Category Archives: Teaching and Learning

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!

Which teacher do you need?

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In a previous episode we talked about what lessons are for (and what they’re not for) and a comment was made about learning going on forever.  How true!

But you have to start somewhere.  And we all have teachers.  Even teachers have teachers!  The question really is – which teacher do you need?  Or perhaps more appropriately, which teacher do you need now?

Because we need different teachers for different stages of our harp life.  These different teachers might all be housed in a single body, or you may move from one teacher to another.  Or you might make a loop and eventually have the privilege of teaching your teacher!  One important thing we’ve learned over the last two years is that we’re not constrained by geography any longer (which is excellent!) with teachers available online, you can learn a great deal. *

Which teacher do you need?

In your harp infancy, you need a Mother. A teacher who works with you to learn the things you need to know to be a competent harper without hurting yourself.  This teacher gives you a  foundation from which you can grow. You learn how to care for your harp, how to interact with it, and start to build a repertoire.  Perhaps most importantly, the teacher initiates you into the tips and tricks that make playing easier (technique) and helps shape you into a musician.  I think this is the most important thing people who are self-taught miss out on – these not so obvious things that make playing easier (Don’t worry self-taught people! You can get there too – read on!). 

As you continue, you grow and your needs change.  Once you’ve learned to play make sounds come out accurately, now you need a Professor.  You are ready to learn the why for the things you do.  It’s important for you to understand how your initial technique underpins more advanced skills, how all the elements are related, and to point out areas for focus to nudge your progress forward.  And to corral you when you (inevitably) move backward a little – to help form you into a musician.

Then you are ready for a Coach. **  This shift is important because this is where you shoulder most of the burden of steering your own boat.  Rather than sitting like a baby bird, mouth open waiting to be fed, you know enough to ask yourself questions – what is still weak? What is becoming your “signature”? What music do you want to learn?  What music do you need to learn to fill in your repertoire?  As the student, you push the envelope while your teacher helps you to structure your questions, honestly evaluate your feedback, constructively apply what you learn, provides suggestions for your continued growth, and helps you discover answers. 

Finally, the Peer.  This teacher is someone with whom you share the joy of playing – trading tunes, making suggestions (as needed), encouraging trying new things, and energizing you to keep on growing.  This is a less formal teaching relationship and reciprocal.  Don’t be fooled – you are still learning (perhaps more than ever before), still growing, as a musician. 

You might move back and forth along these lines – as needed.  And you might find all these in a single body.  You might be in a regular relationship with one person, or you might go to all the workshops you can manage to get different perspectives and approaches. 

Now for the tricky part – which do you need now?  A good teacher will provide a bit of each of these, as needed, and in varied measures as you grow.  Of course, early on, you will need more mothering.  But don’t be fooled, I have more than one student who has come for lessons because, although they are advanced harpers, they recognized that they needed to go back to shape up their technique.  And frankly, I’m grateful, because that helps keep me focused on examining my own!

It is also easy to slip into a crack – you might “outgrow” a teacher and decide you’re good on your own.  And you probably are for a bit, but if you’re not actively teaching yourself (by doing all the things we expect the professor or coach to add to your learning), then you may lose ground, lose motivation, lose excitement.  That would be sad.  But it’s easily fixed by finding another teacher.  

Remember that, like hairdressers, teachers understand that sometimes it’s not a good fit, or something has changed and you’re ready to move on.  And like a good hairdresser, a good teacher will be sad to see you go, but wave you a cheery fare-thee-well and look forward to seeing you at a harp event soon!

Do you have a teacher for where you are now?  Which teacher is the right fit for you?  Are you in between?  Let me know in the comments!

 

* I will stick a caveat in here – if you are geographically constrained and don’t live close enough to have in person lessons, be sure that your online option is a good teacher.  One downside to everyone having an internet connection is that anyone can say they are a teacher – and as a beginner, you’d be at their mercy.  Caveat emptor.  In addition, if you are taking lessons online (and any competent teacher will tell you this…in fact, if they don’t, reconsider their competence) – go to workshops to work with other teachers in person whenever humanly possible.  There are amazing options like the Ohio Scottish Arts School, Somerset Folk Harp Festival, the Harp Gathering (which I’ve not participated in but have heard great things about), Feis Seattle (again, I haven’t been to this, but I know a guy), Catskills Irish Arts Week (again, haven’t been but I hear good things), or individual workshops anywhere near you – and you will learn incredible things, and not just about playing the harp!  Go!  This isn’t an exhaustive list, just a sampling, just go!

 

** The Coach refers to an approach to teaching and isn’t necessarily someone who is presenting as a coach.  It’s about the approach not the title.

