Tag Archives: Learning

The Answer Is Not On YouTube

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I get it. YouTube is an attractive nuisance. After all, where else can you go to learn all you ever needed to know right now about how to change a tire, make a martini…or play the harp?

I’m not denigrating or disparaging people who are trying to earn a buck/rise to prominence/achieve world domination (by teaching harp?) – it’s a living.

But…

There are limits to what you can learn by watching someone else do something four dimensional in a 2D space. Especially if you get caught up and watch video after video after video… Made worse if the time you spend watching other people play uses up all the time you have for the harp. Then you are not coming out ahead. Because no matter how much you can learn by watching, the real learning is in the doing – you know, the actually touching your harp, p-r-a-c-t-i-c-i-n-g!

I’m not talking here about content for which you have paid, online courses by legitimate professionals, or online lessons. I’m also not talking about short stints of poking around all the offerings – good, bad, and ugly – to get a feel for the wider world. No, I’m talking about all the schlock that’s out there – the stuff by any yahoo with a harp, a phone, and connectivity. Those people embody “you do you”. You, on the other hand? Is watching their videos really the best way to spend the precious little time you have for harp each day?

No. Turn that off and practice the things you are working on. On your real harp, in your real life, at your current real level. You don’t need to play at some weird angle, or hold the harp like it’s falling, or any of the other crazy stuff you see. Because like all the other unfluencers online (in every genre), you’re only seeing the stuff that made the edit – the false glam, the fake ease, and the counterfeit first-take. You know what you don’t see? The hundreds of lessons and the hours of practice behind every second of the video. They have already done the work so that it looks flawless, easy, and common. Online, everything is easy and you can be just like them. And you don’t even need to practice.

Right….

But this the real world. Yes, of course a little inspiration can go a long way. You should definitely have harp heroes that you aspire to be just like – in your own way. And just like every other worthwhile endeavor, then you should turn YouTube off. The answer is not on YouTube, just in you.

Now go practice! 😊

Relax

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You know how it feels. You learn a fast tune – a reel or a jig. You can hear it in your head – faster, faster, faster! Sadly, your fingers are not q-u-i-t-e ready for that! But we’re focused and so we push. We push the tempo so we can play as fast as everyone else. We want to play faster than everyone else!

So, we set ourselves the task of speed. And we repeat (a lot, as we talked about here). We push as hard as we can.

AND IT ALL FALLS APART. Why (whine)?

This happens because we are focused on the wrong thing. No tune is good if it isn’t accurate and well played. That’s true of airs but one could argue that it’s even more true in the fast tunes. In a slow air you have time to fix things in real time. But in a reel there’s no buffer – there’s only hanging on and hoping for the best! And that’s stressful.

Stress is not good for fast tunes. It seizes your hands, your arms, you brain! You need to r-e-l-a-x!

No really. Try playing some tune you think you know as fast as you possibly can. When you’re in the middle of the tune, stop playing and check-in with yourself. Is your hand relaxed? Arms? Shoulders? Butt? Legs? (no, really, check your legs too!)

As long as you are holding a lot of tension and stress, you will not be able to play your fastest. Sorry, but it’s true. You have GOT TO RELAX!

And to get relaxed, you have to play at a tempo that doesn’t stress you out! If that’s at Lento/40, so be it! There’s no shame in a well played tune at an approachable tempo. Only when that feels easy and all the notes are correct (no, really – all the notes, rhythms, harmonies, etc.) will you be ready. Then you can speed up a little (like to 44!).

Use the “feels easy” and accuracy as metrics for when you might try going a little faster. This is where you can push yourself a little – each time it feels easy and is accurate (and be very strict on this – accurate is accurate, not sorta accurate, not mostly accurate – actually accurate!), then go a little faster. If you like more precision, use your metronome for each speed and make it part of your accuracy metric. When you hit your limit (and you will – we all do), slow down a little bit and get accurate again, then run at it again. This is a process that will take a little time but will help you develop a tune you thought was cool enough to learn into a tune you love to play!

