Tag Archives: Teaching and Learning

Ouch!

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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

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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?

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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

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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?

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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!

Just one thing

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Just one thing

When you have an unexpected variation occur (less charitable people might refer to this as a mistake) what do you do? 

If you’re like most people, you might do a bunch of things all at once.  You wince, you stop playing, you look at your hands, you look at your harp, you look at the music, you look at your teacher (or other audience), and you panic a little. 

And then you might try to fix everything – all at once. But is this the best thing to do?  Probably not.  Because what’s the most important thing to come away from a mistake with?

The lesson that was buried in it. 

To learn the lessons the “variation” can teach you, you need to unpack it from all the detritus in which you found it.  And to do that, you have to look at each thing – just one thing at a time. 

What things are you going to look at?  Well you need to know how you ended up there.  Were you going too fast? Was your fingering not solid? Did you lose focus? What happened once you ended up there? Was it a trainwreck or were you just off a little? Did you know where you were?  Were you able to quickly determine what happened or were you completely lost? Were you surprised or did you know it was coming and were hoping you could ride it out? Did you have a solution immediately or did you need to figure a bunch of stuff out?

Of course, there are a nearly infinite pool of possible questions but to get at the answers, try to answer one question at a time – don’t try to solve everything at once. Parse the problem and identify solutions. And then go from there.  The solution for going too fast is a very different than for losing focus, for example. 

So, the next time you have an “opportunity to excel” try doing one thing at a time in pursuit of an answer or a way forward.  Stop! Don’t move.  Be still.  Rather than be a flurry of activity, take a breath.  Because being a flurry of activity works well – until it doesn’t and something doesn’t go right.  Now you can think, observe, and assess what’s happened.

Give it a try yourself – it does take a little practice to pause, but that gets you time to replay in your mind’s ear what you heard and feel where you are in space.  Commit to only doing one thing to get your bearings! Don’t fall prey to the impulse to fix everything – because you probably don’t know what is wrong, so how can you fix it?  If you forge ahead you’ll just confuse yourself and make it more difficult to find the solution.

Next time you find you’re in a “variation” give yourself a beat to stop, be still, think, and decide what to fix first.  Give it a try and let me know what you learn in the comments!

Should you have a lesson if you haven’t practiced?

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No practice?

There must be something in the air (besides pollen) because last week a disproportionately large number of my students sent some version of this message:

“I think I should skip my lesson this week because I haven’t practiced at all.”

I get it – I even remember uttering those same words myself.  It’s easy to think that.  After all, when you have had a “week from hell” (that seem to occur more and more frequently), you won’t have had time to practice. 

But this is incredibly wrongheaded.  Why you ask? Well….

It comes from thinking of your lesson as a mini performance.  But if you think of your lesson that way, then you do need all the practice you can get to be ready to be on that stage with the critic sitting in immediate proximity!

But that’s not what a lesson is! 

A lesson (especially if you’re an adult) is an opportunity to glean knowledge and information from someone who is guiding you to grow into the musician you profess to wanting to become.  I sum it up this way,

“I’m telling you these things so you can avoid my mistakes and I expect you to go on and make your own, new, original mistakes!”

A lesson couldn’t be farther from a mini-performance for your worst critic (you) and your perceived harshest critic (your teacher).  It is meant to be a learning opportunity.  In fact, if you come into your lesson and play flawlessly, then what’s the point?  It’s in the lesson you want to fail – spectacularly!  That way you can receive additional instruction that moves you forward.  You’re not a dog, you don’t need a pat and a biscuit – you need constructive feedback and tuition, so you can keep moving!

In addition – playing the harp isn’t just about flinging out the sounds of choice, is it?  Of course not!  There is so much more to being a musician and all those things can also be a part of your lesson when, due to other circumstances, you’re not prepared to play tunes in various states of dishabille.  What, you might ask?  Here’s a long but not exhaustive list of things you could work on:

  • Reading and Notation
  • Theory
  • History
  • Listening
  • Composing and Improvisation
  • Harmonizing
  • Rhythm
  • Effects
  • Tuning
  • Techniques
  • New pop tunes*

So, the next time you’re not feeling prepared, or feel as if you’re going to be “wasting” your teacher’s time, or like you are setting yourself up for humiliation, remember that there are loads of things to be taught that might not get covered when you are more prepared to play a piece and the focus is on learning or perfecting.  Also remember that your teacher has many things to teach to and share with you and this could introduce time to cover some of those (especially since there’s never enough time in lessons to cover everything). 

