Practicing Harp Happiness

Do you feel like you’re failing yourself in your practice?

Maybe you feel your practice isn’t as consistent or as focused as it should be. Perhaps even when you have enough time to practice, you’re finding it difficult to get started. You might find yourself sitting down to practice and using all your time deciding what you should be doing. You end up feeling confused, frustrated and tired instead of energized and excited about playing the harp.

And then you skip a day of practice. Then another day. Then you really mean to get back to it, but something urgent crops up that absolutely requires your attention. Then you start to dread getting back to practice because you know it’s going to sound terrible. Even worse, you feel guilty for having it let slip.

Does this sound like you? Don’t think I have some magical power to get inside your head. I could tell your story so well because it’s been my own experience too. I don’t feel good about my harp playing or about myself when I skip my practice. Those days of missed practice play havoc with my state of mind as well as with my music. 

It’s not that I don’t want to practice; I do. I even like practicing. And at this point, I do practice nearly every day, maybe not as much as I’d like, but enough. But it’s been a struggle to develop the systems and habits that allow me to practice even when my schedule is full to bursting.

You may be one of those people who are good about maintaining the boundaries in their life, and you are in control of your schedule. If that’s you, let me say that I would love to be like you. But I’m not that disciplined. I set my schedule for the day and then I watch it change as the day goes on. 

To be honest, you know that all you have to do is to set a practice schedule and then stick to it, but it just isn’t that easy, at least not for me. But I still manage to practice. And if you’re trying to set a practice schedule that you can stick to, or you’re just looking for some ways to make your practice habit stronger, then I can help.

On today’ episode, we will talk about how to:

• Create a sustainable and flexible practice habit that works for you.
• Find your focus from the first minute of your practice session so you can use every practice minute well.
• Make the practice habit stick. It’s one thing to design a habit. It’s another thing to actually live it.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Register now for the new Theory Essentials Intensive: The Harpist's No-Nonsense Guide to Practical Music Theory
• Related resource Three Times When Not Practicing is NOT an Option blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected] 

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-127

What are the qualities you think you need to be a good harpist? I’ll bet every harpist has a different answer for this.

Understand that I’m not thinking in terms of the skills useful to a harpist, skills like a good ear, the ability to sight read, musicality, flying fingers, and the ability to memorize. I would agree that those are all important to some degree, but I invite you to consider some of the personal traits or day to day habits that would be useful or even essential for a harpist.

This idea conjures up a completely different list. Maybe you’d put character traits like determination, perseverance, self-discipline and courage on that list. Those would indeed be helpful. So would objectivity, the ability to treat yourself with kindness and grace, even when you’re struggling. There are other mindset habits that are important too, like a desire to learn and resilience. 

Today we’re going to explore one of the qualities that I think is crucial to the musical development of any harpist, and it’s not one of the ones I’ve already mentioned. It’s less a quality than it is an attitude and a habit. And it’s one that we very often overlook or discount as something frivolous. If you noticed the title for this episode, you know what I’m talking about; I’m talking about creativity.

I believe that creativity isn’t an add-on. It’s not an extra. It’s at the heart of what we do every day, every minute that we play. Every moment we play we are creating something, not out of nothing, more likely from black dots on a page. Those dots contain the genetic code for the music, if you will. But without our creative spark, those dots would never come to life. The music wouldn’t exist. 

If we reduce our practice to mere repetition, we’ve lost our way. If we aren’t thinking about and listening to the music we are bringing to life, we are missing the best part of the practice process. And if we aren’t taking the extra step to enlist our creative nature in the service of our music, we aren’t serving the music or ourselves very well.

You’re probably having one of two reactions right now. Either you’re thinking, “Yes! Finally you’re speaking my language. Show me how my harp playing can feel more creative,” or you’re thinking, “Great. This sounds like a good idea, but it feels more like something else I have to figure out how to fit into my practice.”

