Trying things you’re not good at

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Jen

We all like to succeed. And it’s always more comfortable to do things we already know that we can do and do well. And we are, if nothing else, creatures in search of comfort.

Unfortunately, there’s no challenge in always doing stuff you’ve done before. And there’s only paltry reward in continuing to do things you’ve succeeded at before.

Last week I suggested that you should make goals for the year and capture them. I suggested you do that visually if you didn’t want to do it in writing. And I wanted to do it too. I’m

t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e

at pictures – I don’t really enjoy drawing and I never know where to start when someone says find pictures that show (just about any idea) (because you never need to find pictures of concrete things!). Ok, I really didn’t want to do it.

But I did it anyway. Here it is:

But the point is not my collaging abilities. The point is that, by doing something I’m not good at, I learned a lot.

1. I really can do anything if I just get over myself. I hemmed and hawed before getting started, but once I made up my mind to get going, it wasn’t as bad as I had feared!

2. Doing something in a medium you don’t prefer is challenging, but it also is eye-opening. In order to come up with ways to present my ideas graphically, I had a to really think about what my goals meant. I also had to get over worrying about whether you would understand what I was trying to say…when the point of the exercise is for me to understand what I was trying to say!

3. Not doing something the “easy” (or preferred) way really makes your brain work – none of your “usual tricks” work so you really have to use other techniques and strategies to get the project completed.

I hope you tried this exercise – if only to help record your ideas for what you should be focused on this year.

But perhaps the real take away is that these points also apply to our music! (you knew I’d come around to music, you just might not have known how I was going to do it!).

First, you have go get over yourself (and get out of your own way). How often do we inhibit our own learning and playing?

Second, you have to think about what you’re practicing and the music you’re playing so that you can you want to share.

Third, when you do things differently you have the potential to uncover new approaches to your old (or typical) way of doing stuff.

You can learn new ways to think about ongoing challenges. And you can bring these new ideas to your practice (as well as to all the various parts of your life).

While trying to capture my ideas graphically I had a couple of ideas on how to look differently at scores that might help me learn more music faster. My explorations of improvisation may improve my questionable recipe modifications. And the strategies I use on the bench to push through something hard may help me improve my running.

And most importantly, I have now got multiple representations of the things I’ve identified to keep in focus throughout 2021 – so I might be even more likely to complete progress toward my goals throughout the year.

Of course, as a product person, I will need to keep referring to my captures (graphical and verbal) to keep myself on track!

Hope you were able to capture your ideas graphically – anyone want to share? Let me know in the comments!

Looking forward

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Jen

It’s one thing to know more about how you approach things to help shape your goals but it’s quite another to capture that info and use it!

I have seen research reports that indicate that only 8% of people who set goals actually achieve them. Yikes!

When you look at what helps those 8% get over the hurdle – writing it down is the prevalent shared element. Those people are no more motivated or dedicated or special than the people who don’t write their goals down, they just used a tool to help them get along.

This might sound familiar – I’m always telling you to write it down. I encourage you to have a practice journal so you can keep track of the day-to-day mundane parts of practice (what metronome setting? which phrase still isn’t right?) as well as the delights (f-i-n-a-l-l-y got through that tricky part successfully!) and the disappointments (ugh, I feel like I’ll never get that phrase….but when I look back I see I have only been working on it for 2 days, not the 2 millennia it feels like!).

All this documenting can start with the goals themselves. Now, maybe you have broken your pen, or you used all the writing paper in your house to line the hamster cage, or you just don’t want to write. Ok. I get that – you think I’m wrong (although I have multiple students who will tell you otherwise!). You might enjoy this suggestion anyway.

Once you’ve formulated a goal, you still want to capture it. Preferably in an enduring way that allows you to center and focus on it – not just now when you’re setting the goal or at the end when you’ve achieved it – but more crucially, in the middle of working on it. You know, that time when it’s so easy to lose interest or to get sidetracked (shiny object syndrome anyone?), or to begin to despair that you set a goal this is achievable, just not by you. You can think of this as the “worried in the dead of night” phase of working toward something.