Give it a try – take on a new fast tune and work it up this way. Let me know how it goes (in the comments!). Don’t have a fast tune – you can always ask me!

Weird but it works

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Before I embarked on this whacky phase of life as a harp player, I spent most of my time thinking about how people think about their work and how to improve that. Now my poor students have to endure my explanations about what we’re doing and how they might think about it. It’s important to know and understand not just what you’re doing but why.

So what I’m going to share today total makes me crazy. It works but I have no idea why. It just does. It’s a “tip” that might help you learn tunes easier and faster. And who doesn’t want that?

What’s this magic thing?

When you’re trying to learn a tune, there’s a lot to do. And even when you have the tune relatively well learned, you often find yourself stumbling. And if there’s a trouble spot, you will begin to build in a “speed bump” – a place in the tune that frankly scares you – and so you slow down and try to get through it.

If you don’t get that sorted out – and quickly – the tune will always have a speed bump and/or you won’t want to play it because there’s a scary spot. To get past those scary spots, you need a way to learn your way over it! So this week, I’ll share a way to get those smoothed out.

Find a shape at the beginning of a phrase. Place all your fingers as you will be going to do when you’re playing. Squeeze – hard. Definitely distort the strings – yes, squeeze that much. Don’t be wimpy! Then close your fingers – don’t play, just close (all the fingers at once). Place the next shape. Think about the shapes as you place and squeeze and then move to the next. Work in phrases. Think about what you’re doing in each shape. Focus on one hand and then the other (unless the shape of the tune makes that untenable). As the shapes become more familiar, shift your focus to the movement between the shapes. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat more than you think you should. Then repeat again.

Once the placing and moving begins to feel easier (than it had been) then you can shift your attention to playing the shapes. This isn’t the speed round – keep your focus on the shapes and linking them together. You can play and work toward making it musical once you can actually get from shape to shape cleanly and on time. If, as you start playing, you find there are still rough spots or ugly transitions, go back to the place and squeeze and come at it again. Don’t be afraid of repetition (and while you’re repeating – pay attention to what still needs work).

I don’t know why this works – and believe me I have generated multiple hypotheses – but it does. If, after reading this, it’s not clear, send me questions and we’ll see if we can make it clear for you.

When you’re working on a new tune, give this approach a try and let me know how you go – you know I love to hear from you!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – how’s that O’Carolan tune coming?

Put it on repeat

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One of the most frustrating things when learning a new piece of music is getting it established in your head. Whether you get your music by rote or by reading (or hybrid), we often feel like we should have a tune quickly. But is that really reasonable?

In a word – No.

Learning a tune and learning to play a tune (and I’d argue those are different but related) require repeated exposure. Repeated means – repeats….and lots of them!

You might wonder why you need so much repetition – even if you’re a quick learner. Well, there are two basic reasons – first, because there’s a lot to learn and second because you probably don’t make as many repeats as you think when you practice.

There is a lot to learn, and I find that we typically underestimate how much we need to learn for each piece we take on. While we focus on our fingers, it’s our brains that have the lion’s share of the work here! We need to recognize and recall a lot of stuff. Here are just a few of the things you need to learn for each tune:

> You have to know how the tune sounds

> You have to know where the tune goes

> You have to know where your fingers go

> You have to know the order of the notes of the melody

> You have to know the chord progression of the harmony

> You have to know the notes of the harmony

> You have to know the order of the fingers

> You have to know the rhythm

> You have to know the dynamics

> You have to know the phrasing

> You have to know how this tune relates (or is contrary) to other tunes you already know

> You have to remember all that

And more. Hopefully, that gives you an appreciation for what you’re doing as you learn.

So, then the question is, how many repetitions. Often, we feel like we’re playing something over and over and over and over. And we are. But look at that list again – each of those things is impacting each repetition. So, you can begin to understand why so much repetition is needed.

