10 Harp Adventures To Create Before Summer Is Over - PHH 065

Welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness, the Harp Mastery Podcast. My name is Ann Sullivan and I'm a harpist, teacher, and founder of Harp Mastery. I'm all about creating more harp happiness in the world by helping harp players like you play the music they want the way they want. But as a harpist who nearly flunked out of one of the most prestigious music schools in the world, I although later not only graduated, but I went on to teach there. I know from personal experience that learning the harp is way harder than it looks. Here, each week on the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast, I show you how to solve the challenges of practicing and playing the harp. Whether it's about making your fingers behave or learning music faster, or getting your piece's performance ready, or just learning to enjoy your playing every day. Sounds great, doesn't it? Let's get started.

Welcome to the show. Summer is flying by for me, and I imagine it is for you too. I always make big plans for the summer. I tell myself that this is the summer I'm going to start my Christmas music early or seriously work on my technique or get that recital program memorized. But no matter how good my intentions are, the summer just seems to slow slip through my fingers. Without anything to show for it other than a sunburn, it can feel pretty disheartening. But let's turn this around for a minute. What if this were the summer that I really enjoyed my harp playing? Not worked at it or put pressure on myself to get to that next level or to learn that big piece, but I just enjoyed it. I'm feeling the harp happiness buzz already now. I hope that sounds good to you too, because on today's show I'm going to share 10 of my favorite ways to create adventure in your summer harp playing. That's right, adventure. Just think, your music could be a time machine taking you to a distant place in time. It could be a magic carpet for traveling to far off lands. It could be the soundtrack to a movie or something. Set the mood for a restful evening. If we stopped working so hard, occasionally quit struggling to get the music right, stopped fixing the music and started experiencing the music, imagine where it could take us.

Close your eyes for just a moment and think of one of your favorite pieces. What does it make you think of? Or where does it take you? How does it make you feel?

Well, today's podcast is devoted to savoring the music we play. We won't talk about technique or fingering or dynamics or even about practice. Instead, we're going to explore ways to feel the magic of our music and create some musical adventures with it right now before summer ends.

Now, there's something else that I would encourage you to do as well. But don't worry, it's still not about practice or anything harp related even, but it's about inspiration and community and joy and harp happiness. I don't know if you are aware, but Harp Mastery is pretty darn active on just about every social media channel. And I know you're there too. I know you're hanging out there somewhere, but maybe you haven't caught up with us yet. And I would like to invite you to follow us on your favorite social media channel. But even more than that, I particularly want to encourage you, my podcast listeners, to follow us on YouTube. You see, many of these podcast episodes are shared as video on YouTube. You know, you've listened to some of them and you've thought, hmm, I wish I could see exactly what she's talking about. Well, we've done a few of these, but more and more often now we will be sharing some. Some of that podcast wealth as video as well. And when you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you'll get notified automatically when we post new video content. So you'll not only be able to have the podcast with you for whenever you can't watch video, but you'll have some video to go along with many of our podcast episodes that will help bring some of that teaching to. To a higher level for you, make it just a little bit more understandable and accessible. So that's my task for you today. To click the link in our show notes, or you can just look for heart mastery on YouTube. Go to our YouTube channel. Hit that subscribe button. We would love to have you visit with us on YouTube or of course, on any of those other social channels. But I think you'll like following us on YouTube, so give that a shot. Now, now that you're back and you're off social media, let's start talking about musical adventure. Now, there are different kinds of musical adventures that you may want to try, and so I've put them in a few different categories for you. Our first category of adventure is for the explorers. And you'll see what I mean. Our first adventure, I want you to think about going on a world tour. Tour. Now that sounds wonderful, right? It also sounds expensive. Sounds like it takes a lot of time, but not when you do it sitting on the harp bench. This is kind of a fun one. Just choose a country, a time, a part of the world, someplace where you might Want to travel if it weren't so hard to get around or so costly. So choose one country and then find music from that country and play some. And every day for a week, you can add some extra, extra touches if you like, by decorating your practice space with some things from that country, especially if you've gone there. Or maybe you could just find some pictures to print out. Just imagine you could travel to the Greek Isles. Think of the pictures you could put up around your harp to get some of the atmosphere. And you could play music that was related to Greek, Greek stories or folk music from Greece. All kinds of things that you could find. Maybe you could even branch out a little bit. Something like the Sati music by Eric Sati, the Nasien, which were related to the Isle of Knossos. So, you know, there's all kinds of stuff you could do. You could decide to. You could travel to Scandinavia and you could, you know, you could play music by Swedish or Norwegian or Finnish or Danish composers. There's so much you could do. And you could put flags of the various countries up around. You could have a wonderful world tour and learn some new repertoire at the same time.