Another thing those successful goal setters do (after they write it down) is to keep their goal(s) in front of themselves so they can remember what’s important to them. So, how might you go about capturing your goal(s) so you can keep your eye on them? Well, if you’re like me, you’ll write lists and maybe a narrative [of course, if you’re really like me, you’ll lose the paper, or write on the back of it and then throw it away…and then you’re stuck trying to remember what you had thought was so important to do]. But if what leads to success is keeping the goals in front of ourselves, maybe a better approach is to go with something we look at.

Maybe we take it to the wall! What if you made a visual representation of your goals instead of just writing them down?

A what?!?

Bear with me. Not everyone is verbal or likes to write. And sometimes doing something that feels a little uncomfortable actually changes your vision of the activity (for example, trying to write with your non-dominant hand makes you think about the act of writing differently). And it is a lot easier to hang a visual item on the wall to look at it frequently than it is to pin a bunch of words to the wall.

So, give it a try – this year, as you capture and form your goals make a visual representation of them. You can do this however you choose – make a collage of photos (from magazines or online), draw in your favorite medium (I’m currently shifting from my washable markers phase to crayons…but I just bought some chalk pastels, so I feel another change coming!), paint, sculpt, mixed media – whatever. I’m really keen on a mashup that is part bullet journal, part sketch book, part junk journal. You will probably need some words too – but those can be written, lettered, drawn, cut from magazines or newspapers (if you’ve never seen one of these, they are an ancient form of communication rarely seen in the modern world!) – again however you choose. When you’re done you can hang this where you’ll see it – near your harp? next to your bathroom mirror? next to your tv? Doesn’t matter as long as it’s a place you can see it, reflect, and keep your goals in mind.

And if, like me, you’re more verbal and your mind is screaming “NO!!” – try this anyway. Expressing yourself in a different medium will give you an opportunity to think differently.

Because what’s important is that you keep your goals in mind so you can become a better harp player!

I’ll be working on mine. Let me know if you’re really going to give this a try… and if you’d like to share, I’d be delighted to see how you have captured your goals! Just send a photo!

Happy Goal Setting!

Process – Product – So what?

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Jen

WOW! Last week you had some great comments and questions! A couple of you privately asked what the point was. If you were wondering what the point of all that was – or if there even was a point, you’re about to find out!

I don’t know about you, but I try really hard to not make resolutions at the New Year. If I do make a resolution, it’s usually at an equinox or solstice. Why then? Why not? There’s nothing about 1 January that makes it more special than any other day, although it does feel momentous and there’s great fanfare to its arrival, but any day is a good a starting point.

However, the New Year is the beginning of a year and one could argue that at the beginning is an excellent place to start something. It provides an opportunity to focus on the action needed and to set goals.

So PROCESS? PRODUCT? So what?

Well, goals work best if they are actually aligned with what you want. Goals work worst when they are really good….for someone else! If you’re primarily a process person, you will be better served to have goals that align with you and are more process driven. If, on the other hand, you’re a product person, then setting process goals will likely just result in failure and self-recrimination.

And who wants that?

Since you’ve had the opportunity to think about how Process or Product you are, now you can craft goals for yourself that build on your strengths. By starting with your strengths, you’re much more likely to be successful.

If you’re more Process, you might define goals for the coming year that focus on the journey. These might be longer term, stretching throughout the year (or even across years). Because you’re process oriented, you will do fine with these goals. And you have the flexibility to have any “products” happen when they happen rather than adhering to a schedule. And if there are no products, so what?

If you found you are more Product focused, your goals might look really different. Products are likely to be shorter term, and each of them might be very finite. You can schedule them and then adhere to the schedule as part of the goal. And if you don’t reflect on how you got there, so what?

The lovely thing is that you can use either Process or Product for any goal! If the goal is to play all of the Carolan compositions (since those seem to be all the rage just now with multiple approaches to collecting and arranging them) it’s more how you state the goal and then work it, rather than the goal itself. For a process person, stating the goal that look like this: “I will play through all the Carolans by the end of the year”. For the product person that might be too nebulous, so it might be stated, “I will play one Carolan tune each day for the next 261 days.” Same goal, different approaches. The process person would probably chafe under the product approach and the product person might get nowhere with the process statement – but stated in their own best way, they can each have a great year and achieve that goal!

