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Last week we talked about the importance of warming up – a necessary activity each and every time you sit to play. But when you’ve finished your practicing, you need to close with a cool down. Cooling down is always included in a good practice session.

The cool down helps the body recover (remember that musicians are the athletes of the small muscles!). In extreme cases, the cool down helps avoid muscle soreness. It also brings your practice to a controlled end (rather than a frenzied rush off to the next activity on your list) which may help you remember what you’ve learned throughout the practice session.

You may know how to cool down from athletics (running slower or walking or stretching) but how do you do that at your harp? It won’t take more than 5 – 10 minutes and it is just as important (and maybe more important) than the warm up was.

To begin your cool down – play more slowly and less loudly. You are still looking for a good closure of your hands to get the relaxation of the muscles that comes from playing with good technique. Finish up your practice time by playing something you like and know every well – something that doesn’t require practice. Relax. Keep your technique strong while you let your play unwind. When you are ready to stop playing move on to stretching.  Be sure to stretch as your hands and arms, as well as your neck, back, and legs.  We spend so much time focused on our hands that we forget that our entire body is contributing to our playing and needs to be included in our warm up and cool down.

It is important to build your own practice for cool down.  When you have build the cool down that works for your, you can perform it like a ritual after each practice session and after each performance. Using a ritual-like approach will help you leave your practice or a performance thoughtfully.

And sometimes, especially during the holiday season, you just don’t have time to spend at your harp. On these days, your practice could be condensed to just a warm-up and cool-down. At least you’ll have sat down to your harp which is better than missing the day entirely.

Cool down and stretch so I won’t have to write you a blog post on icing injuries!

Warming up is one of those things we all know we should do.  But we want to get to the fun stuff, to playing tunes, so we skip warming up.  Or we give it short shrift and move on to more fun things. We might even feel guilty about skipping the “work”, but we skip it anyway. After all, we don’t have a lot of time to practice and we don’t want to waste any of that valuable time doing something that doesn’t really help us play any better.

Unfortunately, this is a penny wise pound foolish approach. Every moment we spend warming up will contribute to our playing better. Warming up assures that our muscles are ready for strenuous work. Taking a gentle approach also helps us to do more with a reduced probability of injury from overuse of cold muscles and connective tissue.  The warm up improves our flexibility in our hands and arms.  If dancers just launched into practice without warming up, they’d be on ice, anti-inflammatory pain relievers, and bandage wraps.  We are like dancers.  But while they are working large muscles, we use those muscles (albeit differently) AND we use some of our very small muscles.  And we don’t want to end up on the ice/aspirin regimen, do we?

Warming up is key if you are young or old, new to the harp or expert, in a well heated space or in a freezing rehearsal hall. The things you do to warm up with help you be more flexible and limber and will help you improve your form and tone as you work on the music you so desperately want to practice.

So before you sit to play, be sure to warm up. If it is cold in the room, wear a sweater and wristies or fingerless gloves (think of them as the legwarmers for hands that they are – fashionable and practical). Go slowly and build warmth in the muscles and tendons of your hands and arms. And don’t forget that you are a whole – so warm up your back and legs, as well as your core. Gentle stretching will also help once you have begun to be warm. Some excellent ways to warm up your hands and arms include playing scales and arpeggiated chords in your favorite key. Start slowly and quietly and as you get warmed up you can increase your speed and volume. Watch yourself as you do these to assure that your hands are performing (thumbs and hands in a nice position, close your fingers to achieve release at the end of the movements, breathe, head up, spine erect). This is a time for contemplative performance – monitor yourself, being mindful of your actions, while allowing your body to warm up to the expectations you have undoubtedly set. When you’ve had enough of scales, move into etudes or other simple pieces that you know well.  Keep monitoring your play and work to warm up not to perfect the music.

And enjoy this time you set aside for yourself. Know that these “useless” activities are the foundation for the rest of your practice, an investment in your rehearsal time, an insurance that you’ll get to keep playing!

As I look around the area I live, it is clear that the harvest is complete.  This is the week that we are grateful and celebrate our good fortune.  As harp players, we have much to be thankful for – a gorgeous instrument that is held in trall by many and is gentle with us, the dedication to playing it, the talent to bring to it, and the desire to share the contents of our hearts through it.  Enjoy the holiday (or its spirit if you are in a different country).  Take a moment to reflect on kismet bringing you here!