Category Archives: Practice

Mindfulness – Knowing you

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Mindfulness is everywhere just now. There are mindfulness apps, there are coaches, and there are plenty of scolds telling us that we need to be more mindful.

This is however, much like so many other things. There is no end to the line of people telling you what you should do. You need to eat low fat low carb clean whatever-is-popular-today. You need to have these countertops, this color cabinets, and definitely not have an avocado refrigerator! You have to wear skinnies, or was it wide-leg? Oops, nope, it’s ankle pants.

There are a lot of people telling you what is right for you. But you probably already know what is right for you!

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention. Of being “in the moment”. Of focusing on what you are doing right now. Of not being fixated on on what has happened before or what might happen later, but only on what is happening.

And in our current world, it is easy to get caught up in not being focused. And so, there are loads of people willing to tell you how to be focused. But the most important part of mindfulness is knowing you.

You likely already know what works for you. Answers online may help but will not change that essential you.  And if you’re paying attention, you will have a pretty good idea of what you need to work on. Rather than telling you to breathe or meditate or do yoga, I’d like to suggest a few other ways to be mindful during your practice and playing. How do you get your mind to focus on playing the harp rather than on all the other stuff you could be thinking about?

  1. Breathe. Ok, I know I said I wasn’t going to tell you to breathe, but I am always amazed at how many people truly don’t breathe when sitting on the bench. I have gone so far as to draw breath marks into the music or to add a breath into the phrase as I teach a tune. Breathing is something that requires a little attention when you’re focusing on something else (like learning or mastering a tune).
  2. Check in. Just as when you arrive in a hotel, you have to check in so they know you are there and you can get settled, you can check in with yourself – see what baggage you have brought (and leave it on the floor), make sure you are comfortable, that there is enough light, and that you know when your time there will end.
  3. Attend. Actually pay attention to what you are doing. Don’t think about work or what’s for dinner, why you can’t play the same things as Betty Sue, or what you’re going to play for your Carnegie Hall audition in 150 years. Pay attention to what you are doing right then.  Scales? Focus on your fingering, placement, sound quality, and control. If you’re doing etude work, assure you’re getting out of the etude the point of the activity rather than just banging through it.
  4. Be content. You are practicing. This would suggest that you are building a skill, a repertoire element, or a performance package. The key word there is building – developing. Be content that you are making progress. Don’t waste time being upset, chagrinned, angry, or despondent that you have only made as much progress as you have – rather, be content that you have made progress.
  5. Don’t settle. Why yes, this is the tempered opposite of the item above. Don’t settle for anything less than your best effort. Don’t accept sloppy scales, a fumbled second phrase, trailing fingers, or anything else that smacks of not paying attention. Don’t flog yourself but do genuinely work while you’re on your bench. This is a path to being content!
  6. Mind the time. While it would be ever so nice to have four hours a day to practice, that is impractical for most. So be sure you know how much time you’re going to dedicate and use it. Use all of it. But honor your plan and only use all of it, but no more. This will help you be focused on what you’re doing rather than wondering, “How much longer? Are we there yet?”

Of course, you can also have a mindfulness practice of more standard mindfulness stuff – that can only aid your focus when practicing. But you know you – do what works for you.

What other things do you do to help yourself focus and be mindful when you’re on your bench? Leave me a comment, I’d love to hear what you do!

What do you want to be?

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Did you know you wanted to play the harp when you were young? Did you see one played when you were small and know it was for you? Have you always known? Were you able to get a harp and take lessons?

Or did you know but it was out of reach? Did you start playing as soon as you were able?

I don’t know when you first thought about playing the harp, but when I did, I was old. Well, older. Certainly, a well-established adult. Honestly, before that, playing the harp never even occurred to me. Never even thought about it. Until I was playing.

I hadn’t even thought about being a musician. I had left all that behind me when I went to university. I mean, I dabbled, but I didn’t think of myself as a musician.

And even now, on occasion, I have to shake myself to believe my good fortune!

Regardless of when we started or how we come to the harp, here we are. Right next to one another. Playing together. How cool is that?!?