Let’s start by thinking about what we’re trying to by making those repetitions. We are trying to memorize how the (entire) piece sounds. We also need to perform serial recall of two different lines – the melody and the harmony which more often than not are completely different, yet related. We have to master the motor activity of placing, playing, closing, moving, and doing it again and again. But more importantly, we have to connect all of those things, in the right sequence within the appropriate relative time, while detecting anomalies (aka mistakes) and correcting them. Whew! No wonder it’s hard!

There is no set number of repetitions required (that would be too easy!). One metric is easiness – how easy does it feel to play? Yes, it’s qualitative, but this isn’t rocket science, so it’s ok. When you’re moving along your learning curve, there will come a point when you realize that it is just easier to play – you’re not struggling as much to remember what comes next, your fingers actually feel like you are in control, your brain doesn’t feel like you’re about to combust! You may be more able to play faster or to keep both hands going.

The keys to getting there probably include not counting your reps, but instead focusing on what you’re doing, what you’re thinking about, what you’re not able to do just yet, and how you have done compared to yesterday, the day before, etc.

If it helps you to keep focused on practicing, you can use pennies, beans, or beads to keep track. These tools can be helpful to show yourself that you are actually practicing as much as you think you are. As long as you recognize that time (and number of repetitions) isn’t all that matters – what you do with that time is what matters.

The last thing to keep in mind is repetition has to happen across days and weeks, not just within individual practice sessions. You can’t really learn all that (see the list again) in a single sit down, so don’t think you will! If you feel compelled to have some detail, the next time you learn a new tune, keep track of how much time you practice, over how many days/weeks, and how many repetitions you actually perform each time – it should be fairly eye opening.

What’s your experience with repeats? Let me know … in the comments!

Start up

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You probably aren’t keeping with the “thoroughly modern music teaching” online space. There are loads of teachers teaching other teachers to make more money by teaching. I keep an eye on them just to see what bubbles up in the idea streams. One thing they tend to do is drop stuff (music, ideas, games) the week before you need it. As in, they post a new Christmas arrangement on December 16th or a tune for St. Patrick’s Day on March 15th. Maybe all their students are way more efficient, but I would never ask my students to learn a piece that quickly! I know I wouldn’t want to get a piece of music and have it ready to go inside of a week!

I don’t know about you, but I need time. There’s so much to do – learn, remember, test out, reject, try again, for every single note. It’s thorough, but not speedy. I do know that it’s just nice to be ready – especially if you need the music to perform!

Ready for what? Perform where? Well, for all the things we know are going to come around like they do every year. There are learning opportunities like Ohio Scottish Arts School, Somerset Harp Festival (25th Anniversary!), Virginia Harp Center Festival, the Harp Gathering, and the list goes on.

But there are also the putting yourself out there and doing stuff to show yourself that you can. These are events like Play Music on the Porch Day in August and Random Acts of Harping in June. For these events you need to know some music – at least enough to fill the time – and feel comfortable that you can play it.

By giving yourself a little time to plan and prepare, those events will be easier on you – less stress and more fun. That also means that right now is not too early to start learning a new piece or two to have on hand. You can even look forward to debuting them – but that will be easier if you get started.

Before you think it’s too early, remember that there are a number of steps. You have to find some tunes that might be what you’d like to be playing, select from those the tunes you decide to work on, learn the tunes, really learn them, get the arrangement squared away, and then polish, polish, polish. When you consider all that, it’s about time to start!

Whether you’ll play at festivals, schools, or sharing events, give yourself time to enjoy the process! It really is nice to share. It’s nicer to share when you don’t feel like you’re not ready! What tunes are you going to start up? Let me know in the comments (I’m always looking for ideas!).

Dogs and Tricks

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Dogs and Tricks 

If you have enjoyed the luxury of getting older (so far), you might have noticed that things have changed. Some of those things are no big deal – if you’re not as tall as you were before, you can adjust your bench and your harp.

But if sometimes it feels like you’re the proverbial old dog and every tune is a new trick, it can get discouraging. What if you feel like you can’t learn tunes like you used to? Or you can’t remember them when you do learn them? Ugh. That would be frustrating.