By focusing on your strengths, you can also develop goals that are less “should” and more “will“. For instance, your goal could be, “I should organize all my sheet music” (can you hear the sneer of that “should”? That sneer is what makes me think, “I should but I won’t”). But what if we shifted it around and removed the “should”? Then it could be stated, “Alphabetize and arrange my music library” (more product) or “Read through and bring some order to my music” (more process).

Of course, this is also the opportunity to set a goal to practice things that don’t come as naturally to you or are uncomfortable for you. This is an opportunity to strengthen your weaker Process or Product side. Do you see how that subtle wording shift above makes the goals more approachable? Also notice that they’re the same goal? Of course in this example, many of us might smush it all together and enjoy a ramble through all the music we want to get to but might not (on the line between Process and Product), but we’ll enjoy the time we spend.

No matter what your goals might be this year, putting them in the context of your strengths will certainly make them more appealing. And more accomplishable. And more enjoyable. Avoiding “shoulds” will also give you the opportunity to shake off the shackles of expectations that don’t fit you.

What are your goals this year? I’d love to hear them – share in the comments!

PS, you may have seen that sometimes I post a comment in which I reference an email rather than a previous comment. I know that not all of you are interested in sharing every thought you ever had with everyone on the planet. You are always welcome to send me an email sharing your thoughts. Usually you have excellent thoughts that I might edit and share your thinking with the group but know that if you send me an email comment and I post it in the comments, I will strip it of all attribution to protect your privacy. I really do like hearing from you so please don’t hide your light!

Welcome to the Process and Product of 2021!

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Jen

It’s that time of the year when we reflect on the past year and think about what might come in the next twelve months.

Of course, the last year wasn’t really all that nice and we might be inclined to avoid thinking about it at all. But that would be a mistake.

You probably learned a great deal in the last year. Some of it good, some of it bad, almost all of it about you. So think about what has happened so you can make a better start to the coming year.

You might think that I’m going to tell you to make your resolutions or goals for 2021. But I’m not. In fact, I think that would not be a good idea. Let’s wait on those goals for a sec and instead, let’s talk about something you’ve been telling me.

One of the things you told me – a lot – was that in the past year, you weren’t motivated. That you weren’t practicing. And that this not practicing lead you to feel badly…because you knew you should be maximizing your time by practicing more.

And if you’re on social media, this might have made you feel even worse as people made videos and wrote music and built complicated multi-window concerts that included participants all over the world and shaped facebook empires and instagram realms, leaving you to feel like you needed to be just as creatively productive …even if you were still working full time (or were mildly depressed by the situation and your infatuation with doomscrolling!).

And possibly even worse, you told me that this made you doubt if you should keep playing. Doubt if you’d ever get back to your harp. Bemoaning your lack of progress…and motivation. Wondering if you ever really were a harp player.

Some of you said something to the effect of – if there’s no one to play for there’s no reason to play and if there’s no reason to play there’s no reason to practice and if I don’t practice then I can’t play…so maybe I should just give it up!

Poppycock!

What you might see as a lack of motivation is likely just a need to determine your style. Once you know what that style is, then you can focus on what works for you.

Some of us are Process people. We are in it for the journey. We love to explore the nooks and crannies of the path. We just love the route – and if we never get anywhere, that’s ok too – we’ll amble along taking in more information, learning as we go, enjoying the ride. We like a unending, undefined pursuit.

Some of us are Product people. We don’t really have a lot of thought for the journey – we are focused on the destination. We love to arrive! We honestly don’t give a fig for how we get there; we just want to get there. And then (possibly even before we get there) we’ll look for our next destination and work on getting there ad nauseum.

The process focus is popularly held as a more enlightened approach. And smugly superior process people like to point out that product people are missing the point, aren’t mindful enough, etc. Product people don’t even look up of course, because they are busy getting where they’re going and don’t have time to listen to process people prattle on about the path.