One of the things I enjoy about our community is that togetherness. We all start where we start, when we start. We are where we are. We’re going where we choose. But we have lovely company along the way. The question remains however – what do you want to be when you grow up?

Only you can answer the question. And as before, the answer is unique to you – and may hold all the information you need to improve the time you spend at the harp. There are, as before, as many answers as harpers, but a few are –

  • You strive to play for your own pleasure
  • You want to make a career change
  • You want a side hustle
  • You want to ease other people

All of these answers are great choices for when you grow up! No matter your current age. But how does knowing that help you practice – to continue your growth?

Well, in this case the answer is always the same. You still need to work on your technique, your repertoire, your stamina. Yup, no slacking in the fundamentals! And no slacking – period!

If you play for your own pleasure, strong fundamental will help you to get past the ugly part (you know that part – in every tune – that is “more challenging” than you thought it would be when you started) and on to the fun part so that you can enjoy the playing.  Practicing fundamentals will assure you get through those tough parts more easily.

If you want a career change or a side hustle – you’ll be performing – and getting paid – so you want to be confident and solid…which comes with strong fundamentals!  Practicing those will help build your foundation so you will feel more confident.

If you want to ease other people (in hospital, hospice, home care, etc.) then you really need to be in command of your instrument and repertoire to play just the right thing, at the right time, exactly as you mean to. You got it – you need those fundamentals!

If you were hoping I would say something different – like that if you want to play for your own enjoyment, you could do less practice or easier activities, sorry but no. But if you want to play – play, practice from the fundamentals. That’s where the fun starts – and how you get to be what you want to be.

What do you want to be?  Let me know – I’m curious!

Why don’t you play?

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There are loads of reasons we play – all of them good and each holding a key to improving your practice and possibly enjoying playing even more. But sometimes –

We don’t play

We don’t make it to the bench. We can’t d-r-a-g ourselves to the harp. We try, but things get in the way and we just don’t get there.  Sometimes we just don’t want to. Sometimes it’s for a day.  Or a week.  Or much, much longer…

Thinking about why we don’t play can be very helpful (that was pretty obvious!). And knowing why we don’t play might actually be more helpful.

Spend a little time thinking about it – when you don’t play, why is that? There are as many reasons as there are musicians, but here are four possibilities –

  1. Busy-ness. We all have so much going on every day. And there are only so many hours.  And it’s already time for bed, and… I know. I get it. I live there too! Sometimes we don’t realize how much work is required for this love affair with our harps. Or other stuff has crept into our schedule, putting the squeeze on our practice time. Or maybe, when we allow ourselves to sit, to sink into the lovely comfort of the space playing creates, we fall under the spell and spend “too long” there. So, the next time, we tell ourselves we don’t have time.  And soon we’re not practicing at all! But this strategy doesn’t work.  We know we need consistent practice, otherwise we lose ground. Rather than beating yourself up (either for not practicing and for practicing and not getting other things done) – allot, and keep to – a daily, short appointment with your harp. There isn’t much time, but if you could devote just 15 – 20 minutes each day, you would see progress…and still have time to make dinner and watch (insert your favorite TV show here). Make yourself a star chart (like you’d make for your kid’s chores) to reinforce your success!
  2. Fear of Failure. This is such a silly coping strategy, but I see it over and over – you have a gig coming up and need to learn a piece. The date is looming large and you keep putting off starting on it – yikes! And this is a downward spiral because the longer you put it off, the more likely you’ll be right, and you will do badly. But (here’s the insidious part) if you put it off and do badly – at least you’ll have an excuse. It’s crazy but true. So, in that 15 minutes a day you’ve allotted for practice (see above), be sure that about 1/3 of it is devoted to learning something new. This means that you have allotted this time to work on that thing you need to play at that event that’s zorching up but perhaps more importantly – it means you are well practiced at learning new things (so at least that part isn’t scary!).
  3. Overwhelm. I know – playing the harp looked so easy. And when you started – it was. But as you go on, there’s so much to learn, and remember, and work on, and do, and it all requires practice! I mean, really – you must practice tuning and reading and body position and hand position and breathing and melodies and harmonies and phrasing and listening and hearing and – oh, never mind, I’m so tired thinking about it, I’m exhausted – I think I’ll go watch a little tv. You do need to practice all these things and more – but – the more you practice them, the easier they become.  They become more manageable. In the same way, you can manage your practice time. Give it structure. Know what you want to accomplish. Have a plan. You can use a practice planner (like this one) to be sure you know what you will do. You can also ask for help if you’re lost – ask your teacher or schedule a coaching session (I can help) to decide on an approach you can work with. Then you won’t flounder deciding what to practice – you’ll know what you’ll work on, for how long, over how many practice sessions, and when you’ll be satisfied.
  4. It’s that time of life. Sometimes other things take center stage – an change to your family, a new job, a relocation, a new hobby. Or sometimes you just need a break – a change of scenery.  “It’s not you, it’s me” you might say to your harp. Your harp is like a true friend – it will understand your focus has shifted. And like a true friend, it will be there as you go through these changes. And you’re lucky – your harp will be there to give succor and support when needed. Don’t feel badly about not playing if you’re focused on something else. Would your friend (or your harp) deny your new joy? Or reject you when you come back? No – of course not! So, don’t beat yourself up – enjoy your new focus and come back to your harp for those 15 minutes each day or when you’re ready.

