Diversity is the spice of life. My client list is a wide range, from getting hired directly by corporations, to nurses & doctors, couples getting married, playing for hospital patients, in department stores, at transit centers, farm events, before city hall leaders, in historic hotels, for humanitarian non-profits, and GRAMMY winners. Over the last 20 years, I feel fortunate to have met so many people, to have collaborated on events with them, to help create an event where there wasn’t one, or one that needed help planning.
In no particular order, I’m sharing some 2021 highlights playing harp, teaching, and writing.
Centrum Artist Residency I spent the month of March 2021, in Port Townsend, WA, on a truly regenerative and inspiring retreat. Through Centrum Foundation and Fort Worden, I was able to live in a cabin on the edge of the woods where the Straight of Juan de Fuca flows into Puget Sound, watch eagles and deer at my door every day, beachcomb, hike, and oh, yeah, squeeze in a little work! Focus of my work was on Harp Escape compositions and arrangements, as well as solo improvisations (like this one) and with my friend Josh Rawlings.
Harp Escape Make-Over Since 2019, I have been working on Harp Escape, a therapeutic harp series of meditative audio and video. During this time, I’ve recorded nearly 200 audio tracks and done over 60 posts of writing, video and sheet music arrangements for Patrons! That is a lot for me to feel good about, as far as general productivity goes. Harp Escape is having a make-over this winter. In 2022, I’ll be moving forward with edits on individual tunes, then releasing singles on the various streaming platforms.
Making Music a Healing Process This pandemic time continues to challenge all of us, so how can we include well-being in our daily work? I was asked to be guest speaker for Seattle Music Teacher’s Association in March of last year, talking about how to merge teaching with healing. It almost seems imperative to do so. As a Certified Clinical Musician, I thought about the mindset I put myself in, in order to play bedside music for people in physical pain or suffering from anxiety and grief. Much of that mindset can be applied to how I play music in general, so I like to share that with students. In this post, I wrote up 5 ways how to make playing music a healing process.
1st Live Concert in 20 months! In December 2021, I played my first public concert since March 2020 lockdown. Looking Glass Coffee, a sweet café in Snohomish, WA offered the perfect backdrop for an afternoon harp music: red velvet curtain stage, high vintage tin ceilings, and killer coffee. We were all so pleased, I’ll definitely be making another Sunday afternoon come back in the New Year. The pandemic continues to be a dicey time for performing live music, and I am thrilled to have a found a welcoming venue that matches harp music so well!
10 Tips on How to Improvise on Harp I’ve been a fan of creative self-help inspirational books for years. From Natalie Goldberg to Stephen Nachmanovich, I’ve been studying prompts, quotes from the masters, and artist psychology for a long time. This Top 10 list for harpists helps unleash the timid player – many harpists are classically trained or play traditional Celtic tunes. Improvising for anyone can feel like uncertain territory. These tips take you back to “beginner’s mind.”
Circle of 5ths 2.0 Virtual Harp Course on Udemy I pre-recorded a workshop for the first time! This is a major accomplishment for me, and I put many hours into creating a class on demystifying a tricky musical topic: The Circle of Fifths. The class is available on Udemy and is at advanced beginner – advanced intermediate level.
with some students from Let’s Harp Together! workshop in October 2021 at Dusty Strings
Harp Seattle Workshop – Let’s Harp Together Another first: I taught my first in person group workshop in over 2 years! The theme of Let’s Harp Together, got everyone playing songs together – something none of us had done since the pandemic. It was wonderful hearing all the harps vibrating together (it was a few hundred strings!). Thanks go to Harp Seattle and Dusty Strings.
Return of the Wedding Cermony
Return of the Wedding Ceremony My guess is that I’ve played music for about 500 weddings and counting. Most of my summers are booked out for months. 2020 was different. By the end, I had played a mere three weddings, which I suppose was good all considering. While 2020 ceremonies were very intimate and minimal, 2021 was a return to my usual full calendar, larger gatherings (though masked of course). I played for more than one couple who had re-booked their ceremony more than three times! Once more, it was such a pleasure to return to playing harp for another season of wedding of couples, including some really amazing natural scenery at the Treehouse Point, Leavenworth and at Mount Rainier. I feel so lucky!
You might be asking yourself, “How can I improvise? How do I start?” These are questions students ask me, and honestly, I have been working on finding answers to these same questions for decades!
As a harpist, most of us learn how to read all of the little black dots on the page with accuracy. We often have practiced with such scrutiny that to play something off the page feels strange or wrong. I have met many classically-trained musicians who would agree.
Before I give you a couple of tips on how to improvise, let’s look back to our beginnings of playing music, to a time before we “knew” how to “play.” I am willing to bet that the first time you touched your instrument, you were as curious as a child. Have you ever watched a group of pre-schoolers play? They naturally grab objects and play pretend, never second-guessing themselves. With this “beginner’s mind,” let’s start improvisation.
Tip #1 Own it. Act like every sound you make is intentional, even if it surprises you.
#2 Use chord symbols in the music notation to give you clues on what notes might sound good, in addition to the notes written.
#3 Know the scale you are playing and don’t leave it.
#4 Know the scale you are playing and leave it. (I know! What I said above also applies, but if you want to stretch your boundaries, you should.) Brazilian writer Paulo Coehlo said “A boat is safe in the harbor. But this is not the purpose of a boat.” What I mean is: Explore. You can always come back to dock in your comfort zone original key. But you are not anchored down.
Umbra means shadow. In particular, it is the darkest part of a shadow. It also means a shadow cast by something that is opaque, not a solid state. I think about how even things we don’t see as being solid can take shape, like our thoughts becoming real. You know that phrase by Emerson, “You become what you think about all day long?” – I think that is true. Those shadows are thoughts, and those thoughts become beliefs.
We are all made up of light and dark, just like the equinox, a fine balance of sun and moon within. I find shadows so evocative. Perhaps that is why I have written more than one song about them.
The song Umbra comes on the return of a trip to see my family home for the first time in two years. This song had a dark feeling to it, it starts off minor but then ascends into a Major place. When I ask my students if they can hear the difference between minor and Major, we often describe feeling of minor as Halloween, sad, spooky, or lonely. Being in the shadows of not knowing can feel similar.
I don’t speak French, but I can tell by the way she sings, that it is a love song of the most high devotion. She is smitten and lovestruck to the core. As she sings, she idolizes her lover, seeing him through rose-colored glasses. This is why I love playing that tune at weddings and recommending it to people even if they say they don’t know the song. Once I start playing for them, they soon realize they’ve heard it in some movie or commercial. The thing is, “La Vie En Rose” is sort of timeless.
The song plays to our highest ideals, not just about love, but about life in general. “La Vie en Rose” is looking at life optimistically. It is living rosie dreams and seeing the beauty in every day life. It is stopping to smell the roses. It is embracing imperfections and loving despite them. La vie en rose is “live and let live.” It is having ideals. Dreaming big. Finding joy in one’s life and being in the present moment. In literal translation, la vie en rose means the “pink life.”
My Wedding May 3, 2008 (Seattle, WA)
Some say the meaning of the song is that of naïveté, that everything will be fine without paying attention to details. Assuming that situations will unfold in your favor doesn’t inherently mean that you are not paying attention, or working towards a positive outcome. In fact, I have found that the more I am invested in my situations, the better I feel through involvement.
