Category Archives: Practice

In the Bleak Mid-Summer…8 ways to stay Motivated

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It is the Bleak Midsummer – that time of year when it might as well be winter for all that you intend to go outside!  It’s predicted to be about 100o tomorrow – ugh.  And raining.  The remnants of a tropical depressed (yes, I meant that).

Of course, it will be pouring while I try to load my car to head to Somerset Folk Harp Festival.  Why does it always rain when you need to load your harp into the car?  It’s just a law of nature I supposed.

But that’s the thing about the Bleak Midsummer (you might call it the Summer Doldrums, but that’s not bleak enough for me) – the heat, the humidity, the knowing that it will last another eight weeks – all gang up on you and sap your strength and motivation!  Who wants to play when you know you’re going to sweat on your harp?

Ugh.

So, how do you stay motivated?  Here are 8 ways that might work for you:

  1. Go to summer harp events! I’m delighted to be going to Somerset Folk Harp Festival and I’m missing all the fun we had at the Ohio Scottish Arts School, and I’m really looking forward to Harp Quest! I wish I was able to fit more in, but these events (and others like them) really help you break out of any rut you might be in, let you catch up with old (but distant) harp friends, make new harp friends, and learn a lot in a relatively short time.  Best of all, you come home with new tunes, cool tricks and tips, and usually a bounce in your harp-step!  [BTW -There only a few remaining spots in Harp Quest and registration will close soon, so be sure to get in while there’s space!  More info here or contact us here]
  2. Use the long days to your advantage – if you normally practice in the evening, you can use the early light to get a new view on your playing. Never gonna happen that you get up at 5 to practice? No worries – enjoy practicing in the late afternoon or early evening – here too the light is so bright and the sun still so high that it feels like you’re practicing much earlier than you are. Or wait until the lingering sunsets of summer to enjoy the feel of playing the evening in.  No matter what, you can use the longer days to get a fresh perspective on your playing.
  3. Don’t let the short nights get the better of you – be sure you’re still getting enough sleep. Getting enough sleep will not only help you play better but will also help stave off the blues.  Those long nights will be upon us before we know it (even if it feels like they’ll never come) but you can still arrange to get plenty of rest.
  4. It’s VACATION TIME! You can take this a number of ways. You’re going to go away and have a frabjous time somewhere else doing nothing (including not playing).  Or you’re going somewhere amazing and taking your harp with your time away.  Either way – use the down time to rest and recover.  And maybe devote a few quiet moments to reminding yourself of how much you love playing the harp and that the work is just a path to enjoyment. [And if you want to plan ahead – you could never go wrong spending your vacation on a trip with us!  Harp the Highlands and Islands 2020]
  5. Use those long sunny (hot) days to spend time in your favorite chair with your favorite libation thinking about how lucky you are to play the harp! That should perk you up and make you want to play (and maybe even to practice?). Of course, that libation should be part of your hydration plan – it’s so easy to get dehydrated in the summer and that will throw you off your game, sap your motivation, and probably give you a headache – all no fun.
  6. Think about Christmas – every year Christmas comes racing up and we’re never really ready, so give it a little thought now. Maybe plan out your cold weather strategy while it’s still nice and hot. When will you start?  What tunes are you going to add this year?  What have you played in the past that needs more work  (and inevitably, more than you think)?  Where are you going to play?  What non-holiday tunes will you keep in the rotation to avoid boring the socks off your listeners?  See, there’s loads to think about, while you’re sweating and not wanting to play.
  7. Just sit for 15 minutes. Promise yourself that you’ll only play for 15 minutes – after all, it’s hot and you won’t be able to concentrate for too long, so don’t think you will – just do it in bite sized chunks throughout the day.
  8. Have ice cream. Really? You’re going to question this?  Fine, I’ll have yours.

Power through – it’ll be autumn soon and before you know it, we’ll be complaining about how cold it is!  There’s eight ideas – do you have others?  How do you stay motivated throughout the summer?  Leave me a comment and share!

Now what?

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Hopefully you believed me and at least started making your index card file. If so, you’ll have started the cards going, and once you’re caught up, adding your new material will require a less herculean effort!

But you’ve asked – now what? What are you supposed to do with this?

Well, there’s a reason I suggested this card catalog rather than just a list (however, if you opted for a list, that’s ok too – keep reading, it’s down below!). If you’ve made a card catalog, no matter if you are sorting by title or by tune type – you should also include another set of divisions:

Know |  Don’t Know  |  Needs Polish

(you can also add additional dividers if you want to be more specific or to fit the way you think about it)

At each practice, you can pull the cards you need. Clearly, you will put the things you are actively working (from the “Don’t Know” section). The tricky bit is what else to pull. It is tempting to think the “Needs Polish” should come out infrequently, but you’d be wrong. These should be in your regular rotation for practice.

“Needs Polish” is code for, “I’d like to think I know this, but if push came to shove, I’d have to admit that I don’t really know it cold”. So, add those tunes to your regular practice. Also acknowledge that “Needs Polish” may be the weirdest/broadest category, so don’t despair. You will get there if you keep working on these tunes!

