Category Archives: Where we’ve been

Dear me

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Dear me

No matter where we are in our harp journey, we have the opportunity to enjoy the ongoing process of becoming musicians.  It can also be easy to get distracted or unfocused or sidetracked as we meander on our path. 

Sometimes we fret over whether we are doing enough, growing enough, accomplishing enough. We compare ourselves to others – even though we know we shouldn’t.  We often spend more time than seems appropriate telling ourselves to stop thinking that way.

But what if we could be our biggest cheerleader?  What if we talked to ourselves like we talk to our friends?  What would we say?

This week – I’m going to give you some homework.  Write a letter to your future self – to you in 5 years.  Tell yourself all the things you have done and what you’re working on now.  Whisper your fears, and hopes, and plans.  Then tell yourself where you’d like to be when you are where they are.  And how you were thinking you might be going about getting there.

You might be scoffing – this is silly you might say.  But what if you suspended your disbelief for just a sec? Then you might see the wisdom in thinking about who you would like to be later. 

And since you’re talking to your future self, you can be bossy.  You could tell yourself that you will have to do something hard so that your current self can successfully do the thing you have been talking you out of.  You could be brutally honest and suggest you stop doing things that you repeat so you don’t have to risk failing – so that future you will be there (when you get there).

But while you’re writing, how about you also tell your future self how proud of yourself you are (or should be).  And maybe relate what you’re hoping you’ll have done by then (and maybe what’s stopping or inhibiting you?).

So, get out your nicest writing paper and do your homework!  Let me know in the comments what you think after writing to yourself.  What do you think the letter you get back will say? What would be your response?  If you’d like to share too, let me know!

 

 

Ooops, missed that

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It’s been quite a time.  All the stuff going on around us.  Disease. Death. Destruction.  But we’re really lucky – we have our instruments and our music to help soothe us and to aid our journey through the mire.

Most of us try to face toward the future, to the time after all the yuck we’re experiencing.  Therefore, we might not have noticed that time is passing.

And so, the midpoint of the year, which is July 1st (or 2nd, depending on the year and your desired level of precision), has come and gone, by quite a bit – over six weeks (!).  I like to mark the midpoint of the year – to see how things are going and to assess if I’m “there yet”.  At that point in the middle of the year, plenty of time has passed to have started some projects, made progress on others, and to have finished some as well.  With projects in work, I can also get a good idea how I’ll be getting along through the rest of the year. 

I try not to make it too much of a report card.  You know –

SUBJECT GRADE
Effort A
Follow Through C
Completion F

And if it is a report card, for it to be more kindergarten-like:

If you can focus on the critique (of the smiley report card) and avoid the criticism (of the other), then you can make a better assessment too.  After all, at the beginning of the year, you have boundless energy, unending ideas, and a blank calendar.  By the middle of the year, you have less energy, the calendar is mysteriously stuffed AND you have a clearer idea of what you are really interested in.  Because really, you only do those things on which you focus.

At this point of the year, when it’s hot, and still, and called the dog days for a reason, you might find that your focus has drifted.  Between the alluring beauty of the easy things and the unending distraction of the glittery things, you may have lost sight of the most important things (as defined by you!).   That makes this the perfect time to ask yourself if the important things of January have maintained their status in August?  Ok, really the perfect time would have been on July 1st, but today is nearly as perfect a time to ask. 

Then the question is, ask what?  Here are a few questions you might ask (and answer!) in the middle of the year:

  • Are those things identified in January as being important still important?  If not, then take them off your agenda, ‘cause you’re not going to get to them!  But if they are still important, then it’s time for the tough questions
    • Why did they get short shrift?
    • What is stopping you?
    • What do you need to do to get back on track?
  • What has gone well?
  • What one thing do you need to have done by 31 December to consider this a good year?
  • Were the goals set in January the right ones (and if not, what should they be now?)
  • Am I only trying to do this because it seemed important before?

And my personal favorite –

  • Am I enjoying myself? (because, after all, if not, why do it?)

On balance, I’m fairly pleased so far this year.  How about you?  We have about four and a half months to go, so there’s loads of time to keep on and move ourselves to where we’d like to be.  Don’t forget that writing it down helps – both to realize what you have remaining to do and to remember what’s still to go (and why it is important to you).  List the tunes you’d like to learn, the technique you want to master, the events you’d like to play, the people you’d like to meet, etc.

Then you can work on making it happen!  How does your year look here at the mid-point?  Let me know in the comments!

Tired of Christmas yet?  So, what’s next?

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I get it.  We’ve been teaching, learning, practicing, and performing Christmas music since it was hot!  It’s a limited pool of tunes.  It’s a short window to share them.  And they really aren’t that different from one another.  It can get boring.  And at this point, it is too late to start changing them up…or you’re already doing that and you’re running out of ideas for changes that you can perform on the fly.  After all, by December, we’re likely to be operating on autopilot just a little.

So, while you’re on autopilot, you might be thinking about what’s next!  What do you want to do?  What tunes are you going to take on?  Do you have a longer-term plan?  Now’s your chance to make a workable plan for the post-December season.

To do what’s next, we need a plan.  How do you make a plan for your music?  Same as any other plan you might make, you just need to take a few (ok, 10) steps –

  1. Know where you are – take stock of where you are right now.  Be honest and rigorous and identify where you’re starting.  And it’s the foundation of the plan. If you’re not honest, you will have a hard time succeeding in the plan.
  2. Set realistic expectations (based on your real life).  It’s easy to build a perfect and beautiful plan.  But if the plan doesn’t reflect your real life, it will fail.  Do not promise yourself that you will get up at 5 and practice for 2 hours if you are responsible for getting your household up, fed, prepped and out the door by 6:30 every morning!  While it’s a lovely plan, it won’t fit your life. (we’re back to being honest and rigorous with yourself).
  3. Make a schedule.  No matter how good your plan is, it will help to write it down and ensure it fits into your (real) life…the messy one with chores, and work, and meals, and traffic, and showers, and all the other stuff of daily life.  Writing it down will let you see the conflicts and were you have (actual) practice time…and plan in free time – you’ll need it.
  4. Where are you trying to go?  You should begin with the end in mind.  ‘Nough said.
  5. What will it take to get there?  You have to see the space between where you are and where you want to go.  In business and engineering this is called a Gap Analysis.  Be sure to note which specific, steps, techniques, etc. are missing to close the gap.
  6. When do you expect to arrive?  While you may not know how long it will take you to master skills, techniques, or tunes on your path, you may want to develop some idea of how long you think it might take.  Be prepared to be thorough, but also be ready to be wrong.  Remember to be flexible too.
  7. How will you know when you get there?  Before you begin to execute your plan, you will have had to identify where “there” is…so you’ll know when you have arrived!
  8. Do you know why you’re going there?  It helps to define what you need to work on (where you’re trying to go), but it is also important to keep in mind why you’re trying to get there!  Are there techniques you need to learn or perfect?  Is there a particular repertoire element you wanted to build in?  The why is essential to getting there!
  9. What happens if you don’t get there?  Sometimes your plan is to achieve something before a specific event.  Or you need to tackle a particular element on your way to nailing a particulate tune you want in your rep.  But what if you don’t get there – what’s the worse that will happen.  Do you have a contingency?
  10. Did you write any of it down?  You know I’m a fan of keeping track of stuff – and this is no exception!  Take notes, write on your plan, keep a calendar, make a scrap book, use a practice journal.  I don’t care how you keep track, just be sure to keep track.

Like the meme says, no matter where you go, there you are.  Make a plan so you’re there is somewhere you’d like to be.  What are you thinking you might make a plan for?  Let me know if the comments.