Category: Practice

Jack London is quoted as saying, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

Every day we have to build our motivation to get onto that bench. Every day we have to work to maintain our proficiency and to get just a little bit better. Every day that we decide to skip sitting on the bench to do that work takes us a little farther away from what we want – in our heads and in our hearts. And every day a big something, or a hundred little somethings, get between us and that bench. And every day that we don’t make it to the bench makes the next day just a little easier to skip.

And so, every day, we have to get inspired, motivated to get on that bench. But, as Mr. London said, we cannot just sit idly by, awaiting the momentous arrival of that inspiration. Rather, we have to hunt for it…and some days, we need that club! We have to do not only the work that we set out to do, but we also have to do the additional work of digging in and finding our inspiration – the right fit for each day, and applying it to ourselves.

Some days the inspiration can be learning, another day it might be fear (the dreaded upcoming competition perhaps?), and on another day it might suffice to be the joy of being at your harp. The toughest days are those in which you can’t identify the right inspiration – but that can be just what you needed that day – some distance – but not distance from the harp!

So, don’t wait for inspiration to fall from the sky – make your own.  Apply it to your day – with (or without) a club! See you on the bench.

Technique. Even the word makes us think, “Ugh, not that!”. It is almost the same as running out for the ice cream truck only to find it selling liver and onions!

But good technique is essential to playing well and to protecting your body. You can build good technique with, you guessed it, practice. Building good technique will allow you to get more out of you. And good technique is applicable to any instrument, not just harp. Here are five ways good technique is important to you:

• Injury prevention – Musicians of all levels report nagging injuries. Many of these are overuse injuries and many can be prevented by good technique. Be sure to close and open your fingers, sit upright (also handy for breathing), be relaxed, keep your head up, etc.
• Speed – we value fast playing but so many people get in their own way on the road to playing faster because of poor technique. Improving your technique will help you get faster.

• Agility – just like speed, so often people get in their own way because their poor technique has left their hand cramped, their arm glued to the sound board or their shoulders in their ears (either because of tension or their head is cocked).
• Flexibility – I mean options – having good technique means that you’re in a position to have options should you experience a “jazz improvisation”. And that good technique will typically result in fewer of those experiences!
• Improved practice time – most people don’t want to spend time on technique because it’s boring and they would rather get on to playing, but just a little time on technique will yield extensive benefit to the rest of your practice time.

Working on your technique may not be fun but it is fundamental. And building good technique is imminently easier (and less time consuming) than correcting bad technique later!  Spend just a little time each day and enjoy years of making music the way you want to!

There are a number of basic things that we can do to help us learn music, play better, and have an easier time of getting from one to the other. Usually these things are simple, easy really.   Marking your music is one of those things. So why do so many people skip this important step?

Ok, I don’t have an answer for that, maybe because it seems difficult?  Or because we never want to do the fundamental work which looks easy but usually is anything but?  Since we don’t have an answer, instead let’s focus on what marking your music can do for you (besides get you from first look to easy playing!). Here are six reasons to mark up your dots!

1. Marking your music requires that you read through the music first. I always tell my students that reading music is like reading Greek – if you keep practicing it, a little at a time, it will get easier. Practice enough, it will become effortless.
2. Writing in reminders (in pencil – things change!) will help you remember! Pencil in your fingerings and placements until you’re comfortable (then you can erase and fill the space up with phrasings, dynamics, tempo changes, and other notes.
3. Mark your lever (or pedal) changes. You might think you’ll remember to make the lever change, but when push comes to shove, the reminder is good to have (it also helps your remember to practice the change as part of the music not as an afterthought).
4. If you’re in an ensemble you can mark reminders of what other players will be doing. Or you can pencil in changes the director adds to your notes.
5. You can mark passages you are having difficulty with and need to practice more – you can break them down, rearrange them, and mark how you’d like to proceed.
6. You can also mark to remind you when you get to your lesson of specific questions you’d like to ask.

Never forget that you have the dots in front of you to help you remember. Adding marks to the dots will allow you to remember more. Marking in pencil gives you room to develop, grow, learn and change how you play. And remember — the marking is there as a guide – nothing is sacrosanct about the marks – just erase when you’re ready to move along! Enjoy making your mark!

The days are short, the nights are long, the solstice in nearly upon us, and the weather is tailor made for reflection.  Take a moment and look at your past Harp year.  Did you meet your goals?  Did you do well?  Are you happy with your progress?

If no, why?  Did you set overly ambitious goals that didn’t take into account the rest of your life?  Did you set unrealistic goals like moving from your first lesson to performing Ceremony of the Carols within the year?  Did you not plan for the work your goals required (including enough practice time)? Did you have too many competing goals?  Were your goals vague such that you could not actually determine if you made any progress?  Or did you not set any goals, preferring to see what happened naturally?