Never fear. Today I will show you a variety of ways to make creativity a natural part of your practice habit. You won’t have to do anything crazy like light candles and meditate before you practice. (Actually, that sounds pretty zen.) We’ll talk about simple ways to engage your creativity in your playing every day. You’ll discover a sense of freedom that will make playing and even practicing more fun, and you’ll love the change you hear in your playing too.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Cut to the Chase Webinar
• Related resource In a Practice Rut? 7 Ways to Make Your Practice More Creative blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-126

I’m a pusher, and I hope you are one too, a lever or pedal pusher, that is.

Just imagine a world of harps without levers or pedals. Certainly, there are folk harps that don’t have levers and still play beautiful music. But to me, that’s a little like living in the forest. There is endless beauty in the forest, but I like the seashore and the prairies too. The world of music has so much harmonic richness and I really love having my pedal harp to explore it all. 

Of course that harmonic richness isn’t exclusive to harps with pedals. Lever harps can play music every bit as chromatically varied as pedal harps and sometimes even more easily. 

But perhaps you’re new to the world of pushers, of harp music – either lever or pedal – with accidental changes that require pushing a lever or pedal. If so, or if you’re not a newbie to pushing but would like some help with ways to improve your pedal or lever technique, then you’re in luck because that’s what we’re talking about today. 

So often students don’t really learn to push those levers or pedals before they are playing music that calls for them. It’s not just about pushing the right lever or pedal; the art is in knowing when and how to push. You may not have tried any drills to help you learn the right technique, but plenty of these drills exist. Unfortunately, not all of those helpful drills come with an explanation of the important aspects of this technique. Even fewer attempt to unravel the mysterious and very inconsistent ways the changes are marked in music.

Never fear, my friend. By the end of today’s episode, you’ll have all the info you need to become an intrepid pusher. Accidentals, those flats, naturals and sharps that occur in the middle of a piece, don’t have to cause accidents while you play, and I have 8 tips and maybe even an extra one or two, that will help you breeze through those changes with ease. 

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Register for my new webinar, Cut to the Chase: Time-Saving Harp Hacks You Need to Know Now
• Related resource Pedal Pushing 101 blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected] 

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-125

A long time ago, I attended a concert by a famous pianist, and I overheard two audience members talking about how impressed they were, how the performer’s virtuosity and expressiveness showed true mastery of the instrument. And then I heard the comment that stuck with me: “He could make ‘Hot Cross Buns’ sound like a musical masterpiece.”

If you took piano lessons as a child, chances are that you played the nursery song “Hot Cross Buns” in your first few weeks of study. The melody only has five notes. It couldn’t be more simple.

But this idea made me consider what I believe is a common misconception among harpists who want to develop a repertoire of music. Whether their repertoire would be geared toward concerts or weddings or church music or local senior centers, harpists usually overcomplicate things. Naturally, we want to present music that our audiences will like and we want to play it well, but often we make it much harder for ourselves than we need to. 

Here’s an example. Let’s imagine a harpist whom we will name Zelda. Zelda wants to put together a program of music to play at the nursing home where her mother lives. She’s excited about playing and she knows her mother is proudly spreading the word to all her friends in the home. Zelda is a little anxious, though, because she’s never put together a solo program of music before. So she searches through all her music, assembles her favorite pieces and begins her practice. She is pleased with the music she has chosen, knowing that she’s included a couple of her mother’s favorite pieces and a couple of others that she knows will make the program extra special. So far so good.

However, as the date of the performance gets closer, she becomes a little anxious, thinking that she has been too ambitious. There is a lot of music and some of it is more challenging than she remembered. She’s not sure everything will be ready and polished by the performance. Now, she’s getting nervous. 

This is probably a common trap for us harpists; thinking we need to play our hardest, showiest or most ambitious music on a program. There are some obvious reasons to choose simpler music - we can play it with more confidence, it doesn’t take as much practice - but sometimes we feel like it’s cheating to play the easy stuff. We think that people won’t think we’re really good if we aren’t playing the hard pieces. 