If you’ve been feeling unmotivated because there’s nowhere to play, you’re probably a Product person.

But as you might have already guessed, there is no one right way. There are even some hybrid people who both enjoy the journey and rejoice in arriving at the destination. As we continue to move through the year with ongoing uncertainty, the process people might appear to have an advantage. But the real advantage will be to those who know what their approach is and going from there.

It is important is to know what you are and to work with that knowledge to achieve two aims:

To encourage yourself to continue
To stretch yourself to be more like you aren’t (and observe how that helps you grow as a musician)

You likely already know which of these you are. If, over the last eight months you were a font of great ideas and noodled around with them and maybe put at least a few of them into play – you are likely a process person. If, on the other hand, your ongoing self-talk included something along the lines of “there’s no one to play for, there’s nothing to do, why would I bother to play” you’re probably a product person.

A Product focus begins with the end in mind – you practice because you have a gig coming up. Or a harp circle. Or a lesson. It might not be in you to practice just for the joy of it. And you might feel silly when you just sit to play – rather than practice – when no one is listening. You typically do practice (only because when it’s time to perform, there’s not many tunes you can just pull out of your ear without practice). For you practice is a means to an end, not a journey.

A Process focus is much more open ended. You dally. You practice things just to know them rather than to prepare to perform. You may look forward to the feel of the harp against you and the sound of the strings as you play. You might noodle for hours just to noodle. And if you never perform that stuff, so what – look at what you learned.

It is important to note –

– most people have a some of both Process and Product,

– one is not better than the other, they’re just different ways to look at the world

So, as you begin to feel your way into the new year, but before you get down to defining what you think the year might look like in terms of your harp life goals or resolutions – I have some homework for you!

Assess yourself and determine if you are more Process or more Product. Be honest!
Once you’ve determined which you are, mark where you are on the continuum
Write down three things that might come from being more what you aren’t (e.g. if you’re mostly process, what are three things that you might benefit from being more product focused)
Write down some ways you anticipate this will make you uncomfortable
Note how this exercise (and actually implementing the three things you identify) might improve your practicing and playing.

Are you more Process or more Product? Let me know what you’re like and what you think your three things might be in the comments below!

The Bucket List

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Jen

Some people have a bucket list. Of course, even more haven’t made one, but they probably have things they’d like to have accomplished by the time they’re done on the coil mortal.

A bucket list is a compilation of all the things a person would like to have accomplished, completed, or dreamt of. It is (yet another) goals list, pure and simple.

You might think a Bucket List is a macabre thing to keep. After all, most people think of it as a list of all the things you may (or might not) have accomplished in your entire life. Ok, that would be macabre.

But what if you instead think of it as a gentle reminder of what you think is interesting, curious, important, and/or worth pursuing? If you look at it that way, it could be sort of interesting – and a little goading. And probably worth keeping for quick and frequent reference. For guidance. And as a reminder to keep your head up (metaphorically…. although you should also do that physically while you’re playing!).

Apparently loads of people have lists that include travel around the world, run a marathon, be a better person, write a novel, or pursue a passion.

BUT – YOU ALREADY HAVE A PASSION. You’re no desultory harper!

What sort of things might you put on the list? Well, that’s going to be fairly personal. After all, it will be all the things you hope you will do before you are no longer able to play the harp. I have my own ideas (although, to be fair, I’ve been checking mine off as fast as I can!).

How, you might ask would you go about making your bucket list? Well, it’ll take a little time and effort, but it’ll be worth it! First, note that you might be making more than one list. After all, once you start thinking about it, you might be making a life list, a harp list, a family list, etc. And that’s ok – you can have multiple lists!

I’d suggest making the list in your practice journal. You have to keep it somewhere, so why not there? That way you’ll see it each time you sit to practice – and be reminded of some of the reasons you’re about to practice…

It’s your list – you can put anything you like on it. Secret fantasies, deepest desires, put ‘em down. You’ll never know when you’ll have the chance to check one of them off, but you’ll be ready for the opportunity if you know you want to (you won’t have to think about it when it happens – you’ll be ready!).

