It wouldn’t be summer without OSAS!

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Jen

The summer really gets started with the Ohio Scottish Arts School or OSAS, presented by the Scottish American Cultural Society of Ohio at Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH. Each summer, for one week, the residents of this small college town get the joy of nearly continuous harp music (as well as pipe, fiddle, and dance music with drumming too!).

This year marks the 39th OSAS and it will be held June 24-30, 2017. Really enhance the experience and kick off with participation in the Ohio Scottish Games the 23^rd in Wellington, OH.

Coming to OSAS can be nearly a pilgrimage with some participants returning annually! The days are filled with learning tunes from stellar instructors in the aural tradition, lectures from those same instructors on other related and fascinating topics, and a little processing time to relax or practice. It’s harpharpharp! The evenings are filled with fun with the others jamming and sharing tunes we’ve learned, enjoying the evening air, snacks, and each evening also has a special event – the Instructor Concert, the Variety Show, every night, something wonderfully different and all OSAS.

If you’ve been to OSAS before, you’re calculating how you’re going to get there this summer. If you’ve never been to OSAS before – you cannot conceive how much you are going to learn, how much fun you’re going to have, how much you are going to bore your non-OSAS friends with stories when you get home – for months! You will laugh, you will work hard, you will have a great time, and you’ll start counting down to your next OSAS experience the day you get home.

For all the details go to http://ohioscottishartsschool.com/

Photos shamelessly stolen off the OSAS website – I’m always having too much fun to stop and take pictures!

Quote of the week

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Jen

Typically, I see or hear things that lead me to think about everything else. This week isn’t like that! This week, the quote pretty much speaks for itself.

We’ve talked before about the importance of being kind to yourself in your practice and in your performance. But this quote takes it another step closer to the origin of the thinking. Here’s the quote:

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.” Scott Adams

You’ll recognize the source – the creator of Dilbert. He usually has an incisive, if cynical, take, but this quote is certainly spot on – it couldn’t be more right!

There is an craft to making art and it stems from your own willingness to make mistakes, and then to pick up those mistakes and lick them, and keep the ones that taste good (you know, the sonic taste) as you keep going in the music.

My early teachers who taught me two important things with respect to this, although it took me a while to appreciate these gems. The first gem was that, no matter what string you land on, you are never more than one string away from a sound you might prefer! The second nugget was that we don’t make mistakes, we make impromptu improvisations.

For a long time, I really didn’t believe them – I thought they were being “nice” because I made so many mistakes. But over (a very long) time I learned that they weren’t just being nice – they were giving me gentle permission to make mistakes and to learn not only which ones to keep but also to learn my processes for selecting them. They were helping me to learn to do my own taste testing so I could select what worked and toss out what just didn’t speak to me. They were showing me that being willing to make “mistakes” was the point. That this was how I would make my art – by transitioning these excursions into elements of my music. That while safe was comfortable, and it might be creative, it certainly wasn’t moving my art.

So, go make some real whoppers, some complete stinkers, some small and some large mistakes…and see what you can make of them!

What makes a good musician?

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Jen

One can be a good musician even if one is not a full time professional . What makes a good musician? If you’re a regular reader, you might think that this is where I would say, “practice, practice, practice”!

But there is so much more to it than that! You see, musicianship is a journey not a destination – which is cool because it always gives you something to work toward! In that vein, here are six things that make a musician different from someone who just plays an instrument:

Persistence and Practice. One could argue that practice is the working definition of persistence. But really, persistence involves more including focusing on continuing to grow, finding new music that inspires you, and pursuing places to play that fit your goals and still let you grow.
Knowledge and Learning. There is so much to learn to be a better musician and real musicians are always learning. Whether it is gaining new tunes, mastering a new technique (coupled hands anyone? solid harmonics? you get the idea), or studying music theory, gaining knowledge can only result in stronger playing.
Community. Even soloists are part of a community! We have communities of harp players as well as the greater communities of musicians (orchestra, sessions, workshop participants, etc.) and the environments in which we play – those communities help us grow and provide milieux in which development can be nurtured. Communities give us a base for our other developments.
Listening. Just as we make sounds, we listen to sounds (music) from others (and ourselves). And as we listen, we learn more about music, what we think of it, what we like (and don’t like) and other perspectives on the music we make – you cannot listen to music enough!
Be willing to take (and use) critique. Whether it is family members, audiences, or judges, gaining feedback, analyzing those inputs and using that information is a sure way to become a better musician.
Enjoy the challenges you set for yourself – related to all of these is setting challenges for ourselves and enjoying stepping up to them. These challenges don’t have to be big – they just have to be yours (and they do have to be challenging!) so that we can learn and enjoy them.

So, the next time you think you’re not a musician, check to be sure your wrong! And just keep being you while you continue to develop into a good musician.

What are you afraid of?

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Jen

It’s nearly spring which means that it will very soon be competition season! Competitions are a great way to push yourself to learn, to grow, to be a little bit daring, to find out something about yourself.

I know a lot of people (especially adults) are very quick to say that competition is not for them. And that is true for some people. But for most people, it really is a great opportunity that shouldn’t be missed.

Really – where else will you have such a good chance to make great strides in your playing? What holds you back? There are plenty of reasons – some of them good. Many people are afraid of the potential pain of stretching. Some have a running list of questions – What will the other harp players think? What if I don’t play perfectly? How will I walk away without dying of embarrassment?

But competitions are a great way to collect the answers to these questions! What will others think? Well the ones you’re competing against are typically focused on what they will play (or asking the same questions of themselves) to worry about what you’re thinking (and it’s likely that the people who aren’t playing are wondering “what if” and how great you’re doing). What if you DO play perfectly?!? Did you ever think of that? And typically you cannot be too embarrassed to walk off the stage – and it’s hard to be embarrassed when all those people are applauding to show their appreciation and enjoyment of your performance!

It’s not about winning – in fact you learn so much more when you don’t take first place. You learn more about yourself, you meet new people, you get great feedback and specific actions to make yourself better, you become better, and you know it. So, I would strongly encourage you to push yourself, just a little, to get out there, to enter a competition, and enjoy answering your own questions!

Holidays are coming up!

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Jen

Those people who are planners will note that it’s about time to start getting ready for the Holiday season. Since the retailers have decided that Labor Day is when Christmas stuff comes out, we should probably take a hint. The holiday season is a time that you can expect to be asked to play. If people know you play the harp, you’re going to be asked (If you haven’t told your immediate family that you’ve taken up the harp, you need to come clean!).

Whether you will play for your dog, your family, or parties and other gigs, you need a plan that will allow you to get through the season of holidays with minimal stress – and still leave time for your shopping.

Here are a six things you can do to be prepared:

Make a list – what tunes are you going to play? What have you played in previous years (these will come back quickly)? What did you have requests for last year that you need to learn?
Get out your calendar 1 – when are you available? When do you have other obligations?
Decorate – what will you wear for your gigs (even if its your dog, think of it as a gig)? Can you actually play in that outfit? If you’re pulling out your annual holiday outfit, a year is plenty of time to shed, find or redistribute weight – does it still work for you? .
Get out your calendar 2 – when are you going to practice? When will you be too busy to fit in time? Where does that fall relative to your obligations to play?
Get it together – do you have any music or notes you need pulled together? Are they attractive or do you still have a collection of stickies and scraps of paper?
Breathe – do you have enough time to do all the other things you might do for the holidays (such as baking, visiting friends, wrapping gifts, etc.)?

Get started now so you can have a relaxed enjoyable holiday season – you’ll be glad you did!

2015 Reading Challenge!

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Jen

We all know that we should be reading more. Reading takes practice. It is more challenging on the harp than on other instruments because the music isn’t propped up directly in front of us – we have to add turning our heads to all the other effort of reading.

