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Are You Holding Yourself Back?

Oct 05, 2015

It’s no secret that the person in our mirror is the one that can make the biggest impact on our lives. If you feel like you’re doingGirl walking through a magic door in sky everything right, but it’s still not working, this story is for you…

Many years ago, I started karate lessons. It wasn’t something I had ever thought I would be doing, but when my son started...

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What’s Your (Metronome) Number?

Sep 21, 2015

I was sitting in the audience at a concert. A performer was onstage receiving well-deserved applause, and I heard two people in front of me commenting on the performance. “She played well, but it was too fast,” said one to the other. Just a moment later, someone behind me said to their neighbor, “I really think she should have played it a little faster. It was under...

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Build Your Repertoire without Having a Breakdown

Sep 14, 2015

The scene: A visitor comes to your home and sees your beautiful harp in its special place in your living room. “Play something for me,” she says. You gracefully take your place at the harp and play a piece of music that enchants and delights.

Or does your scenario run this way: When your visitor says, “Play something for me, ” you respond, “Well, I don’t...

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Does Your Music Speak?

Sep 07, 2015

Can you hear me now?

Do you struggle to make your music speak? Are your hands so full of the notes that there doesn’t seem to be time to think about the music? Perhaps you know your music should communicate something, but you’re not exactly sure what it should say or even how to go about making it speak. Or maybe you’re trying, but it doesn’t feel like you’re doing...

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What’s Your One Thing?

Aug 31, 2015

We musicians are a dedicated bunch. While we may not fit the romantic image of the musician starving and sacrificing all for Busker singing and playing guitar inside a rubbish binhis art, we all make big sacrifices every day in order to play music, whether we are professionals, students or amateurs.

Consider this. You’ve bought an instrument (or two or three), paid for lessons, and spent...

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Why You Should Be Impatient – Now!

Aug 24, 2015

We have all heard that patience is a virtue. Patience is also a necessary skill for every musician. We must have patience while we develop our technique, learn our repertoire, or memorize a piece of music.

After all, music is an art of “becoming.” You aren’t simply born a musician; you “become” a musician, and that takes time, diligence and patience.

But impatience...

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Fingering Followup: a Checklist

Aug 17, 2015

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about why you should write less fingering in your music. I started getting quite a number of questions and some nervous reaction to the post, so I’d like to post this followup to clarify some of those questions..

Some people seemed to think I was advocating not writing in fingering at all, which is not what I meant. I do write fingering in my...

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Where Creativity Finds Direction: the Teacher-Student Partnership

Aug 10, 2015

Sometimes tension is a good thing.

Tension happens at the place where two opposite forces or desires meet. At that place or in that moment, the forces are equal. The tension is resolved either when one of the forces prevails over the other, or the forces work together.

Picture the surface of a pool of water, calm and undisturbed. A leaf floats down to the water and the surface tension of the...

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Forget the Fingering!

Aug 03, 2015

What?! Forget the fingering?!

 We harpists need our fingering so that we can play smoothly and musically, and so our practice will be efficient. Those fingering marks are essential for us, right? Not really, or at least, not as much as you think.

Consider this paint by number illustration. Those numbers in the picture show us which color to put where. When we follow the numbers, we can see...

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Is There Life After Music School? Part 2

Jul 27, 2015

In the last post, I presented the first part of my seven step checklist for those of you who are “Waiting to Hit It Big.” That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re waiting to be discovered by Hollywood music producers. This is for any musician who is someplace between the graduation parties and a paycheck. You may be ready to start your music career, whatever that looks like...

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