But how do you use the “Know” cards? Pull one at random from the box at each practice. Play the tune and see how it goes. If you play it well – Yea! and put it back into the box. If it is wobbly when you play it, it goes into the “Needs Polish” section so you can get it back to scratch. And if it is a struggle (or you don’t remember large chunks of it*) put it back into “Don’t Know”. The number of “Knows” you pull out in each practice is up to you (and typically based on how much time you have each day).

If you’ve made a list (or set of lists) here are some other ideas. I’d suggest you use a spreadsheet (so you can move tunes easily from one section to another), but any format that works for you is the right one! You’ll still need to identify your categories and all that is above still applies.  When it comes to choosing a tune from the “Know” pile, just close your eyes and point to a title. Or use a random number generator. Or roll some dice. Whatever works – just so you can select a tune to include each day.

No matter if you make cards or lists, you might want to make another, more flexible category and label it ❤ – these are the tunes you’re currently in love with (or just infatuated). We all have them. They are like summer loves – they make your heart go pitter pat just thinking about them. You play them obsessively and to the exclusion of many others. They quickly make the “Know” category. You can even put a ❤ on the card – you love them that much! I suggest this because, as so often happens with summer loves, they flame out quickly, only to be forgotten. When you pull one of these out, it is fun – like pulling out old summer photos. You can play these with a bit of wistfulness, and a chuckle at what you had become so obsessed with at the time. Some will make it back into your repertoire which will be fun. And even if you don’t put it back into your regular repertoire, it will be fun to see how you’ve grown!

You need to manage the number of pieces you’re working on at a time. It is very easy to attempt to work on too many tunes (especially after a great summer event like Ohio Scottish Arts School when you come home with boatloads of new tunes!). You want to work on them all – but you need to pace yourself or you’ll end up with nothing.  Using the cards gives you an easy way to keep track of what you need to work on, what you need to polish, what you need to review, and what you want to get to soon.

If you make a plan for each practice you will be able to add tunes, move them along in learning and make strong additions to your repertoire. What are you adding right now?

Stay between the lines!

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I was driving down the highway the other day. I was going about 1000 miles, so on one particularly long, straight stretch, I started remembering when I learned to drive.

For me, one of the hardest things to learn was staying in the middle of the lane. When you start to drive, you know you need to stay in the lane – and between the lines. The lane is defined by the lines, so I looked at the lines – constantly. But you know how that goes – the more you look at the lines, the farther you are from your desired position – in the middle of the lane. The best advice (or training) I got was to look down the road – look way down the road. After I (finally) learned that, staying in the lane was so easy. Now, as an experienced driver, I don’t even see the lines close to me and keeping the vehicle in the middle of the lane is something I take for granted.  It seems that I just go where I meant to be.

The reality is, no matter how good a driver you are, you will never stay in your lane to get where you’re going if you don’t look ahead.  So, what does that have to do with playing the harp? Everything!

When you’re learning a new tune – what do you do? I don’t know about you, but when I’m having trouble getting a tune into my head, I naturally narrow my thinking down to just what comes next – what’s the next note. But this doesn’t actually help me learn the tune. It just frustrates me (thus drawing my focus away from what I’m trying to do – learn the tune). If I lift my head and keep my focus “down the road”, then I can think of the phrases (as phrases, not as a trickle of sounds). When I can hear the tune in my head, the notes that come next become so much easier to remember.

When you’re reading music, the notation (the lines and everything else) are helpful – but can be distracting. Again, sometimes just having all that ink only serves to draw your attention to the individual blops – and you lose track of where you are on the page, in the phrase, in the music. When you lose your place, your hands may not end up in the right place, or they might be going the wrong direction or be overstretched! Keeping the long view will allow you to read the music rather than focusing on the ink and better allow you to be more able to play.

When you’re playing, you have learned the tune or become familiar with the dots on the sheet. When you’re playing, you want to be “in the moment” – and that is important. But remember that music isn’t static or fixed.  Music is serial, it comes out over time – like the road!  It can’t come out all at once (although there are some composers who clearly do not agree with me on that!). So being in the moment has to include the plans for this moment, and then for the next moment, and then the following moment, and on and on until the end of the piece – as a flow. This is not contradictory, rather, you need to hold the music in your head as a piece rather than as a set of notes. Looking at the whole of the music, rather than on just it’s representation (that you learned or are reading), will help keep you on track.

When you’re performing, you really are taking all that you have learned and putting it out there in the world to share. This is more than just playing in that now. Because now, in addition to being in the moment with the music, you must also be present with the listeners. Whether there are 2 or 200 or 2000 in the audience, your focus has to be “farther down the road” to include not only the music but also the hearers and what your message to them/with them is. Here, your long view includes them, the music, and the presentation.  Keeping an eye on where you want to take them with the music, what it is you want to share, and how you mean to do that will help give you a smooth ride.