When do you stop taking lessons?

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The other day, someone asked me when do you stop taking lessons?  Sounds like an easy enough question.  If only.

There are a lot of reasons to stop taking lessons – money, time, fit with the teacher, and more.  Money I can’t do anything about for you, so we’ll just glide past that.   

First, let’s get time off the table and let’s separate time available and time duration.  We have to assume that you have time available – both for lessons and for practicing between lessons.  As for time duration, you can’t really expect to set a timetable.  If you’ve been playing the harp any length of time, then you already know that learning the harp is anything but a linear process.  And that some things feel easy while others feel like insurmountable obstacles.  If you haven’t been at it for long, you might still think that there’s an end – a point at which you’ll have nothing left to learn (quick hint – there is no end).  Those of us who have had more experience already know – you will always have something more to learn!

OMG – is she saying that I’ll be taking weekly lessons forever?!  No, that’s not what I’m saying.  That’s not the right question. 

The better question is: 

What are lessons for? 

There are at least four reasons for lessons:

Lessons can give you a foundation. The harp isn’t easy to play. It requires finesse and skill to play well.  A teacher in regular lessons can help you build the foundations you can grow from so that you can (eventually) play the music you are moving toward.

Lessons can help to protect you – Leon Fleischer called musicians “athletes of the small muscles” and in lessons you’ll typically learn good technique which can help protect you from injury.

Lessons can teach you a framework – We don’t make music in a vacuum and lessons can help you build your own framework from which you can develop your musicality and musicianship.

Lessons can help you learn to teach yourself – I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret – teachers don’t want to have you in lessons forever! (for a lot of reasons)  But no teacher will want to “graduate” you until you have learned how to teach yourself.

A teacher can use the time in lessons to help you navigate the pratfalls of playing, make clear those things that are opaque, and illuminate the path so you make progress faster.

Of course, the flip side is just as important.  So another good question is:

What are lessons not for? 

There are at least four things lessons aren’t for:

Lessons are not to keep you motivated to keep playing. In the end, music is a solo pursuit. Even if you’re in a group, ensemble, band, or orchestra, there’s only you playing the harp.  Only you can motivate you to play and while lessons might contribute to your motivation, they will not act as your sole motivation.

Lessons are not to provide you with accountability. Relatedly, if you only practice because you’re afraid to look bad at a lesson, you haven’t solidified your self-accountability. Lessons won’t change that.

Lessons are not to keep feeding you music. While we expect child students to need a lot of guidance on music, adult students would have increasingly greater latitude in music selection – which would include selecting the music you want to move toward.  But you need to figure out what that is for you.

Lessons are not to prevent you from being a responsible musician. Lessons are not a substitute for thinking for yourself (ref earlier comment about teachers wanting to help you learn to teach yourself).  This goes beyond selecting music and includes analyzing the music, self-critiquing (not self-criticizing!) your playing and developing your repertoire.

What other reasons are there to take lessons? And to not take lessons?  Let me know what you think in the comments!

Color outside the lines?

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It’s all there in Black and White.

The treble lines, the bass lines.

Five lines of instructions (actually, 10 for us – plus ledger lines!). Play this note at this time…and all those other notes too, in order, as written.

So let it be written, so let it be done!

Except…wait a minute – last week we talked about the importance of asking questions…including my favorite – why? And a few weeks before that we talked about how sometimes meter and tempo get conflated and confused. So, this is sort of the same idea – We often make flawed assumptions about how we know what to play. And this week, we’ll talk about another flawed assumption that can make playing more difficult (and a way around it!)*.

Sometimes we mix up the register and the hand. This is especially easy to do because we are taught that way. And, to be honest, about 99.99999999999999999999999999999% of the time that is the right solution. But sometimes it’s just silly. Imagine if you were presented with this**:

Your experience, your practice and your efficiency all drive you to play all that mess in your left hand – even as the music tells your right hand to pack a bag and go on vacation! And you will likely tear yourself inside out trying to make it happen – possibly with the right hand sympathetically gripping the sound board tightly in terrorized support, hanging on like a terrified passenger on the back of a wobbly Harley.

Or what about this?

Same thing, only this time it’s the left-hand packing for a trip to the Bahamas!

Why do we do this? Well, because the ink said to, so we must.

It has always been thus.

But do we really? NO!!

Because while the ink tells you What and When –

it actually says n-o-t-h-i-n-g about How!

Read that again.