In fact, most audiences, even musically educated ones, don’t know which pieces are difficult and which are easy. What they do know is if we are struggling to get through a piece. 

Our show today is going to be about how you can find the musical value in those easy pieces, how you can play them so they sound polished and expressive, not like a baby piece. We’ll talk about musical considerations, ones you probably haven’t given much thought to, that will change the way you play any piece - not just the easy ones. And you’ll play more confidently too, because you know the technical aspects of the piece are well within your grasp. Who knows? If you’ve been reluctant to get out and share your music in your community, this could even change your mind. 

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Join me in the Harp Mastery® Hub! Click here to sign up for free.

• Related resource Making It Look Easy: Creating Flow blog post

• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-124

“If I were starting over, I would…”

That's our topic for today’s show. If I were starting my harp journey over again, from square one, what would I do differently, knowing what I know now? Obviously, I have done decades of practice, taken thousands of lessons, done thousands of performances, and I’ve taught countless students. I’ve watched students thrive and I’ve worked with those who struggle. And both kinds of students have taught me so much. They’ve given me a breadth of experience that goes well beyond my own personal harp journey. 

As I reflect on what my own harp story was like, the remarkable privileges that I had, the circumstances that shaped my harp life gave me only one view of harp study - my own. But over the years of working with so many other harpists, I have come to identify a few factors that can speed up a harpist’s progress, no matter that harpist’s age or skill level.  

I’ve also seen the harp happiness killers, those sneaky saboteurs that steal our enthusiasm for playing the harp. I’ve fallen victim to some of them from time to time and I’ve certainly seen and experienced the damage they can cause.  But I’m not going to talk about those today, at least not directly. No one needs a list of things they shouldn’t do.

Instead we’re going to focus on the things you should do, the actions that separate the harpists who keep learning, growing and loving every minute - well, perhaps almost every minute - of their harp journeys, from those who find frustration, disappointment or perhaps end up quitting. I can tell you from where I am right now, harp playing is a marvelous adventure packed with creativity, discovery and personal growth. It’s not for the fainthearted, but if you’ve already started this journey, then you are one of the brave ones, my friend. After all, simply buying a harp takes courage.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Join my next Live Monday Warm-Up in the Hub on October 9th.

• Related resource: Are You Living Your Harp Dream or Just Thinking You Are? blog post

• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-123

How can you correct a problem – any problem from a water leak to paper jam in the printer – if you don’t know where the problem really is?

Harp playing is no different. Our practice is supposed to help us fix mistakes and even prevent them from recurring, at least to a degree. But if we don’t know where the underlying issue is, it’s nearly impossible to find a fix for it.

The obvious solution to this dilemma is to ask your teacher. Unfortunately, though, even if you have access to a teacher or other harp expert, the things we want to fix usually reveal themselves in a practice session when we are working by ourselves. So we rely on our own experience to find the fix for whatever challenge we are facing, whether or not we have the experience we need to do it.

Of course, teachers don’t always have an instant solution either. Often we arrive at the solution through a process of trial and error: the student tries our suggestion and we discover we were in error. So we go on to Plan B.

In the spirit of trying to help you become a more expert instructor in your own practice, I have chosen a few common scenarios that require a “fix” and the most frequently successful fixes for each. What jumped out at me as I started putting this information together for you, was that the fixes sorted themselves neatly into two categories for each of the problems. The fixes could either be technique related or reading related. In other words, the underlying problem could be with your fingers, your technical skills, or it could be with your music reading skills. The surprise with that second one is that even if you are an experienced and fluent music reader, the issue still could be a reading one. 

What I want you to be able to take away from today’s show is an arsenal of ideas that can help you keep moving forward and making progress on the pieces you are learning. You’ll find, however, that these potential solutions may help you address some challenges that are more broad-based in your playing. Or they might just be things you haven’t even considered before, in which case, you’re in for a big growth spurt. 

