Tag: practicing music

How To Let Go of Your Judgmental Inner Music Critic

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We are not learning music to be perfect. We are learning music to enjoy the process of playing. We are learning music to develop a skill. Let go of judgement! If you are hearing an inner musical critic and it feels like negative judgement, drop it. Let it go. You don’t want to be holding unto so much baggage.

If that seems too easily said, imagine that your fingers are actually holding onto little bags of judgment (from past/current teachers, conductors, peers, recording engineers, yourself, reviewers, parents, friends, neighbors, etc.). Imagine that these little critiques, each in a bag on your fingers, are weighing you down. They are slowing down your playing. That negativity is taking up physical space and you need to free it up!

Question: What if you got rid of that inner music critic? Answer: Your hands would feel the freedom to put your fingers on the actual notes you need to play.

Drop the mental comment section. Close down the critiques that don’t make you a better player. You can throw them away in the trash bin over there. Now, locate the comments that do help – the ones that say “don’t give up,” or “there now – that wasn’t so hard!”

cherry blossoms, Alice Walker quote, miners gold

You can keep the helpful comments, but put them in a safe place at a distance, like picture in a frame. Remember, you want to feel lighter. You want to free up your fingers to do the playing that you were called to do in the first place.

You have work to do. Your work is playful and exploratory.

You are practicing the process of showing up and being ready to play music. Playing music is not about perfection, so much as the journey you take to a place where the playing feels good! This is the work you love to do. By freeing your fingers, you are already doing what you need to do. Now, you are ready to practice!

Two Harp Workshops in October

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I’m excited to offer two in person workshops coming up in October at Dusty Strings Music School in Seattle (Fremont). Both of these group classes are for the beginner to intermediate harpist.

Sat, Oct 7 – Introduction to Harp Therapy
More and more, harpists are lending their hearts and talents to playing healing music, as well as seeking certification to play at the bedside from accredited programs recognized by the National Standards Board of Therapeutic Musicians. In this class, you’ll explore effective styles, modes, and songs to benefit your repertoire, as well as what kind of training you’ll need to play music in health-care facilities.

Skills Needed: For the advanced beginner to intermediate-level player. You should have base of songs you know and a desire to learn new styles for therapy harp. This workshop is designed for those new to therapeutic harp, as well as those in certification programs. It does not certify you to play music at the bedside, but you will learn tools from a Certified Clinical Musician and gain access to references and resources to enrich your harp therapy journey.

Sat, Oct 21 – Three Celtic Strains
Join this class for a fun, creative approach to learning more about harp! Irish music tradition recognizes Three Noble Strains, or styles, of playing harp—joy, sorry, and sleep. In this workshop, you’ll learn what these strains are, what they mean, and how to apply them to harp music. You’ll participate in a Celtic Circle of Song, which focuses on chord progressions and playing freely, and add new tunes to your repertoire.

Skills Needed: For the advanced beginner to intermediate-level player. You should have base of songs you know and a desire to broaden your musicality. You do not need to know how to read music, though knowledge of chord charts and some notation is handy.

How to Make Practicing Music a Healing Process

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Previously posted (May 10, 2021), this article has been published in Harp Therapy Journal vol. 28, No. 2 Summer 2023

There are many ways to make your practice session more meaningful. I’m going to suggest five methods to make your practicing at music a healing process. A good way is to get started with an open mind. Begin with no worries of mistakes, for that will paralyze you from the get go. Besides, mistake are a part of life, we all make them, so you might as well just stay positive. Best to start with some advice from Benjamin Franklin, “Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”

Let Go

I love hearing and watching a student play through a song in its entirety for the first time during a private harp lesson. As I listen, I’m also watching for other details.That initial play-through, shows a musician’s excitement or nervousness, where the smooth parts and the rocky parts are in the song for them, and how they physically play, hopefully moving in a flow and not being stiff.

During a recent Zoom lesson with an adult student, I noticed that she was holding her breath. To a teacher, this is nothing new. As a young student myself I did this, along with crunching up my face, in concentration. Sometimes, when we focus on one area of the body, like our hands, when we make music, we might stiffen up other “unused” areas of the body, like our face or back. The illusion is that we actually are using all of our body to play.

After the student finished playing, she asked me how she could improve. She was at the point in practicing where she was getting the notes correct and playing with dynamics, but there was something missing. I asked, “Are you holding your breath?”

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Ways of Hearing in Modern Times

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In the summer of 2020, at the beginning of the Pandemic, one of the first things I noticed in the city, was how quiet things suddenly felt. Air traffic decreased greatly. My house, positioned in North Central Seattle, had been a major flight path to Sea-Tac Airport at particular times of day. I always noticed increased activity between 9-11pm, because that is when I liked to record! Many times, I would have to adjust my schedule, because it was too loud. But once the Pandemic hit, the nights became perfectly still, even in the middle of the city. During the mornings, sea planes would land on nearby Lake Union. This sound also decreased for some months. Suddenly, there was a lot less noise coming out of the sky, and subtle sounds stood out more: bird calls, neighbors walking by. A Pandemic way of hearing was appreciating the certain new quietude. However, with the noiseless nights came some discomfort, about what was going on in our world.

Listen Up! There are many ways of hearing.

Then, as the summer heated up, other sounds took prominence: frequent emergency vehicles and police sirens. I noticed increased helicopter activity and during BLM protests, and more than once I heard SPD fire flash bang grenades as I lay in bed, coming from across the hills from nearby Capitol Hill. There were stories in those sounds. I imagined the Pike/Pine corridor, city streets I knew so well in my old neighborhood, and I imagined the fighting. Later, in the morning, real images on the news joined the sounds I had heard. But as I lay in bed, I felt the whole city, and the whole country, listening to what those sounds meant. I felt many ears listening to the troubles around us, and I had difficultly sleeping.

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