Of course, also put down stuff you know you can do if you try. Learn that piece you admire. Write down that tune that you hear in your head. Ask that well-known teacher for a lesson. You have nothing to lose!

Then there’s the harder to define stuff – what do you want your harp legacy to be. Don’t think you have one? Oh, you do, you just might not have thought about it before. Do you want to be sure that you have actually played for your friends? Wish you would sit a Master Class? Want to participate in that fabulous workshop everyone’s always talking about? While these things might be more challenging, you can get there. And writing them on your list will remind you to keep at it.

Maybe the hardest thing about generating your bucket list is to prioritize it. What’s the most important to you? What will take you the most time (or require new skills or significantly more practice)? Does anyone in your life need to have an input (whether they be an audience member or a travel companion or some other adjunct to your thinking)? You’ll need to factor that in. Also, is there any intersection of your harp and your life bucket lists? Maybe you can take your harp with you as you travel around the world? Always wanted to go to Scotland (always a good idea) – maybe there’s a workshop you plan around (or you could join us sometime in the future!). Two birds, meet one stone!

What does not belong on your Harp Bucket List? ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN! Don’t want to play in an ensemble? Don’t. Don’t want to play orchestra parts? Don’t even write it down! Never wanted to learn that “must do” repertoire? Then DON’T!

You’re capturing what YOU want to do with your harp life. Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. Maybe you’re not quite ready to do some of it, that’s ok. You’ve written it down so you can be reminded of what you want to be so you can keep acquiring the skills or practice you need to be able to get there. And remember – it’s your list. Share it with others if you like, but you don’t have to.

When you complete something on your list, savor that!

Make your bucket list – so you can do all the things you want while you are able. Live your harp life! What might you put on your bucket list? Got a good idea? Want to share it in the comments?

Clear vision for 2020

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Jen

It is now 2020 – Welcome to the new year and the new decade!

Just like every new year, we are encouraged from many sides to develop resolutions – to define those things we need to “fix” to improve ourselves.

How about this – in 2020, the year of clear vision – just give it a rest. Resolve to make no resolutions. Don’t set any goals.

After all, if the goals were important, you’d have set them right when they became clear. If you need to work on specific things, you would have started right then – if you wanted that to become a goal!

There’s nothing special about short cold days for achieving anything. Up to 91% of people who set resolutions drop them, most before the middle of January! So, setting resolutions is really not a useful thing to do, unless you like to set yourself up for failure and to give yourself a specific thing to beat yourself up about not accomplishing.

Then what should you do? How about you take on just these four things:

Just Stop. New Year’s resolutions really seem to be about false notions of self-improvement and possibly about self-aggrandizing virtue signaling. And really, unless you made a significant wager with someone, no one else really cares if you make it, so stop pillorying yourself about having resolutions, goals, visions, whatever. Use that energy to – just play!
Be Nice. Be kind to yourself – if you’re not where you want to be, you probably not only know it, but you likely also know how to get across that gap. You might just not be ready to spend that energy. And if you are not sure how to get there, work with your teacher (or me!) and keep reading (because you know that here, we’ll talk about ways to improve!).
Take a smarter path. The path forward that begins by recognizing the reality of your life will be a smarter path. And possibly there’s more to your life than playing the harp – like family, friends, day jobs, other hobbies, other instruments, and myriad other things you prioritize ahead of the harp (otherwise, you’d have more time to practice). By examining your real life – and using that as the foundation of your thinking about your playing – you will be more likely to be able to find the time to practice and to better fit your harp playing into your reality! Your life is a system and it needs to be kept in balance so that you can accomplish the requirements of each of its parts. That balance starts by understanding where all the pieces lie.
Practice! You know it will all come down to this – but you need a wider definition – you have to practice:

- Practice the instrument – probably that old saw of spending at least 30 – 90 minutes a day (depending, again, on where you’re trying to get, your level of performance and development, and your real life)
- Practice fitting everything else in too (you know, like dinner, exercise, sleep, work, chores, etc.) (after all, 3 above will not happen by magic, it will take a little work to analyze what will fit, where it will fit and how you might have to adjust things to get it all into the day).
- Practice having balance
- Practice being kind to yourself
- Practice stretching
- Practice learning
- Practice spending time away from your harp productively
- Practice being present
- Practice practicing – you can’t just sit on the bench and have magic pour out your fingers – you know you need to warm up, work on fundamentals, analyze music, think about your approach and strategy for new music, work on learning, learn new things, develop musicality, hammer out new burbles, etc.
  - Practice the tunes you love
  - Practice the tunes you don’t love
  - Practice the way you play and developing your technique
  - Practice becoming more accomplished
  - Practice sharing your music
  - Practice being better
  - Practice enjoying the process
  - Practice capturing your progress so you can see your improvement
  - and practice identifying where you need to improve and practice

It’s going to be a busy year, and you’ll do exactly as much work as you fit in (and no more). Setting improbable or impossible goals will not help and could actually get in the way (by making you feel like you’re failing or not making progress when you actually are).

What will you do with all the energy you have from not developing resolutions or goals that won’t work for you? Let me know in the comments!

Tired of Christmas yet? So, what’s next?

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Jen

I get it. We’ve been teaching, learning, practicing, and performing Christmas music since it was hot! It’s a limited pool of tunes. It’s a short window to share them. And they really aren’t that different from one another. It can get boring. And at this point, it is too late to start changing them up…or you’re already doing that and you’re running out of ideas for changes that you can perform on the fly. After all, by December, we’re likely to be operating on autopilot just a little.

So, while you’re on autopilot, you might be thinking about what’s next! What do you want to do? What tunes are you going to take on? Do you have a longer-term plan? Now’s your chance to make a workable plan for the post-December season.

To do what’s next, we need a plan. How do you make a plan for your music? Same as any other plan you might make, you just need to take a few (ok, 10) steps –

Know where you are – take stock of where you are right now. Be honest and rigorous and identify where you’re starting. And it’s the foundation of the plan. If you’re not honest, you will have a hard time succeeding in the plan.
Set realistic expectations (based on your real life). It’s easy to build a perfect and beautiful plan. But if the plan doesn’t reflect your real life, it will fail. Do not promise yourself that you will get up at 5 and practice for 2 hours if you are responsible for getting your household up, fed, prepped and out the door by 6:30 every morning! While it’s a lovely plan, it won’t fit your life. (we’re back to being honest and rigorous with yourself).
Make a schedule. No matter how good your plan is, it will help to write it down and ensure it fits into your (real) life…the messy one with chores, and work, and meals, and traffic, and showers, and all the other stuff of daily life. Writing it down will let you see the conflicts and were you have (actual) practice time…and plan in free time – you’ll need it.
Where are you trying to go? You should begin with the end in mind. ‘Nough said.
What will it take to get there? You have to see the space between where you are and where you want to go. In business and engineering this is called a Gap Analysis. Be sure to note which specific, steps, techniques, etc. are missing to close the gap.
When do you expect to arrive? While you may not know how long it will take you to master skills, techniques, or tunes on your path, you may want to develop some idea of how long you think it might take. Be prepared to be thorough, but also be ready to be wrong. Remember to be flexible too.
How will you know when you get there? Before you begin to execute your plan, you will have had to identify where “there” is…so you’ll know when you have arrived!
Do you know why you’re going there? It helps to define what you need to work on (where you’re trying to go), but it is also important to keep in mind why you’re trying to get there! Are there techniques you need to learn or perfect? Is there a particular repertoire element you wanted to build in? The why is essential to getting there!
What happens if you don’t get there? Sometimes your plan is to achieve something before a specific event. Or you need to tackle a particular element on your way to nailing a particulate tune you want in your rep. But what if you don’t get there – what’s the worse that will happen. Do you have a contingency?
Did you write any of it down? You know I’m a fan of keeping track of stuff – and this is no exception! Take notes, write on your plan, keep a calendar, make a scrap book, use a practice journal. I don’t care how you keep track, just be sure to keep track.

