Jenius Creations

Tag: Teaching and Learning

  • Next

    I know it’s nearly Christmas, so you’ve probably already learned all the holiday music you are going to for this year. So, the next likely question is, what next?

    How do you select the music you should work on next? You can, of course, simply ask your teacher to point you in the right direction. This is a great idea if you are a beginner or low intermediate – you’re at the stage in your harp life that you may not be ready to go without some guidance.

    But if you’re a super independent beginner, or a more advanced student, you want to be selecting your own next tunes. How do you do that? Well, here are seven suggestions to point you in the right direction:

    Go with your Heart – If you L-U-R-V some tune – learn it! This is also true for arrangements by someone you simply adore playing. Don’t worry about whether you’re ready. Tunes can be simplified, arrangements can be flattened, you can learn new techniques, and/or you can invest more time into learning. I never tell a student they can’t play a tune – they may not be ready to play it, but we can work our way there!

    Go with your Head – maybe you know that you are weak at something – rolled chords? Harmonics? Whatever your weakness – find a tune (or arrangement) that requires that thing and work on it until you are good at the weakness. Two birds, one stone – you correct a weakness and learn a new tune to boot!

    Go with your Gut – if you feel like you are missing something, you probably are. Seek out tune types you might be light on. Do you have all the different tune types you need to make a well-rounded set? Do you have fast tunes and slow tunes? Major and minor (and other modes)? Can you build good sets from the tunes you already know? If not, your gut is pointing out to you that you need to fill some gaps.

    Go with your Reach – like going with your heart – what tunes do you not necessarily lurv but every time you hear them, you think, “I should learn that”? Learn those. These can be a little slippery because these are the tunes that you like enough to want to play but not enough to lurv. So, keep a list and learn these along the way.

    Go with your Smarts – If you have loads of tunes but they aren’t in the right keys to make good sets, work on learning the tunes in different keys. This could be dedicated time to learn tunes in new settings OR it can be deep work on transposition on the fly. Both of these will be good for your brain, good for your tune list, and good for your playing!

    Go with your favs – Not everything you play has to be work. Make sure you have some playful tunes in there too! If you love Taylor Swift, you can play that. If you love Mozart – have at it. Just because you may have made yourself a niche doesn’t mean you can’t get out of it every once in a while. Holiday tunes are sort of like that, n’est pas?

    Go with your hunch. Be honest, are you working toward your Julliard audition? No? Then pick music that is a little bit challenging to learn but is engaging enough to keep you playing. If you don’t like it (no matter what it is or who assigns it to you), you’re not going to play, so don’t pretend. Move on to something you will play.

    For adult (and more experienced younger) players, you can step up for these choices. A good teacher will, of course, make suggestions to move you forward. But in the end, you’re the one who has to decide. Don’t push the peas around the plate – take a little time to determine what you should play next.

    Let me know what you pick – can’t wait to hear! Share with me know in the comments!

    Name

  • Pick or nix

    As school starts all around us, it’s easy to think back to our favorite teachers over time. I don’t know about you, but with a few (glaring) exceptions, I had wonderful teachers. Some were a kind of wonderful that I didn’t appreciate them until much later. Some made lasting impressions that arise even now, ever so many years.

    This is especially true of my harp teachers – some as my “regular” tutors that taught me to play the harp (and so much more) and the ones I think of as “pop-ups” – those workshop teachers that gifted me with some nugget that pushed me a little farther along my path, or over a hump, or around an obstacle. I’m a lucky, lucky harper!

    But not all teachers are brilliant. And sometimes a great teacher has a bad day. There are also some times that a teacher is just not attuned to what a student needs. Without more data I hesitate to call anyone a bad teacher – although I am sure they exist. But one of you shared that your teacher had compared your performance nerves to being like when a dog knows it’s going to the vet! You added, “Very discouraging, to say the least.”

    I beg to differ. While yes, it’s discouraging, it is much worse. It is needlessly pointless. Worst of all – it was not helpful. Not having a solution to offer does not equate to saying something hurtful. There were so many other things to say in that moment, but the comment chosen certainly didn’t move you forward.

