, and keep the good ones

  3. Look up from your harp, see the faces of your audience and note that they are enjoying your music.

So don’t be afraid – set your own precedents, suspend your judgments and share your music!

I-N-S-P-I-R-A-T-I-O-N

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I know the holidays are coming.  I know.  It’s easy to get excited about the holidays.  But it’s also easy to get totally uninspired – the same tunes, year after year, to the same people (usually), for the same events, all in a time when you’re totally crushed with other obligations.  It’s too easy to lose all inspiration.  And that leads to boredom and cynicism – which start to show in your music.


So, how do you stay in the game? Keep it fresh? Spice it up? Relight the lamp?  Here are five ways to get or stay inspired:

1.      Listening to music- yup, seems counterintuitive, but listening to music can help.  For some people it will be listening to other presentations of holiday music for ideas and inspiration.  For others, it will be listening to whatever is, for them, the antithesis of holiday music to break the mold – and maybe to get some fresh ideas to apply to the holiday tunes.



2.      Reading – quotes, books, poems, letters – we end up playing the holiday standards, which all pretty much say the same thing.  Read something with another message.  Let that message wash over you and see how that might change how you tell the holiday stories with your music.



3.     Smells/tastes – I know, me and food!  But really, smelling “holiday” smells – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pine, fires, cold – all can put you in a better frame of mind to re-approach your music – and leave a good taste in your mouth as well!



4.     Beautiful scenery/ Fresh air – take a walk, enjoy the changing weather – all these will help you bring a new perspective to your music, your musicality, phrasing, arrangement, and presentation.



5.     Breathe!  Simply taking a few deep breaths will allow you to think, reassess your arrangements and playing – and its in the pauses that I find a lot of new ideas. Breathing is, after all, the basic definition of inspiration!

Of course, you don’t have to wait for the holidays to apply these ideas – any time you need to break out and do something new or get inspired to change something old into new (kind of like replacing all the buttons on a coat – it’s basically the same but now it’s new again!).

Enjoy!

Holidays are coming

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It’s that time again – the holidays are coming and whether you’re working or entertaining or playing in church, it is likely that you will be called upon to provide some music.  So, what are you going to do?

You could pretend like it won’t happen and wait until someone asks you to play – then you can panic and feel unprepared. OR you could start preparing now so that when the holidays come around you’re ready, unstressed, and confident.  I don’t know about you, btu the second one sounds like the better idea.

Most people panic because everyone knows the holiday tunes and will know if you make a mistake.  There are a couple of ways around this –

1.       Use a fake book (or play by ear) so you are not glued to the page and can relax while you’re playing.

2.       Play Christmas tunes people are not as familiar with – start with the one you’ve never heard and move (which are likely to form a small group) and then move on to the ones you only hear very infrequently if at all on the radio.  This is also a good plan to assure that your listeners aren’t tired of the tune before you even start to play

3.       Keep up the rest of your repertoire.  Rather than interspersing “regular” music into your holiday tunes, think of sprinkling your holidays music into your regular repertoire.  Even the happiest elf (and those strong employees at the shops!) can take only so much Christmas music.  This really reduces the burden on your learning.

4.       Enjoy yourself – it’s the holidays (well it will be as soon as your work these tunes up!) so have some fun while you’re out there!