I’m leavin’…on a jet plane

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Well, it’s finally here! It’s finally time to leave – to go on the Harp in the Highlands and Islands tour. My excitement has reached that fever pitch which borders on annoying (at least to those around me). I’m winging away to Scotland, looking forward to meeting up with our incredible guide David and the wonderful harpers who are joining us. I can’t decide which day of our trip I am most excited about – they all will be spectacular. And at the end I am certain I won’t have determined the best day still.

I wish, as I have often stated before, that you could all go with us. Some of you have contacted me about going next year – we are planning on it (and more details on next year when I get back!). But for now, just be ever so slightly envious! And start planning for the next trip.

We will be having a grand time and I will post as we get the opportunity. I anticipate that we won’t get all our posts out during the week, so expect them to be strung out over time a bit. We’ll upload photos and let you know what music we’ve been playing. I can’t wait to share with you!

Until then, keep playing – pick up a new tune! We will be.

Harpy Campers, Part II

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Well, Harp Camp had a spectacular run for its 15th Aniversary! I was so fortunate to be invited to teach with Kris Snyder again.  She also invited Marianna Nystrom to present and Lucy Stevens lead some excellent learning games.  We had wonderful students, supreme teachers (if I may say), brilliant lessons, and a whole lot of fun! We were in bucolic Glenville, Pennsylvania. And I mean bucolic – no better punctuation on your diminuendo than a rather loud mooooooooooooo from the field next door.

We had workshops on Composition and Improvisation, Sticky Wickets, and Putting on Airs. Students also enjoyed learning more about being creative and learned techniques to improve their creativity both at the harp and abroad! We participated in breathing and stretching exercises so we can expand our abilities to play. We also learned more tools to improve our daily practing to achieve more of our goals while wasting less time. In addition, starting from a poem, a piece of music or from scratch, students worked in small groups or alone to generate delightfully fresh music.

We made crafts – it’s not Camp without crafts, after all! And in between we had a lovely pot luck dinner, snacks and breaks as well as a breathtaking “kasbah” where we enjoyed wine and cheese and played for one another, generating a wonderful atmosphere in which to enjoy one another’s company.

We finished off with our traditional Harpers’ Circle, sharing the bounty of our learning and creativity with one another and then playing in ensemble all together – sharing some amazing arrangements of well known tunes, including some American classics such as Shenandoah, America the Beautiful, and the Shaker tune and some OCarolan and others.

It was sad to see everyone go, but they were so enthusiastic and ready to recommit to working hard and playing well, reconnecting with other Harp Friends and making new friends, that Kris and I were glad to see them off to their respective homes – to practice of course!

If you’d like to be part of this incredible learning experience, I hope you’ll be able to join us next year. We learn so much, have so much fun, laugh a lot, and you could be a part of it. Join us in August 2011!  We’ll be posting more information about next year’s Harp Camp on our website http://www.jeniuscreations.com/Harp_Camp.php after we’ve recovered from 2010 – so watch that space.

Harpy Campers!

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I am on my way to Southeastern Pennsylvania to work with some amazing people at Harp Camp 2010.  This is the 15th year for Harp Camp.  Fifteen years is a long time and I am so honored and pleased to be invited to teach again this year!  I have a soft spot in my heart for Harp Camp because it is where it all began for me – this is where I began to become a harper.  So, I am especially delighted to be there as a teacher – being given the amazing opportunity to share some of my love affair with the harp with some incredible students.

And I’m grateful to be teaching with Kris Snyder who was there at the beginning and has had been a presence in my development as a harper.   Marianna Nystrom and Lucy Stevens will be presenting as well.  We will have some incredible teaching sessions as well as the usual fun that comes from learning together.  Good students, great topics, excellent teachers – it will be fantastic!

I wish all of you could join us!  I know you would learn a lot and I would learn a great deal from you.  Maybe you’ll be with us next year?  Let me know if you’re interested and I’m happy to give you more information than you thought possible!

And next week, I’ll share the outcomes with you.  This week, learn something new, share it with someone else – and enjoy being a Harpy Camper!

Holding it in!

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Your phone number is seven numbers long (plus the area code now). It is seven numbers long for a reason – because psychologists learned, a long time ago, that the average person can remember about seven things are a time. George Miller published a paper in 1956 entitled, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information”. Now we just call it Miller’s Magical 7+/- 2.

Miller was looking at the capacity of short term memory – how much information could you hold on to while “converting” it to long term memory (the place you store your home phone number for later). What’s important is the Miller found you could hang on to about 7 things. I say things for a reason. Each of us defines “things” differently.

So, if you’re learning a new tune, the seven or so things you can remember will be different if you’re a very experienced musician or if you’re just new to the harp. If you’re new, for you each thing will be a note. If you’re very experienced, your thing could be a phrase.