There are so many good reasons to play, don’t let a couple of little things derail you. Just don’t let them throw you so far off you feel like you can’t return. And don’t ever think you’re alone – we have all been there – and we’ll be glad when you’re back!

Why do you play?

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We all know playing an instrument is “good” for you – impacting brain function, helping you learn more and differently, reducing stress, helping you meet new people, and of course, just having fun. Bud do you ever stop to think about why you play?

The good news – there are no wrong answers to the question.

The better news – there isn’t just one answer (or at least, there doesn’t have to be).

The best news – there is a test and you ace it every time you sit on the bench!

It is likely that we all play for different reasons – our own reasons. It is also likely that our reasons are similar. Perhaps most importantly, all our reasons are good.

But do you ever think about what your reasons are? I mean really think about it. Not the tossed off answer you give to people who gawp when you tell them, “I play the harp.”. Not the easy (and likely irrelevant) answer. I mean the answer from deep inside you. The answer that pushes you to work, to learn, to practice. That (or those) answer(s) hold the key!

Your answers don’t need to come out of your mouth (unless you are an irrepressible extrovert!). Rather, they can be the mind fodder of quiet walks or long drives (like the kind you might make going to the 40th Annual Ohio Scottish Arts School this summer (more on that later)). These answers are worth pursuing because they hold the questions we should ask ourselves each time we practice. Here are a few to consider:

I play for my own enjoyment. This sometimes means “I don’t want to perform”. This answer appears to lead to the easiest practice – if you aren’t working to perform for others, you don’t need to work too hard. But in actuality, this might be the hardest to practice for! If you are the only listener (absent the cat and the curtains), you may discount any progress you show. You may set the bar too high (or too low). Or you might stagnate – playing the same music repeatedly but without feedback you might not be driven to continue to develop, explore and experiment. You must just be sure your practice actually meets the answer – that you are actually enjoying the time at the harp. Don’t stagnate but explore new things to find those that you enjoy most and develop those.

I’m a performer at heart! This might be the easiest answer. People are naturally curious about our instrument and are often in awe of musicians. They may wish to be close so that they get to participate in the experience. You know you can focus on preparing a performance package but be sure to include some “me” time in your practice. Your performance will be improved by including this time. This might include a return to fundamentals for a focused meditative time, revisiting old material and brining a new perspective to it, or dedicating one practice a week to having fun rather than perfecting and polishing.