Of course, it’s easy to think like that –

Bass = Left hand and Treble = Right hand

And it’s easy to not think about what hand makes sense to be playing at that point.  After all,

Melody = right hand and harmony = left hand

Sic semper tyrannis

But does it even make sense to do it that way?***

After all, you have one harp and all the sounds come from it. Harmony and melody – all from one source – so really, which hand you use doesn’t really matter.

Now, I’m not advocating that you throw away all that practice and tradition. Instead, I’m suggesting that when you are struggling to make some fingering work, try to work smarter rather than harder.

I’ll remind you: the staff tells you What and When but

not How!

There’s another benefit of thinking about “breaking” the arrangements differently – and that is that the more ways you can look at the music (divergently), the more you will see new ways to play it. You’ll also “discover” patterns that were previously hidden from you that can then be leveraged, and the more you will think creatively (yea divergent thinking!).

Remember that the ink is a guide, but you must make the journey!

Do you ever color outside the lines?  What wonky passages have you struggled with and how did you overcome that?  Let me know in the comments!

* Special thanks to Rachelle Morgan who asked this question in Ask a Harp Pro on Facebook!

** Unceremoniously pinched from Rachelle’s question but slightly modified

***I need to credit Sue Richards for teaching me to think this way. Otherwise, I’d still be fighting to make stupid stuff work out and playing slowly, unable to catch up.

Perfect – It was so much better at home

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As a teacher, one of the funniest things you hear in lessons is,

“It was so much better at home!”

It’s funny because we have all uttered those words as a student at some point.  Of course, at this point in time, it’s especially funny because… we’re in zoom lessons – you ARE at home!

This does speak to an important point – it’s easy to be comfortable and low key about everything when you’re home, by yourself, doing your thing practicing or playing for yourself and it’s Perfect. 

PerfectBut it is completely different and more difficult when the situation changes and you’re in a lesson (or your family is actively listening, or you have a visitor who begs you to play for them, or the window is open and the neighbors might hear).

Back to the lesson – isn’t making mistakes in a lesson precisely the place you want to make an error?  Why do we always fret when we make a mistake in a lesson?

  • We’re afraid our teacher will be unimpressed with our work effort for the week, or we’re embarrassed because we think all the other students were perfect.  
  • We feel like we haven’t practiced as much as we should have and so we are unimpressed with our own work effort for the week.
  • We have set some arbitrary schedule for ourselves and we haven’t met it.  As in, “I learned Katie Bairdie in a week, so I should only need a week to be able to play the harp solo from Lucia di Lammermoor!”  Maybe that’s a bit unrealistic?
  • We didn’t set aside the time to practice and so we know we’re not as prepared as we would have preferred to have been for the lesson.

Does making mistakes in lessons matter?  YES – but maybe not for the reason you think.  Your teacher does not expect you to play perfectly (and if your teacher does expect you to play everything perfectly, you might want to find someone else to work with).

What do you learn from mistakes?  LOADS

First, repeat after me – each “error” in a lesson is a learning opportunity…AND a teaching opportunity!

  • You learn where the music in your head is a little thin.  When you’re practicing you get through it just fine but add just a smidgen of stress (now that you know your teacher is listening and your performance anxiety kicks in) and the veneer of “knowing it cold” may dissolve to “barely hanging on”.  That helps highlight where you should focus as you continue to practice the music.
  • You get a different point of view.  I used to have a student who always answered the question, “How did your exercises go this week?” with, “Perfect!”.  Hmmm, maybe not so much.  Sometimes you get a different perspective, or a calibration of your perspective.  And that tweak to your perspective allows you to practice better and possibly to learn more.
  • You get feedback.  It is frustrating when you keep hitting the wrong string or can’t preplace fast enough or just can’t remember the phrase.  But your teacher will see all that from a different angle – and give you insight into what you are doing (and/or not doing) and what you might do get around the issue.
  • You get to learn from your teacher’s experience.  One thing you can be sure of – your teacher has more experience than you do, both at playing well…and at making mistakes!   The point of the lesson is not only to share that experience but to pass it down to you.  It gives you a chance to learn about hard won gains so you can go on to make other, better errors!

Each time you make a mistake in your lesson, you have PERFECT opportunity to learn.  In addition, you present a teaching opportunity for your teacher.  And as you learn, what you can learn shapes and grows what you will be able to learn next.  And frankly, as a teacher, I kinda live for that moment when it’s clear that you “got it”!  I think all teachers feel that way.  Some are exuberant about it, some are sotto about it, but the thrill of seeing that light bulb go on is central to teaching.

So, as you look forward to your next lesson, I challenge you to predict which mistake you might make, why you’ll make it, and what you think you will learn from it.  And you know that Practice Journal I’m always going on about?  Those are the sort of thing you might consider jotting down in there.

