Why Every Harpist Needs a Method - PHH 227
Practicing Harp Happiness
When I was a beginning harp student, the technical method I was learning - the Salzedo method - was something I took very seriously. From my very first harp lessons, I learned the important points of technique, as Salzedo taught it. I wasn’t studying with Salzedo, of course, but my teacher, Marilyn Costello, was a student of his, and his method was what she taught her students. For a long time, I played the harp in innocent ignorance of the fact that there were other harp methods. In fact, it was a revelation to me in those early years when I discovered that most harpists in the world...
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Perspective Over Perfection: The Secret to Playing with Freedom - PHH 226
Practicing Harp Happiness
I’m sure you’ve seen that famous optical illusion picture that can be perceived either as two faces in profile looking at each other, or as a vase. That image is named the “Rubin Vase,” after Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, who authored a book in 1915 called “Visual Perception.” This image, and others like it, have stimulated much scientific debate about how our brains understand and process images. What fascinates me is that moment when my understanding of the image shifts, that instant where I can see the second interpretation of the picture. Naturally, there’s a...
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The Surprising Power of Just One More - PHH 225
Practicing Harp Happiness
Imagine you’re looking at a box of chocolates, knowing you’ve already had at least three too many. Your hostess is holding out the box to you, saying, “Have just one more. It couldn’t hurt.” It’s hard to actually know what one more would do. That “one more” candy might be the one that pulls out your filling. That “one more” episode of your favorite Netflix show might turn into an hours-long binge watch. That “one more” task before you leave the house might be the one that makes you miss your train. But there’s the other side of “one more” too. The extra rep in the...
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Teacher to Student: If I Knew Then What I Know Now - PHH 224
Practicing Harp Happiness
How often do we say, “If I only knew then, what I know now”? Sometimes it’s about life experience, like surviving teenage drama. Sometimes it’s about turning down an opportunity, like not buying stock in Facebook before the company went big. Obviously, we aren’t able to go back in time and really have a “do over.” I imagine that if we could, It’s more than possible that the result wouldn’t be what we expect. We can never know how our world would have been altered, if we’d taken the other fork in the road. We can only guess. Here’s my “if I only knew...
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Banish Your Practice Blindspots - PHH 223
Practicing Harp Happiness
Mirror, mirror on the wall. If only my mirror could show me all. We humans love our mirrors. At some deep-rooted level, we love to see ourselves. Maybe you remember the famous scene in the movie Lawrence of Arabia when Peter O’Toole playing Lawrence first puts on the white Arab robes and headdress. He is for the moment all by himself in the desert, so there is no dialogue. According to the film’s director, David Lean, the only instruction he gave O’Toole was to improvise what this young man Lawrence might have done in this situation. O’Toole experiments with the sweep of his robes by...
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Susann McDonald: A Legacy of Connection - PHH 222
Practicing Harp Happiness
There’s a moment — sometimes only after someone is gone — when we finally see the full measure of their influence. We may have known they mattered, but loss has a way of sharpening our perspective, of showing us just how much they shaped our world. Some people use the word legendary too easily. For harpist Susann McDonald, it’s no exaggeration. Susann McDonald, who passed away this past May at the age of 90, left an indelible mark on the harp world. She was an acclaimed performer, a respected author, an extraordinary teacher, and a passionate advocate for our instrument. She co-founded...
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Mistakes as Milestones: A New Mindset for Growth - PHH 221
Practicing Harp Happiness
Not all mistakes are created equal. Sure, some need to be addressed and fixed. But others? They’re signs of progress. They tell you that your ears are sharper, your awareness is expanding, and your technique is evolving. Let’s put it in context. We live in a world that’s constantly trying to correct us. Type an email, and autocorrect will instantly jump in. Google will underline a word in red, and we assume it's wrong—just because it looks unfamiliar. But autocorrect doesn’t always get it right. And neither does your inner critic. Just because something feels like a mistake doesn’t...
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5 Things Your Teacher Can’t Do For You - and 5 Things She or He Can - PHH 220
Practicing Harp Happiness
You’ve heard me say this before: I had wonderful teachers throughout my musical life. From my very first piano teacher when I started piano at age four, through my harp studies from age eight and my college years at the Curtis Institute, my teachers were all I could have wanted. They nurtured me, encouraged me, pushed me, and took me to task when that was required, and believe me, it was required from time to time. Most importantly - and this is one of my core teaching principles to this day - they were as invested in my musical journey as I was. They took my learning and my musical growth...
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Back to the Harp—Without Killing the Vacation Vibe - PHH 219
Practicing Harp Happiness
I know I’m dating myself, but here goes… Back in the 1960’s there was a television show called “Sea Hunt.” The show centered around a free-lance scuba diver named Mike Nelson, played by Lloyd Bridges. Mike Nelson was a former Navy diver and a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. As a free-lance diver, he was hired for all kinds of dangerous underwater work, everything from salvaging precious cargo from wrecked ships to rescuing people trapped in caves. Each episode had dangerous situations and villains who were ready to slash the hoses on Mike’s air tanks. In nearly...
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What Makes Any Piece a “Harp Piece”? - PHH 218
Practicing Harp Happiness
Here’s our question for today: what makes a piece of music a “harp piece”? Does it have to have been originally written for harp? Or composed by a harpist? Or could any piece of music, no matter what instrument or instruments it was written for, be a harp piece if you play it on the harp? I happen to think that the third answer is the correct one. Mostly. Let me explain. If you play a piece on the harp, it has absolutely become a harp piece whether it started out that way or not. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it should have become a harp piece. Some pieces just...
info_outlineShel Silverstein wrote a beautiful and supremely short poem that perfectly fits today’s topic. The poem is called “Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda,” and in just seven short lines, Silverstein sums up the ultimate way to prevent regret. He tells us that all those woulda-coulda-shouldas vanish with one little “did.” Doing beats wishing every day.
So if we were sitting in the same room together, sharing a cup of tea, and you asked me what I thought your next piece should be, I’d have to ask you a question right back, “What do you think you want to do?”
Life is filled with “shoulds” and “have tos;” our music doesn’t need to be. Our music is personal to us. The music we play, our repertoire, is something that reflects what we like and who we are. It is a personal expression at every playing level. Your personal musical expression starts from the very first day you are capable of playing a melody on the harp. Your music is in you and your music is you.
So if you need to choose your next piece to learn, it should be something you want to learn. Back to our conversation at the tea table. When I ask you what piece you’d like to do, you are probably going to tell me you don’t know. So we’ll dig a little deeper.
If you are thinking that there is a skill you need to develop and you’re looking for a piece that will help you do that, that’s great. I can suggest half a dozen pieces that will help you with that specific skill. But have you considered trying a sort of piece you’ve never done before? Or what about that bucket list piece that you aren’t sure if you’re ready for? This is the problem; there are too many choices.
There is simply too much music in the world, and it’s impossible to play everything we want to. So we need to choose. And what if you chose to make your next piece one that created a “did,” filled a want, or prevented a future regret. That’s what I want to help you with today. I want to give you a little system to help you choose.
I also decided to take a sort of light-hearted, fun approach to this topic, so since today is the fifth of May, I’ve created five possible categories to choose from in honor of Cinco de Mayo. After all, we can’t take ourselves too seriously!
Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:
- Today is the last day to register for the “Sharpen Your Focus” clinic.
- Shel Silverstein poem, “Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda”
- Harpmastery.com
Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]
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LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-207