So grab the music you’ve been practicing lately, identify some issues you’ve been trying to find a fix for, and see if one of the solutions we discuss today might be exactly what you need.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Take advantage of early bird registration for our February Getaway Retreat! Click here to register today.
• Related resource 4 Easy Ideas to Take Your Music Reading from Fumbling to Fluent blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected] 

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-122

Benjamin Franklin, who had a note-worthy thought about almost everything, authored this famous truth: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Preparation is everything. We harpists understand that our practice is our preparation. We won’t be able to play well if we don’t practice. We get it.

But if you’ve been playing the harp for a while now, you have probably experienced the painful flip side. I’m talking about the realization that even with all the hours of practice you put into a particular piece, you aren’t guaranteed to be able to play it as well as you expect under pressure. 

After an experience like that, most of us decide to double down on our practice, thinking we weren’t prepared enough. We hope that we have hit on the magic number - of hours or repetitions or practice sessions - that will be the perfect preparation. Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn’t. 

So if practice is preparation, why doesn’t practice make us prepared, or even feel prepared? And why does it sometimes seem that our practice lets us down in a performance or a lesson? 

What does it really mean to be prepared as a musician? I believe it can’t be measured in practice time or number of repetitions or test recordings or preview performances or even in years of experience. 

You see, what I have learned is that practice is not the same as preparation. Certainly, it’s the biggest part of it, but without the addition of specific strategies to connect that practice to our playing, practice alone won’t ever let us feel truly prepared.

Being or feeling prepared relies on three key attitudes, ones that many harpists don’t consider and others choose to ignore. However, you can’t feel prepared without having thought about these three ideas and put them into daily action. Each is important. One will help you feel balanced so you can express your music more deeply. One will help you feel confident that you can do your best. And the third will allow you to conquer your fears about playing. Taken singly, they are powerful. Put all three together and you have a game-changer. 

That is what we will talk about in just a moment. I will not only share those three attitudes with you but I want to be sure that you know how to create them, how to turn your thoughts to them, but also how to implement them. What I want for you is to be able to do only as much practice as you need, rather than doing more and more practice in the hopes that more practice alone will fix this problem. Oh yes. Benjamin Franklin had a quote for that too: “Never confuse Motion with Action.” I know you get the point.  

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Early bird registration for our February Getaway Retreat is now open. Click here to register with the early bird discount today! 
• Related resource Do You Worry About the "What-Ifs" ? blog post
• Harpmastery.com

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-121

Let’s talk warm-ups.

You likely have a favorite way to warm up at the beginning of a practice session. It might be short and sweet, like an arpeggio and a scale. It might be a fairly thorough routine that allows you to check everything from your posture to your focus. Or possibly it’s just a passage from a piece that you’re learning.

Whatever you do, however you like to warm up, that’s great. I don’t want to change that today. 

What I want to do is show you three different and important ways your warm-up can help you, that’s the “triple” referred to in this episode’s title. These aren’t earth-shattering or revolutionary new techniques. They are simple, clear approaches to your warm-up that will allow you to develop critical skills beyond what is usual in a warm-up. I have a warm-up that I will use to demonstrate as I teach you these approaches and it’s available for you as a free download. You’ll find the link in the show notes for this episode, which you can find either on your podcast app or by going to Harpmastery.com, clicking on “podcast” in the menu bar and then clicking on today’s episode, which is episode 120. 

But you don’t have to use that warm-up. You can use these approaches with your regular warm-up and derive just as much benefit, in fact, the triple threat benefit, three critical skills you can improve with whatever warm-up you like.

If you’re wondering what the critical skills we will focus on might be, here you go. They are finger dexterity and independence, independence of the hands, and musicianship, specifically dynamic control and rhythmic control. Don’t let the terminology scare you off. This is easy. And it might even be fun.