You stand on the shoulders of those who came before you so you can see over the wall, not so you can be on the top of the pile!  What mistakes will you make in your next lesson?  I’m looking forward to hearing about it – let me know!

Zoom!  Bang!

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As a harper, I have been reading with interest the “sudden” spate of articles on the ills of working from home for over a year.   As a Human Factors Psychologist and Systems Engineer, I am only surprised it took this long for the articles to hit.

Everyone who couldn’t get away from me has received lectures (from my professional perspective).  I have related the importance of chair height and table height, arrangement of keyboard, monitor, mouse, lighting, and other elements of the workspace.  I have hectored friends, neighbors, and people I don’t even know about drinking enough water and not drinking too much coffee; the importance of avoiding incessant snacking; building a schedule; getting some outdoor time; and keeping work-work and home-work separate (not trying to do household chores between meetings) – all things I know from my professional specialty and as a person who has worked from home for over 15 years.

But now, I’m going to direct all that energy at you … and suggest a way forward!

I know you’re used to me prattling on about injury at the harp, but one thing you might not have thought about is what our current altered reality has done to us.  There are so many things we either did differently before or things we haven’t been able to do at all over the last year.  That that time away can build the potential for losing focus and technique…all of which may result in injuries – at the harp or away from it. 

Just this week I have learned of harpers who have sustained injuries away from the harp that are impacting their playing – ugh.  One is a student who fell off a skateboard.  Even if that wrist isn’t broken, it will need to heel.  And that will be weeks away from the harp.  Another was telling me about a big work project – at home, on a laptop doing work that would normally have been done at the office on a desktop – with its ergonomically designed desk and much bigger keyboard.  So now we’re working on caring for the overuse injuries from typing in this new position – injuries to the same structures that are central to playing the harp. 

As we have all languished at home, it has also been easy to allow our basic skills slide.  If you don’t have in person lessons, your thumbs might fall, your shoulders might cave, your chin might jut, and your spine might crumple.  In addition, so many of the cues teachers can pick up on from in-person lessons are missing or are flattened online.  So, it is likely that there are elements of technique that are dissolving from your daily practice and are not highlighted in your lesson.

And that’s not good – ragged technique and poor posture are not just a challenge to overcome – they can be a gateway to injury.

So, what can you do?  Have a zoom call……with yourself!

If you’re not familiar with zoom (zoom.us) it is a free application that allows you to have a video interaction with others. *

At the beginning of each day I do a zoom meeting with myself to verify my cameras are pointing in the right direction, that the lighting is good, and that everything is set up before my first student.   As I’m teaching, I watch my student.  That means that if I need to look at my harp, I would have to look away.  But, I can see my harp on the screen which means I can still see both my student and my harp.  After all, I want to be sure they are able to follow and understand what I’m doing or to verify that I need to do it again.  One day while teaching, I noticed (and was really pleased with) my hand position (I know, silly things make me happy).

And that got me thinking about how on the screen I could see things I can’t see from “behind the harp”.  Moreover, I could make small changes and see the effect right away.

You can do the same thing.  How?  You just have to host a meeting with yourself.  Yup – host a meeting, but don’t invite anyone else!  You have the full screen, you can see yourself clearly, and while you watch, you can make small adjustments.  As you make these adjustments (move to the middle of the string? raise your arm just a tiny bit? create greater space between your thumb and fingers? actually preplace or use the fingering you worked out? the list could go on…) BANG! – you can immediately see the effect of each change.

And seeing can certainly be believing.

I often suggest that you video your practice so you can see what you’re doing…and what you’re not doing.  It gives you a different perspective (and may make teacher comments mean more to you).  I also always remind you of the big red delete button…because the point of the video is to learn, correct and go on, not to hold it for posterity.  However, I also know that many of you still don’t do this.  So this similar (but completely ephemeral) idea seemed like a good one.  Watch yourself play but don’t record it.  See what you’re doing (from the vantage point of your teacher) and make small adjustments until what you see matches what you’ve heard in all those lessons – high thumb, relax, close, place…breathe!

DO ALL THE THINGS!  SEE ALL THE THINGS!

I also find that the meeting view is better – clearer and brighter – than on the video.

So, are you willing to zoom with yourself to help be bang on?  If you do, let me know how it goes and what you learn.  And if you’re not willing to try, I’d like to hear that too.  I’m always looking for better ways to teach and I learn so much from your comments!

 

* And no, of course I’m not getting any compensation – but this is also not an endorsement.  I have used zoom, skype, facetime, and messenger – as long as you have the function without actually having someone else on the line, it’ll work.