Of course, this is a simple analogy.  There are many things on the road that require attention (like stop signs, traffic, pedestrians, etc.).  And just like that, music (written or aural, practice or performance) has details (like dynamics, tempo, timbre, etc.) which enrich the ride and improve the experience.  But, just as staying between the lines becomes second nature, learning, reading, playing and performing can also become second nature so that your music grows, flourishes, and delights. And just like any journey, when staying between the lines comes naturally and effortlessly, you can enjoy the journey so much more easily. What are the lines you have a hard time not looking at? How do you stay in the lane? When you look down the road – what do you see? Leave me a comment and share how you do it!

Permission Granted x20

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Playing the harp is more challenging than it looks. You already know that. That’s why we work hard during practices. It’s why we try to practice regularly – so that we enjoy small, incremental improvements each day. And this is one reason I’m always suggesting that we track our progress – to acknowledge, accept, and grow from that practice.

Practicing certainly gives us a way to work on the technical aspects of playing, but there is so much more to playing – things that go beyond the technical. However, to get to those things we sometimes need to get out of our own way.

So, how do we do that? We start by giving ourselves permission. Permission for lots of things. But mostly, you have to give yourself permission to be YOU!

Here are 20 types of permission you might consider giving yourself:

  1. Permission to fail. It happens. Actually, if you’re learning, you’ll fail a lot on the way. But if you refuse yourself the opportunity to fail, you won’t learn…and that would be a shame.
  2. Permission to be silly. There is so much seriousness in music, but a little silly will probably help you enjoy more.
  3. Permission to give it rest. Sometimes you need to percolate – and taking a little break will give you the option to do just that.
  4. Permission to be as good as you are (and no better). You are where you are. Be there.
  5. Permission to work on just one thing (until you get it right). Sometimes we think we have to master everything, all at once. But this doesn’t really do much except frustrate you.
  6. Permission to do scary things. When you scare yourself, you learnt that it didn’t kill you to try something new. We’re usually most scared that we will embarrass ourselves – you’re going to embarrass yourself one way or another, so embarrass yourself your own way!
  7. Permission to get out there and share. We often huddle in the safe cocoon of our harp room at home. But the music is best shared – so get out there!
  8. Permission to fail again (and again and again and again). You can’t just stop at one failure – do it over and over and over – and each time you’ll learn more that you can apply to the next failure.
  9. Permission to make art in multiple ways. This can be as small as playing a new kind of music or as big as learning to sculpt or paint or write. All your art will work to help you in the others.
  10. Permission to create “first drafts” (and second and third and on and on as needed). You know that what you see on stage or on YouTube is not spontaneous, right? So why do you expect your initial efforts to be performance ready? Think of the pre-work as your “drafts” that you will continue to refine and develop – until they are ready to share.
  11. Permission to have fun. Ok, this is pretty self-explanatory!
  12. Permission to laugh at yourself. No really, you should be able to laugh at yourself. Keep it light – it’s not rocket surgery after all.
  13. Permission to expect more from yourself. You don’t have to be content with your lot – you can want more (as long as you’re willing to work for it).
  14. Permission to be good at some things, not good at some others, and even to be terrible at a few. Here’s an example – I’m good at playing the harp, I’m not as good at cooking and I’m terrible at gardening. I’m ok with that – I allocate my time and resources accordingly (e.g., I practice for hours, I heat soup for dinner, and I pay a kid in the neighborhood to tend the garden – that’s that sorted!).
  15. Permission to practice as much as you need – and no more. I know some of you struggle to get your butt on the bench, but others spend too much time there – practice while it’s productive, and then go do something else. Got a deadline? Try a little practice multiple times in the day.
  16. Permission to be happy with where you are. This might seem counterintuitive (or counter to development) but it’s not – you are where you are. Be there. Right then. Realize too that time is a river – there is only constant change and you are changing when you are where you are – give yourself permission to accept that.
  17. Permission to want more. You think I’m contradicting myself – but remember I said there is constant change – if you want more, want it – and work for it!
  18. Permission to change your mind. Playing classical music and tired of it? Trapped in session tunes but longing for something more “substantial”? OK. It’s ok to change your mind about what you want to play. Just do it.
  19. Permission to keep track of what you are doing…and what you want to do next. However, you need to – keep track in your own way and build on that.
  20. Permission to spend your valuable time doing what you love. After all, time may be your most precious commodity – so spend the time you have doing what you love.

There are plenty of permissions to give yourself. What other ones do you give yourself (or do you need to give yourself)? Share that in the comments!

Planner vs Journal: What do you need?

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You have endured my repeated suggestions that you keep a harp practice journal. I hope you have taken me up on my suggestion and that, in so doing, you have begun to understand why I make the suggestion. I also hope you saw, in short order, how the act of journaling can help you become a better harper. Simply by entering the conversation with yourself, you are able to capture your thoughts, feelings, successes, plans/goals and good ideas. And with review (or just idly flipping through) you can get an appreciation of all your hard work (and maybe a glimpse of the work you would be well advised to undertake – later…in the future….let’s not get too crazy!).