I like being unique/playing a rare(ish) instrument. This may be the most seductive answer because it doesn’t seem to require much practice at all. To remain unique, you need only say you play and others will still be in awe. You might not defer from playing but you are also not committing to being a performer, so the bar isn’t set too high. But you might be tempted to slack off or cheat yourself out of valuable practice time and the opportunity to do more than scratch the surface and thereby miss so many occasions to surprise and delight yourself! Commit to a more active role in your musicianship – play well enough to let your uniqueness come blazing through your fingers.

I play to put some good in the world. One could argue that doing good requires that you be good – at playing! Whether you do good in the world as a volunteer or as a professional, one off or every day, your practice needs to assure you are strong enough to get through the session and to move about the world with your harp. Include strengthening exercises for your whole body as well as exercises for the “playing parts” (after all – all of you is in this together!).

I play because I must! The harp evokes your soul and emotions in a way no other instrument can, and you are compelled to play it. In addition, the harp is so forgiving to beginners that sitting and evoking is easy. But be sure to practice and master many techniques to assure that you can successfully – and consistently – evoke any emotion you choose, when you choose so that you can meet your need.

There are obviously many answers – these are but a few. No matter your answer, be sure you back it up with a solid practice that permits you to give your best answer! You are going to ace the next test!   What’s your answer?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

Reading is reading!

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You cannot practice your reading enough! There, I said it. It’s also true that only by practicing your reading will you ever get any better at it. Just like you practice making the right timbre and holding the notes the right length of time, and getting all the notes in the right order, you can also practice your reading. Doing so will help you immeasurably to read more music, more easily.

But saying you need to practice and actually doing it may seem like a big leap. After all, how do you practice reading? Well, here are some ways you might go about it.

  1. Set aside time in your practice to do reading. I love my kitchen timer – set the timer for 5 – 10 minutes (depending on your overall practice time). Then spend that time focused on reading. If you’re a beginning reader, you might identify the names of each note. When that becomes easier, you might name the note while finding it on the harp. Or you might name each note value (find all the eighth notes, then find all the quarter notes, etc.).  You might start with naming all the rests. You’ll know best what you should work on by what gives you the most difficulty when you’re trying to read.
  2. Choose wisely. If you are a beginning reader, you might want to start reading a beginning book (it is helpful to think about how you learned to read as a child – remember those books – loads of pictures and very large type? Find the music equivalent!).  As you become more experienced at reading, you can more on to more complex music, or looking at ensemble  scores! You might be willing to read music for other instruments (although I would suggest you stick with the treble and bass clefs!).
  3. L-O-O-K at the music! Analyze it. Look for the patterns that repeat, find the motif that is moved around (a pattern that starts on different notes in different places). Pay attention to all the ink – it’s all there to tell you something – spend the time to figure out what it is! Look at the beginning. Check out the end to get an idea of what’s going to happen (this is analogous to reading the last chapter of a book!). I really like finding the patterns and using those to convince myself that it won’t be as much work as I think it will be (especially true with the dot density is high and there is a lot of ink on the page!). Work on building the habit of doing this analysis each time you open a piece of music (and avoid the trap of opening the music and just trying to play it).
  4. Think of the whole. When you’re beginning to read, you may need to look at each note individually and each line or space of the staff (do you remember when you were young and you had to sound out each letter – like that). It is overwhelming! However, I promise, with practice you will become better, faster, stronger at seeing the whole (the staffs, the notes, the inflections, etc.) and processing the meaning more quickly! This will make reading easier and more fun, and definitely less work!
  5. Pay attention. Once your reading becomes more effortless, you will be tempted to read more quickly and bang through the music as fast as possible. But remember a couple of important things – faster is not necessarily better and you are reading to take something in – but what are you going to do with it after you take it in? Keep that end in mind and pay attention the whole way through!
  6. Find the “sight words”. In word reading there are “sight words” – words you have practiced so many times you can read them without reading them! Words like – word, so, many, times, you, can, read – well you get the idea! In the same way, the more you read music, the more these musical “sight words” (patterns) will become clearer. With practice, you’ll see an octave and won’t even thinking about it, you’ll know it’s an octave. A triad (1-3-5 chord)? Bang on. Know an F from an A?  Piece of cake.

