Jenius Creations

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  • Come out and compete at the Ohio Scottish Games!

    It is coming summer and we’re well and truly in the thick of the Scottish Games season. I hope that you are polishing your tunes, learning your history and getting ready to enter a Scottish Harp Society of America sanctioned harp competition near you!

    I love to compete – I love the drive to master new music, pushing myself to learn tunes that will meet the judge’s expectations and my own, and putting together a performance of which I can be proud.

    In addition, I love competitions because they are friendly. I enjoy cheering for my friends (long held and newly met). And at nearly every competition I’ve entered I have had the opportunity to ask a fellow competitor to teach me a wonderful tune that I fell in love with on first hearing. In addition, I really enjoy that the camaraderie is more important to most competitors than the win – they just genuinely enjoy being there and hearing one another play.  Of course, its nice to win too.

    Competition, while not for everyone, surely helps us push ourselves just a bit harder, to excel and to grow. We learn not only the music but also the “what” behind the tunes we select. It’s just this thirst to learn about the history and culture behind the tunes that lead to our Harp in the Highlands and Islands tours!

    I am very pleased and honored to have been invited to judge the Ohio Scottish Games at the Lorain County Fairgrounds on 26th June. Ohio is a fun games and I have a special place for it in my heart because it is the first competition I ever entered. I made a fellow competitor (and now lifelong friend) in the parking lot! And I look forward to participating because I have so many friends there and such fond memories!

    I hope you’ll come out and compete.  In addition to being a fun and enjoyable games, Ohio has a lot of wonderful prizes.  The rest of the Games is good.  I’ll be teaching a workshop.  And right after, you could attend the Ohio Scottish Arts School!  (more on that later).

    Come join me – here’s the link: http://www.ohioscottishgames.com/2010Harp_Entry_form.html

  • Drink it in!

    I’ve talked about how everything impacts your harping. How we need to be open to all the things that help us become better harp players, more suited to the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of being harpers. So, here’s another in the physical column. And I know you’ve heard it before: drink your water!

    But why do you need to stay hydrated to improve your harp playing? Well, the Mayo clinic tells us that the body is about 60% water, and we lose water through a number of bodily functions and not just the obvious one – you also lose water through breathing and sweating. So, it is essential to help replenish the water you’ve lost through going about your day.

    But also, dehydration affects your brain. While severe dehydration may result in confusion or lethargy, milder dehydration can leave you with headaches, moodiness, tiredness and confusion. None of these will help you learn, practice or perform well at your harp or frankly, anywhere.

    So, be certain, especially before you practice or perform, the stay hydrated – drink you water, it’s the easiest way to get water into your system!

  • Southern Maryland Harp Competition Results – redux

    Well, it would have been very clever of me to include the photos in my last post! They are here, in this post, to assure that you call see the outcome and our excellent competitiors.  I hope it will encourage you to come participate next year! Photos courtesy of Jo Morrison.

    Pictured from left are Judge Jo Morrison, Caroline Kemper,
    Mike Connors, Marilyn Newman, and Donna Bennett.

  • Southern Maryland Harp Competition Results

    It was a “fine soft day” in Southern Maryland, characteristic of changeable spring. And while authentic, the weather was not perfect for a bustling Celtic Festival. But the Southern Maryland Celtic Society Festival went on. And stalwart harp players came out to share their music with an enthusiastic audience.

    Judge Jo Morrison adjudicated the competition, sanctioned by Scottish Harp Society for the first time. She also provided an excellent concert with Port Righ before the competition and a workshop as well. They used the opportunity not only to delight the audience with great tunes but also to educate them on the music, the instruments, and the Celtic nations themselves. Jo also delivered a wonderful workshop – increasing everyone’s Strathspey repertoire by one!

    The competition was well attended and the competitors all played very well. Results:

    Beginner 1st Place: Marilyn Newman

    Novice 1st Place: Donna Bennett

    2nd Place: Mary Abbott

    Journeyman 1st Place: Caroline Kemper

    2nd Place: Mike Connors

    Harper of the Day: Mary Abbott

    In addition we were very pleased to have this competition selected as a venue to award a Scholarship to Somerset Folk Harp Festival. This scholarship supports an Apprentice Harper to participate in the Festival this summer. The winner of this coveted scholarship was Donna Bennett – although she entered her first competition at the Novice Category, she performed solidly at the Apprentice level.

    Also special thank you to our Prizes Sponsor – Virginia Harp Center. All our competitors received incredible prizes in addition to medals and the traditional Southern Maryland etched glass mugs.