Have you ever canceled a lesson because you felt like you were not prepared? Have you ever thought you should have, but then had a great lesson in spite of your misgivings? Do you remember a time when you were dreading going to your lesson but it ended up being a great time?  I’d love to hear your take – leave a comment!

 

PS – Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!

* No really, your teacher is still a person and might actually have other interests…but you’ll never know if you only ever talk about harp!

 

SWOT’s it all about?

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Another crazy title – SWOT’s it all about?

I have an unending search for ways to get better at…everything!  And because I have a diverse background and work experience as a researcher, scientist, artist, entrepreneur, and person, I thrive on crossing boundaries between disciplines and practices, particularly applying tools from one disciple to problems from another which is a hoot.  At the least I learn something and at best there’s a huge breakthrough!  One of those stalwart business tools is the SWOT analysis – and it’s a nice fit for our harp playing. 

What’s a SWOT? It breaks into: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.  Clearly this is applicable to business, but to playing the harp?  Yup!

SWOT Chart

Think about it – taking a moment to complete a SWOT on your music could certainly help highlight where you should spend your time*.  Here’s how:

Strengths – What are your strong points?  Tunes you know (really well).  Techniques, at which you excel.  Sets you have put together.  And more.  These are likely your go-to tunes that you always perform, the ornaments you always use, your “signature” approach.  These are solid and need to be maintained, but certainly don’t need the bulk of your attention.

Weaknesses – What aren’t you good at? These are tunes (or tune types) you’re not so comfortable with, techniques you don’t know or don’t do well and avoid.  It’s not tunes you haven’t learned yet – just the ones that clearly aren’t ready for prime time (else they’d be in the Strengths pile).  These are things you need to work on (whether you know it or not).  These things require time and attention to get up to snuff and to be moved to the Strengths.

Opportunities – These are things you could nurture and take on to grow.  It can be tunes to learn, chances to perform, participating in workshops, lessons, or master classes, or sharing tunes with other harpers.  These are all chances to grown and develop and to move (eventually) to the Strengths column. 

And last is:

Threats – which might be the biggest head scratcher, but it’s also the biggest opening.  The word “threat” can be a little off putting so it might be better to think of it as things you might not think about or that you would love to skip (and maybe you do!).  It could also include not having learning opportunities (e.g., beginners without a teacher or not being able to get to workshops because you live far from other harpers).  So, they’re not “threats” as much as “thrusts” – places or things you can pursue to make progress including things to focus on or even gigs to seek.

A SWOT isn’t hard to do – it just takes a little time, some thought, a bit of self-reflection, and maybe some feedback if you have it (and a cuppa might help).  Set aside a half-hour to spend on it.  I’ve included a handy tool to help you do the analysis (click on the graphic (or here) to download).  The first time you do it, it might feel like a lot of work, but I promise it gets easier each iteration – and it certainly can help sharpen your focus.

Give it a try and let me know what you find!      

    

 

* And if you’re a professional, of course a SWOT can be helpful for business too!

How to

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Ever looked at your bookshelf and realized that you have about 100 versions of (in effect) the same book?  I have – and it’s not entirely pretty.  It’s the How To book collection…

I have a lot of “how to” books – how to cook, how to garden, how to measure things, how to calculate what those measurements mean, how to knit, how to relax, how to be creative, how to teach, how to repair your house, how to fly an airplane, how to decorate, how to get rid of everything in your house, how to play the harp … the list goes on and on.

They are filled with details.  After all, I don’t need to smooth the plaster over a statistical analysis (ok, that’s debatable if we are being conceptual, less so if we’re being concrete).

When push comes to shove though, they all pretty much say the same thing – be organized, be familiar with the steps, do a test, then do the thing.  That might be some of the least useful information in each of those books.

What are the most important things then? you might ask. They’re buried in the book somewhere.  Often, it’s only a sentence, in the middle of a paragraph, unhighlighted, unremarkable, and unrelated to each other. They are some version of:

The more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll feel.

and

Once you know the rules, feel free to do your own thing.