    We can talk another time about ways to deal with getting shaky in the face of performing but right now, that comment just sticks out and I can’t leave it be.

    When you get comments like that, they shift your focus – and not in a good way. Those types of comments take away from playing and growing. Those are words that push you down and can, left untreated, pull you under. Especially when they come from your teacher, the person meant to nurture your growth and development. What should you do?

    When you get unhelpful (and hurtful) feedback, you will need to manage yourself and serve as your own substitute teacher. You can pick or nix the comments you receive. You might need a tool to help you determine how to use the feedback. One useful tool would be to make yourself a decision matrix so you can determine what of the comments is useful and what should just be canned as quickly as possible! Here are the questions for your matrix –

    Is your teacher having a bad day?(Can you ignore it?)
    Are you having a bad day?(Can you ignore the sting?)
    Is this the first time you have heard something like this? (Should you let it slide?)
    Was there an element of “joking” in the air? (Did the joke just fall flat?)
    How proportional is this comment?(How many positive vs negative comments have you received, how does this fit in)?
    How could you take the sting out of the words?(Was it just poorly stated)?
    What can you take what was said and learn from?(Is there something useful behind the sting-y words?)
    What question could you follow up with to learn more that would be helpful?(Is there a way to salvage the intent and stay focused on your development rather than on negative questions?)

    You can probably think of even better ways to use the comments you get, even when they’re hurtful or poorly constructed – hope you’ll share them (you know the drill – email me a comment!).

  • Highlight!

    OSAS is over for another year. Each year we say it is the best. That’s not hyperbolic – it’s just the way of it. Each year the students bring their enthusiasm and joy for learning and growing and making music. And the blend of enthusiasm from previous years’ attendees and the nervous anticipation from first time students is a heady mix that is hard to beat! It’s the experience of being able to come year after year learning something new each time that shows that each year has been better than the past – because we have all grown!

    As usual, I didn’t take any (useful) photos to share – there’s so much to do in real time in real life that I don’t take the time to snap pics. I did, however, really like this one from Stephanie Claussen which I unceremoniously pinched from her facebook page.

    The students aren’t the only ones who change the atmosphere – the teachers totally bring it! These are people who are already incredible performers and fantastic teachers. But later in that they are genuine people with breadth and depth and passion, and the mix moves from heady to intoxicating!

    I think, though, that all this comes together to build and gel a community. Humans are best in community – a shared love with a support system. And when we’re together at OSAS we can layer context as we learn more about music, history, heritage, and our places in the world.

    We learn tunes, technique, expression, and more of the idiom. We learn harp tunes, fiddle tunes, and pipe tunes. We sing songs. We play with other harpers which is a rare treat for so many. But we also get to play with fiddles and small pipes. We walk to meals, chatting and then talk through the meals and continue catching up on the way back.

    As a teacher, I watch lights come on, see new ideas take hold, confidence grow, skills develop, and joy build. Don’t be fooled, I also see the occasional burst of frustration, and… fatigue, but they are quickly eclipsed by contentment and even delight!

    I’m going to spend this week rolling in the afterglow while it’s fresh. Next week we’ll start planning for next year – collecting what works, examining what should change, collaborating with the other teachers and leadership to craft the best OSAS ever! Hope you’ll join us – and if you want more, just ask me. If you’re just back too, share your thoughts in the comments!

  • Feynman was right

    There is one more place available to come with us to Ireland and Scotland in October! You know you want to go so check out the details and get your spot secured!

    You already know that I really enjoy teaching. I have wonderful and amazing students, and I am certain that I learn more from them than they learn from me!

    Richard Feynman (the genius scientist – and yes, I am an unabashed fan girl) was well known for pointing out that the best way to learn something (and to be certain you had learned it) is to teach it. The part he didn’t really highlight was that your own depth of learning would grow by teaching the same material to different people. Each of them will start where they are (where else could they?!) and take in what they are able in the order that they need to make sense of the world as you (the teacher) have presented it.

    This means that I, as the teacher, must break out of my own place to provide what they can accommodate in a sequence that makes sense – to them. That’s a challenge – and I love it! Simply by being themselves, they push me to bend and stretch and reach for the stars. And when a student “gets it” – whether it is a tune, a harmony, a phrase, or even an interval – I rejoice! Because learning is demanding work and I’m grateful to be a part of it.