I know, if you’re just starting out, this seems like magic or malarkey, but it’s not – it’s just practice!  Reading music can be challenging. I used to hate sitting next to a “paper trained” person at a workshop – they’d rattle through the music at a clip and I’d still be placing the first chord. It can be disheartening. This may be more so if you’re coming from another instrument – either a one liner (like fiddle or flute) or a flatliner (like piano).

Be patient and actually practice and you’ll see improvement very quickly. Or you can go back to wishing – it is a strategy, but it doesn’t work very well!

Being a Beginner

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Today, I’m sitting below a poster with a quote from Marcel Proust,

”The voyage of discovery is not in seeking

new landscapes but in having new eyes.” 

It dovetails nicely with some of your comments to last week’s post – thanks so much for those!

DB brought up the concept of the “beginner’s mind”.  This is the concept that a beginner may acknowledge that they don’t know much.  Beginners are open to learning and new experiences and don’t cloud their vision with preconceptions.  They don’t think they’re experts.  You might remember this phase from your early harp life?

DB went on to say, “it seems that what separates the “masters” from the dilettantes is a maintenance and mastery of the basics, through a strong curiosity of what “new” thing they might or might not discover in that practice.”

KB suggested that, “Paying close attention to what causes something to go wrong is essential to avoiding the same problems repeatedly. Issues with hand position, fingering, placement, focus, etc. lead to mistakes. Find the underlying issue, then fix it through targeted practice. It works for both my playing and my knitting!”

This too is something we often do that appears to move us forward but actually holds us back – we are often satisfied with a “fix” but don’t do the additional work to find the underlying cause.  Without doing the technique work, you might never find that little nuance you need to get the fingering down or to drop your shoulder or read just a little ahead of where your playing or any of the other little things that are holding you back.

DB pointed out that, “in many ways the lesson seems to be rooted in always finding time, and maintaining a strong curiosity in practicing the basics, no matter how far away from the basics, we think we’ve progressed.”  How can you do that in your everyday practice?  Here are six ideas to move you forward:

  1. You can acknowledge that you will learn things at different rates, that some things will be harder than others to you, that you can only calmly evaluate and learn.  You can only take it one step at a time.
  2. You can stop with the comparisons! You should not be playing like everyone around you. And remember that, like high school, facebook, and reality tv, nothing is what it seems when you look around you – just because the person next to you is sailing through something with which you are struggling doesn’t mean that they didn’t aslo struggle (just earlier) – it only means that you didn’t see it!
  3. Actually LISTEN to the feedback you get – the best teachers use the praise and guide approach – they will provide actual praise (from which you can learn what you are doing well in terms of performance and practice) and guidance (from which you can learn what you need to do more of, learn how to do, or learn what to stop doing).
  4. Remain a beginner – ask questions.  Do not assume that you know something just because you have been doing it. There is always something to learn that may (or may not) be good for you to incorporate.
  5. Ignore what doesn’t fit. Some of the best advice I received early in my harp life was from my teacher at the time who told me that I should play what I liked and leave the rest on the floor.  Her point was sound – if you don’t like classical music, don’t play it!  (NB this is not the same as, “it’s hard and I don’t want to do the work!”.  But you are more likely to work hard if you’re mostly playing music you like. Don’t cut yourself off from a genre just because it’s challenging – learn what it can teach you and port that to what you do love).
  6. Don’t worry! We (especially adults) worry that we’re not getting better, that we’ll never be good enough, that everyone else is making more progress. Let-It-Go!  Focus on you, what you need to learn, what you want to learn.  There is no need to train to go to Conservatory if your goal is to have a nice set of music to play for your friends and family. And if your goal is to go to Conservatory, then focus on the necessary development – but either way, channel your energy into learning, asking questions, and enjoying. Don’t waste it worrying.

Keep working on being a beginner – question, wonder, enjoy! Discover the landscape with new, beginners eyes.

Lessons Learned?