Like the meme says, no matter where you go, there you are. Make a plan so you’re there is somewhere you’d like to be. What are you thinking you might make a plan for? Let me know if the comments.

Are you happy with 2018?

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Jen

The end of the year is drawing near. With only two weeks remaining, are you happy with your harp year 2018?

In January, I suggested you keep a diary, build an I-love-me board, and/or record yourself. Did you get a chance to start these?

If you did – it’s time to pull them out (and likely dust them off – it’s ok if you lost motivation in the middle of the year – it happens). Look through your artifacts. What you collected there will help you continue to grow and develop into the coming year. You can review your diary entries or your continued additions to your I-love-me to see what worked and what didn’t. And by worked, I mean what worked for you. The point of the diary, the I-love-me, and the recording is to give you a means to review where you were, where you are, and to determine how they line up with where you are going (or where you think you’re going or where you thought you meant to be going).

No pillorying yourself! No harsh critique. No judgmental condemnation. Just a review of how you spent your time and if it served to get you where you were headed. Take the time to thoughtfully review your documentation. Did you practice the technique things you needed to so that you could play that dream piece? Did you practice enough? Did you practice regularly? Can you identify patterns of good (or bad) things that you spent your time and energy on? With this information you can continue to move forward – wherever you’d like to go!

If you didn’t (or if you started but got sidetracked by, like January 3rd) – why? What about the methods I suggested didn’t do it for you? There’s gold in the answers – because these are only three ways to capture your continued development. If they didn’t work for you – can you tell me why they didn’t work and what would work better – for you? Did you use another method? What was it?

Remember, the idea is to know where you’re trying to get to (to master some particular technique, to play a particular piece, to be able to play a tune at a particular tempo, etc.) and to make slow, small, accurate, continuous progress. And to avoid getting sucked down a rabbit hole (of a particular gig, something that’s giving your trouble, your regular life, whatever) and thereby getting derailed.

How did you monitor yourself this year? Did it work? What would work better? Enquiring minds want to know – so share in the comments!

But if I don’t have a goal – how will I know that I got there?

Posted on January 10, 2018 by Jen

If goal setting is so last year and this year we are going to do better – what are we going to do? How will we know if we got where we meant to?

First, we’re going to acknowledge that this is where that maxim about life being a journey not a destination kicks in. And to that end, I’d suggest that this year – we bimble.

To bimble is to walk about aimlessly but not pointlessly, to get nowhere in particular, while enjoying the walk.

In other words – there is no “there” to get to. The time is spent enjoying the time.

Seem like a good idea? For so many who play for enjoyment, this is the ideal approach to the work of playing throughout the year. No deadlines, no stress, simply playing to play…and to enjoy! No goal setting. No getting to December and feeling like you have failed after working so hard!

But even if we play to enjoy, we would like to improve, to see some progress. How will we do that without setting goals? We’ll bimble – enjoying our music and our lessons – without being fussed about how fast we are (or are not) progressing or that we are not ready to perform well enough.

To make improvements, we can focus on what we’re doing. Change the focus from “where am I trying to get by some specific time” to instead be “what am I doing just now – can I do it just a little better right now?” We can focus on practicing or learning. We can spend time reading, listening, analyzing music, thinking about the tunes.

This enjoying the journey means that we don’t have to “work” so hard that we forget what we enjoyed about playing in the first place. It means we can pay attention to the little things –

how our hands feel as they close
how the harp vibrates on our shoulder or thigh
how the bass wires tickle our feet when we don’t wear shoes
how we particularly enjoy the sound of those specific strings that made us buy that harp in the first place
how buzzes sound terrible but are kind of fun to make!

Take time to enjoy the various parts of your practice time – the simple yet difficult task of performing scales, arpeggios, or other exercises. The delight in getting through a tune you’ve been working to learn. The fun but determined way you have to work new music into your head. This focus and enjoyment is a motivation to get back on the bench, to spend the time, to play the harp, to practice.

We can bimble on our instruments – play and enjoy – aimlessly but not pointlessly.

And pay attention.

