Do You Hear What I Hear? Listening with Your Ears Open - PHH 210
Release Date: 05/26/2025
Could Your Practice Today Actually Be More Fun? - PHH 211
Practicing Harp Happiness
Every time I talk about putting more fun into your practice, I hear feedback like, “I enjoy my practice,” or “I really like doing the challenging work,” or “My favorite part of practice is my exercises and etudes.” All of those harpists are enjoying their practice, and that’s terrific. But that’s not what I mean. Much of what we do in our practice can accidentally disconnect us from the music we want to make. We identify and correct mistakes. We drill our technique. We repeat passages over and over again. That’s all part of practice, and it is part of what enables us to play...
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Do You Hear What I Hear? Listening with Your Ears Open - PHH 210
Practicing Harp Happiness
Four friends went to an orchestra concert. Afterward, they went out for dessert and compared notes on the concert, talking about what they heard. Here is what they said: One person heard the person in the row behind crackling a cough drop wrapper.One person, a flutist, heard that the clarinet wasn’t in tune with the flute.One person, a harpist, heard that the orchestra drowned out the harp solo.One person heard that the piano soloist was humming to himself while he played. Oddly enough, when the review of the concert appeared in the newspaper the next day, it seemed the critic had gone to a...
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Is Your Practice Not Working? Maybe Hard Work Isn’t the Answer - PHH 209
Practicing Harp Happiness
Today I want to talk with you about hard work. I don’t mean how to buckle down and do the hard work. We all know that playing the harp is hard, and we spend a lot of time working out practice techniques, strategies and routines to help us play the music we want in spite of the difficulties. No, what I want to talk about today is how to get out of the “just buckle down and do it” mindset. The truth is that when it comes to playing the harp or even music in general, sometimes trying harder is counter-productive. For instance, the harder we try to get that harmonic to ring, the more it just...
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Is Music Theory Really Useful? Turning Theory Into Practice - PHH 208
Practicing Harp Happiness
Is studying music theory really useful? Yep. You heard right. I really said that, and I’m a total theory nerd. I’m not going to leave you in suspense. Of course, knowing music theory is useful and helpful and part of being a good musician. But only - and this is a big “only” - if you know how it’s useful. Did you ever take a class in school and the whole time you were sitting in class you were thinking, “I’m never going to use this stuff”? Of course, you did. I remember sitting in my calculus class in high school - which, incidentally, I really enjoyed - knowing...
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How to Choose Your Next Piece - PHH 207
Practicing Harp Happiness
Shel 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...
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Looking Beyond: Choose Your Focus - PHH 206
Practicing Harp Happiness
Fact number one: Your focus is in your control.Fact number two: Your focus is a critical factor in your success and harp happiness.Conclusion: What you focus on matters… a lot. In the last episode of the podcast, we were talking about focus in terms of placing your chords. I cited one of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes, “You hit what you aim at.” I’m going to put a different spin on that today. We aren’t going to talk about focusing on a goal exactly. We’re going to discuss how to shift your focus to get you beyond a sticking point or a challenge. Here’s my idea in a...
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Placing Chords: How to Find the Right Strings the First Time - PHH 205
Practicing Harp Happiness
The great Zig Ziglar, much-beloved author and motivational speaker, never played the harp as far as I know, but one of his most often quoted remarks is perfect for today’s topic. Zig said, “You hit what you aim at, and if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.” If you have ever had difficulty placing the notes in your chords, today I am going to teach you how to fix your aim. Of course there is more to placing and playing chords than just aiming at the strings, but you do have to get to the right ones. This is what makes three-note chords more difficult than two-note intervals,...
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Review Done Right: It’s More Than Repertoire - PHH 204
Practicing Harp Happiness
Do you review your pieces? If you don’t review your pieces regularly, then keep listening because today we are going to explore the different reasons you might want to start and a few different methods for review you might want to try. But here’s the thing; if I asked a dozen harpists who say they review their pieces how they do their review, I will get a dozen different answers. Some people schedule it; others set a rotation. Some people do both. Some harpists are trying to develop a repertoire list of music they can play at a moment’s notice. Others are trying to keep the last piece...
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Why Slow Practice Works - and When It Doesn't - PHH 203
Practicing Harp Happiness
My harp background is in the Salzedo method. This is the technique method devised and taught by legendary harpist Carlos Salzedo. It was at the time, the early part of the twentieth century, a startlingly different concept of harp playing and harp technique and the aim was to bring the harp into the modern world. The aesthetic of the method varied in almost every way possible from the French tradition in which Salzedo was trained. But we aren’t discussing physical technique today. We are discussing practice technique, one practice technique in particular: slow practice. Please...
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Rhythmic Confidence: It’s Not About the Math - PHH 202
Practicing Harp Happiness
If I had the opportunity to teach music to an absolute music newbie, someone without any previous musical instruction or experience, I know exactly how I would begin. I would start without printed music. That’s hardly revolutionary. The German composer Carl Orff is known today not only for his most famous work, Carmina Burana, but for the innovative methods he brought to musical education. Émile Jaques-Dalcroze created Eurhythmics, not the 1980’s pop band with Annie Lennox, but a system for teaching music through movement. Music schools throughout the world have been teaching young...
info_outlineFour friends went to an orchestra concert. Afterward, they went out for dessert and compared notes on the concert, talking about what they heard. Here is what they said:
One person heard the person in the row behind crackling a cough drop wrapper.
One person, a flutist, heard that the clarinet wasn’t in tune with the flute.
One person, a harpist, heard that the orchestra drowned out the harp solo.
One person heard that the piano soloist was humming to himself while he played.
Oddly enough, when the review of the concert appeared in the newspaper the next day, it seemed the critic had gone to a completely different concert. The critic described the pianist as being an impassioned player with a fiery technique, the orchestra as presenting a colorful, well-balanced and nuanced interpretation. There was no mention of out of tune clarinets, or inaudible harps or even noisy cough drop wrappers.
Yes, this is a fictional scenario, although I’ve been part of very similar discussions. I wanted to relate this to you today, though, to highlight the way we channel our listening. We pay attention to the things that distract us, like noises or mistakes. That’s not in itself a bad thing; it’s part of being observant. Often, however, our listening stops there.
Think about how you listen to yourself. You pick out the flaws, the things that you wanted to do better. How often do you take time to identify what you have done well? Would you even be able to identify what you are doing well?
Today, we are going to talk about listening for growth, not for comparison or fault-finding. I’ll help you discover how to listen with open ears and an open mind so that the next time you listen to that amazing harpist play the piece you’re struggling to learn, you can find the precise elements in that performance that will help you make your own playing sound the way you want it to. And we’ll talk about how to listen to yourself so you don’t end up in the depths of despair. It’s all about what you listen for.
Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:
- Work with a Harp Mastery® Certified Coach this summer!
- Harp teachers! Are you interested in learning more about our Fall Break Retreat? Email me at [email protected].
- 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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