  • 2010 Southern Maryland Celtic Festival Harp Competition

    Annual Celtic Harp Competition at the 
    Southern Maryland Celtic Festival

    This is the first year that this competition is sanctioned by the SCOTTISH HARP SOCIETY OF AMERICA (SHSA). We are excited to have Jo Morrison as our Judge. Jo is nationally known for her evocative interpretation of Scottish and Irish music on the harp. She frequently performs with the Celtic duo, Port Righ, featuring harp and shuttle pipe, the Highland Pipe’s quieter cousin. The duo has performed concerts at locations such as the An Lanntair, Library of Congress, Somerset Harp Festival, the Smithsonian, various Scottish Festivals around the United States and also in Scotland, Ireland, and Germany.

    When not performing, Jo teaches privately, in classes and in workshops, and composes and arranges Celtic music for the Celtic harp. She is currently Vice-President for the Washington Area Folk Harp Society and has previously served as Competition Chair and Board Member for the Scottish Harp Society of America. She teaches at Common Ground on the Hill in Westminster, MD and taught at the Ohio Scottish Arts School, the Somerset Harp Festival, and various workshops around the country.

    Jo’s musical gifts shine in her solo recordings which will be available at the Harp venue. On her debut album, The Three Musics, A Waulking Tour of Scotland, Christmas Gifts, By Request and Flights of Fantasy. She has published three popular collections of harp arrangements, “The Three Musics of the Celtic Harp”, “The Morrison Scottish Repertoire Book”, and “The Beginning Harper’s Tunebook,” which is rapidly becoming a standard for beginning folk harpers.

    Jo is a Certified Music Practitioner providing therapeutic music at the bedside of the ill or dying and. She lives near Westminster, MD, with her husband Wayne and their four African Grey Parrots. She is available for any type of event, gives scholarly lectures on the history, folklore, and music of the Celtic harp and gives Celtic harp lessons privately and at workshops. For more information or to book see her website www.triharpskel.com.

    Our Prize Sponsor is the Virginia Harp Center (THANK YOU!)

    And we have the special privilege of being selected to award the:

    2010 SOMERSET FOLK HARP FESTIVAL SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE awarded to the winner* at the Apprentice level. The recipient will receive a full festival registration package to study harp in the comprehensive Celtic studies track at the Somerset Folk Harp Festival. 2010 marks the 10th year for the Somerset Folk Harp Festival – an exciting, eclectic conference for all folk harp players. Join in the continuing tradition of bringing the harp community together for a festival showcasing the diversity of music, talent and experience of the folk harp world. Whether you want to focus on one style or type of music, solidify some specific skills, or try out something new, the breadth of the 2010 workshop offerings is sure to expand your musical horizon. The vendor and exhibitor mall is a key attraction – allowing participants so see many vendors and loads of products all in a single area!

  • Was learning cursive really necessary?

    Do you feel like learning cursive as a child was a waste of your time? I know that when I was being forced to learn it, I did think it was stupid. Often now, with pen in hand, I think back on that hatred of those lessons – and see how wrong I was.

    And now, when I look at my penmanship, I see more than ink. I see my development as a person. I see what I feel is important to me. I see how I have changed as I’ve grown up. I see that I’m in a hurry!

    Many of us only write with a pen to make lists of things to do or to pay bills. But still, the writing we learned as children really has stayed with us. For all the angst we underwent, we have the product – something we use daily. But even then, we don’t focus on the positives that come from learning something we don’t want to do.

    Just like when we’re working on our music. We have to focus, even on the things that aren’t fun. Or those things that don’t seem to relate directly to anything else that we think are important. But there’s really something to be gained by pursuing “learning the cursive” of our music.

    So today, I suggest you pull out something you don’t do because it’s not fun – the “Brussels sprouts” of our practice (this is a bad analogy as I love Brussels sprouts, but many do not). Whether it is making your own exercise of a trouble spot, doing the lessons in a primer or sitting and working with Mde. Grossi, channel all that hatred of cursive but this time, with the wisdom of what you gain from that practice.

  • Fear Factor

    We all want to grow (I don’t mean taller or around the middle). We are typically not satisfied to simply maintain what we have achieved – we want to become better. We don’t like to stand still.

    It is said that the only way to grow and develop is to be challenged. Another way to say challenged is to say “scared”. We can use our fear to help us grow and develop. We have to cultivate our Fear Factor.

    One way to experience the fear of challenge to achieve that growth is to make ourselves uncomfortable. Try something new. Do something different. How different, new, or uncomfortable? We’ll that’s up to you. What is new, different or uncomfortable? It could be a new piece of music. It could be a new style of music. It could be a new instrument. It could be practicing at a different time of day. It could be learning to foxtrot. It could be deciding to run a marathon. It’s your fear and your desire to grow – you decide the size and shape of the challenge.

    Any challenge that is within your ability to take on will make you feel alive (whether its scaling Mt. Humongous or speaking to someone you do not know). And of course, the more often you challenge yourself (in large and small ways), the easier it becomes to surmount the fear and take on the challenge. (See, even taking on your fear takes practice!).

