Tag Archives: Holiday

Holiday!

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One of the most important holidays of the year is coming up on Saturday. Are you ready? Got your decorations up? Now that you’re wondering how you could have missed being ready – you might be asking yourself what holiday happens at the end of August?!

Play Music on the Porch Day is August 30, 2025! Could there be a better time to celebrate? I think not!

If you’re not familiar with this amazing holiday, you might want to prepare – because it’s a wonderful day. All you need to do is….

Go outside and share your music with whoever happens by.

Ok, to celebrate fully there is a little more to it than that.

From the website (yes, there is an official website (https://playmusicontheporchday.com) :

What if for one day everything stopped? And we all just listened to the music.

To participate just go outside and play music! You can invite friends or play alone. Make the day as big or as small as you want! Then share a video on any social media with #playmusicontheporchday.

Follow the hashtag #playmusicontheporchday to see musicians from around the world participating!

As it says, you can celebrate in ways big or small. As a sole creator or as a member of a group. And post it on social media (probably because for organizers, if you don’t post it, it didn’t happen).

But if you want to hold to the spirit of the holiday without all the fuss, muss, and bother of the organized event, you can just go outside, sit on your step (or wherever) and play. No telling yourself you’re not ready. No comparing yourself to your harp crush. No thinking too hard. Just play. Let others bask in the beauty you create. Enjoy being the maker. Create a moment – and share it with others.

You don’t have to be fancy; you can just play what you’ve been working on. Or you can set a time, set a stage, invite your audience, and make a production of it. Not feeling so brave? Invite a friend to join you! It’s up to you. The focus is on making music and sharing it with others.

Need more inspiration? Think of it as a history exhibit – after all, it wasn’t that long ago that this was just the way of it. In a time before hashtags and constant media, we (people) were the media. And the fortunate had music as a regular part of that. So, you’re not performing, you’re reenacting!

It’s not about perfection, it’s about connection – with your music, with your community, with your history. And with such a low barrier to entry – you just need to move outside – we can all do it!

I know some of you are planning to go out and play! Please share with us – send me a photo or jot a couple of words so we can share with this community too! And Happy Play Music on the Porch Day!

Memorial Day 2025

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Each year we receive this opportunity to reflect on those who have made our freedoms possible and to be grateful to those who paid the ultimate price to protect us and those freedoms. They made it possible for us to have a day off, a cookout, to enjoy the unofficial start to summer, and to play our music, free from arduous circumstances. Remember and honor them.

Christmas Time is Here

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Christmas Time is Here

As the Peanuts Christmas song goes, Christmas Time is Here….

I want to take a moment to wish you the best of holidays, days of friends and family and laughter and love. I hope you make some music, share some harp magic, and enjoy the holidays with sound and joy. I’ll be playing my favorites for the president of my fan club between happy bites of treats and sips of delight.

And I want to thank you for your continued support and participation. I hope you look forward to this each week with as much enthusiasm and I feel creating it. Let’s wrap this year with our shared love of music and revel just a moment in the bliss! From me to you, Merry Christmas!

PS – things are still a little dorked up on the back end, so if you want to leave a comment or send me a note, please click here (so your comment doesn’t get eaten by the website!).

Gift Guide for 2024

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Gift Guide for 2024

It’s gift giving time. That glorious time of year when the days are short, time is shorter, tempers might be shortest of all. And it’s not like it doesn’t come along every year at the same time. No matter which winter holidays you celebrate, there’s gifting involved. And where there’s gifting, there’s stress over what to give and whether it will be the best gift given.

Well, I have a shortcut for you! People love handmade presents. And there’s nothing like the present. And when you present someone with their gift that you have made especially for them, while you might have trepidation, they are just too busy being delighted to notice.

What better handmade present than to share your music? There really isn’t one. Your recipient instinctively knows that there’s a little part of you in the music. They know you had to work hard to bring their gift into the world. They know how precious that time is – because the music is ephemeral. And they can carry it with them for the rest of their life because while it is ephemeral it is also permanent as a memory. They might be extra happy that they don’t have to find a place to put your gift (or dust it) because it will be stored in their heart/brain.

You might not have thought making music for someone is a gift, but it is. You need to value it as such. And I don’t just mean for kids to give their parents – although I have found that this motivation helps my kid students focus on learning their Christmas tunes. And I have to give a special thanks to my parents who taught me at a young age that playing for someone is a good present (although I never really believed them – until I started teaching).

Because you want each gift to “fit” you can choose from many options:

If you have a fan(s) – you can play a concert! (not kidding). Play all the tunes they love – a curated playlist just for them.

