7 Things to Practice When You Don’t Have Anything To Practice For - PHH 106

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Welcome to the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I'm Ann Sullivan, a harpist on a mission to empower every harpist to experience more harp happiness. Over my decades long harp journey, I've had lots of successes and more than a few failures. And I know firsthand what it's like to feel that playing the harp the way you want may not be possible for you. Now, I play and teach all over the world, and I know what most harpists are never taught the secrets to gaining the skills and confidence you need to play the harp with beauty, freedom and joy. That's what the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast is all about, showing you simple steps to help you play the music you want the way you want. If you're an experienced harpist looking for that next level, or a harp newbie anxious to avoid the pitfalls, or a harpist who just wants more fulfillment and a little encouragement, you're in the right place, my friend. So let's get started. Welcome to the show. It's Memorial Day today here in the US and that marks the unofficial beginning of summer for us. The pace of life slows down a little, especially the pace of harp playing. The concert season's over and although the wedding season has begun, you may be feeling a little at loose ends where your heart playing is concerned. I realize it might not be summer where you are, but our topic today will be relevant for you too. I want to talk about what to practice when you don't have anything to practice. For now, when we have playing engagements on the calendar, it's really easy to know what to practice. While we are busily learning all the music we need for that playing date, our practice time never seems long enough. We promise ourselves that as soon as things slow down, we're going to really spend focused time working on our technique, or our sight reading or improvisation, or the list goes on.

But those good intentions are a lot harder to act on. Once things really do slow down, we discover that our momentum slows down too. We don't have as much ambition. Our drive to achieve seems to have driven off without us. The fact is, we need some downtime. We need to ease up on the gas pedal and let the slower season refresh us. It's a necessary break, but you and I both know that a long break away from the harp can mean a lot of rehab work. When you start practicing again. Whether you're on vacation or taking a staycation or or just have a blank concert calendar, too much time away from the harp makes returning to the harp more than a little Discouraging. And let's not even mention the broken strings. So what can you do if you have nothing to practice for? How do you prepare before you go on vacation so you can come back to the harp without feeling frustrated? Well, if your harp plate or your music stand is feeling a little empty right now, I have some great ideas to help you switch up your focus and enjoy some relaxing time with your harp.

So what we're going to be talking about today is creating some motivation, creating a reason to practice. And motivation is necessary, but the fact is that motivation leads you to practice, but it doesn't always help you. When you get to the harp bench, it's not a sustaining force, it's an initiating force. And so the things that we're talking about today are going to give you the motivation you need to get something started. But what you're going to need beyond what we're talking about today is a way to sustain the momentum. Now I'll give you some tips, but we have a resource at Heart Mastery that is specifically designed to give you the tools you need to create and sustain momentum. And we call it the Momentum Miracle Intensive. I first did this intensive as a live course, but we put together all the materials that we used for that live intensive into a standalone course and it's a bargain at just $25. But the point here is that we need you to know how to create and sustain that momentum. It's that momentum that's progression, right of, you know, those little wins that add up to the bigger wins. It's the steps along the path. It's that steady or mostly steady path to progress so you can finally get something accomplished. And so inside this intensive, we've got an at the heart warmup that will get you focused. We've got pre recorded videos, a seminar where you learn how to create, build and sustain momentum over the long term. You get a pre recorded workshop so that you can actually play along and try those, you know, proven techniques. You can just play them right along with me. And then there's a printable, printable note taking guide so that you can write down your thoughts as you listen to the seminar and follow along with the workshop. And of course an entire PDF that's a toolbox with goal setting systems, special practice techniques, all those things you need for creating and sustaining momentum. So while we're going to start on that first piece today, we're going to work on motivation. I would encourage you to consider looking at the Momentum Miracle Intensive as a way to build on that for yourself and see yourself through that downtime that might be ahead of you. Now, quick note. If you are a My Harp Mastery member, you already own this course that's part of your membership, and you'll be able to find it right in the table of contents of courses that are on our membership site. So my Heart Mastery members, you don't need to buy this. You already have it. But if you're not a My Heart Mastery member, this is a great way to take advantage of the topic we're talking about today and take it further to serve you. You will find the link to this course, the purchase link to this course at the in the Show Notes for today. You'll also find it on the courses page@heartmastery.com and my heart Mastery members, you will find the course already in your table of contents on your membership site. So take a look at that. All right, so that's the momentum piece. What we need to talk about right now is the motivation piece. As we start our discussion, I want to be sure that we talk about one of the most important and probably least considered aspects of this particular topic. And, and that's this. When we complete something, the very act of completion brings with it a sense of loss. You know, when we finally, we've been practicing for a concert for months and months and then finally the concert's over, or when we've been working hard at a goal and the goal is reached or anything like that, when we're working hard to learn a piece and then we're finally done and we play the piece and boom, we're what do we do now? Anytime we complete a goal, it comes with that sense of loss, that sense that, okay, what now we've checked it off the list.