    I sometimes worry that they will think I’m mocking them – and that’s when I wish we had LED displays on our heart – so they could see the joy for what it is – pure delight!

    All that sounds like it’s all about me. And true, some of it is. After all, it can be brow breaking work to be flexible and creative hour after hour, day after day on the bench. But more importantly, 99% of is all about the student. Each thing they learn makes a brick to build the bridge from where we are to where we’re going – the next step of their journey. I’m just the tour guide.

    Is there anything more fulfilling than being that guide? I don’t think so! You can have that too – I’d like to suggest that you offer a “come and try” (or “harp petting zoo”). You can make it part of your Music Day or Random Acts of Harping event. Because, for all my blether here, you – yes, you! – could share the same joy by teaching someone about the joy of making music and of playing the harp in particular!

    Here’s your lesson plan:

    • Put your harp in Cmaj (no sharps, no flats).
    • Invite them to sit.
    • Hold onto your harp and guide it to them. Remind them not to lean forward (no, really, everyone does it).
    • Tell them to use their pointer finger on either hand to play any white string.
    • Demonstrate that they can’t really break the harp by pulling really hard on a string. Do NOT let go of the column (so you can stay in control of the harp).
    • No matter how much you want to jump in, (and as long as everyone is safe) let them explore for a moment – even the timid. Pay attention to their cues to pace yourself.
    • After a decent interval, teach them to Gliss (everyone one loves to do that most harpy of things).
    • If they seem keen, you can teach them Twinkle Little Star or Frere Jacques (using just the 2 finger).

    It’s about them learning and enjoying. Don’t pin the reluctant to the bench and encourage the engaged. And on occasion check in with your heart – it’ll probably be full of joy!

    Have you done a come and try? Tell me about it! Never done one? Are you going to try now? Let me know with a comment! BTW – I’m excited to be doing a come and try at the Ohio Scottish Games on Saturday, 28 June at 3pm. Come to the Harp Competition which starts at 9am and stay for the fun!

    National Music Day is Saturday – perfect opportunity to get out there! Pair it with Random Acts of Harping and you’ve got a slam dunk!

  • Lesson Performance

    There is not a teacher that I know that hasn’t heard some variation of, “it was so much better at home”! I know, right? Sadly, I know this not only as a teacher but also because I’ve said it myself! Because we have practiced so much and we’re expecting so much of ourselves when we get to our lesson.

    Therefore, we could be excused for being bemused when we sit in our lesson and … bomb! It’s like we brought rented fingers. Like we didn’t bother to practice. Like we play some other instrument. Like we’re no good. What happened?

    What happens is that you have practiced playing the tune, but you haven’t really practiced performing it. Nor have you (probably) practiced playing in a different environment. I know that none of my students has a carpet as challenging as the one in my studio. They don’t have the same lighting. They don’t have the same harp (some have a different model, others have a different brand). And they sure didn’t practice all week with me looming next to them, watching what they do.

    The reality is that your lesson is not a stage performance, but it is a type of performance. You are playing for an audience. And you know that your audience is judging.* The question is what will you learn when you do these performances? Here are a few things you might do to learn more to take away from your next lesson performance:

    Optimize your setting. Make sure you have enough light, enough room, are comfortable, and can relax before playing. You can still do this, even if you’re at a lesson. It will give you space for your performance. And it might give your teacher some insight into how their studio looks to a student.

    Have a run through. This is a good idea to help you settle down. If you’re nervous, just play a “throw away” – play through the tune just to settle in, get used to the harp, and shake off the commute and the day and get your head fully into your playing. You might ask your teacher to busy themselves doing something that isn’t listening to you – just to get in the groove. Once in that groove – then perform the tune.

    Lean in to where you are. If you’re still learning a tune, don’t pretend (or expect) to play it flawlessly. Think about what’s not working and start there. Rather than plopping on the bench and belting out a bunch of notes, start a discussion about what you have had trouble with, what’s tripped you up repeatedly, what you’re dreading as you come up on it, and what’s going pretty easily.   All this will help you and your teacher focus on what needs work. Don’t make your teacher figure it out – you’ve had all week to find out where the problems are, so use that information to move you forward! After working on the kinks, then you can play the tune!