Remember that the point of goals is to guide you, to help you see that you have made progress, and to remind you over time, not to generate yet another way to beat yourself up! 

As the new year looms, we will, of course review goal setting. Whether you met goals or not, the year is nearly past and we can look forward to next year.  Many things will change and many will be different, but your harp will be there with you – take the time to be there too!

We have spent a while talking about tuning.  I hope you’ve come to realize that tuning is an essential skill although it is often glossed over.  Be sure that no one glosses over it because they are uninterested.  It’s just that, as you play longer and longer and more and more, tuning becomes a habit and it frankly, it is so ingrained it is hard to describe.

As for how much is too much and how far do you turn the key, when do you stop?  These are complex questions.  The answer to each truly is – “It depends.”

• what your harp sounds like as the tone comes to pitch (that is, you begin to learn how each string sounds as the needle gets closer to straight up and the lights get closer to green)
• how the string feels against the key as it comes to pitch (as you get more comfortable with tuning, you will have the capacity to notice how the pin feels as your turn the key, how the key feels in your hand as your ears (and eyes) tell you you’re getting there)
• what your harp feels like as the string comes to pitch (as the strings begin to ring sympathetically as you get closer to the correct frequency)

Go gently, make very small adjustments. It doesn’t take much to move the string too much.  And it is easier to make another small adjustment than to change a broken string!

Take your time, go slowly.  Tuning can be very therapeutic and relaxing once you’re comfortable with it.  Move the key ever so slightly.  See if you can change the pitch of the string without being able to detect the movement of your hand.  With practice you may begin to enjoy the simple ritual of tuning (NB, this is not true if your Harp Circle, Ensemble, or Conductor are waiting!)

I ran across this quote the other day

A lot of people tune their harps to Eb.  The question is, should you?

First, you might want to know why so many people choose to be in Eb.  Many people like Eb because it is a very flexible tuning that allows you to get into eight major keys.  Since you’re asking those keys are:

• Eb (3 flats – E, A, B)

• Bb (2 flats – E, B)

• F (1 flat – B)

• C (no flats or sharps)

• G (1 sharp – F)

• D (2 sharps – F, C)

• A (3 sharps – F, C, G)

• E (4 sharps – F, C, G, D)

Being able to get into so many keys certainly limits the number of pieces you can’t play.

So you should think about your tuning before you commit to it on your harp.  Do you need to be able to get into all those keys or do you typically stay in just a few keys (think about which levers you typically use)?  You can use the answer to that question to finalize which tuning you want.  If you want the best tone from your harp, keep it open and select the tuning that gives you the fewest engaged levers. 

Then sit back and enjoy the full throated singing of your harp most of the time.

Most people use their electronic tuner for a number of reasons – it’s easy, effective, consistent, and it gives you the impression that your harp is tuned accurately.  But are you really in tune?

You can choose to tune by ear.  Many people do this because it results in I won’t kid you, learning to tune by ear requires some willingness to work – you have to practice doing it and you have to practice listening closely.  But if you start tuning by ear it won’t take you long to get good at it.

First, the equipment.  Assuming you do not have perfect pitch, you will need something to give you a pitch to reference.  You can use a tuning fork or a pitch pipe (available on a number of websites) or a piano (assuming it is in tune).  You can choose which pitch you’d like to tune to.  I have a 440 A tuning fork.  That might not have been the best choice as I have my harp tuned to Eb which means that I have to set a lever and occlude the string to get to A.  I’d suggest a pitch you can tune to on an open string.

I’ll focus on the tuning fork as it is easy to carry and use.  The tuning will be the same regardless of your reference.  Strike the fork on something solid (I use my ankle bone) and then place the base on the sound board.  You will hear the pitch loud and clear.  Then tune the appropriate string (A in my case) until you can’t hear it.

‘Til I can’t hear it????  Yup – when you can’t hear the string differently from the tuning fork, it is in tune…they are inseparable.  Remember that the 440Hz refers to the frequency of the string – so if you have it tuned, it will “disappear” into the tone of the tuning fork. Then I’d suggest you tune all of that string (all the As for example).  Tune them against each other (based on the A you started with).  Octaves are directly related (so if the middle A is 440 Hz, the A below it will be 220Hz and the A above it will be 880Hz.  If you play them in octaves you will be able to hear if one is out because of this relation.

If you’re willing to give it a try, start with your A’s strike your tuning fork and bring them in line.  We’ll move on to tuning the rest of the strings later!  Don’t get frustrated, just take a breath and listen – you’ll hear it when it happens.