Because when you know the rules, you know which ones are real rules that cannot be broken with impunity, which can be broken but at your peril, and which are merely strong suggestions – guide rails for the uninitiated, which can be freely broken by the mavens.

We can break those down to be more useful.  The first one is pretty clear – practice practice practice.  The more you do something (correctly and preferably with feedback), the easier it will be to complete and the better you will do it.  No surprise there.

The second one has a more mysterious translation.  And it is by far the scariest.  What it really says is, “to thine own self be true” – Thanks Polonius for help/not help.  So, let’s pull it apart a tiny bit more (because after all, I’m no Shakespeare scholar!) – the modern way to say it is to “have your own voice”.  How do you know what that sounds like? Well…..

First you have to know the rules to break them.  And by “know” we mean inside and out.  A shaky knowledge of the boundaries doesn’t result in cutting edge – just sloppiness.

Next you need to know how much rules can bend and still be unbroken.  Some rules “change color” as you gain experience – because your experience allows you to see relationships you were unprepared to predicted before.

Finally, you must understand which are really guidelines.  Following these leads to pablum – playing that is ok and offends no one – but also doesn’t excite anyone.

Which brings us back to be yourself.  As you grow as a musician you can learn the rules and follow them.  Or you can internalize those rules and use them to find you voice.  What rule are you interacting with just now?  I want to hear it – and how you’re finding your own voice – let me know in the comments!

 

Are we there yet?

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Remember asking that? “Are we there yet?  …How ‘bout now?  …yet?  I’m bored!”

Amazing some of us survived to adulthood!

But why did we always ask that question?

You already know – when you don’t know what the end looks like, it feels like you’ll n-e-v-e-r get there.  And that is a terrible feeling!

So, when we’re at the beginning of a tune, that road stretches ahead, uninterrupted – and you might feel like you’ll never get it.

What about when you have been working on the tune for a while?  Then you might ask yourself again, “Are we there yet?”

How do you know when you get there? How do you know you’re done? When is a tune “finished”?

The long answer is that you have to decide what you mean by finished. Is it finished when you’ve learned the tune?  Or is it finished when it’s perfect?  Or performance ready?  Competition ready?  Moved unceremoniously into the Bored with/Don’t want to play any more pile?  What is your definition of done?

I don’t have a definitive answer for your definition. It really depends on you, your level of development, the time you have available, your goals, your personality, and loads of other things that only you can answer for you.

There is also a short answer (but you might not like it).

Short answer – you’re never finished! WAIT – what?!?

Of course you’re never finished – the tune will never be done.  What? (I did say that you might not like the short answer)

After all, making music is a creative activity – you will have to decide for yourself what done will look/sound like.  Yup, it’s entirely up to you (and yes, I’m v-e-r-y aware just how uncomfortable that can be!).

If you stop working on a tune, it’s definitely done, but is that what you wanted for that tune when you started?  If you “finish” it and never let it be a living element of your playing, it will stultify and die (which isn’t really what most of us want from our music).

If a tune is “finished” then it’s done.  But why do you play and perform (even for the cat and the curtains)?  What keeps you coming back to your harp?  I’m guessing it isn’t because you want to be stagnant.

So how do you know when you are done enough? Here are some ideas:

  • You got where you were going (that is – you met your goal).
  • You have run out of ideas to continue to add to the playing – your arrangement is fairly stable.  But keep an open mind so you can continue to create as you go – forever!
  • A trusted mentor has suggested that the work is good.
  • You are comfortable when playing the tune for your audience (whoever that might be).
  • You’ve “got” the tune but you’re not enjoying playing it.
  • You feel “bored” playing a tune.
  • The holiday you learned the tune for has arrived(!).
  • Now that you’ve learned the tune, you just don’t enjoy it.
  • As much as you’ve worked on it, the tune is just not coming together (this is likely because it was a stretch for you in which case you should set it aside and pick it up later).

Think of tunes as being somewhere on a continuum from performance-ready or shelf-bound.  Either they’re good for sharing with others (performance ready) or they’re not going to see the light of day (shelf-bound).  There are, of course, various stages in between, but what that continuum looks like is up to you. 

Do you have any tunes that are finished?  How did you decide?  If you don’t, how would you define done?  I’m curious to hear your thoughts – let me know in the comments!