Or how about this for an adventure? Take your favorite adventure story and set it to music. So think of your story and choose, you know, any story you like. And then choose some pieces from your repertoire. Just maybe even go to some easy books if you like, and look at some pieces that suit different elements of that story. Maybe you want to improvise a little as well. But just think, you could tell the story through your music. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. You could even have someone narrate the story and record you playing your music with it, if you like. Wouldn't that be fun? Creating your own soundtrack? I love it. Or here's something not quite as imaginary, something a little bit more real, a little bit more practical, but still a great adventure. I want you to set your vacation memories to music. Think of a wonderful vacation that you had. Better yet, pull out some old photos from a vacation. I know you've got them in albums somewhere, not just stored on your phone, right? Choose a couple of photos, ones that make you smile, think about really good times or fun times, and then find a piece of music that seems meaningful or appropriate and seems to relate somehow to the fun time that you had. Put that photo on your music stand, give yourself a little smile and play away. You've just created a musical moment that's adventurous and fun.

Or one of my faves. Choose your Own adventure. Now, let's just say you've got a bunch of repertoire pieces, review pieces maybe, that you want to keep fresh. Well, put the names of all those pieces in a hat or a bucket, maybe a sand pail if you want to think about going to the beach. But put the names of those pieces in a proverbial hat and then pull out three. Open those three names, look at those titles, and then put those pieces in an order that tells a story. And if they don't seem very related to you, well, you'll just have to create a story to go with them. Make it your own adventure.

So those are our explore options. You've gone on a world tour by choosing music to play. Some maybe that you know, some that you're going to just sight read and experience. But music from a particular place, maybe someplace you want to travel or someplace you've gone. Don't forget the decorations. That's always kind of fun. Or you might set your favorite story to music, finding music that you like to play to create that soundtrack. Or set your own vacation memories to music. Find a piece that makes you think of that wonderful vacation that you had. Or use your review pieces and choose your own adventure. Pull those three pieces out and create a story from them. You'll have to be a little bit inventive for that, won't you? But it could be really a lot of fun. Okay, so those are some ideas for the explorers. But what if that just seems like a little bit too much work and maybe you just want to have a restful retreat for your summer adventure? Well, I've got some things for you too. What would a retreat musical adventure be like? Well, here's one idea. You could create a meditation soundtrack. Hmm. Think about that for a moment. Look through your music and choose a few very easy pieces that have a tranquil, restful, meditative sort of mood. And play them just for yourself. Play them all right in a row just for yourself to create some musical relaxation time. Think what this could do for your harp playing. You could just really enjoy playing. You could sort of almost snuggle down in your own music, a little meditation soundtrack. And if you like, you could record yourself playing those pieces and share it with a friend and spread that musical relaxation around a little bit. A meditation soundtrack. I think that sounds fabulous. Or maybe you want to treat your harp. You could have a harp spa day. Think about that. Make your practice room look nice, maybe maybe turn on some beautiful harp music and light a couple of candles. We have some nice ones in our Shop. Just saying. But, you know, set the mood a little bit and then polish up that harp. Dust it, polish it. Follow your manufacturer's advice as far as what kind of dusting or polishing you can do. Change any strings that are worn. Get in there and dust those little parts and those little cracks and crevices. Shine up everything you can shine up. Make it. Make it just as special as you can make it. Give your harp that spa day. Maybe you could get your nails done at the same time if you like, and you could have a lovely, lovely manicure before you come back and play again. Nothing wrong with a spa day.

But let's do something else that's definitely a retreat, but a little bit more introspective and thoughtful. Think about a book that you're reading right now. I know you've got one on your summer reading list.

