Back to School

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Jen

It’s back to school time so it’s time to think about learning! This month we’ll focus on lessons. Whether you take regular lessons or catch as catch can, this is for you!

Do you take lessons? Sometimes the question is stated, “do you still take lessons?” Beyond the philosophical discussion of whether every day is a lesson, it’s a good question. You don’t have to have a regular weekly lesson, but I hope your answer is yes!

If your answer is no, you’re probably wondering what could possibly be gained. After all, you already know how to play. You’re a self-starter who finds and learns music on your own. You play well enough. Why would you need to take a lesson? You certainly don’t need regular lessons…do you? Maybe you do – here are six good reasons to take a lesson (or a series of lessons).

To get a fresh perspective on your music
To spot and fix those bad habits that crop up on all of us
To learn something you didn’t know you needed to learn
To get your spark back
To refocus or refine your attitude
To avoid complacency

We all want to continue to grow and get better and a lesson can be a quick way to get there. There are many ways to schedule lessons – at workshops, at conferences, or with individual teachers. And typically, teacher enjoy sharing so it’s a win-win for all!

I’m sure there are other, additional good reasons to take a lesson – let me know yours!

I’m at OSAS!!

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Jen

I’m at Ohio Scottish Arts School this week – so excited and having a great time! We have four fantastic teachers in Sue Richards, Therese Honey, Dominique Dodge and Gillian Fleetwood.

We have all learned so much but my head is getting full! More later – gotta go play!

all photos from websites of the instructors, follow the links above to learn more.

It wouldn’t be summer without OSAS!

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Jen

The summer really gets started with the Ohio Scottish Arts School or OSAS, presented by the Scottish American Cultural Society of Ohio at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH. Each summer, for one week, the residents of this small college town get the joy of nearly continuous harp music (as well as pipe, fiddle, and dance music with drumming too!).

This year marks the 39th OSAS and it will be held June 24-30, 2017. Really enhance the experience and kick off with participation in the Ohio Scottish Games the 23^rd in Wellington, OH.

Coming to OSAS can be nearly a pilgrimage with some participants returning annually! The days are filled with learning tunes from stellar instructors in the aural tradition, lectures from those same instructors on other related and fascinating topics, and a little processing time to relax or practice. It’s harpharpharp! The evenings are filled with fun with the others jamming and sharing tunes we’ve learned, enjoying the evening air, snacks, and each evening also has a special event – the Instructor Concert, the Variety Show, every night, something wonderfully different and all OSAS.

If you’ve been to OSAS before, you’re calculating how you’re going to get there this summer. If you’ve never been to OSAS before – you cannot conceive how much you are going to learn, how much fun you’re going to have, how much you are going to bore your non-OSAS friends with stories when you get home – for months! You will laugh, you will work hard, you will have a great time, and you’ll start counting down to your next OSAS experience the day you get home.

For all the details go to http://ohioscottishartsschool.com/

Photos shamelessly stolen off the OSAS website – I’m always having too much fun to stop and take pictures!

First Harp Quest this summer!

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Jen

Change is good

For 21 years we have enjoyed Harp Camp, first Marianna and Kris, and then later me too. Every year we used the feedback we got from participants the previous year to modify our offering, always with an eye to making it better. We know how much the people who came enjoyed it and how much fun we have putting it together – but we felt it was time to make a bigger change – a shift. We realized that while Camp is a fun thing to look forward to happening in the summer, our lives with our harps set us on a QUEST! Our quests are each different as we seek to learn what our harp is there to teach us.

So, in 2017, we begin a new journey – a new HARP QUEST. Plan to join us for our new Journey – becoming what we’re meant to be.

Harp Quest will remain easily accessible to harpers from anywhere and at any level. Our focus will be a short and intense experience that we will each take with us into the coming months and years – perhaps not fully appreciating what we have learned until much later. But secure in knowing that we will get there – each of us. And we’ll make part of the journey together!

Harp Quest will occur in the beautiful and bucolic valleys of South Central PA 11 – 13 August. The setting is pastoral and relaxing – just the thing to learn and grow and go a little farther on the road we travel.

Kris and I will be your Guides. We are both looking forward to a very personalized time of sharing and learning. We will have fun, support one another, and work together to get as much from our lever harps as we can! We will expand technical skills and exercise our brains. As always, we will work on building healthy self-esteem and encourage ourselves to try new things. We start where we are and build on that. We’ll work individually and together experiencing three days of creativity, sharing, and fun.

A Quest requires a small but mighty band – space is limited. We’re looking forward to traveling with you! For more information or a reservation form, Contact us.

Summertime…and the learning’s easy….

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Jen

It is time to plan your summer harp activities! Each year I share with you summer harp events that I enjoy and get a lot from attending. So this year – let’s start with the Somerset Folk Harp Festival.

Wide ranging and diverse, the offerings at Somerset are top notch. With presenters from well-known icons including Debra Hensen-Conant and Kim Robertson as well as perennial favorites Grainne Hambly and William Jackson – what’s not to love?!?

Somerset’s diverse offerings assure that, no matter where you are on your harp journey, you will learn something. With an immense exhibit hall, concerts, workshops, and a new venue, you will have to see it to believe it. And as a very well attended festival, you’re going to see old friends and make some new ones! You’ll also be up close and personal to some major “harp heroes” so how could you miss that chance?!

There are over 30 presenters offering workshops in a number of areas including jazz, Celtic, Latin, technique, and more. The theme is Narrow your Focus, Expand your Horizon. There are four days of content so you can really immerse yourself. And of course, there are the concerts! All included in your registration!