How much stuff is in a thing (no, this is not a very technical discussion – I just want to get the point across!) depends on how much experience you have, how much you practice remembering things, how you think about the music you’re learning, and other things like your experience at the harp (as opposed to experience with other instruments), how stressed you are in general and about learning the music in particular. Other things may impact your learning – are you hungry, tired, busy, etc? All of these will affect how well you can remember and which side of seven plus or minus two you’ll be on that time.

So as you’re trying to learn new music, be sure to be mindful of what you’re trying to learn, how much stuff you’re trying to cram into your head at once, and how much stuff is in the things you’re trying to remember. Don’t worry about holding it in – just keep working at it.  And don’t forget – like playing your harp, your memory will get better with practice!

Say what?

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Many people think that learning by ear is either very difficult or very pedestrian. Some think it is very difficult because the one or two times they have attempted it, it seemed much harder than just reading dots from a page. Some think it is pedestrian because folk music is often taught by ear and is mistakenly believed to be less complex or of lower difficulty than other types of music. People who go down either or both of these trains of thought are mistaken and they may not have an appreciation for the challenges of learning by ear.

Learning by ear can be very difficult, especially when you’re new to it. Being in your first learning by ear workshop can feel a lot like being in a coffee shop in Bratislava – you can hear the language, but it’s all a mishmash of sound – it means nothing to you, although you recognize it to be speech (trust me – I’ve been in that coffee shop – they are speaking a language, but not one that I know!).

One mistake many people make is to think that learning by ear will be easy. It seems that it should be – after all, you know how to play the harp and your know how to listen. Or do you? Do you know how to listen to the music so that you can learn it?

It is important to listen to the music carefully – and frequently. When I am learning a new tune, I will typically listen to it at least a couple of hundred times (I think it’s about 1000 times, but I usually lose count). The other people in my car only wish I was exaggerating. It is only then that I have heard it enough to have found the tune (and separated it from the harmonies and variations), found the pieces of the tune (the phrases, patterns and other elements), and begun to remember those pieces and how they are linked together. This is especially true if I’m learning a tune from a fiddle player or a piper – they play very fast – I have a hard time listening that quickly!

After all that listening, there’s still a lot of work to be done. We’ll get to that another time. But for now, be gentle with yourself, especially if you’re just learning to learn by ear. Take whatever time it requires (and if you’re paper trained, remember how long it took you to become proficient and then quick at sight reading! Be honest!). And enjoy the new vistas on the music, learning it by ear affords you.

Are we there yet?

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In less than six weeks we launch Harping in the Highlands and Islands! I was already excited, but now, it’s palpable. I am really looking forward to seeing the beautiful scenery (I’m partial to water, but I also like towns, mountains, fields, valleys (straths and glens!), people…yup, pretty much all of it.

I have been working on the tunes we’ll share – arranging, re-arranging, and re-re-arranging until they are just right for the people that will be with us. We will be a small but merry band. And I am especially proud of the traveler who will be learning not just the music but also the harp! She’s intrepid and I’m so excited to have her along with us. I think she’ll help us focus on the wonder of our gifts. You know how it is when you’re learning tunes – you sometimes forget to revel in the joy of making the music – but I expect we’ll stay grounded.

I am also sorry that so many of you couldn’t join us this year. It has been a challenging time for so many people. I wish I could take you all. But never fear – everything will come around – and soon. So keep watching this space – we’ll go again next year and I hope you’ll join us. If you’d like to go then, please send me a comment letting me know when in the year you’d like to go (we’re still in the planning stages for next year but are considering more summer times – so if that’s a better time for you, just let me know and I’ll see what I can do!) .

We’ll be posting photos and comments as we go, so be sure to check in. And I’ll be back next week with more about playing and the amazing music of Scotland.

Practicing can be a pain in the…

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Many of us play the harp (or any instrument for that matter) for the pleasure it brings us, the joy we can share, and for the relaxation it affords us, especially in tense times.

And because so many of us play for fun, we often play only in fits and starts, sitting down for the two minutes we’re waiting for the microwave to beep or the few moments between putting the last load into the washer but before the previous load finishes in the drier.  They are stolen moments.

And unfortunately, because they are stolen moments, we are sloppy with them – we plop on the bench, grab the harp, and blast through whatever piece of music comes to mind.  We don’t prepare, we don’t breathe,and  we don’t assure our posture is good, our backs straight, our heads up, lengthened through the spine, relaxed but composed.  We’re too busy trying to bang through the tune!  We don’t have time for all that posture stuff.

Well, we need to make time for that.  Improper sitting, poor posture, slumped spines, feet not on the floor, craned necks, tense hands contribute to two potential outcomes – one hurts us in the short term (“gink” your back because you sat twisted?) and the other hurts us in the long term (if you always practice that way, you will have practiced yourself into a habit which you will have to work hard to reverse).   And we don’t want practicing or playing to hurt our backs or to become a pain in the neck (or lower!).