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I had a lovely weekend spent with a small group of very good friends. That, in and of itself, was a delightful balm for the soul in this bleak midwinter but it really provided a great backdrop for insights. Safe, warm, well fed, and alight with laughter, the scene was set to really inculcate what you might know but haven’t learned. Two lessons stood out for me – both related to the potential outcomes that arise from good and continued practice.

The first is the importance of solid practicing of fundamentals. We all know how essential warmups and exercises are. When we are “young harpers” (by which I mean new to the harp, regardless of age) we do our exercises. They may consume most of our early lessons as we work to learn how to control the beautiful beast we have chosen. But we progress, we think we have learned what we were meant to have learned from the exercises…but there are so many tunes…and obligations. And soon, many of us have left the exercises and warmups out of practice time – to save time, to be efficient. Then, because we aren’t practicing them, they fall out of our practice repertoire. Because there is always more music…and laundry…and day jobs…and other impediments and excuses.

In this gathering, one of us took 10 minutes each morning, like they do every morning, and did warmups and exercises. The rest of us watched and commented – in admiration and surprise (and maybe chagrin). Nothing overly complex – scales, arpeggios, running chords and inversions. The “usual”. The mundane. The foundational! It was clear why such gorgeousness pours forth from that harp – and with so much ease. A little hard work goes a long way. The lesson was further reconfirmed by the acknowledgement that there are typically only about 45 minutes a day to practice! But because of this foundational work, the remaining time is spent focused on learning the music not struggling with fingers or patterns! The small amounts of foundational work – practiced regularly – are central to a good practice routine. It’s one thing to know it, but it’s something altogether different to actually do it.

The second insight was the application of that same practice discipline to the rest of our lives. Everyone (else) there is a knitter. I want to be a knitter because it looks good – productive, industrious, practical, and artistic. And all my friends are doing it! And it looks easy – after all, it’s just tangling string with some sticks! Like the harp – knitting is (relatively) easy to start…and very challenging to get good at. My friends have all been knitting for decades! But, in that unhelpful way adults do, my attempts are at best, laughable compared to theirs. When I had finished my first project – a straight(ish) scarf, I decided I was ready to move on – to a lace cowl! If you’re not a knitter, I’ll translate. It was the yarn equivalent of successfully plunking out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and deciding to follow that with Britten’s Ceremony of Carols! Of course you can make that leap, but it will be frustrating, daunting, difficult, fraught with little (and undeniable) failures – all of which will cause you to doubt yourself. Even if I was God’s gift to knitting, I’d need to practice for a long while to be able to show it. I made two big (and typical) mistakes – I discounted all the time and practice my friends have put in over the years to learn, practice, and master knitting and I expected to be able to just knit without putting in the same kind of time and effort.

Foundational practice is the fundament of success! You may be slapping your forehead at this point, dismayed at how thick I can be. Nothing here is new. I have not imparted any wisdom. But knowing (in your mind) and knowing (in your heart) can be different. The need to practice knitting to get better at it was something I knew but hadn’t taken to heart. The certainty that I need to make multiple straight scarves, really become comfortable with the skills, know when something is wrong (and how to fix it) is finally there. The willingness to do the work, to gain the skills, to ask myself to not just complete a project but to finish it well – to ask myself to not be satisfied by just “playing through” but to do more than settle for a sloppy end are all the elements I can bring from my harp to my knitting. And if I begin by working diligently on one stitch for just 10 minutes a day, like the warmups and exercises, I will eventually be strong enough in the fundamentals to get to the lace. And to see that the artistry arises from that foundation.

What will your 10 minutes be? Please share with me what warmups and exercises you do (or are going to be doing) at your harp. Any ideas you can bring over from other instruments you play? Together we can come up with some cool stuff – I’ll compile your suggestions and share them later.

Tick Tock Tick Tock – Four Steps to Holiday Preparation

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It’s autumn.  The leaves are beginning to turn and temperatures are beginning to subside. Days are shorter and nights are cooler. All of which means that it will be winter soon. Or stated another way – the holidays are coming!