Recently, one of you asked about using a practice planner as a journal. Well, a planner is different from a journal, so today, some thoughts on each and an insight into how I (try) to use these with my students.

Planners and Journals serve two different functions. A Planner is forward looking, capturing what you should be working on, and how to schedule it all into your practice time (by the hour, the day, the week, the month, the season, the year, etc.). It describes what your teacher (or you, if you are actively using it) would like you to work on so that you continue to grow and so that you build the skills needed for the repertoire you will attempt in the future. It helps to organize your time spent and usually includes short term goals (which are actually criteria that, when reached, indicate readiness to move forward).

A Journal, on the other hand, is, by definition, a retrospective of your work – mental, physical, emotional, and more. It can incorporate external factors (e.g. “I didn’t practice all week because I was on a cruise, but when I returned, I was delighted to be behind the harp once again and I quickly conquered my new tune that I was having trouble with before” or “I had a terrible week at work and I just didn’t feel like practicing which explains why I haven’t made progress with my tunes this week, but next week should be better!”). You write in your Journal after you practice or play, while reflecting on what happened, why, how you feel about that, and perhaps what you’d like to add to your planner (to avoid a negative or to reinforce something you see needs shoring up). And of course, you will, on occasion, go back and read through your thoughts and feelings to rediscover items that have fallen through your mental cracks.

A practice planner should be very clear and detailed – a set of instructions for the week. What (specifically) should you be focused on? At what point, then, do you move on for the next time? How many times to do the scales? In which key? What are your warm-ups this week? What skill builders will you do? What musicality exercises will you work on? How do you know when to stop? How good is good enough? What is expected of you in the practice time allotted?

A journal allows you to express your assessment of your practice time and your ideas on your progress (NB – this is NOT a platform for your inner critic! Rather you are capturing your opinion in a constructive way, so you can grow from it). You might include thoughts like “although I thought I’d never “get” those funky chord exercise note progressions, with three days of focused attention, I do “get” it and can now focus on the technique work that the exercise is needed for”. A little work, a little assessment, a little reflection, a lot of growth!  You are also not limited in how you might capture those thoughts, reflections, and feelings – write, jot, paint, whatever will help you remember later on.

So, which should you have? A Planner or a Journal?

You need the Planner and the Journal! The real question is – in what form? The right answer is – in the form that works for you!

You can use simple planner sheet (want a free one? Subscribe here!) and a journal book. Then you have two things to work together to suggest your practice time. You want (and need) order and structure for the planner, so that the homework notes from your lesson help you to structure your practice time and to prepare for your next lesson.  But you also need and want the freedom to capture your thoughts as they come and as they are best expressed.  If you’re lazy like me, you want to have it all in one place. I prefer this for my students because it also provides a continuity to our discussion from lesson to lesson – one place for all thoughts.

Are you already journaling?  Using a practice planner? What’s your method?  And if you’re not, what’s stopping you? Journals and Practice Planners can help you grow and focus your work while reminding you that you love to play! No matter what form it takes, there is a lot of potential in writing it down. You can do this yourself – just get a notebook and start writing. But if you’d like a bespoke one, I can help you with that too – just leave a request in the comments and I’ll get back to you with details.

We’re all made of Stories – The Comparison Trap

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We humans observe…and then compare. We are always collecting data about the world around us,  analyzing it, and then selecting a winner.  We have a classification scheme for winners and not winners – so we see where we rank in there.

This comparison trap is insidious in two ways. It assumes that you are an unbiased (and knowledgeable) arbiter of truth and it rarely takes context into account.

And typically, when we make comparisons, we find ourselves wanting.

Finding yourself wanting is not motivating.

Are you a “Fair Witness” *?  Are you certain that you are qualified to critique the performance of others relative to your own? And can you say, perhaps with more certainty, that you are qualified to evaluate your own performance – clear eyed and unbiased? Are you a Fair Witness to yourself that you can only report the truth with no trace of bias? Likely not – you have a vested interest in the outcome, so be honest about your ability to assess.

I just learned that my sister writes poetry. I learned this while thumbing through an anthology in which she is published! This very clearly highlighted the second point of context. You very rarely have insight into the context of others (even in a close relationship). Even though we are all made of stories – we don’t tell them all to everyone. And there are some we tell no one. In addition, many have no insight into the context of themselves, much less that of others. And even if you know someone, you might not have an accurate view of their context.

On occasion, you’ll hear someone “praise” another by stating baldly that playing the harp comes easily to (another). I find this both horrifying and irritating.  You might think you should be delighted to receive what might be meant as a compliment.  But because you have worked quite hard to be where you are, and even if you give the illusion that it comes easily, you might rather be annoyed that someone has discounted all that hard work.  When you compare your own playing to someone else’s (or someone compares themselves to you), you never know the entire context – where they are, what is happening, or how your comparison may upset them. By the same token you may not be fully aware of how things affect you and impact your own playing.