Well, no one wants to go down without a fight, so what are some things you can do to help improve your capacity to learn and memorize music? Here are a few ideas:

  1. The Ground Rules

    1. Be confident – you can keep learning and memorizing music!
    2. Your brain is not static and will continue to develop and make new connections. This continued growth and development is greatly improved by learning and memorizing.
    3. Do you (don’t worry about how fast you learn, just keep learning).
    4. Failure is essential for learning to happen! Those aren’t mistakes – they’re part of a process of developing connections that are essential to learning.

  2. To keep your brain sharp

    1. Take a walk. Yes, I know I sound like a broken record, but research in a variety of fields points to the utility and importance of taking a walk. It doesn’t have to be anything huge – just take a stroll, in the fresh air, at a pace that you can comfortably maintain for about 20 minutes. You can also break that 20 minutes up into a few walks. This one is hard to wiggle out of – you won’t be sweaty, you don’t need to change, you just need to put on some (appropriate) shoes and go. Walking will help refresh you and clear your mind so you can focus on the task of learning.
    2. Follow grandmotherly advice. You know that a French Fry addiction is not healthy (or M&Ms or Coke, or what ever your vice might be). Eat well and care for yourself – better overall health will improve your cognitive health and capability.
    3. Check your hearing. As we age our hearing declines. But we also have so much noise in the world that loss of hearing is all but assured. Having healthy, supported hearing will make learning tunes easier and will be good for your overall health. When you can’t see, you wear glasses and if you need to have hearing aids, just do it.
    4. Get rest and take care of you. Let me summarize a lot of research – smart people get sleep and sleep makes you smarter. *

  3. To improve your intake and retention of tunes

    1. Acknowledge that age is changing how you take in, process, and put out information. It’s not good or bad, it just is. And this is true whether you are a relatively newly minted adult or a very seasoned human (in your red hat age) – we are always aging and changing so rather than expecting yourself to be the same as you were when you were younger, know where you are now. (and if you’re reading this and younger – make a note, might as well get used to it and adapt from the start)
    2. Embrace where you are now – now that you’re older, notice how you see the world – and process the information – differently. With age comes more neural connections which support being more able to see the whole (even if you can’t read the fine print!). If you know this about your processing, you’ll realize that you get the gist quickly and can fill in the details later. When you were younger you were able to hang on to details (e.g., a longer string of notes), so now, focus on larger segments (maybe phrases) and be assured you’ll be able to fill in the gaps later.
    3. Speed is only one measure of learning. If you don’t learn as quickly, do you notice that you learn more thoroughly now? (psst you probably do, whether you’ve noticed or not)
    4. Focus on what you’re learning. Don’t try to task switch or multitask. Do one thing and pay attention.
    5. Simply learning will make you better at learning (practice!).

  4. Strategies for learning

    1. Build a map. I help my students learn a tune in all their sense modalities. We listen, we play, we shut our eyes, we squeeze. Ok, we don’t smell or taste but if I could figure out how, we’d do that too. Having all these different sense “paths” for the tune means that we have built “maps” in each of these modes, and this strengthens memory for all those modes.
    2. Take notes to help you remember. Record if possible so you can review.
    3. Build your brain muscle. Do other activities that benefit your memory – do puzzles and word teasers, memorize your grocery list. Do these “brain games” consistently and regularly, so that you stay sharp (or become more so).
    4. Only compare you to you, today. You’re not the you of 20 years ago. And you’re not the hotshot sitting next to you either. Just focus on learning and don’t worry about what everyone else is doing.
    5. Keep learning – the more you do, the better you’ll be at it.

  5. Strategies for recalling

    1. Start where you find yourself. If you can’t remember how a tune starts, play what you do remember. Listen to the tune in your head and play along. See if by playing what you do remember you can pull yourself along to the next bit – until you’ve played the whole tune. I do this a lot – I just play the phrase I do recall and keep playing it until the next phrase comes to mind (etc.) until I have the tune again. I also check any sources I have if I really get stuck (sheet music, recording, phoning a friend).
    2. You already know a lot – which gives you a good platform for storing new information. Use it and leverage any similar phrases to help you build better “maps” of the tunes.
    3. Keep practicing from memory – the more you do, the better you’ll be at it.
    4. Focus on what you’re recalling. Work on remembering one thing and pay attention.