    It’s up to you – you have to know yourself and then decide the best way for you to add a challenge to your life. Are you going to let fear keep you from achieving your best performance? To keep you from playing that arrangement? To keep you from composing that tune? Why would you? Leverage that fear and take on the challenge – and watch yourself grow! And let me know – I’d love to hear from you.

  • Fortune Cookie II

    Last week I posted about a Fortune Cookie I had gotten about being a friend to have friends.  That really spoke to me about sharing our music with everyone.

    And then I got to thinking more about the fortune cookie itself – it had absolutely NOTHING to do with playing the harp.  In fact, if you read that post you might have thought that I was daft.

    But the reality is, that everything has to do with playing the harp.  And playing the harp has to do with everything else in our worlds. For some of us playing the harp takes over our worlds and we reorient our days and our lives to incorporate the harp ever more into our lives.  Of course for some of us, playing the harp has changed our lives by increasing the number of knick-knacks we have to dust.  (But, lest you scoff – even that dusting means that the harp has had some impact on your life!)

    As musicians and artists, we have to be open to the possibilities in everything around us.  Whether it is something you read, see on TV, a billboard, a song coming from the next car over, the color of a dress – there are inspiration launch points everywhere. 

    If something points itself out to you – whatever it is, from whence it might arise – pay attention!  Figure out what’s in there for you to take away and make into something else.  This is creativity at play – let it have its head – see where it leads you.  You might be inspired to generate a new arrangement, or compose a new tune, or just let yourself stop being afraid of what you might do next!

  • Fortune Cookie

    I’m not a huge fan of Chinese take away – that I am certain has nothing to do with anything actually Chinese.  But on occasion I can’t avoid it.  The best part is always the fortune cookie. 

    I skip eating the cookie – I can’t wait to break into it to get my fortune (as well as those lottery numbers and a new vocabulary word that I’ll never be able to pronounce correctly).  The fortune is full of possibilities.  One of the great things about fortune cookies – they only hold truths.  We can laugh about it, make jokes about it, but does anyone ever read their fortune and remain completely unaffected?

    My last fortune cookie said, “to have a friend, be a friend”.  To assure that you have friends, you have to be a friend to others.  Holding on to your gifts rather than giving them away diminishes those gifts.  It also doesn’t allow you to be as open to the gifts that others share. 

    It got me thinking about how sometimes we hoard our music.  We are so self critical and many people allow that self criticism to censor their performance – they won’t play for others.  They are focused on their lack of perfection rather than on their depth of accomplishment. 

    Don’t get me wrong, it does take an effort to put yourself out there and share with others.  It does require that you prepare – yourself, your music.  You do have to swallow down the flipflops in your stomach. 

    But it is so worth it – you get that high from getting out there, they get the beauty of the music, you both enjoy participating in being together – what’s not to like.

    So when you are sitting at your harp telling yourself that you’re not good enough – ask the question – good enough for what?  Of course you’re good enough – you’re good enough to share your gifts with your friends.  And in return, they’ll share their gifts – of joy, laughter, good times – with you!

  • Do I really need a teacher?

    People often ask me if they really need a teacher when they begin playing the harp.  Actually they usually say something more like, “Do I REALLY need a teacher ?”

    And I know that they would prefer that I say no. I don’t know why that is.

    I can understand if money is tight and paying for lessons is just not in the cards right now. This suggests that there are too many pressures to take on a new hobby at this time. Learning to play the harp should be shelved until a more propitious time in one’s life if that’s the case.

    Or perhaps they are swayed by the “teach yourself to play” books that are available. These books are all quite good and well put together. In fact, when I was learning to play the harp, one of these stalwart books was selected by my teacher to help me along. Not for the poor graphics on hand placement but perhaps more for the well thought out exercises and tunes arranged in a slowing increasing difficulty.
    And it could be those potential harpers don’t realize that those “teach yourself to play” books were written at a time when there were very few harp players to be found to teach, especially in the traditional music arena, making it challenging to find someone with whom to study.

    I know there are those who are self taught. I know this because they have told me so. And where have I met these people? At workshops, lead by some of the most brilliant teachers available today. So while they may be initially self taught, they have reached the end of their self teaching and reached out to be brought a little further by spending a small wee while with a luminary.

    Learning from a teacher provides so many benefits that I almost don’t know where to start! A teacher will help you establish, lay-down, and reinforce a strong foundation from which you can do many things. A teacher will assure you start by knowing how to hold your harp and how to place your fingers – and why!

    A teacher will facilitate your growth:

    • mastering technique
    • engraining musicality
    • learning a broad repertoire
    • having the skills to perform whichever repertoire you select – with ease and confidence
    A teacher will help you grow strong as a musician. A strong foundation means that you have the strength (mental, emotional, musical) and endurance to explore, do, make whatever you seek.
    It is that growth we all seek – that strength. The best musicians still learn, grow, study – to improve on the strong foundation they established with their teachers when they began.