As the trope goes (did you know that “trope” originated as a music term?) Comparison is the thief of joy.  Why do we make comparisons?  Because we’re good at it.  We are quite adept at making pairwise comparisons (choosing a preference between two options). There are entire lines of research built on these comparisons – we’re that good at making them! But in this case, our strength (comparison) is a real weakness – because, you don’t have to pick! Someone else can be good and you are still too!

In addition, comparing yourself to someone else is more likely to make you feel bad than to make you play better (and you can see how that’s not helpful – the comparison makes you feel bad, so you’re not motivated to practice, so you do not become better (and may lose ground), which makes you not play as well the next time you’re with others and your comparison results in your poorer showing – etc.…you can see how that’s a downward spiral of not very helpful).

At a recent workshop I overheard a relatively new harper wistfully comment, “I’ll never play as well as (insert significantly experienced, p-r-o-f-e-s-s-i-o-n-a-l harp player here).” ** Well, DUH! Of course you don’t!  You’ve been playing the harp for 10 minutes and they’ve played for 20/30/40 years. You dabble, fit it in, get to it when you can, as a hobby. That person is a pro – it’s their job! And they are seasoned, they work at it – you know, for hours – every day. And they are absorbed in multiple aspects of being a musician, not just the practicing for 20 minutes when they can!

Of course you don’t play at the same level! When I overhear this, I am always tempted to ask, “Do you w-a-n-t to play at that level? Or do you just wish you played at that level?” Big difference! (of course, the start of the difference is – you know what I’m going to say – practice!)

Do you say to every Dentist or Auto Mechanic you meet, “oh, I wish I pulled teeth or rebuilt transmissions as well as you”? Bah! No, you don’t, so why do you do that with harpers? (and if you do, stop, you’re creeping people out!).

But how can you escape the Trap and emerge solid in your own story (and possibly helping other people grow fully into their own stories)?

Be honest – and clear – about where you are and where the other person is (and the path from here to there). And be frank about your willingness to take that same path (or not)!

Be content, but not complacent – You are where you have gotten. You are not your harp hero. But you might be someone else’s (did you ever think about that?). So kindly and gently encourage yourself to continue to work and grow. You already know that it is work to continue – but it’s fun work! And there’s no deadline, so just keep at it.

Be analytical (but only part of the time) – note how much you have grown as a harp player. No, really note – be aware. At one point you hadn’t even touched a harp – and look at you now! One of the reasons I’m always exhorting you to keep a journal of your practice is so that you record (and therefore don’t forget and can review) your small, “every day” successes! Because those small accomplishments are what matter.

Be-YOU-tiful (stolen from a tea towel!) – you are amazing! Be that.  You have strengths and weaknesses – just like everyone else. Celebrate your strengths. Be mindful of your weaknesses. Work on those weaknesses you want to be stronger at, set up systems to support the ones you know need work (but are still working on), and forget the rest. If you have to, turn your picture upside down so the weaknesses are in fine print at the bottom rather than in headlines at the top of your page.

There is one comparison that does matter – how are you now relative to you previously? Are you growing? Are you becoming the you that you want to be (not wish – but want). Do your thing. Let everyone else worry about being them. Do you have another way of keeping your thief of joy in check? Share that in the comments!

 

* If you haven’t read this, you might enjoy it – at your local library or at online
**I have no problem making this claim since I hear this at nearly every workshop I attend.

Let the sun shine!

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It’s early March and so here in the US, whether you agree or not, it’s time to set the clocks ahead – it’s Daylight Saving Time. Yea.

It’s not really all that bad. It does lead to “longer” days, in that, while the sun is up as long as it is going to be each day, the clock pushes us to use more of it awake. So it feels like we have more daylight than we do. So then the question is – what are you going to do with all that sunlight?

Well, you could use it to play your harp more! And like anything – there are bad things but also good things about moving the clocks to take advantage of the sun.

What are the bad things?

You have to get used to it. Your body is not wired to make these jolting shifts and it might take you a little time to adjust. If you don’t want to experience a wrenching difference, you could take a few days to prepare yourself – go to bed, eat, and go for a walk 15 minutes early each day from now until Sunday – that will help ease you into it. If you can’t work this shift into your schedule, at a minimum, keep to your current schedule so that you are only adapting to one hour change (sort of like jet lag!).

Everyone’s health takes a ding. Research has shown that there are more of all kinds of accidents – car, industrial, just being dumb. But also there are more heart attacks and strokes for the first week of the time change – so take care of you! Eat carefully, sleep, and take a little exercise (use all that extra daylight to go for a walk!).

Then add your harp into the mix! Now you can look at the good things –

First, acknowledge that although the time change can be a bother, you will adjust in just a few days. So cut yourself some slack. Be nice to you – don’t do a lot of forced or concentrated practice. Instead, just play and allow the sound energy to envelop you – all that vibroacousticness might help you adapt (well – it can’t hurt!).

