It’s a little ironic that at the time of year when we most want our music to help set the holiday mood in the performances we play, we are also  our most over-worked and are least likely to play our best.

Holiday performances are fun, but there are so many in so short a time, that it’s easy to feel underprepared and over-stressed.

With a few simple tactics, however, you can...

Are you plagued by a persistent problem in your practicing or playing? 

Often I have harpists come to me with a particular concern. There seems to be one issue, one real stumbling block that is in their path no matter what they do. These harpists are usually the “good student” type, even if they aren’t taking regular lessons. They practice diligently; they love music and...

How is your sense of rhythm? Are you not sure if you have one? rhythm Before we can decide whether you do or don’t, we should get our terms straight.

Let’s look at the building blocks of rhythm:

The Beat

The beat is the basic unit of time. It can be expressed by a particular note value, a quarter note for instance, but essentially it is a duration of time. We experience this time...

Does one of these stories sound like yours?

1. You’re busy living the hectic modern life – teaching, performing, practicing, family – and you’re just not getting the emotional lift from your music that you used to.

2. You know what you want. You want to play music, and you’re doing all the things you’re supposed to, but you’re still not getting...

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When is music big-R “Romantic” and when is it only little-r “romantic?”

Much harp music sounds “romantic” in the little-r sense of the word: beautiful, lush, expressive. But in musical academia, big-R “Romantic music” is something more. And since we play so much music that is little-r and big-R...

What is your technique? Which method do you play? Which of those potentially conflicting factions do you belong to?

Like other musicians, we harpists certainly have many choices. There is French method and Russian method, Salzedo, Grandjany and more, plus equally specific folk harp methods. Do you even know which one you use? Or – horror of horrors – don’t you use any...

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...

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,...