Think about the book. Think about the characters in the book and imagine if one of those characters played the harp. Now, that could be an interesting exercise right there. And I'm thinking about the difference in books between maybe something like a classic murder mystery or a Harry Potter or a romance book or a Sherlock Holmes.

It'd be sort of interesting to think about which character in that book might play the harp. And if they played the harp, what sort of music would they play? What an interesting idea. If you're thinking about Jane Austen, there are a couple of characters in Jane Austen that play the harp, and you could think about one of those or think about a different character and would they play that beautiful music from the early 1800s. What exactly would they be playing on the harp? Or would you like to think of a more modern piece that just suits them somehow?

Or what about that, you know, that grim, sort of apocalyptic. There you go. There's a word apocalyptic novel that perhaps you like, or something like the Martian, maybe. Well, what character in there might play the harp? And what might that music sound like?

A whole different thing. It's interesting. It's going to make you think about your music just a little bit differently. And then once you've decided what kind of music that character would play, then of course you have to sit down and play it and just think about it a little bit. But it will give you new insight in your music and just kind of something fun to think about. Definitely an adventure in its own way. So there are our retreats. You could create a meditation soundtrack. You could have a harp spa day. Don't forget yourself. Right. We need spa days, too. And you could do your summer reading assignment where you think about a book that you're reading and figure out which character might play the harp the author just forgot to tell you and what sort of music they might play, and then go ahead and play it. Kind of fun when you think about it. But what if those are just a little too low key for you and you want to experiment a little bit this summer? Well, boy, do I have some ideas for the experimenters among you. Okay, I know that some of you are bold and daring and adventurous, and you're ready to experiment a little bit. Well, that's what we're gonna do right now. I invite you to be bold right along with me. Now, the first one of these experiments doesn't even involve playing, although it does involve your harp. I want you to grab a friend who's pretty good with a camera, even if it's just the camera on their phone. I want you to grab your harp and some spiffy clothes and head to some pretty place outdoors, whether it's your back deck or a public park, which would be great. Maybe a fountain that's outdoors somewhere. That would just be a lovely spot. But head outside and have that friend take some pictures of you. Do a photo shoot, just you and your harp in the beauties of nature. How would that be? I mean, just think you're gonna get some nice pictures, pictures that you can share with your friends or put up in your living room or share on social media. But wouldn't it be fun to get dressed up and get those harp photos taken? You could, of course, dress in your regular concert clothes, but what if you wore a costume? Like clothes from the Victorian era or maybe colonial dress or some. Some garb from another country? Right. I can see some of you getting out the lederhosen right now. So, you know, think about it. What kind of photo shoot would you like to have? You could make it glamorous, or you could make it fun, but what a nice adventure to have with your harp. Sounds fun to me. All right. But you say you'd like to do some more playing. All right, well, here's another experiment for you. While you're out there traveling around with your harp, let's break out of your regular practice space and let's take your harp to a big place to play. A big indoor place would be great. Think about a big church or a school auditorium or a big hall somewhere, someplace where you can really hear your harp. Fill a big room with sound. Take it from me, there's nothing more fun than playing in a big room. All of A sudden, your harp just doesn't sound quite so little anymore. It's got some power, and it's going to fill that space with sound. Now, there don't have to be any people there. You don't need an audience. This is just for the experience of having your harp fill a big space with sound. It's fun. And of course, if you want to imagine that there's an audience and that you're playing a big concert, that's great. Remember that this is a technique that, you know, harpists use to help prepare them for performances, because it's very different playing in a big room than in your little practice space at home. So you have to prepare for it. And if you've never done it before, if you've never played in a big space, trust me, it's kind of fun. Especially if you can do it with nobody listening, right? You're not doing it for the first time when you're all nervous about a concert, but you're just kind of enjoying it. So break out of that practice space. Call your local church or school or something. Call that office. Nothing's going on. It's summertime. See if you can just set it up and go ahead one day and just do it. It'll be fun. Why not experiment with it, right? Okay. And one more. I promised you 10 things, and I have one more thing for you to experiment with. This is kind of a biggie. What if you had a little impromptu porch concert? Now, think about this for a moment. You could take your harp out on your front porch or your driveway or your lawn. All you need is some shade, right? You don't want to be sitting in the sun. And of course, you don't want to be sitting in the rain either. So don't do it on a rainy day, but take your harp outside. You don't have to advertise this. This isn't going to be a concert that, you know, you advertise and people come up and they listen. You're just going to take your harp outside somewhere and play for, I don't know, about 15 minutes. Let your music just add some wonderful sound and beauty to the world around you. And if people walk by and hear you, how much fun would that be? Right? They're just, you know, they've stumbled on a musical event that they never would have expected. You've created just a little bit of harp happiness in their day just by you sitting outside and playing for just a little bit. Now, you can accomplish sort of the same thing if you just Open the window, sit by the window and play. But it's not quite the same thing. Take the effort. Make the effort to take your harp outside. You know, be sure you're sheltered and, you know, not in the sun, all that good stuff, and let people experience it. Imagine what it would be like for somebody walking down the street to all of a sudden see somebody playing the harp on a porch. How cool would that be? They would think, that was wonderful. Think of everything you're adding to the world that way, as you know. And maybe you've thought it was corny, but as you know, at the end of every podcast episode, I say, you know, tell you to add a little bit of harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. Right? Well, the universe is waiting, and this is how you do it. Just share your music. It's an experiment, right? Nobody is judging. There's no right or wrong here. Just take a few pieces you like to play and sit out there and play them. Ho ho. You might even enjoy it. And that's what an experiment is all about. You never know. So those are 10 of my very favorite ways to create musical adventure, especially in the summer. You can do most of these any time of year, but. But I like to think about them more in the summer. I hope that you try one of them. Wouldn't that be fun? Now, of course, there is one more that I will mention to you just in case you're feeling extra inspired. And it sort of goes with what we were talking about a moment ago. What if you had a friend take a quick little video of you playing the harp, Maybe playing your porch concert or maybe playing something during your photo shoot or in that big church, right? You could just play something. It doesn't even have to be long. 30 seconds is plenty. But just have somebody take a quick video of you playing and then be brave, be bold. Post it on your social media, post it on Facebook or Instagram or whatever you have. And if you do that, please tag us. Please tag Heart Mastery. We'd love to, love to celebrate that with you, but wouldn't that be fun?

