This is part one 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. This post shows you ways to pull a passage up to tempo when inching the metronome up isn’t getting the results you want.

Solution #1: Practice Hands...

Here is a checklist of important things to do BEFORE you put your holiday music away for another year. These tips will help you prepare now to enjoy a more relaxed holiday time next year.

Over the years and the course of many holiday concerts and parties, I have learned some valuable lessons. I’d like to share with you what I have learned as a few steps which, if you take them now, will...

The crescendo (and its counterpart, the diminuendo or decrescendo) is one of the first expressive tools we musicians learn. But has your crescendo lost its “wow factor?” Here are some quick reminders of what to do, what NOT to do, and a few practice techniques.

First, what NOT to do. I can almost guarantee that you have been guilty of one of these. We all have.

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The New Year always causes us to stop and think. We make resolutions. Sometimes we keep them. This year my only resolution is to remember to make a difference. Musically and otherwise.

There is one incident I recall that showed me just how much our music can make a difference to others, whether we are aware of it or not.

I was flipping through my folder of Christmas music recently and I came...

Perhaps you were lucky enough to have Santa (or Grandma) give you some cash for Christmas this year. What could be better than to put that gift to good use by investing it in yourself and your love of music? Whether you are a music student, music professional or you just play for the love of it, I offer ten tips for spending that gift to make your...

From our neck of the woods to yours, have the happiest of holidays! Anne

There are two important things that will be in my harp bag when I go to my Christmas Eve performances this year. I am counting on them to keep me from worrying about those last minute crises that tend to arise at the worst possible moments. Both of these were gifts from thoughtful (and savvy) friends. I hope that these will help you be prepared as well.

The first item is my emergency stand...

We had a wonderful week at Harp in the Mountains Summer Festival this year. We practiced, performed and as you can see on the video, we had a lot of fun.

I created this video with some of our favorite photos from the week, accompanied by my recording of “Greensleeves,” from my Christmas CD Break Forth.

This year’s Harp in the Mountains Festival will be held July 14-20, 2013....

I wanted to share some good news. My friend and colleague Chuck Holdeman has just released our recording of his composition for bassoon and harp, Lyric Seasons.

The recording is available for download on CD Baby, where you can preview all four of the movements.

Lyric Seasons was written in 2000, and Chuck and I premiered it the same year. The four movements are not seasons in the...

This time of year we all do too much playing. We play every holiday party and concert we can, to put away some money for the leaner months. This makes for a nice fat bank account and some seriously over-worked fingers, not to mention backs, shoulders and brains.

But what if you still need to practice for some of those concerts? Or if your technique is...