What do we do now? So of course the question we need to be asking ourselves in those moments is what's next? And we need to make a plan about it. So this is actually why it's not a bad idea to sort of keep that, that list maybe someplace in the back of your practice journal or something for those sort of someday things like those when I have enough time, I'm going to work on this, or I'm going to learn this piece, or I'm going to try this kind of music, whatever that is. You can keep that sort of list. I'm not going to call it a bucket list, but you can keep that special when I have time list and you can plan. That gives you something to pick and choose from, right? You could even put some of these things on little Slips of paper in a jar, and when you're ready for a new project, dip into the jar, pull out that slip of paper, and boom, there's your plan. But the thing is that you need to have that answer handy, that what's next answer all ready to go. Because the longer the time gap between completing that goal and starting on something else, the more you're likely to lose energy. Now, the plan you make, the new goal you choose doesn't have to be ambitious. And when you're working, you know, when you're coming up on a downtime, that's a purposeful downtime, you've worked hard at something or other and you're, you know, you're going to take a little harp relaxation time or maybe you're going on vacation or whatever it happens to be. You don't need an ambitious goal for this, you just need a plan.

So having that plan in place is terrific. And I'm going to be giving you some ideas for plans today. Things that might spark an idea for you saying, yeah, oh, that would be a cool thing to do when I don't really want to work too hard at something, but I want to stay connected to the harp because that's what's important here. So while there's a sense of loss and a sense of whew, okay, that's done. Well, what do I do now? Having that plan in place so that you can pick up and move on is important. Now, in our coaching program, the Heart Mastery certified coaching program, we divide the year into three trimesters. And so when the harpists enroll in the program, they've got a 12 week, well, it's a little bit longer than that, but They've got a 12 week trimester in which they and their coaches work together to, you know, achieve certain set of goals that they set. And then there's a break, a break of four or five weeks before the next trimester begins. Now, there are some students who just take one trimester of coaching and then they're done. But there are some who like to continue. And the first time when we were starting this program, and this still comes up with students who are brand new to the program, they would ask, well, why is there this break in between the sessions? And I explained it as, you know, well, you need some consolidation time. You need some time that's not quite so energized and potentially stressful. Right? You're working in high gear to get these goals accomplished in this limited period of time. And that's where the power of that program is because there's a limited amount of time, right? But after a sprint like that, you need some recovery time, some time to absorb things, some time to just kind of step back and consider what the next step on your plate is. Time to get ready for that. Right. That next step on the path. So there's time built in, in that kind of a way. And in fact, our coaches are very good about helping our students through that time and giving them little things to do that are plans but not high powered goals. And this makes for an. A goal setting rhythm that I think may. You might find helpful too, right? Where you have ambitious goals for a while, you're preparing for that concert, you're developing that repertoire that you're going to play at the nursing home, whatever it is, you've got that. That goal, and then you get that accomplished and then spend a few weeks doing something less challenging, less important, less stressful, but still something that marks an accomplishment for you. So alternating sort of those power goals with those fun goals, if you want to use that phrase, is a nice thing to do. It helps you balance your energy and not burn yourself out, keep yourself moving forward at the same time. So I think that that's part of what we're talking about today. You've had this high power time where you've, you know, been working hard on something and now there's a downtime. So what do you do? That's what we're talking about. So let's talk about some of those things you could do now. A favorite thing to do for many harpists at this time of year is to sort of have a Christmas in July practice routine where this is the time of year when things have slowed down for them. So this is a great time to start thinking about their Christmas repertoire for December. And it is a terrific time because if you have nothing else to practice, especially if you are in a hot summertime right now, you can sort of think cool. You can bring out that Christmas repertoire when the pressure is off. And so this is a terrific time to. To find those new pieces that you want to add to your repertoire, to try to run through those Christmas pieces, see what's there and figure out what you're going to. Now my recommendation for Christmas repertoire stuff is always look at what you already know and love to play and keep that. So you're going to hang on to that repertoire so you can start reviewing that because it's music you like to play anyway and it'll be fun. So you can start reviewing that if you like. Then look at those things that you started last year that you really enjoyed playing, and they were a little bit more challenging. You added them to your repertoire, but now they've been sitting for half a year. And so it's time to get those out and start refreshing those. Those will take a little bit more work. And then there's the sort of that third level, the exciting new repertoire level. Those pieces that you thought, maybe you thought you'd get to them last year and you didn't. Maybe