Remember too, that you had to learn to learn, and this is simply one more step. This is a start – give some of these a try and see how you go and let me know in the comments how you get on!

 

*Yeah, no researcher would write that in a scientific journal, but like I said, I’m paraphrasing!

It’s coming soon!

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I hate to break it to you, but next week is October!  While there’s been pumpkin spice muffins, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin spice tires, and more available for over a month, you would not be seen as unreasonable for not realizing that the most terrifying time of the year (for harpers) is racing up fast – the Holidays (cue Halloween music – after all, that is the next holiday, despite what you might see in the stores).  If you think I’m being dramatic, I have already seen tv ads for Christmas trees!

Now, you might be wondering why I say this is the most terrifying time of the year.  It is, after all, the season of twinkly lights, candy everywhere, pretty ribbons and bows – what’s not to like?  It’s also the busy season (which is nice and helpful to affording gifts to put inside the ribbons and bows).   Well, here are three reasons it can be terrifying:

1. While all the professionals are booking events (yea income), non-harp-playing people also have no problem, upon learning that you play the harp, attempting to press you into performing.  This is all well and good…if you want to be performing.  But if you’re not interested in performing, are extremely nervous about performing, or have only been playing for a month – you might not want to be pressed into service!  And people (who don’t play an instrument but are adept at organizing) are relentless.  I’ve also found that their relentlessness is inversely proportional to the amount of money they are willing to pay you!

2. Everyone knows all the music!  Yup, when the entire audience knows all the tunes, that’s a little intimidating because you are certain they will hear every artistic deviation (not mistake!) from perfection that you introduce.

3.  The holidays can be fraught – fraught I say – with stress.  Even if, like me, you lead a stress-free existence*, it’s difficult to avoid the feeling of stress rolling off all those around you. 

So, it’s time to start preparing!  Here are four things you could practice being ready:

1. Saying “No”.  I know it’s hard but, if you don’t want to be playing for whatever reason (you’ve only been playing for a week, you are embarrassed by sweating navigable puddles when performing, because you just don’t want to) – practice saying “no”.  Sound too abrupt? Then say, “No, thank you”.  You don’t owe anyone an explanation (well…maybe if it’s your mom, but no one else!)

2. Christmas music you’ve played before.  Since you’ve learned it before, it will come back easier than the last time.  Yes, I know it might not feel like it, but it will.

3. New Christmas/Winter.  Well, new to you.  You don’t want to be playing the same stuff year after year.  You need to keep learning.  New things will help you stay fresh and keep you interested.  Adding in winter music will also help you bridge gaps for audiences and give you things to play past Christmas (after all – winter goes for about 80+ more days after Christmas day).

4. Other music.  Since the Christmas music will probably start sooner than later, by the time the holidays actually arrive, everyone is a little fatigued of hearing them.  Keeping your wider repertoire ready to go will help you add to your set lists and avoid burn out…and will keep you ready for the rest of the year!

So, dust off your Christmas books and binders, start reworking your old tunes and deciding on what you’ll add this year.  Be proactive when deciding what you will let slide in your regular repertoire (for now).  And spend a little time with your calendar so you’ll know when you are (and aren’t) interested in playing.  Keep in mind that most of your friends and family would be delighted if you shared your gift of music with them (even if you’ve only been playing for a week – they love you!). 

What are you going to be playing this holiday season?  Which are new to you?  Let me know in the comments!

 

*LoL – I wish!

Since you asked… Connections and Patterns

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In December, I wrote about learning versus memorizing.  You left some great comments, and one of you asked how one would go about actually doing this (learning rather than memorizing).  You graciously waited through the madness that is the holidays and the reset that is the new year.  But now, it’s your turn!