Are you thinking, “Well, I’m just a beginner and I’d be too intimidated”, I say to you – pish posh! Workshop descriptions include a level so you can go into those with which you are most comfortable. In addition, workshops are hands on (you need your harp), demonstration (watch the tutor play), or lecture (no one plays you just learn!) so you’ll know before you go!

And I hope you’re not thinking that you could just jump online and get the same content? While there are some good online opportunities, nothing will push you along your own harp lifeline like being in a room (or an entire hotel) of harpers learning not just in the workshops but in the hallways, over coffee, at lunch – you can’t beat IRL* for becoming a better harper – after all, that’s where the music happens!

Don’t miss the early registration discount – but you’ll need to act fast! Early Bird registration closes 1 May which is right around the corner. Check out the website for all the information you need but be sure you get there! http://www.somersetharpfest.com/index.html

*IRL – in real life, for those of you who spend less time online and more time IRL!

Some lessons are easy!

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Jen

I’ll say something more verbose next week – after I’ve finished seeking inspiration.

Taking it all in – Learning new stuff

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Jen

We are always learning – in school, at work, in social situations, and all the times in between are opportunities to learn. So, when we sit at our harp it would be helpful if we knew exactly how to go about learning new music. There are many ways to learn and it helps to use as many as possible. It does help to actively think about how you will learn and here are eight ways to help you learn your music and how to play:

Take care of you: if you’re thirsty or hungry you will have a harder time focusing, so before you start be sure to hydrate and have a snack.
Know before you go: as they say, “plan your work and work your plan” – you’ll have an easier time learning if you know what you are trying to learn before you start!
Think first: it will be easier to take in the music if you analyze it before you try to play it. Look at the music or listen to the tune so you have some idea of the patterns that are coming and you’re not totally surprised by each note!
Don’t start from zero: practice the fundamentals so that when you get to the more advanced stuff you are not also working on the basics, just the new music.
Get up: it is important to learn the rhythm and to help get that down you might have to get up and move to find it.
Write it down: keep your journal up to date to capture your plans, your progress, your successes and insights you get along the way.
Take it in small sections and build it up: music is serial – that is, all the notes don’t hit you at once! Rather, they stream by over time (except for the chords!). If you have already done the analysis (see 3 above) you can learn the patterns as time flows.
Use all you’ve got (hear, see, feel) – Learning is hard work – use everything you have to make it go better, faster, and learn more music!

Break it up and move along

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Jen

February is a great month – not so long that you get bored with it, not so short that you can’t learn something new – so this month we’ll focus on learning.

Reading music is a challenge for many people. It is, after all, a whole new language. Written music conveys a lot of information in relatively little ink. Ok, it does look like a lot of ink! Music scores are built from a set of symbols that come together to express musical ideas. Just like letters build to make words, sentences, paragraphs, or entire stories!

So how do you get to the meaning of all that ink? Well, you have to read it. It’s important to remember that just like in a word book, those little strokes and splotches convey a lot of information. The score conveys pitch, movement, rhythm, volume, and more. That’s a lot to take in and it can be intimidating.

Musicians with strong formal training quite literally read a score. Just like you read a book, their eyes move along the lines as they recreate in their heads what’s being conveyed. They have a lot of practice – they’ve already sat at the equivalent of the blue bird table just like you did when you were learning to read words.

Sounding out words? Reading aloud? Pronouncing (and mispronouncing) strings of symbols while you learned what they meant and how to voice them. Remember that? No, you probably don’t (or the details may be fuzzy) – you practiced very hard to learn the symbols, then to put a couple together (remember sh-, ch-, th- and ae, ai, ea, oa?), and then put more together, until you were speeding through sentences and then whole books!

You need to do the same thing with your score! Practice reading, learning the symbols. Then practice reading them in pairs. Then move on to longer strings, until eventually you are zorching through entire tunes. Keep at it and soon you’ll be reading Sonatas and Symphonies!!

But it all starts by looking at the sheet and not panicking but by slowly breaking it up, getting the idea and moving on to the next couple…just practice, take it slow, acknowledge the work you are doing. Break it up and move along!

Holiday Shopping!

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Jen

There are not that many shopping days until the holidays are upon us! Have you finished your shopping?

Are you sure? Do you know someone who would like a (stress free, no strings attached) opportunity to see if they are really interested in learning to play the harp? Or, would you like to give yourself a present of lessons? Consider lesson Gift Certificates!

You can buy a single lesson or a string of them.

There are many reasons to take a lesson. You can sharpen your skills, brush up on your technique, learn a new tune, work on arrangements or develop new compositions. Or you can have an intensive lesson – no trying to cram a lot into a short lesson!

And now through 24 December, receive a 10% discount. Imagine – buy, print, wrap – and you’re done! For more information or to buy your gift, just contact me and finish up your shopping!

Don’t Miss! WAFHS Getaway

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Jen

The 2016 Washington Area Folk Harp Society (WAFHS) Annual Harpers’ Getaway will be held November 4 – 6, 2016 – you don’t want to miss it!

As always, there are two excellent presenters coming and you won’t be able to help but to learn a lot. There’s also the concert, the fellowship, and the venue – all things to look forward to. But there isn’t much time left to register.

The presenters this year are the irrepressible Haley Hewitt from Boston and the amazing Judith Peacock Cummings from Seattle via Scotland.

The Getaway is at Shepherd’s Spring near Antietam Maryland in Sharpsburg, MD. There will be excellent learning opportunities, lovely social opportunities, and of course, the Silent Auction!

Deadline to register is October 21. Go to http://wafhs.org/getaway/ for the details and the forms. Don’t miss this opportunity!

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