After the first week of adaptation – you’ll be ready to use all that glorious sunlight to be more energetic – you can apply that energy to your practicing. Practice in natural sunlight. Go outside (as I write this, it’s about 20oF so that idea might have to wait!) or open the curtains and play in the window.  Just take the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine!

You can let the beautiful lengthening days be an inspiration – make music, play music, share it with others! Can you compose an improvisation of the day, the transition from night to day or from day to night? It’s in you – let it out!

You may enjoy playing more. Sunlight helps combat any kind of “blahs”, so if you layer that over the joy you get from playing – you’ll be nearly euphoric. Keep that up for the eight months of DST and you’ll be…happier? Probably!

You’ll have more time to practice. Of course you won’t. But you’ll feel like you do. When the day is unending – you can practice in the morning, in the middle of the day, and in the evening and still have loads of day remaining.

So there are good things about changing the time for the spring. Layer that on top of the gentle flow of time here on earth, longer days, warmer days, an uptick in harp events everywhere (!) and it just doesn’t seem so bad. Spend a little time preparing this week and you’ll have eight months of enjoyment (before we have to get ready to go back again in November!).

 

PS – I’m trying to mix it up with the graphics – let me know what you think!  Leave a comment below –

Enjoy the Silence…

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Not just the enigmatic lyrics of a Depeche Mode tune but a strongly worded suggestion.

There is so much sound in our lives. Every day. Sounds we enjoy. Sounds we would rather not hear. Combinations of sounds. So many that we don’t even hear some of them. And so many that we often cannot hear ourselves think.

And note that I say sound. You may have mentally transposed that to say noise. But “Noise” carries a value judgment against the source of the sound or against it’s characteristics (like volume, timbre, pitch, complexity, etc.). But it isn’t just noise that there is so much of – there’s just a lot of sound in our world.

As musicians, we are familiar with the concept of silence. We have symbols for many types of silence (well, lengths of silence – almost as if you buy it off the bolt*). We write silences into the music all over the place.

And yet, even as musicians, we often are slightly afraid of silence. Maybe repulsed is a better word. Even the best, strictest musicians sometimes cut the sound short, not allowing it the full time allotted in the score. The longer it is, the more eerie it becomes.

We harp players have an added element to our relationship to sound. After all – so often we have at least one string continuing to oscillate – to ring on and on and on (the beauty of bass wires…the bane of bass wires).  Actually getting to silence can be difficult for us.  Sometimes silence becomes an anathema to us – because we are no longer used to hearing it.

Silence, the absence of sound, often makes us uncomfortable. Especially if we are performing – silence leaves us feeling naked. Almost as if we think the gossamer of sound provides a veil to protect us – without it, we are bared by the lack of vibration being put into the air.

Despite this, we know intuitively the power of silence.  When you’re looking for an address or you’re lost – you turn down the radio. When you really (really really) need to study, you go somewhere quiet (even those who insist they need the sounds of the tv to study). When you need to reflect, you find a quiet spot like a shrine or a meadow or a closet. But there are other reasons to find (and enjoy) silence. Silence really can be good for you – for many reasons.

  • Silence is golden (you can take that to the bank!) – you can download John Cage’s 4’ 33” from iTunes for just 99¢. Better yet, review John Cage’s earlier work and you’ll see how he might have grown into writing this piece (perhaps his most famous, and possibly his best)
  • Silence does give you time to think – when it is quiet, you can think. This is especially true when you’re performing – when you not only give yourself time to think – you give your audience time to think too!
  • Silence let’s you hear (especially small or infrequent sounds) – yes, I meant that – silence let’s you hear things you don’t hear otherwise. I live near two of my favorite sounds – a train and an airport – and yet, I only ever hear the trains or the airplanes in the small hours…even though I think I am always listening for them.
  • Silence can be soothing – there is medical research that indicates that silence is conducive to soothing and reducing stress. If you are playing in a clinical setting, knowing this is essential…but it is also helpful if you’re playing for an audience! And don’t forget that even stress reduction can be stressful, so a little silence will be helpful.
  • Silence sharpens your attention – without the distraction of sounds, you can focus on whatever you elect to attend. Whether this is your own thoughts, a project, or anything else requiring attention, you will have the capacity to focus that attention in the presence of silence.
  • Silence gives you time to breathe – This might be a subset of the previous point, but silence allows you to breathe – deeply, slowly. And breathing makes just about everything else easier!
  • Silence let’s you take a beat (sometimes literally!) – this might be the summation of all the points – when you can take a step back, take a beat, you gain a perspective you won’t otherwise. Be quiet, be still, breathe, think, focus….and then reengage and move forward.

Silence is like Brylcreem – a dab’ll do ya. Try injecting a little silence into your day and see what comes up. You can include some silences into your practice – by thinking before launching into whatever needs work or by pausing to think about what you’ve done and what you might do next. You could incorporate silence into your performances – don’t leap into a new tune as if you’re trying to get away from the last one – enjoy the brief silence (before the wild applause breaks out!). And you can include some silences into the rest of your day – at the beginning (before anyone knows you’re awake?) or at the end (when everyone thinks you’re asleep?) – you’ll be amazed what you find when you Enjoy the Silence!