    Just these three things will make each of your lessons more effective and will shift your thinking about performing in your lesson. You will be able to prepare better, learn more, and get farther each time. And that will get you ready to learn even more!

    Do you feel like your lessons are performances? How does that help (or hinder) you? If you haven’t thought of it that what, what else do you think you might do for your lessons? Let me know here in the comments!

    *All teachers judge – but good teachers judge your playing – not you!

  • Ouch!

    Ouch!
    We all like getting praise. It’s fun and comfortable, and it’s nice to get a pat on the back from a hand that isn’t attached to our own arm! As tasty as praise is though, we learn so much more from feedback. Critique. Criticism. On the other hand, it’s not always easy to get feedback! Sometimes – just ouch!


    But criticism does contain a bunch of things to be learned. So how do you take in and use criticism and use it to grow your playing? Here are some things you can do:

    First breathe – remember that it’s criticism, not an eye-wateringly awful attack. Then you’ll be ready to…

    Determine if you think the input is valuable. Criticism from a knowledgeable person who shares the evaluation for your benefit (that was a long winded way to say they’re not overtly trying to wound you) can yield valuable nuggets (even if it hurts). If you doubt it (or disagree), get a second opinion, and if they don’t jibe, ditch it!* And, if the comment is from some nitwit off the street? Really? Give it the weight it deserves and chuck it out!

    Look at why the comment stung. If it’s because you kinda already knew it, you just didn’t want to admit it – learn. If it is picking a scab, thresh through it to find the useful bits. And remember that you can elect to ignore it.

    Make sure you heard what is said…not what you think was said. Be clear about the message before you form an opinion of it. Focus on the comment. Breathe and don’t let your inner thoughts run away from you. We can all learn and improve. Reframe the input if you don’t like the words (when the message is solid).
    Once you know what was said, focus on what you can learn. What changes can you make? Ask questions if you don’t see a way forward. A good provider of useful feedback will answer the questions. If you feel stung by the words, take a moment to breathe before you ask a question. Keep your ego in check! Don’t let your fears cloud out what you can learn. We can all improve…yes, even you!

    Be kind to yourself – feedback does help you grow…when you can use it. Using it is not possible if you are beating yourself up.

    Finally, know that sometimes when someone stings you with criticism, it’s more about them than it is about you. But it is up to you to find the useful stuff, form it into something you can use (or at least learn from), and grow.

    Have you ever gotten “ouchy” feedback? How did you use it to improve (or what did you learn)? Have you ever found yourself giving cringy critique? How would you improve it (if you could do it again)? Let me know in the comments!

     

    *Of course, I don’t mean only seeking praise! The second opinion may put a finer point on the critique, clarify it, or refute it.

  • Keep breathing

    Keep breathing 

    I think we could easily agree that playing requires concentration. A lot of concentration. Of course, some things make us concentrate harder than others.  For instance, we have to really focus when we’re learning. Maybe when a tune is really well learned we don’t have to focus so much (or at least we feel like we have more brain capacity available).  When we perform we probably focus carefully as well (at least we hope we will!).

    One of the challenges of concentrating really hard is that when we do, many of us actually stop breathing (I can’t make this up). While you’re focused, you may hold your breath. When your brain is working hard, it gets busy and has a harder time of keeping all its plates spinning. Things like breathing can be one of those plates that gets dropped. (Don’t worry, the rest of your body will demand a breath when you really have to have one!). Of course, not breathing doesn’t make you think very well and all in all, it’s best if you can keep breathing.

    The good news is that you can overcome this not breathing. You just need to practice doing it. Yes, even though you mostly don’t even think about breathing – you DO need to think about it if you’re not breathing consistently when you’re practicing (or performing).

