Wouldn’t we all like to make our lives easier? I certainly could use help with that myself.

For me, everything is easier when making music is enjoyable, rewarding and fun, with as little hassle or stress as possible. Unfortunately the stress and the music seem to be inseparable. Playing music provides plenty of challenges on its own, technical ones and musical ones. Then there are the...

What will you do next? 

I was able to spend a day at the Somerset Folk Harp Festival recently and it was a great day of harps, harp players, workshops and concerts. It was hard to choose which workshops to attend, there were so many great choices.

It brought to mind a question that many of my students ask themselves and then ask me. They want to know what is next for them. What’s the...

Last week on the blog, I wrote about things that busy professional harpists have learned that every harpist could benefit from. In the spirit of “turn around is fair play,” today I offer things that those same busy harpists need to remember. Actually, we all need to remember these things, and the busier you are, the more likely you are to forget how important they are.

But this...

Ok. So you never want to play in public. Even playing for your dog makes you nervous. Believe it or not, that’s a dangerous state of mind.

I’m not going to try to goad you into public performance. I believe that playing for your own pleasure is a worthwhile aspiration.

But I have often heard harpists (and other musicians too) use this as an excuse for some poor habits, habits which...

Are you putting the brakes on when you play or practice? Or are you frustrated with slow progress?

A quick story…

One summer when my husband, son and I were vacationing in Europe, we stopped in the Alps to take a ride on a Sommerrodelbahn, a summer version of a toboggan run. After all, what do you do in the Alps in the summer if you don’t have snow?

This particular ride was a long,...

I was quite young when I fell in love with the music of Claude Debussy. I didn’t know the theoretical reasons that made his music radically different from what came before. I only knew that it was beautiful and expressive and touched me in a special way.

Debussy is often considered the initiator of the Impressionist movement in music. Impressionist painters had recently made their break...

The audience is hushed; the lights are dimmed. The performer walks out on stage, trying to make her stride confident and hoping that the confidence will show up in her playing as well. Will the audience like what I play? Will they be disappointed? Will they like me?

Over my years of teaching I have helped countless harpists prepare for performance. Some of the performances have been...

Here we are at the halfway point in the year. As we begin the second half of 2014, we can seize this opportunity to reevaluate, redirect or recommit to our goals. Many of us have long since forgotten or abandoned our New Year’s resolutions. In some cases, our plans have changed and made our resolutions irrelevant. Some of us have given up, and the more determined ones among us have made...

Kaleidoscope Practice: Focus, Finish and Play the Way You’ve Always Wanted

Have you ever felt stuck in your practice? You know the feeling, the one where you believe that the music will never get any better. You don’t know what to practice; you don’t even want to practice any more.

Or maybe you just need a new approach, something to put the spark back in your practice and...

Not sure what Baroque music is exactly? Uncertain about how to approach it musically? Do you know the particular musical characteristics that are the essence of Baroque style? This post is not a music history lesson, but it will give you the information you need to play this kind of music with understanding and style.

First, the facts

I promised this wouldn’t be a history lesson, but...