they turned out to be just a little bit more challenging than you expected. Or maybe they're just pieces that you've always wanted to add to your Christmas repertoire. You, this is the terrific time of year to be working on them when you have less to do. Bring out that hard Christmas music. Get that the. Get the notes learned, get. Get the piece pretty much finished if you can, and then put it in its review stage so that you have half a year before you need to play it, that it can mellow and settle in. So Christmas in July is a terrific summertime focus. Right. Once again, think about those three levels shorter. You know the pieces that you love to play and play well and know well. You can review those. The pieces that were a little bit more challenging could use a little bit of work this time of year. And then those pieces that you've always wanted to get to, well, this is the time to get to them. All right. Well, let's take Christmas in July to a slightly different direction. Maybe Christmas repertoire isn't what you wanted to work on, but you could create a new repertoire set of music for any occasion and learn that perhaps you play regularly at nursing homes or senior centers and you have your set repertoire. Well, what if you created a new set that was going to be added to your performance repertoire come the fall? Well, this is the time. Get it out, figure it out and learn it. Work the same sort of way as I just described for the Christmas and July stuff. Are there older pieces that you want to bring back that maybe you haven't had in your repertoire list for a while? And what could you combine with those? Some things that are just a little bit more challenging and maybe one piece that's sort of a stretch piece that you now have the time to learn. So how much music you put in that set is up to you. Maybe, maybe you haven't ever put a repertoire set together. Well, this is a terrific time to try that and start with 10 or 15 minutes worth of music. If you've been doing this for a While maybe you want to create a new 45 or, you know, 45 minute set or something like that. So think about how you could combine pieces you already know so that they make pleasing combinations of pieces. Maybe you want to theme it. It could be a new repertoire set for weddings or a new repertoire set for those nursing home programs. As I said, it could be a new background music set. Could be a new set of music that you'd play at a church function. Maybe it could have a theme like music about nature. It wouldn't have to be for a specific performance. It could just be music that you have grouped together because you like it. Music by French composers, music that was written in the last 20 years. Music that is folk music from a particular area. You could create a repertoire set around any theme like that. You could create an Alphabet set where you've got music where the titles or composers all start with the same letter. Have fun with it. Think about what you could do. Get creative and use that for a focus for sort of a fun project for the summer. I always used to have reading projects in the summer where I would choose one author. And then over the summer I would read all the books I could fit in that were written by that one author. And that I always found was sort of a. An interesting way for me to pick new reading material. And it gave me sort of a focus. And you could do the same thing with your music. That's what I'm talking about. So just another fun idea. But maybe working on a lot of music like that isn't what you feel like doing in this downtime. Well, you might want to choose one thing to sort of put all your effort in and figure that, okay, you don't have to have your energies scattered over a lot of things right now. You have time to focus. So what will you focus on? You could focus on one particular piece, a piece that you know you are going to want to learn and you never have time to learn it. Maybe it's a little bit more complicated. Maybe it's going to take a little bit more energy. Maybe that's what you want to do. Or you could. Your one thing could be a particular technique. Maybe this is the summer you work on glissandos. Watch those fingers. That could make your fingers sore. Right on glissandos or harmonics. Or maybe you work on your pedal or lever technique. Wouldn't it be fun to learn how to do pedal or lever slides? Ooh, this could be fun. So maybe you choose a technique like that that you'd like to work on or maybe a different kind of skill like sight reading or note reading or memorization or improvis. The thing is, all those things sound good, but if you like to bring more focus to your work, this is the time when you can just choose one. There's a lot of power in that kind of focus and we often don't have the time available to just be quite so single minded. But this could be terrific. And if you're the person who really likes to dig into something, this is the time to do it. Just remember that the object of this is to just choose one. You can't load up your plate with everything else. So I would suggest that if you're going to do this, choose your one focus and then balance that, if you like, with playing other pieces. You know, schedule the time to just sort of like, okay, I'm going to play through these things, I'm going to do this. But don't let yourself get into practicing those other things. Choose one thing to really double down on and everything else can just be attended to at a more surface kind of level. It will keep you from burning out and will let you keep your focus, time focused. If you're the type that really likes to work even in your downtime, then this suggestion may appeal to you. You could make it a technique summer. You could make this downtime all about refreshing your technique. Go back to the basics of mechanics. Take one of those basic exercise or method books and work from the beginning. Look at how each finger works. Look at working your fingers so that they're at their peak in terms of closing and working, being in the right place on the strings, sounding, even.