    When should you be breathing? Well, it’s best to breathe normally but if you notice you’re not (or your teacher points it out to you), you can add it to each tune or exercise! Here are a few ways to incorporate it so you can keep breathing:

    Phrasing. If you’re learning by ear, you’re getting the tune in phrases. Phrasing might be easiest to understand in the context of singing because you must breathe (other blowing instruments are the same – no breathing, no playing). Phrasing is how the tune breathes, Watch (good) singers and you’ll notice that they never leave off in the middle of a word to take a breath – they breathe in “obvious” places…between the words. Just like they do, when your music calls for a breath (the end of a phrase) – take a breath. If you’re reading, you can still breathe at the end of a phrase – just remember to mark it!*  When you’re practicing be certain that you breathe there and make it part of how you play the tune.

    Mechanical. I’m not keen on this one, but it could work. In this approach you specifically incorporate breathing as a “movement” just like placing, closing, changing levers, and all the other movements of playing. I don’t like this because it’s not natural (which might interrupt your breathing rather than improving it) and because breathing is a very different type of movement. More importantly, this approach doesn’t support the music either. It doesn’t tie your breath to the phrasing (above) which could knock your musicality out of whack (and who doesn’t need more musicality).

    Relax. You might hold your breath when you are stressed – so relax. You’ll get the tune, you’ll learn the melody, you’ll get the fingering! And your brain will be glad of the oxygen!

    Pay attention. This is related to Mechanical, and it might seem silly – because we are paying attention….to something else! Like Mechanical, set yourself the additional task of paying attention to your breathing while you are concentrating on learning the music. Post a sign on your music stand or make some other reminder to keep it front of mind!

    Breathing is fairly important when you’re learning and when you’re playing. Do you notice specific places you aren’t breathing? How do you remember to breathe? Let me know in the comments how you are going to keep breathing!

    *If you’re not familiar with the marking, use an apostrophe above the treble staff to indicate where to take a breath (ok, it’s your music, use anything you’d like but the apostrophe is the standard marking).

  • What’s the question?

    What’s the question?

    One of the best things about harp players is their innate curiosity (in the main). It has been my experience that we are, in general, interesting people who tend to be interested in loads of things.

    But we’re also human and so sometimes we can do things that don’t move us forward. This is true whether we are teachers or students – where two sides of the same coin might be helpful and not!

    For example, being curious. I think we’re all a little curious. That leads us to ask questions. Lots of questions.

    Asking questions is imperative! It is a wonderful thing to ask questions. And we have a lot of resources – from teachers to friends to colleagues to learn from. Whether we know it or not, this searching for information to satisfy our curiosity helps us maintain a beginner’s mindset which has been celebrated as an important part of continuing personal growth. Beginners are curious because there is so much they don’t know! It is easy to stop being curious once you know some stuff. But no matter how much you know, there is always more to learn, to build on, to enhance, and to expand what we already have. Staying a beginner on the inside can be freeing because it allows you to give yourself permission to keep learning. A significantly experienced performer doesn’t have no questions. They have different questions! Hopefully, you are always coming up with questions as you learn.  Cultivating an interest is certainly one way to continue to push yourself – to be always learning. Sometimes the questions are simple and other times they are complex.

    However, it is possible to confuse curiosity with diversion! I’m all for asking questions and learning, but focused questions based on your playing and learning are different from constantly scrolling fa-sta-gram-to-x watching videos and reading websites looking at content. That only draws in more information that fills your head but doesn’t actually inform you. Wasting time searching up info because it might be useful or getting into a loop of searching to search will never improve your playing. It won’t make you a better musician. And it will always leave you feeling like you should have learned more (and possibly like you have wasted time you could have been playing!).

    I’m not suggesting there’s nothing of value to be learned online. But I am suggesting that letting your intuition, playing and experience drive your questions. And, you know that journal I’m always suggesting. That’s a great place to keep your questions so they don’t slip out of your head when you have a chance to ask them! Keep your questions focused on your development, your playing, your progress, and you’ll learn something every day!

    Now, if there are no more questions? Go practice!

    Where has your curiosity and questions led you? Let me know in the comments!

  • A Wonderful Week of Teaching in the Mountains

    Massanetta

    I have been enjoying my second year teaching in the mountains at Massanetta Springs, VA at the Church Music and Bible Conference.  This year’s theme, “Instruments of Peace” was certainly appealing and the students were incredible. I was so pleased to have two return (always gratifying when someone knows what they are getting into and chooses to spend time learning with you!) and having a new (to me) person join us.

