Practicing Harp Happiness

This is the time of year when, more than any other time, it pays to be an efficient harpist. Just what do I mean by efficient? There are lots of ways we can add more efficiency to our harping, for ex…

There are three ways we learn how to play the harp. The first and most obvious one is by doing.  Playing and practicing is our “go to” method for learning. You can’t actually learn to play the harp w…

Are you feeling a little bit scattered or unsettled at the moment? It’s no wonder. Chaos is all around us in this crazy world, and there’s precious little we can do to fix it. But the chaos in our ow…

“What can I do to make my music more expressive?”

If I’ve been asked that question once, I’ve been asked it a thousand times. This isn’t a beginner question, either. It usually is a question of an in…

When you think of harp music, is there a characteristic harp sound that comes to mind, a musical gesture that belongs to the harp more than to any other instrument? A glissando, maybe? That’s certain…

The sinking of the unsinkable Titanic still fascinates us all over a hundred years after the disaster. It’s the subject of all sorts of speculation and theories, and there’s one of those that is actu…

A little while back, I did a podcast episode about the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and why I believe studying and playing that music is so important for harpists. If you want to go back and liste…

There are plenty of things we can muscle through: fatigue, a headache, the last email, the last pot to wash, paying the bills. But we can’t muscle through harp playing, especially when it comes to ou…

Do you have no sense of rhythm? Has someone told you that you have no sense of rhythm? Or do you sometimes wonder if you do?

Right off the bat, let me tell you that if someone said that to you, I kno…

Ten years ago, I wrote a small book. It was my response to the frustration I observed some harpists experiencing. These harpists were diligent in their practice and dedicated to doing everything righ…

If I had to give the shortest possible explanation of what a daily harp warm-up is, it would be this: your warm-up is the prelude to your practice. 

Why a prelude? A prelude is most often defined as …

If you’re like me, you probably hate it when people change the rules in the middle of the game. I don’t necessarily mean in an actual game; that’s clearly wrong. But there are always new and better w…

Do you remember the story of Chicken Little?

This is a classic children’s story and like a lot of the classic stories there are multiple versions. The basic story goes something like this:

An acorn f…

We are the product of our influencers. The current wisdom says that if you want to know what a person is really like, look at their circle of friends. The thinking goes further to posit that if you w…

Do you think of yourself as creative?

From time to time, a harpist will tell me that she doesn’t feel she is very creative, at least not in a musical way. I instinctively challenge this, because I be…

I don’t know if you know this, but most Mondays I hold a live video call. I call it our Live Monday Warm-Up, and that’s how it started, as a simple warm-up for anyone who wanted to join me. But like …

Juggling. Patting your head and rubbing your tummy. Walking and chewing gum. 

Coordination challenges come in all levels of difficulty. Playing hands together is another one, but it’s one that we har…

Today I’m doing something different on the podcast.

I don’t usually talk about what’s happening in my life because this podcast is not all about me; it’s really all about you, me and our harp playing…

Right now, I’m in a tug-of-war with myself. 

Usually, I’m all about helping my students and pushing myself to set goals, to find the next level, to discover more harp happiness through progress and g…

Many harpists can remember the first time they saw someone play the harp. The harp itself looked magnificent: tall, majestic, maybe gold. The harpist might have looked magnificent too, maybe a lovely…