Buzzing. You can work on raising, you can work on speed, you can work on patterns. Whatever the focus for your technique could be whatever you want it to be. Maybe this is the summer of learning to play fast, right? Maybe this is the summer of making your arpeggios even, or getting your hands to play scales in contrary motion. Work at different patterns together. Whatever you want to do with your technique, perhaps this is the time to focus on it. So this is the same kind of idea that we were just talking about with, you know, sort of doubling down on one thing. But perhaps it's not a single technique, perhaps it's all of your technique and working at doing all that, refining, cleaning out the bad habits that you got to got into during a busy year and cleaning everything up, that can be a fun thing to do. And of course you don't have to spend weeks at it if you like you could do a technique spa, perhaps for one week or for two weeks, and then go to another one of these ideas, right? You don't have to stick with one the whole time. But I've always enjoyed focusing on technique and on cleaning up my technique, working on those etudes that I want to work on and doing those during the summer. It's a terrific way to sort of make sure that you're ready for that next project, right, that next piece you want to learn. So you could make it a technique summer. Or this may be the time to muster your courage and schedule a lesson with a teacher you've always wanted to work with. Have you always wanted to work with that wonderful teacher at the university in the next town? Have you wanted to work with one of those, you know, famous harpist that you know, would really help you, that you'd really love to work with, and you've just been sort of shy about doing it? Well, this is a great time to sort of, you know, send an email and ask what their lesson policies are and ask if you could take a lesson. That's a such a wonderful way to learn, to just get input, to get someone else's idea about direction and where your playing is right now and where it could go, and to not just get the opinion of any old person, but a teacher that you particularly respect and admire. Remember, these are regular people and they teach regular harpists. So don't be afraid to reach out. They're used to getting these kinds of requests, and they'll be able to answer you whether the answer is, oh, sure, I'd love to work with you, but I won't be in town until this time, or I'm sorry, I don't do these kinds of lessons. They'll be nice to you because that's how they got where they were. Wherever they are in their career today. They got there by studying with various teachers. So they're used to these requests. So don't think that, you know, you're just a measly little harpist and they wouldn't want to work with you. When you write your email, be upfront about, you know, what kind of a player you are, the kind of music you've been working on, what you would love their input about. And, you know, let them give them enough information so that they know who they're responding to and what kind of response would serve you best. But don't be afraid to email. Don't be afraid to reach out. They're there and they love to teach. So, you know, As I said, muster up your courage. You can find their addresses, their. Their email addresses. They're everywhere. So. So go ahead and do it. This is the time. Even if the lesson won't happen for months yet because their schedules are often busy and they're traveling, that's okay. Get it on the calendar, and then you'll. You'll have enough motivation. You going for sure.