I’ve also included in the show notes a link to a blog post I wrote a while back called “Break Through: What to Do When Your Technique Is Holding You Back.” In that post I talk about warm-ups, but I also share some other ways to improve your technique and your confidence.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Get your free Noodle Doodle warm-up PDF. Click here to download.

• Click here to join My Harp Mastery  before Friday, September 8th. 

• Related resource Break Through: What to Do When Your Technique Is Holding You Back blog post

• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-120

It’s all in your mind. No, I don’t mean you’re going crazy.  I’m sure you’ve come across the well-worn statement that 90% of performance, whether in sports or music or any similar pursuit, is mental. The idea, of course, is that your mental preparation, your mindset and your focus all are major factors in the success of your performance.

Even if the actual percentage may be hard to pin down, the idea is undoubtedly true. Our minds are powerful contributors to our success or our failure. Just look at the number of books and blogs devoted to this concept, from the iconic book The Inner Game of Tennis to Noa Kageyama’s insightful blog The Bulletproof Musician. (By the way, I’ve linked to both of those resources in the show notes for you.)

Today, however, I don’t want to dive into performance psychology. I want to deal with something much more practical, something you probably have heard about and wondered how to implement: mental practice.

What is mental practice? Basically, it’s practice you do away from the harp. It’s very practical if you are on vacation or even just away for a weekend and you don’t want to lose ground while you’re away. It’s terrific for testing your memorization of a piece or for focusing your mind before a performance. It’s also great for helping you learn your music, without the distraction of actually playing.

Maybe that’s a new concept to you, thinking of your playing as a distraction from your music-making, but I invite you to consider it. How much more could you learn about what is on the page, about the meaning of the notes or the expression of a piece, if you didn’t have to worry about which finger goes where? 

Maybe you’ve heard about mental practice but have no idea how to get started. I hope to change that for you today. If you’ve been trying mental practice but you’re not sure you’re doing it right or getting the most from your practice away from the harp, you’re going to discover some very practical ways to do this kind of work. And I can promise you, you’re going to find out just how big an impact mental practice can have on your speed of learning and on your retention. That’s two huge wins right there.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Register here to work with a Harp Mastery® Certified Coach this session.
• The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
• The Bulletproof Musician blog
• Related resource Three Times When Not Practicing is NOT an Option blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-119

Wouldn’t it feel great to relax? 

Of course, since this is the Practicing Harp Happiness podcast, I’m not just talking about a cool drink, a good book and a bubble bath. I’m talking about being relaxed when you play the harp. 

You know why it’s important to be relaxed when you play. When your hands, arms, shoulders and the rest of your body feel relaxed, you can practice and play without strain and with freedom, flexibility and flow. When your mind is relaxed, you can concentrate and focus without fear or distraction. When your mind and body are relaxed, your music can also relax so that it can communicate its mood or story in a clear, relatable way.

Does that sound too good to be true, like an impossible dream to you? Let me tell you that it isn’t impossible to achieve. More importantly, this kind of relaxation shouldn’t be just a happy accident for you. 

We teachers are experts at telling our students to relax, but not so expert at showing them the tools they need to practice to make relaxation a habit. But I hope to make up for that today.

Together we will explore the five most common tension traps, things we all do every day in our practice that cause our tension to build. And for each one of those I will give you a one step action to help you learn to instantly release that tension. We’ll also talk about when tension is helpful - you already know when it isn’t! - and how to harness its power and then to let it go.  

But if there’s one thing I want you to get from this podcast episode, it’s this: releasing tension is a technique you will need to practice like every other technical skill. The more you practice it, the more easily you will be able to create relaxation when you need it, for instance, coming up to a tricky spot, playing a fast passage, or playing in a lesson or performance. And at the risk of stating the obvious, the one thing that doesn’t work is to just keep telling yourself to relax, relax, RELAX!

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Coaching Fall Trimester Registration opens today!
• Related resource Floppy Fingers? Develop Strong Fingers the Smart Way blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-118