And when it comes to posture, you must be vigilant.  You don’t want to lose the bubble on how you sit, either at the harp or at your desk, the dinner table, or while schlumped on your couch watching television.  Be mindful of your posture and know how much core strength you actually possess (or should that be corps strength?). 

Many of us, especially those that are no longer adolescents, have much less core strength than we think we do.  It will help your playing if you strengthen that core by getting some exercise.  Strengthening your core helps you protect your back from everyday chores including lifting, twisting, and bending.  It will also help you sit better and for longer when you play.  Look at those harp players you admire – they have phenomenal posture.  Why?  First, they have practiced it, and second, they spend so much time on that bench that they must have the posture needed to maintain sitting and playing for so long. 

You don’t have to become a pilates instructor or an exercise fanatic to achieve these gains.  Just work some of the basic abdominal exercises we have all learned over the years into your day.  You will feel better, be able to hold yourself up to play longer, and have better posture while you are playing (even if you plop down to play).  You will be being kind to your back as well.  What’s not to lose – the crunch is on.*

*All material provided within this blog is for informational and educational purposes only, and in no way is any of the content on this website to be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken solely on the contents of this blog. This is not medical advice, nor is it meant to replace the advice of your medical care provider. Exercise at your own risk, learn appropriate exercise technique from a professional, and use good judgement when exercising.

Inspiration in the form of happy exhaustion!

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So, I’m back from Oberlin, stuffed full of great tunes from the Ohio Scottish Arts School.  Its always a rugged treat to go there in the summer.  Rugged because having that much fun is hard work – but I’m up for the challenge!  In addition, its just worth looking forward to – old friends, new friends, seeing each other develop and grow as musicians.  And the excellent teachers – role models all!  I hope you’ll consider participating next year – the diverse playing levels and styles, the brilliant faculty, the environment – all contribute to an excellent learning experience whether you’ve been playing for a year (like the first time I went) or for 30 years (like some of the participants) you’ll have a wonderful time and learn more than you knew needed learning!

Colloden Battlefield – can you imagine how  powerful it would be to sit here and play??
But now I ‘m home, head full of tunes, lots of good tunage – can’t wait to share!  And better still, its crunch time – I’m really excited to be heading to Scotland in the not too distant future!  I have all kinds of tunes to share there – old ones, new ones, some with simple arrangements, some with arrangements that are a little challenging – and all that will stick in our travelers’ heads because they’ll be forever tied to our incredible tour and the places we’re going. 
I’m also excited that we’ll have great things to share here.  I’m sorry you couldn’t all go with us – hopefully as we share our journey here, you’ll be envious enough that you’ll join us next year!  Keep watching this space!  And drop me a note when you get a chance.

Gone Harpin’

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No tidbits this week – I’m at the Ohio Scottish Games judging the Harp Competition and then participating in the Ohio Scottish Arts School in Oberlin Ohio.  I’m learning a ton of new stuff and sharing a little as well.  I look forward to “seeing” you next week!

In the good ol’ summer time

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Its Summertime!  As I mentioned last week, its also time for summer camps – especially harp camps!

I hope you’re going to join me in PA in August.  But if not, I hope you’re going to get to one of the other learning opportunities available for adult learners at all levels of harp performance.  Or that you’ll be able to get to one of the conferences such as Somerset Folk Harp Festival or HarpCon.  And I hope I’ll get to meet you at some of these events!

But one of the downsides to all this is also an upside.  Its summer, our schedules seem to be more free and there are plenty of opportunities to play.  And this is where the downside comes in – if you have a sudden ramp up in the amount of time you’re playing you are exposing yourself to the potential for injury.  Not good – it totally cramps your practicing and playing!

It is also when we’re learning so many things that we start tweaking our own play and that too can sometimes lead to injury.  If you get a great tip – how you sit at the harp, the type of seat you use, the shoes you wear (and not just if you play pedal!), the geometry of your hands, arms or shoulders – all of these great ideas and tips will be NEW TO YOU!  Therefore you must incorporate these changes slowly into your practice.  Don’t modify your sitting position and then practice for 2 hours in this new position – you’ll greatly increase your probability of injury. 

And it doesn’t have to be so noticeable – simply changing the type of music you play (going from all traditional tunes to reading classical off a page for instance) can also open you to potential injury.
Athletic trainers suggest you implement changes like these about 10% weekly. 

Being a musician, regardless of your level of performance requires physical conditioning – you’re asking a lot of your body.  So, just like runners or boxers, you must, as a musician, remember to warm up, cool down, stretch and stay strong and fit for the long haul.