If you have a supporter – you can compose a tune for them (or an improvisation – you know a composition that you don’t bother to write out fully). Play it one off (with a heartfelt, “I made this for you!”) or make it part of the concert you give them.

You can make them a recording to take with them. Good quality recording is available easily now so you can probably make a solid attempt with your phone and a quiet room. If you really want to make yourself crazy, you can use a free editor to put the whole thing together.

  • Really a glutton for punishment? You could use that recording to make a video with pictures and snippet videos embedded with the music. Use graphics that share your thoughts and feelings about the music (e.g., you could find some video of eagles on the wing to pair with a soaring melody or a photo of a fire for a cozy tune).

If you’re crafty, you could go in other directions and still reflect your music.

You might have an admirer who listens to you practice all the time. This might make you feel like a performance isn’t a good fit. How about decorating a score and framing it? Use the dots from one of their favorite tunes. This can be plain with just the score in a frame, or you can literally decorate it by making a picture from the shape of the melody. Or you can draw and paint on the score as a canvas. There are so many possibilities!

You could knit a scarf that represents the music of their favorite tune. I thought of this when I watched my friend make a “sky scarf” that reflected how sunny, cloudy, rainy, or snowy the day had been. No reason you couldn’t also knit the “story” of your music! Chose the colors that you “hear” to reflect the mood of the tune and (if you’re a better knitter than I) even change stitches to reflect the shape of the melody.

How about a bake that incorporates the tune? Shortbread would go with absolutely any Scottish tune. Soda bread for your Irish? Cream horns to play hornpipes? Sacher torte for your favorite Viennese waltz? You get the idea. You can have a tea party or refreshments for your concert.

That’s just a few ideas to help move your holiday gifting along. I know you have other, better ideas. Let me know what you’ve made or are planning to make to share your love with your giftees – leave me a comment (you know the drill).

Happy Thanksgiving!

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It’s that time of the year when we take a beat to be grateful and thankful for all we have and all we have been spared. I hope you know that I am grateful that you share your time with me. Here, I made this to share with you.

Happy Thanksgiving

PS – looks like I might be back in business publishing blog posts here on the website. Thank you to all my subscribers who have hung in there while we got this worked on! I’ll get caught up on previous posts soon! Until then – let me know what you think of the email or if you prefer to read here on the blog. I always appreciate hearing from you! Let me know in the comments (yay – so glad to say that again!).

Remember & Honor

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Remember & Honor

It’s Memorial Day – a day to remember and honor all those who have lost their lives in combat protecting those things we hold dear. In the middle of enjoying a day off and the unofficial start to summer, take a moment of gratitude.

Gift Guide – Part B

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Gift Guide – Part B

Last week we listed some gift ideas you could share with the people in your life who might ask what you would like to receive this holiday season. Now let’s flip the script. What gifts could you give from there on your bench?

Like any gift guide, this means matching the giving intention to the recipient and there are so many possibilities!

  • You can play for your family. You might think that your family listens to you play every day so this wouldn’t be a good gift. But the reality is that they probably don’t listen to you practice. They might hear you, but they’re probably not listening. They will enjoy having a specific time to sit and actually listen to the fruits of your labors. They are, after all, your biggest supporters.
  • Jane Austen is calling! There was a time when it was expected that each person would take their turn being entertaining for guests. Invite your supportive friends over and, as part of the time together, play for them. You’d be amazed how many of your friends don’t even know you play the harp, and how many of those who do know have never heard you play.
  • Play for someone special. This can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. You have all the tools – just get out of your own way. Play the music you hear in your head.  Don’t have a lot of noise going on up there? Stumped on where to start? Set your harp to C major and play only the white strings (thank you Marianna!) and diddle around. Run your recorder. Go back and listen, find what you like and put that stuff together. Practice that, toss in a left hand (hint – start with G) and boom! a handmade present!
  • Give a concert. Why not! You need a venue (your living room?), an audience (friends, family, neighbors), and you need 3 to 20 tunes (depending on how long you want to perform). Add some “patter” (it is a show, you are the MC) and wine or tea and cookies and you’re in business. It doesn’t have to be Carnegie Hall, just play.
  • Volunteer. Go to a nursing home or a rehab facility and play for them (or for the staff). You can do this anytime of year but the holidays seem like a good time to start (this does require a bit coordination, but so worth it).

It’s also amazing how good you’ll feel after sharing your gift of music.  What else could you do with your harp to give someone a lovely gift? I’ve given you several ideas here, but I bet you have better ones – let me know in the comments.