Although retailers start putting out holiday merchandise before Halloween, it’s easy to scoff.  But don’t fall into a false sense of having a lot of time.  Don’t let the holidays catch you not quite ready – start your preparation now! I’d suggest breaking it into four steps:

  • Make a Schedule – holidays are starting earlier each year with some Christmas events scheduled before Thanksgiving! (This is especially scary if you’re Canadian and Thanksgiving is in October). Realistically, you have about a month and a half so scheduled your practice and learning to assure you get everything into your practice.
  • Make a list of the tunes for gigs. Within that list, identify those tunes you played last year and those that you’ve included because you’d like to learn them.
  • Make a practice plan – using your schedule and your list, plan time to polish those tunes you already know and to learn those that you don’t. Be realistic!
  • Make a program of holiday and non-holiday music that you’ll be able to use and get comfortable with. This is a good idea not only because it allows you to better leverage your regular repertoire but also because your listeners will enjoy the break from holiday tunes while you’re playing and it will help the old favorites seem less hackneyed both to you and to your audience.  It also helps keep your regular repertoire in your mind and hands.

By being organized you will be able to be comfortably prepared for the entire holiday season from November to January with minimal angst and stress. Now you just need to book some holiday gigs and you’ll be ready to go!

Is it a Maybe?

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So, here we are, about ¾ of the way through the year. Everyone’s back to school and the holidays are fast approaching. By now, hopefully, you’ve sorted out your yes’s and no’s. The next question is do you have your maybe’s?

Perhaps the biggest maybe at this time of year is related to the goals you set for yourself. So maybe it is a good time to review them. How are you coming? Do you need to tweak any? Do you know?

This is where that journal comes in handy – it’s a good time to review your notes to see if you are getting where you wanted to go. If not, can you see what you need to work on?  Do you need to:

  • Rededicate your practice time
  • Actually practice
  • Reprioritize your practice time
  • Actively schedule elements of practice
  • Review your goals to make sure they are realistic for your real life
  • Examine your journal to have a better idea how it’s going so you can continue to meet your goals

Are you getting there? Maybe part of the way?  Maybe isn’t bad at all – as long as you mean it!

Just Say NO!

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After at least a week of saying “Yes!” perhaps it’s also time to start saying “NO!”

No can be so negative but sometimes it’s the best answer to allow you to hang onto your sanity! Or to make progress toward your goals.  I will always encourage you to stretch – to do things that are a little scary or uncomfortable. This is because typically these things only l-o-o-k scary but are actually a lot of fun once you break through.

But some things are scary for good reason. They are better avoided – a stretch piece that is a huge stretch, a stretch piece with an unreasonable or unrealistic deadline, something you just really do not want to do (or don’t agree with doing), something that will just add the straw that broke the camel’s back to your schedule.

Here are some things it might be helpful to say “NO!” to:

  • Weddings – if you don’t like to be stressed, don’t book weddings! Only do them if you feel confident – otherwise they will chip away at your confidence and possibly your self-esteem.
  • Short notice gigs – if you don’t have regular practice time in on your repertoire, you will not be ready at the drop of a hat.  So don’t do that to yourself. Only book gigs for which you can be confidently and competently prepared.
  • Music you’re not interested in – now, I’m not saying don’t experience new things but this music is also typically music you don’t know (so you won’t have tricks up your sleeve for dealing with not being rock solid on the tunes).  Or it’s music you haven’t worked with (so you’re likely not solid and confident).  And this is often coupled with short notice and/or weddings!
  • Only playing for the cat and the curtains – Get over yourself! No one plays perfectly and you never will either. The only way to get better at playing for people is to do it. You know – to practice doing it by doing it. The longer you put it off, the more you tell yourself you’ll do it later, the harder it will get. So get out there.

Say no to anything that will require more preparation than you will be able to devote. If you are only able to practice 30 minutes a day, don’t even think you’ll be able to take on a challenge and succeed (Carol of the Bells from scratch in 2 weeks? Ha, don’t even). You will be stressed and unprepared and miserable.

Practice saying No at the right times so you are ready to say Yes as appropriate.  And if you’re knocking yourself down (over these or anything else) – Definitely Just Say No!