Here is a collection of a few weird music tips and facts. I hope these enlighten and entertain you!

Disclaimer: take the science behind some of these tips with a grain of salt. After all, you’re reading this on the internet.

 Are you a night owl or morning person? Practicing at night may be more effective. Apparently, brains learn better at...

This post follows up on my Practice Solutions series with two more ideas for solving difficulties you may come across in your everyday practice.

Problem: I can’t get this hands together!
Solution: Alternate hands note by note

Why this works: By playing both hands, you are practicing the “hands together” skill. But...

Are you still keeping your New Year’s resolutions? If so, congratulations! You are in a very small group. According to a 2007 study by Franklin Covey (as in Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), 35% of people who make resolutions break them before the end of January and only 23% manage to keep them all year. Another study is even more...

I love detective mysteries, whether the detectives are cerebral like Sherlock Holmes, witty and cultured like Lord Peter Wimsey or more earthy like Jesse Stone. And I love puzzles; crosswords, cryptic crosswords, sudokus, double acrostics, whatever. The harder they are, the better I like them.So when I was asked for help with a musical puzzler recently, I grabbed my deer stalker hat and called...

It’s that time of year when we are dreaming of summer. Summer is the perfect time to put some extra focus on your harp playing by attending a harp camp. And today I want to offer two ways you can step up your playing this summer: the Harp in the Mountains Summer Festival and the first ever Harp Mastery Retreat Weekend.

Harp in the Mountains Summer Festival, now in its seventh year, ...

Seth Godin is an author and marketing guru and the man behind the idea of permission marketing. In his daily blog, he writes with succinct and sometimes painful clarity on marketing, respect, our society and the way ideas spread. I find his writings always give me something to think about and often, as in this post, something to write about.

In a recent blog post called “Those...

The GPS that we use everyday stands for Global Positioning System. It is a system of 24 satellites that orbit the earth, emitting radio signals. The GPS receiver in your car collects those signals and decodes them. If the receiver can detect signals from as few as three of the satellites, it can determine your location.

When you’re feeling lost, discouraged or in need of direction,...

Deciding on a college can be nerve-racking. There are so many things to consider. Here are some of the tips I share with my students to help make their decision easier. At the end of the post, you will find a link to a free College Choice Planner PDF file you can download.

Phase one of the college choice process is the research you must do to decide which colleges to apply to. First you need...

This is part four in a four-part series of posts designed to help you solve difficulties you may come across in your everyday practice. With a repertoire of techniques at your disposal, you can learn to solve nearly any practice difficulty. If you are not already a subscriber to HarpMastery, you can email me to receive the other posts in this series...

One of the most common complaints of musicians and classical music fans alike is about the disparity between professional classical music and professional sports. Whether you look at salaries or ticket sales or audience sizes, classical music feels hopelessly undervalued. We wonder why this timeless art form that represents so much talent and achievement should be almost totally eclipsed in the...