 

 

*admit it, did you just visualize what a bolt of silence would look like?

Tracking practice

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So here we are at the beginning of February.  New Year’s resolutions have probably petered out.  Winter blahs make it hard to keep focused or to be disciplined.  And there aren’t too many weddings or events as everyone recovers from the peak of the holidays and stores up reserves ahead of the burst of energy that the coming spring will require.

But you already know that being a musician, at any level, requires constant, steady work, even if it’s in small pieces.  We know that if we slack off a little, we likely will return refreshed.  But if we take off too long, we come back having lost proficiency and needing to work hard to catch up to where we were.

No matter how much time we let pass between practice sessions though, we have the same goal for each session – to make progress.  How we define that progress is up to us – and our teachers, coaches or mentors if we have them.  No matter how we define that progress though, we really on have one method for assuring that we make it – we have to write it down.

I have been advocating for documenting your progress in a journal.  Journals give you a wide-open place to write out all the good and the bad with your practicing in a single place that will allow you to review your thoughts in both the short and the long term.

But I realize that journal keeping is not for everyone. After all, it requires you to commit to even more time for your practice.  And if it takes that long, you will probably drop it (and the resolution goes by the wayside, like most resolutions do).  It is also fairly intimidating – What do you write? How? Where? For how long? What if you miss the important points?  In addition, a journal is just a diary – and you’re not a kid, so why bother, right?

However, capturing your thoughts about your progress is important.  There really is a lot of information in your head while you’re practicing and right when you finish.  In addition, you really need to keep track of what you have done, what you are doing, and where you (think) you are going.

Successful weightlifters use a simple tracking method to assure that they remember what they have done so they can plan what they will do.  There are loads of little details – What exercises? How much weight? How many repetitions? And of course, the underlying plan that, if followed, will get them where they’re trying to get, whether that’s the Ms. Olympia or just to be able to lift the dog food onto the shelf.

It bears repeating – they do this so they can keep track….and remember! what they have done.  If they can do it – you can do that too!

You can keep track of how many times you do a scale each day.  You can also keep track of which scales you do, how each hand performs, where the challenges lie, and, perhaps more importantly, what you’re going to try tomorrow to fix those problems.  You need room to write what was good, what was bad, and what was ugly, as well as what you might try tomorrow to make it better.  You need to capture how many times you worked on Twinkle Twinkle and how it went as well as how much you worked on the Ceremony of Carols and what it might still need.

Because tomorrow, it will be fuzzy.  Did Twink go as well as you remember? Or were you still having a challenge with getting the rhythm right?  Do you remember how much time you spent on it?  Was it proportionate with what you wanted to do this week?

You can also keep a “balance sheet” for your practice – so you can see that, although you meant to work on the Ceremony of Carols this week, Twink took up all your time.  Or that because you were so fashed with Twink, you never did get around to doing any of your exercises or technical work.   Or that because you spent so much time on Twink you never remembered to stretch either!

You can also document what didn’t go well. Still can’t get that fourth finger to close without flipping your wrist? Worked on it every day? Will you remember that when you get to your teacher’s studio?  Maybe.  Maybe not. But if you write it down, you will have the note there that you need help with this!  That will help your lesson incorporate everything you need to work on*.

Where do you need to write it?  Well, whatever works for you works.  But, if you don’t want to share the deepest thoughts in your journal with anyone or you’d be embarrassed by the sheer number of little slips of paper, napkins, grocery receipts and stickies you used to capture your day – you might need a tool!  One that is easy to use, easy to keep track of, and easy to share.  So, let’s leverage what weightlifters use – you need a tracker.  Well, I just happen to have one available!  Just Subscribe (or up on the left hand side of this page) and your FREE Practice Tracker will arrive in your email**.  You can print one out for each week so you have just one sheet to bring to your lesson.  You can collect them over time so you can review your development (this is especially helpful on those days that you’re left wondering if you should take up playing the kazoo instead!).

Give it a whirl for a few weeks.  Make notes at whatever level you like.  This is a tool for you to use – so use it your way!  Leave a comment below on your initial thoughts – I’m delighted to hear from you!

* and your teacher/coach/mentor will be delighted to know what the week has brought, rather than having to try to figure it out be watching and listening to you.  

** don’t fuss, I’m not going to spam your email or send you a million emails asking you to buy stuff but I will send you the Free Practice Tracker and each month I’ll send you an update newsletter.

OBTW – If you are doing journaling, good for you!  Keep at it!  But you might still consider this tracker – as an addition.  You can take just the one sheet to your lesson and you can use the format of the tracker to assure you’re capturing all the important things you want to remember from practice to practice, lesson to lesson, month to month, goal to goal.