Some of us complain that we don’t read well, or fast enough, or accurately enough. And we have forgotten how hard we had to work to learn to read initially…it was so long ago that it escapes us how hard it was to master!

There is a way to make reading easier – PRACTICE!!

But practice is also easier if we have a goal – so we’re going to have a Summer Reading Challenge! The goal is to practice our reading so it becomes second nature (or at least is closer to second nature than it is now!).

The Challenge will be on for six weeks. The plan is to read through as much music as possible in that time. You can select music that you are interested in. You can read melody lines or both hands – whichever will get you further along in reading the music you want to read more easily. The point is simply to practice your reading so it will get easier!

My goal is to read a new tune every day! I’ll post a list at the end and we’ll see how I do – hope you’ll join me – start keeping a list in your practice journal and you can send them to me in August! Start reading – you have until 26 August!

Harpa 2015 Scotland!

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Jen

This year we are planning the first Harpa tour of Scotland! We will go through some of the most beautiful scenery to be seen anywhere and this trip will allow you to experience the majestic splendor of Scotland. We will leverage our Harp the Highlands and Islands tour and build in some fantastic concerts. We have a diverse group of musicians and I can hardly wait to hear us! We will start in Edinburgh and head out to Perth and from there we’ll begin nearly two weeks of exploring, enjoying, performing, jamming, and sharing! And all the while, you will enjoy the unspoiled beauty of well-known sites and off the beaten path sights you didn’t even know about.

Beth Kolle is the Arranger in Residence and Sue Richards is our Concert Mistress. Here’s a little sneak peak of the itinerary:

May 17^th – Collect at Edinburgh, on to Perth (overnight)

18^th – Tour to Wick via Glencoe and Loch Ness (overnight Wick)

19^th – Ferry/Coach tour to John O’ Groats (overnight Wick)

20^th – Wick to Elgin via Dunrobin Castle (overnight Elgin)

21^st – Walking tour of Elgin, rehearsal and performance for CLAN Cancer Support (overnight Elgin)

22^nd – Drumnadrochit and free time in Inverness (overnight Drumnadrochit)

23^rd – Urquhart Castle returning to Drumnadrochit for rehearsal and then performance (overnight Drumnadrochit)

24^th – Lossiemouth via Aviemore Mountain day tour (Overnight Elgin or Lossiemouth – tbf)

25^th – Moray coast, return to Lossie Baptist Church (LBC) for rehearsal, church dinner and performance (Overnight Elgin or Lossiemouth – tbf)

26^th – Via Pluscarden Abbey to walking tour of Forres, rehearsal and performance at Forres Heritage Centre in Tollbooth Courtroom (overnight Elgin)

27^th – Royal Deeside tour (overnight Elgin)

28^th – Splits into two groups for Ballindalloch and Distillery tours with floating concert at Ballindalloch (alternate halves) (overnight Elgin)

29^th – Return to Edinburgh… share good byes

As you can see from the itinerary have four confirmed venues for Concerts. Each of the venues is looking forward to the fundraising opportunity!

Hope you’ll join us for this unique tour and opportunity. Contact me if you are interested or want more information.

Send your deposit as soon as possible to guarantee a seat. The balance will be due 20 March 2015. A single supplement is available if you like.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas –

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Jen

It’s barely begun to cool down, the days have hardly gotten any shorter and the trees haven’t really begun to show their colors. It’s October! But it is also definitely time to start preparing for Christmas! From parties to church services, from fundraisers to celebrations, ‘tis the season to be asked to bring a little joy to people by playing for Christmas. Will you be ready? Here are 8 things you can do to be prepared this season:

Start now – Christmas is right around the corner, but the holiday season is even closer. Holiday decorations had appeared in big-box retailers before Labor Day and the Christmas events will start after Thanksgiving if not before so you need to start now to be ready.
Make a preparation checklist – write down those things you need to do to be prepared (some of the items in this post might be helpful for that). Use your checklist to help yourself prepare.
Budget your time – be sure to manage your time effectively – refreshing tunes you’ve learned before, learning new material, whatever you need to spend your time on – arrange to have that time available.
Select your tunes – know what you are preparing for and use that information to generate a solid set of tunes (and specific tune lists).
Schedule practice – not kidding. The holidays are notorious for days filled up beyond reason, earlier than expected, and with way too much to do. Be sure to schedule your practice time in – or you won’t get any!
Use your practice time wisely – because your practice time will be at a premium, be sure you plan for that time so you can get the most out of every moment. No shillyshallying at the harp, no unfocused playing through – actually practice when you’re practicing.
Make notes for next year – some of your preparation will be very good, some will be no help whatsoever. Make notes to yourself for next year so have even better preparation in the future.
Enjoy yourself – the preparation is challenging, and the added stress of performing may get to you, but be sure to enjoy yourself. And also be sure to acknowledge any improvement in your performance, the level of difficulty of the music, the speed of refreshing tunes you had learnedin previous years – all those positive indicators that arise from your preparation.

Christmas comes but once a year – fortunately, it stays for a while and provides you a great opportunity to prepare and to play for family, friends, and customers.

Performing

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Jen

Some people love to perform. The thrill of being on stage, the excitement of sharing with others, the anxiety of it not going well,the possibility that it will be brilliant, the comfort of a well-known program. Other people, not so much.

Culturally, we revere performance and performers. And as musicians we hold those that get on stage on occasion or all the time in high regard…precisely because we know what they are going through. And often we’re glad it’s not us!

But if you look at the etymology of the word “Perform” it is enlightening. It comes to us through Middle English from the Old French Parfournir to see something through to completion, to accomplish something.

Well, that’s not so bad….or terrifying, is it? To see something completed is a goal for many people. And to perform on a stage for a collection of interested listeners (see – doesn’t that sound less horrible than “audience”?) is certainly one fitting end to the hours of practice that you have put in to each piece you have painstakingly learned, refined, and polished.

You are leaning away, thinking that I am only talking about other people. That you’re not interested in performing on a stage, that someone else will do such a better job of it. And that is fine…if you mean it. But if you mean it, why do you envy those that do it? Are you afraid that you’re not good enough? Or that you’re not prepared enough? The first is doubt driven, second is correctable if you do want to be on stage.

So, be certain to define your parfournir for yourself – define what seeing your practice to completion means…and then work your way there. Performing can be done at many levels – just don’t stop at a level that is comfortable but doesn’t fit your definition of complete.

Stage fright Challenge

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Jen

People who have stage fright often think that the people they see on stage are different. That the people on stage don’t have any anxiety about being up there, in the spotlight, the object of the attention of all the people in the audience. Boy are they wrong!

The only difference is that the people on the stage have mastered looking calm. I don’t know a single performer who doesn’t have some level of anxiety about performing. Granted the level of anxiety and come of the symptoms are different, but everyone feels it.

The other difference is that performers have, one way or another, overcome the anxiety. That is because the reward is too great to miss. However, if you haven’t overcome the terror, you don’t know what you’re missing [it is also possible that it isn’t a reward to you!]. If you have set yourself the challenge to overcome your stage fright, there are a few steps you can take:

Identify precisely what your “bugaboo” is – are you afraid you are not prepared? not good enough? going to trip on stage?
Once you have identified it, address it – not prepared? practice more. Not good enough? there will always be people who are better than you are…and you will always be better than others. Tripping? well, that’s been proven to be endearing – at least on national television!
Define what venue will be doable for you at this point in time – where can you play (or for which audience) that will be outside your comfort…but not too far? Schools and nursing homes are great places to play with audiences that are thirsty for and appreciative of your performance.
Acknowledge that you will feel trepidation – and that it will affect your playing…and go with it!
Be prepared to learn from getting out there – you will be able to be proud of your accomplishment and you can learn what happens (not what you fear will happen but what actually happens!). Leverage what you learn. Then you can work on those things as you prepare for your next performance!

And don’t go too fast – give yourself time to adapt…and enjoy the process!

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