I don’t know about you, but most of my musical life, I have been terrorized by one word – “improvise”.

I have always balked at improvisation – because I know that I can’t do it.  Everyone knows that only the jazz greats are good improvisers.  Somehow, they receive some sort of divine intervention and brilliant music fills their heads and then it comes tumbling out of their fingers.

So, whenever someone says, “oh, just improvise” I begin to panic.  I’m not a jazz great! (of course, I’ve also never aspired to be a jazz great, so not sure where that line of thought is supposed to be going…).  Mostly though, I focus on all the things I can’t do.  I don’t breathe, I’m too busy thinking up excuses about what doesn’t come out because I can’t improvise…

When the moment has passed and I’m by myself, I’ll  do one of two things to calm my nerves.  Either, I’ll either sit down at my piano and crank out a Bach Invention – exactly as written – verbatim.  Or more likely, I’ll seek solace at my harp and bring out some wonderful traditional tune that pops into my heart and mess around some with the harmony…just sticking stuff in the left hand..doing just anything that feels like it will work,  stuff that will add that soupcon of feeling that will fill in the space with spice….

But that’s not improvising.  I’m just playing it for myself…it doesn’t matter what happens when I play…there is no wrong because I’m just playing around….

But I’m not improvising….really.  Because I can’t….I’m afraid to move…

Hmmmmm.

Music certainly encompasses the notes, but it also includes the silences, the relationships between the notes and each other, as well as the relationship of the notes to the not-notes (or silences). Sometimes, as harp players, we become inured to the silence – we get so little of it with our wonderful resonant instruments. Harps love to keep on playing and that lovely sound “hanging around” may make us lazy – it’s easy to get away with not counting.

But it is essential to be true to the melody, share the message, communicate with our listeners. An essential element in that communication is time. Be aware of the full times and the empty times – and don’t rush through them (or become a sonic squatter and languish in between).

Counting can be a challenge when you first begin to actively use it. Time is challenging but it can be so rewarding! It will help you audience follow you message, it will make playing with other musicians a greater joy, and it will help ensure your tune is what the original composer meant it to be.

I’m not advocating rigid adherence to the beat – espeically if you’re engaged in a particularly poignant piece in which expression is conveyed with each toying of the time. After all, a Lament needs to convey sorrow but it should never be lamentable!

You must learn to count and to maintain that counting. Only when you have mastered this tool of communication can you begin to modify its application as appropriate.
So, stand up for music – make sure you count!

Well, it’s the beginning of the year and so we’re all quite mindful of time.  And as musicians, that couldn’t be more essential.

Thelonious Monk is reported to have said something to the effect of: just because you’re not a drummer doesn’t mean that you don’t have to keep time.

I am often struck by how many musicians don’t keep time.  They actually don’t count – they “go with the feel”.  They believe that because they aren’t drummers (or because they are playing alone) that they don’t have to be a slave to the beat and can play tunes as the spirit moves them.

But this misses an important point about music: music is a form of communication.  Whether you’re playing for an concert hall audience or your mother, you are sharing a message.  Isn’t the message worth getting across correctly? One of the essential tools for this is time.

Music isn’t just about the notes.  And we’ll talk later about various ways to convey those messages.  Today, let’s focus on counting and time.  If you don’t currently count, if your timing comes from the “feel”, I heartily urge you to begin…right now!

One of the reasons many people don’t count is because it is challenging – when you’re learning a new piece, you are doing a lot of work – reading, finding the notes on your harp, learning the relationships, determining the message, trying to learn some of the tune so it will be easier to play the next time, thinking variously how much you love this piece of music (if you love it) or how much you hate this piece of music (if you’re being made to learn something that is not coming easily), breathing, thinking about your posture and your hand position, etc. 

See, I told you there was a lot to think about – and so we often don’t bother with that pesky timing.   We want to get on to the tune, we want to play (after all, we don’t say, “I work the harp” do we!), we want to do all this quickly.  And so, we let the timing go.  But, this is one of those gotcha’s – because we never go back, we never work on the timing, we just keep pushing along…..until, eventually, the message gets lost – and so do we.

So, the next time you sit to learn a piece (or if you’re really dedicated, the next time you sit to a piece you already know), start with the timing, work that out before you spend a great deal of time on the notes.  See how the timing is really the key and not the prison.

Let me know how you come along – I’d love to hear it.