Pieces of Practice

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Like you, I have a schedule which often defies description. And I don’t know about you, but one thing my schedule lacks is consistency. Not only is every day of the week different, every day is different – this Wednesday will look completely different than next Wednesday. And sometimes, despite meticulous planning, I have no idea what happened – some random thing changed the whole shape of my day.

You’d think I’d be used to it by now, and yet each and every time I remain amazed and a little irritated that nothing has gone to plan. This is exasperating and impacts all the activities of the day. One activity that almost always gets impacted (in a bad way) is practice time.

Having the day “eat” the time for practice is almost as annoying as the day changing when you had already planned for it to change on you. Mostly this annoyance arises from having gone all day and still not making any progress. With no regular practice time, you’ll find that you don’t learn a lot of new tunes. You don’t feel confident in the tunes you have. And you don’t have the time to be creative either!

For a long while I would let it slide. I would try harder to get to practice the next day. I would get up early.  I’d stay up late. I would practice for a long time on an “open” day but then miss three days in a row. Lather, rinse, repeat and pretty soon you’re not ready for any events. Worse – even your go-to tunes start to suffer.

That’s not just annoying, it is frustrating. When your day is bent out of shape, you need to put the pieces back together! But what do those pieces look like? Well there are two types of pieces: the Basics and Details.

The Basics pieces include those things that underpin all of your playing. (yes, I have come up with another way to disguise fundamentals!) This is a small but essential part of your practice.

The Details pieces are all the other work – reading, rhythm, remembering (the tunes you’re working on), and rough spots! And that can be a big and vital part of your practice.

But, there’s still the problem of getting the pieces to fit into the day. Schedule and planning gurus always tell you to make an appointment with yourself and to keep it! This is actually a sound strategy. Except…well, then the day gets away from you and you get busy making sure you make all your “real” appointments (why do we dis ourselves like that? That’s a topic for another post!). So, you may find that you need to finagle the practice pieces back in. Give it a try – and you’ll probably be well on your way.

One thing working in pieces does is giving you built in structure. Each of these pieces is something you need and want to work on (ok, I use “want” loosely).  This structure includes working on both the basics and the details – in a balanced way by selecting pieces of each.  Another thing pieces give you is built in breaks (which you know you need to help keep you healthy and to give the music time to get into your head). But perhaps best of all, working in pieces means that you can practice in smaller wedges of time. You are unlikely to have an hour (or more) to practice. But you probably can find 15 minute unoccupied chunks throughout the day. No one wants to get up an hour early to practice, but just 15 minutes early sounds pretty do-able. You probably won’t miss your favorite show, but you might want to use 15 minutes of the sitcom that comes on just before it. Or 10 minutes. Or 5 minutes! Just think about the pieces of your practice in the bite sizes that work for you. (by the way, you can also bump the pieces together when you actually have an hour (or longer) to practice!)

But even if you have the time, you still have to figure out how to spend it. Here are two different suggestions based on practicing for an hour each day, but divided into pieces. The time should be kept with a timer. That can be from the timer function on your watch, or a kitchen timer, an alarm clock, or the clock on your phone. No matter what kind of timer – make sure it sets off an alarm to tell you that the time is up. Set the timer for a segment of the available time (e.g. 15 minutes). Do NOT overrun the clock! You are working to the time you have so the piece has to fit. Most important – for each piece of practice time, identify – before you start – what you will do in each segment.

Here are some ideas if you can use 15 minute pieces:

  1. In segment 1 – warmups, exercises, and careful technique work and review
  2. In segment 2 – Sight reading. No matter what type of music you prefer, reading is a skill you need to develop, cultivate – and practice this frequently. Just do it and don’t whine
  3. In segment 3 – learn new music – parse the tune, find the “hard parts” and work through anything that gives you a hard time
  4. In segment 4 – work on “polishing” tunes that you have gotten into your fingers, end with free play

But you probably have a busier day than that, so you might need to work in 5 minute pieces, so here are some ideas for those smaller bites:

  1. Warmups (stretch, air harp, small movements)
  2. Scales – be careful, mindful, watch your technique
  3. Arpeggios (or other warmup/useful shapes work)
  4. Exercise book work – just do this, no whining
  5. Reading away from the harp (this is work you should do and you know it. It really will save you time, but you have to do it to get the benefit)
  6. Reading at the harp (like what I said for 5 above – just do the work)
  7. Listening/ear training away from the harp (another piece that you just need to do – do not sell this piece short!)
  8. Ear work at the harp (either from a recording or from memory)
  9. Repertoire review (clearly it will be a small slice, but still)
  10. Free play – Remember why you play the harp? ‘Cause you enjoy it? Then spend a little time enjoying it!

You need to have a regular “diet” of these pieces to make up a practice. You might not get every piece every day, but the combination (over days and weeks) needs to be even and must move you forward. Each day you can fit the pieces together to make a practice that fits your time and your goals.

I’m sure you already have some pieces you like to use to practice – share them here so the rest of us can give them a try too!  Use the comments section and let us know –