    They were great – again willing to try new things and being so gracious with their time and experience. I cannot adequately express how much I enjoyed the time with them!

    Here are a few photos from my week – what a beautiful place! As usual, I didn’t take as many as I should, but I’m happy to share that I did better than usual! ????

    Preparing to play the prelude for the Tuesday worship service. Why yes, they did perform well at the end of Day 2! I was so proud for them.

    I l-o-v-e labyrinths! This little jewel is in the woods and doesn’t seem to get a lot of traffic but it was perfect for me and my harpsicle!

    1. I was so glad to be be invited to return to Massanetta Springs to teach this summer. 2. I remain terrible at selfies!

    Another stalwart heart enduring an impromptu “come and try” – I’ll grab anyone who looks twice and encourage them to give it a go!

    Oh, come on – its summer! A little ice cream is good for you. And besides, you can’t play the harp all day!

    Both of these lovely people came again this summer – I was delighted to see them!

    This is from an “offical” come and try. I loved the enthusiasm of the kids and the joyfulness of the adults – especially here where they shared the harp for a Pentatonic Improvisation (Thank you Marianna and Kris for forcing me to learn this all those years ago!)

    I hope youre having as much fun this summer as I am!  What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments (and if you have a photo to share, let me know and I’ll make it work!

     

    PS – due to (irritating and boring) logistics issues (mostly driven by my travel schedule) I’m still on my phone so please forgive any formatting and spelling blurps you might find).

  • How long should it take?

    How long should it take?

    I’m sure you’ve heard (or said), “How long should it take to learn this tune?”  It reminds me of a joke my dad used to tell –

    How far does a bear go into the woods?

    Halfway, then it’s going out again.

    Because each tune takes exactly as long to learn as it needs, and no more.  After that, you’re building and polishing and performing. 

    Of course, the other answer is that a tune is never learned because the more you play it, the more you find in it.  And the more you find in it, the more you need to adjust.  It’s always evolving and never finished.

    Either way, there is no pat answer:

    Some tunes are harder to work than others. Some tunes just fit in your hands. 

    Some tunes go right in your ears and settle in (like a dog turning around and then plopping down on the rug) while others are twisty-turny and hearing the patterns escapes you the first 1000 times you listen to them.

    Some tunes grab you by the shoulders and demand you play them while others are “nice” (read – meh).   

    So, if you think you should have already learned the tune – what’s really driving that question?

    • Are you comparing yourself to someone else?  Only you can be you, and you’ll get it when you get it.
    • Are you pretending to practice (or lying to yourself about how much you’re actually practicing)? Each tune needs to have its own fullness – again some will be easy and leap right into your hands.  Others will fight you at every turn but only spending time with them (practice) will get them in you.
    • Are you expecting the tune to just leap into you? No tune will do that (some will seem like they do, but that’s just an illusion).
    • Are you not allowing yourself to learn the tune? We are always in such a rush to play the tunes that we don’t always give ourselves enough time to actually learn the tune before we start trying to mash a harmony in while also jumping up the tempo.  Slow and steady wins the (non-existent) race so take your time, actually learn the tune so that it won’t fall apart when you add the harmony.  And be honest – if the melody crumbles when you introduce harmony, it’s too soon!  And it doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re not ready to play the tune, you’re not ready.  NEVER FORGET THE MELODY IS WHAT MATTERS!  The harmony is always second (comparatively).
    • Are you sure you have actually spent a lot of time on the tune already?  I often find that I think I’ve been working f-o-r-e-v-e-r but when I check my practice journal, I find that usually it’s only been a day! It just feels like it’s been forever, but I haven’t even scratched the surface yet – talk about unreasonable!

    So, the next time you find yourself thinking “I should have learned this already” – just stop.  Pay attention to why you feel that way.  Recalibrate yourself…and go work on it some more!  You will get it – eventually.  In your own time.

    Do you find yourself thinking that you should have already learned your music?  Do you do this occasionally or with every tune?  Do any of these suggestions help?  Let me know in the comments!