Category Archives: Caring for yourself

It’s a new year –

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It is a new year – the time when we know that we “should” be reflecting on the past year and generating new goals for the coming year.  Making resolutions that we’re highly unlikely to actually keep.  And we do this every year…sigh.
So how about this year we make a plan rather than a goal? What if you focused on what you wanted to do rather than generating objectives?  What if this year you started out knowing that you could do it rather than waiting to fail?  What would you do to make this plan so that you can follow it all year long?  
Here are six things you can do to start working toward a plan:

  1. Write it down – this way not only can you not forget what your plan is, but you can make sure the plan doesn’t get any bigger (or any smaller) as time passes (unless you intend for it to).
  2. Think first – don’t just burst into action, but each day think about how you’re doing to get through that day’s part of the plan.  Take a few moments of quiet time (can be in the shower, over your morning cuppa, or anywhere else you have the time to be quiet) and think about it.
  3. Focus – spend time in your harp space, doing harp things.  Don’t bring your phone in with you, don’t turn on the TV, put down your novel and focus on your harp.
  4. Keep your space neat (to help you focus…and to be able to find your harp).  If at all possible, have a harp space – an area that is harp only with no other obligations for the space (that is, don’t play from your desk chair or turn the bench around to have breakfast, but rather have dedicated space for harping).
  5. Make a habit – this is not just me telling you to practice but rather, develop your own habits for your harp time. Warm up in the same basic way, work through your new material in the same pattern, segment your practice time similarly each day.  Once this becomes a habit you can begin to deviate to alleviate boredom – but stay within your habit pattern.
  6. Develop a ritual – this is akin to the habit, but a ritual helps set the mood. Start each day at your harp after you’ve had your tea and brushed your teeth.  Or put up the dinner dishes before your sit down, secure that all is well before you begin to play.  Or light candles in your harp room…or develop any other ritual that reminds you that it is time to practice and prepares you to spend time with your harp. 
This is a gentle way to slide into the new year.  Sneak up on your plan and accomplish your goals without anyone (except you) being the wiser!

Take the time to focus

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Everyone is busy.  Everyone is crazy busy.  We all have too much to do.  And before you know it we will have moved from wedding season (crazy busy!) into the holidays (more crazy more busy).

It can be enough to make you crazy and busy.  And that can start to show in your music – phrases that don’t breathe, airs that don’t flow, jigs that jag and reels that leave you reeling!

So be sure to take time to focus. 

This can be done in small measures or large.  From taking the summer off from lessons (definitely a large measure) to taking your harp outside to practice on a pleasant day (smaller measure), these excursions will allow you the time to regain your focus, to remember what you are doing, and why.

It is easy to forget all the elements of being a musician.  We get focused on booking gigs, practicing, cramming tunes for specific events.  Sometimes we can lose the focus on what we are doing, why we are doing it, what it does for our listeners, what it does for us.  We can lose focus on what we enjoy as well as forgetting to keep our repertoire fresh, our attitude positive, and our outlook sunny.
Build in some time to pull your focus back to what is important to you.  Go for a walk, review your work, record yourself and enjoy your hard work, plan a day with your harp somewhere pleasant with no agenda – enjoy again.  And remember what is important to you – and why you’re here.

Checking in

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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!

Preparing to go to Camp!

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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!

Whisper down the shout

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Sandy Grason said, “Your inner wisdom whispers, your inner critic SHOUTS” (my emphasis).  It has been my experience that she is correct.

Especially when it comes to our music.  We know a large number of people who play better than we do.  And if we are adults who came to the harp in adulthood, many of them are still children!

Unfortunately, we let that shouting inner critic get in our way.  We can’t even discern the whispering wisdom – we are too caught up in swooning to the poison of the critic.  We focus on every “mistake”, every “failure”, every variance.  We note how the “real” harpers never make mistakes, have stunning repertoires, and can play any tune.
It is too bad that we are so focused on ourselves.  We typically are so caught up in our fear that someone else will be better than us that we don’t really listen to those that we idolize.  We don’t recognize that the “real” harpers:
  1. make mistakes when playing

  2. are learning tunes

  3. are sometimes chagrined when they are not having a good day (my experience has been that this is especially highlighted when teaching!)

  4. may also be feeling this same way – and with much more at stake!
So, if you find that you are listening to the stupid shouting rather than the wise whispering you can take action to change.  There are only a few things you must do:
  • Pretend the critic is talking about your friend, mother, spouse – wouldn’t you tell that critic to stop and start listing all the reasons they are wrong?  Of course you would!  The critic only has the power you grant – therefore if you defend yourself vigorously, the critic will recede.

  • Do not compare yourself to others – only to yourself.  I suggest that my students make a recording annually (usually at the New Year).  The idea is to record what they are doing at that point in time – playing whatever they happen to be working on.  They periodically go back and listen to the recording in its entirety so they can hear for themselves how much they have improved.  They can compare themselves to their previous performance – the only comparison that matters!

  • Listen to others – I guarantee you that only the meanest of people would seek you out to deliver a cutting critique.  When people hear you play and tell you how much they enjoyed your playing, when a respected teacher tells you what a good job you’ve done, when someone asks you to play – they are being honest!!! Believe them and enjoy knowing you’ve done well.
Listen carefully – and the whisper will grow louder!

Its winter – go play inside!

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It is easy to get the winter blahs – the sun comes up late, it sets early. When you go out you have to bundle up – which makes the sun have a harder time getting to you to help block the blahs.  But we have a secret (or not really secret) weapon – you can use your harp to help keep those blahs at bay.



We already know that music can facilitate healing – physical and mental.  There are research studies indicating that live music directly impacts healing.  What could be better than playing to yourself?  You can’t help but be there so be present when you’re playing, concentrate on the vibration on your shoulder, the tone, and the just having fun part of playing!



So, sit by a window, play music you enjoy, revel in the tone, the feel of your harp, and sheer enjoyment of playing the music – and feel the blahs retreat…hopefully until spring!