Practicing Harp Happiness

Imagine you’re looking at a box of chocolates, knowing you’ve already had at least three too many. Your hostess is holding out the box to you, saying, “Have just one more. It couldn’t hurt.”

It’s har…

How often do we say, “If I only knew then, what I know now”? Sometimes it’s about life experience, like surviving teenage drama. Sometimes it’s about turning down an opportunity, like not buying stoc…

Mirror, mirror on the wall. If only my mirror could show me all.

We humans love our mirrors. At some deep-rooted level, we love to see ourselves. Maybe you remember the famous scene in the movie Lawr…

There’s a moment — sometimes only after someone is gone — when we finally see the full measure of their influence. We may have known they mattered, but loss has a way of sharpening our perspective, o…

Not all mistakes are created equal. Sure, some need to be addressed and fixed. But others? They’re signs of progress. They tell you that your ears are sharper, your awareness is expanding, and your t…

You’ve heard me say this before: I had wonderful teachers throughout my musical life. From my very first piano teacher when I started piano at age four, through my harp studies from age eight and my …

I know I’m dating myself, but here goes…

Back in the 1960’s there was a television show called “Sea Hunt.”  The show centered around a free-lance scuba diver named Mike Nelson, played by Lloyd Bridge…

Here’s our question for today: what makes a piece of music a “harp piece”? 

Does it have to have been originally written for harp? Or composed by a harpist? Or could any piece of music, no matter wha…

Happy Bastille Day! This isn’t a French themed podcast episode, and we won’t be breaking the bars on any prisons today. However, while the French national motto of  liberté, égalité, fraternité is so…

This week I started my yearly ritual of going through my drawers of music and pulling out new pieces to play. Actually they aren’t all new; some are old friends that I haven’t played in years. Others…

There’s a third kind of shortcut, though, that I want us to think about today. It’s the kind of shortcut that comes with experience. I remember when I was learning to sew and following all the direct…

It’s summer time here and time for a little R and R, rest and relaxation, maybe even time away. You might be feeling like you need some time away from whatever stress you’ve been experiencing. I hope…

Have you ever made something and it turned out ok, but somehow it just didn’t look right? Maybe you thought those two paint colors would go together, but now you’re not sure. Or maybe the furniture a…

Since you’re here with me today, I know you are the kind of harpist who knows that technique matters. You take your warm-up seriously. You have exercises and etudes that you play regularly, maybe eve…

Every time I talk about putting more fun into your practice, I hear feedback like, “I enjoy my practice,” or “I really like doing the challenging work,” or “My favorite part of practice is my exercis…

Four friends went to an orchestra concert. Afterward, they went out for dessert and compared notes on the concert, talking about what they heard. Here is what they said:

One person heard the person i…

Today I want to talk with you about hard work. I don’t mean how to buckle down and do the hard work. We all know that playing the harp is hard, and we spend a lot of time working out practice techniq…

Is studying music theory really useful? Yep. You heard right. I really said that, and I’m a total theory nerd. 

I’m not going to leave you in suspense. Of course, knowing music theory is useful and h…

Shel Silverstein wrote a beautiful and supremely short poem that perfectly fits today’s topic. The poem is called “Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda,” and in just seven short lines, Silverstein sums up the ultim…

Fact number one: Your focus is in your control.Fact number two: Your focus is a critical factor in your success and harp happiness.Conclusion: What you focus on matters… a lot.

In the last episode of…