Yeah, you have to be brave, but just a little bit. You don't have to be good, good, right? The harp, your heart plank doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be concert ready. It doesn't have to be the hardest piece you've ever played. It just needs to be fun. Fun for you, something you feel like sharing. That's all. That's plenty good enough. So experiment, do that Video. Get it out there. You will be so glad you did. And just know that wherever you are doing that, I'm giving you a gold star. Gold star for spreading that harp happiness. We'll be able to feel it here. Trust me, it multiplies. Harp happiness travels well. Well, I hope those ideas have inspired you to do just a little bit of exploring or retreating or experimenting with your harp playing this summer. It doesn't mean that you're going to skip practicing. It doesn't mean that you're going to regress, that you're going to, you know, lose all that good work you've done. But the harp isn't just for hard work. The harp is for fun as well. And why shouldn't we have some adventures with our music? I think it's one of the most fun things that you can do and it will change the way you look at your harp playing and your harp practice. When you have that much fun doing it, the hard work just gets that much easier. So try one of these or more of these. And of course, remember that we are on social media. So if you post something on social media, tag us. We'll be happy to share it. And let us know where you are on social media. I promise, if you follow us, we'll follow you back. And remember this, this particular episode, we're all about YouTube because we will be posting video on YouTube and if you have subscribed to our channel, you won't miss anything. So that's my action step for you. After you've done one of your harp adventures or maybe before, hop on over to YouTube and you can click the link in the show notes and that'll take you right over to our channel. But you can always find us. We're harp mastery on YouTube, so you can find us. And click that subscribe button and you won't miss anything. Don't miss a moment of your summer either. Now, I'll be back here next week to talk about something much more prosaic, but still kind of an interesting topic. We'll be talking about raising when you play. I know that some of you, like me, are Salzedo students and you are, you know, we were taught to raise other harp methods, do something just a little bit differently. But talking about the harpistic gesture and what raising does for your playing is always sort of interesting. And that's what we'll be talking about here next week on the podcast. In the meantime, remember that every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world. And to to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. All right, see you next week. Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your Harp Happiness every day. See you next time.