Let’s start by acknowledging that learning music is not really different from learning anything else.  And just like in school, when you try to brute force memorize – everything deserts you when the pressure is on.  And because memorization is so fragile, you can’t even salvage the memory gap – because there is noting of substance behind it.

So we’re back to learning.  The first thing to understand is that learning is not passive.  You have to be engaged, checked in, and thinking to learn!

Patterns and ConnectionsThe easiest way to do this is to do some analysis.  I don’t mean a big research study.  To analyze – ask yourself some questions.  these questions will help you make connections and discover patterns.

  1. Does any of the piece remind you of anything else?  That could be anything.  Those of you who have had lessons from me have experienced this – “chocolate chords”, “the Oreo phrase”, “the donut part”, “the walk in the park”, and “this is just like in that other tune”.  These are all just things the tune remind me of (never mind that most of them are food!).  Do parts of the tune bring something to mind – waterfalls? sheep? fairies? storms at sea?  If so, these are all things you can connect to that bit of the tune which will help you hang on to it (learn it!).  You can also say the connection (e.g. “this is the Oreo part”) out loud while you’re playing that part will also create another connection that you can learn.
  2. Find the shapes.  This can be as basic is up or down.  Or as complex as “this reminds me of Katahdin” – I didn’t get that, but he did, and that’s what matters.  If you’re reading, you can see the shape.  You can also see the shape when you put your hands on the harp.  Have you already learned the shape in some other tune?  Does the shape repeat through the tune.  Learning the shapes is another way to learn.
  3. Find the story in the music.  If you’re not sure, make up your own.  That story can be another set of connections.  Tell yourself the story as you play.  You can also do this with songs.  Sing the lyrics as you play – they are another set of connections that will help you learn the tune.
  4. Break it down.  If you are more advanced, you may be able to learn an entire 8-bar phrase in one go.  If you are less experienced, you may need to look at one measure at a time.  Size doesn’t matter – break the music into pieces you can successfully ingest.  Because….
  5. You’re going to stick those pieces back together eventually!  As with breaking it down, stitch it back together in portions you can handle.  Don’t overdo it.  These are more connections…and patterns – and you have a chance to connect the patterns!  This is true for challenging tunes, but its also true for “easy” tunes with their nearly identical phrases which come together differently in parts of the tune.  Make specific links between the parts – be sure to connect the various pieces to each other.
  6. Savor.  Take it slowly We are always in a rush.  We want it to be instantly performance ready, faster, more complicated, showier than anyone else – we want to have the tune now!  But rushing leads to a half-learned tune that is wobbly with wishy-washy fingering and phrases built on momentum not confidence, all of which can lead to heartache. 

Need more specifics?  How about:

Fingering is one of the greatest losses of not analyzing your music enough before you start and then moving out too fast.  I wish I could remember who taught me this trick (and if you know who it is, tell me so I can give credit!): place the shape (all the fingers needed in that direction…all of them, even the 4 if needed!); squeeze the strings a couple of times; then play the shape.  Think about the shape, where it sits in the phrase and the tune, where else you might use that same shape in the tune.  Replace the next shape, and repeat. Yes, it can be frustrating (especially if you didn’t actually analyze it first). Yes, it means you can’t just bang out the tune. 

But equally, yes, you will get the fingering.  Yes, you will be preplaced and ready to go.  Yes, you won’t be chasing strings with fingers that weren’t quite ready.  And yes, you will learn the tune more quickly – because you don’t have to relearn any of it!

That might sound suspiciously like practice.  Because it is.  Learning must be active.  Analysis is not a nice to have – it’s one of the things will distinguish your learning.  Each time you run through the piece you will be building connections – in your brain but also you’re your eyes, ears, fingers, and your entire body.  If you have some knowledge of theory, that will also help you make connections and notice patterns.  Talking out loud creates connections in another modality.

The more connections you have and the more patterns you have found, the easier time you will have learning the tune.   And by extension, the more confident you’ll be when you play it – because it won’t desert you under pressure!

Give some of these ideas a try and let me know what you think.  Do you have any other ways to learn you’d like to share?  Make the connection via the comments below!