Pay attention to how you have an easier time now with some particular technique. Do your hands close fully now, without you having to think, “fingers all the way to the palm” each time? Do you move your elbows as needed to address the strings at a good and ergonomic angle? Can you sit comfortably for long enough to satisfy yourself?

Notice that you are more able, with each passing practice, to play more easily. Do you remember more of each phrase without having to read every note? Are you able to control your dynamics?

Use tools to capture your thoughts (recording, journaling, etc.). Are you able to note that you played straight through for the first time? Did your approach to working a tricky section work?

In the end, as we enjoy the time, we get where we end up – probably right where we wanted to be. Because really, there is no “there” there. There is only our time and our enjoyment at the harp. What are the things you want to notice while you’re at your harp?

Should you bother to set Goals for 2018?

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Jen

It’s that time of year again. That time when experts, brainiacs, eggheads, and bloggers all exhort you to set goals for the coming year. They delineate the process and give away worksheets. They remind you that 5000% of people who write their goals down achieve them and that 3756% of people never even set a goal*.

In other words, they nag you and sort of bully you into generating a set of goals. I start to feel like it is nearly immoral to not set goals. And I know – because I have done the same thing to you in the past! And to myself. Well – not this year!

It is January and the beginning of a new year. It is a time many reflect on the previous year and our progress as humans to date. And it is nearly a habit to expect to generate some goals. And those goals better meet all the criteria of good, achievable goals.

But should you bother to go through goal setting for 2018?There’s a reason only 3% of people even bother to write their goals down**. It clearly is a strategy that doesn’t work for most people. It requires a level of commitment difficult to bring to just about any activity, except perhaps a quest. And since many of us play for our enjoyment (and even for those who play for a living) – it becomes just one more thing to do (and therefore it becomes easy to ditch!).

So, if goal setting isn’t the right approach, what better ways could you use to identify what you’d like to do with your harp this year and check-in over time to see if you are getting there? If the standard goal setting hasn’t worked for you, here are three other ways to approach this:

Keep a diary. Yes, this is a thinly disguised journal – but for some reason a diary is slightly less threatening than a journal (just look at Instagram or Pinterest – loads of journals not too many diaries). You can keep a diary in any medium and it really is just you talking to you. You can do this in the blocks of your planner calendar, in a separate book, on scraps of napkins – whatever fits in your day. The best thing – who gets you better than you? It gives you a place to pour out your frustration when you are having a hard time – and to capture your glee when something totally comes together.
Make an “I Love Me” board. I started out thinking that a Vision Board was a great idea but it comes with so much baggage. And of course, it is hard to find magazines with pictures of harps (except Folk Harp Journal, Harp Column, and AHS Journal – and who wants to cut those up?!***). But you can capture all you want to do in the future and what you accomplish as sort of a visual scrapbook. It can have photos and selfies, invitations, programs, contracts, etc. Capture and display the detritus of your successes as well as any artifacts that arise from frustration (sheet music so marked up that it is unreadable? string bits?). Be sure to put the board somewhere that you can see it – and see that you are definitely moving.
Make a record. I like to encourage students to do this at Christmas time and spontaneously (or maybe not so spontaneously) throughout the year. Christmas is a trove of tunes you play every year, so it is easy to effortlessly hear your progress. But you should also include any other tunes you’ve worked on. You could make what is an audio diary and after playing the tune you could comment to yourself – how much easier it was to play the tune this year, how much you want to add tunes, how good you feel about something you’ve worked on for a while. You could do this more regularly (as a version of 1 above) but I kind of like the idea of a different means of reminding myself what I’m doing.

Or just write your goals down. There’s nothing wrong with writing them down, keeping a practice journal and actively looking for progress and successes. The key is to capture evidence of your journey in a way that helps you travel! Let me know if you’re going to bother to set goals or how you might watch your own growth over the coming 12 months!

* these statistics may be randomly generated (i.e. made up)
** actual statistic snagged from this article – you’ll find various numbers in assorted sources, but they are all low
*** if you’re not already reading at least one of these, you might want to consider adding it to your readying list

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Category Archives: Goal Setting