I think that's a great plan. I like that one myself. Speaking as a teacher, I know what I would like many of my students to focus on. Sure, it would be great for them to learn new repertoire. It would be absolutely fabulous if they worked on their technique. But more than anything, what I would like my students to work on, to focus on playing.

Playing pieces, not just practicing them, Learning how to create that flow in their music, learning how to prepare for a performance.

Performing. Whether you're just, you know, playing a formal recital in a. In an auditorium or whether you're just playing for a couple people in your living room, it's performing. And performing takes special kind of prepar. The kind of practice that we do does not get us to performing. Well, automatically performing requires certain skills. It requires practicing a particular way, and you do need to practice those skills. And all of that starts with remembering to play instead of practice and to practice playing. So creating that musical flow, playing past your mistakes, creating a seamless musical idea from the beginning of a piece to the end of the piece, learning to have to balance your energy all the way through the piece, to have the stamina and the control, both physically and musically, to make the piece happen, beginning to end, how to play through those trouble spots even when they go wrong. That all takes skill.

And as I said before, that's not the kind of practice that we usually do. So if I were to pick a focus, for many of my students, that's the focus I would pick so that that particular skill would be something that they could work on. So focusing on playing, what could you do with a focus like that in your playing this summer? You could practice playing your Christmas music. You could practice playing music you were going to want to play at a church function or at a nursing home function or a senior center or a ladies luncheon or whatever it is, you could work at finding that flow. I will tell you that the fun part about this is that you're actually making music and you learn to get your attention away from the mistakes that you're making or worrying about mistakes that you maybe make or maybe don't. But you put your head and your thoughts and your focus on the music, on the expression, on the musical atmosphere, the picture that you're painting with you're playing, all of that. And it's very enjoyable. It's very absorbing work because you can really sort of engage your imagination and not just your determination when you're working. So this would be a fun sort of work. And if you've never done it before or you're worried about having to perform somewhere and not being prepared for it, this would be an ideal time to do some trials that way. So you could try that. Focus, right? Focus on flow for the summer. All right, I have one more tip for you. My last idea for a downtime plan for you is to actually plan a vacation from the harp. Yes, that's right. You don't play. Perhaps you actually are going to go away somewhere and that's okay. And in fact, I'm going to give you some tips that you can use anytime you're away from your harp for an extended period of time. You know, I like to say that absence makes the harp grow fonder. So, you know, it'll be nice to come back home to your harp and get back to it. But there's some, you know, there's a time for just staying, staying separate. Now if you are actually doing sort of a staycation and you're just taking a break from your playing, I would advise you to, you know, tune that harp every once in a while because it'll just make coming back to the harp a little bit easier. But, but if you're away from the harp for an extended period of time, you're going away and you come home, it can be very difficult to get back. And you know, the re entry is hard. So. And I've had students worry about this because they come back and the strings are broken, the harp's out of tune and their fingers seem to have forgotten everything that they just spent so much time working on. So here's how to do a vacation from the harp. Right. First of all, know that your fingers aren't going to work very well when you get back and things are going to be rusty and that's okay, you won't have lost everything. You're just going to need to do a little bit of getting, you know, getting back in gear and that's normal and it's okay. So don't panic.

But you need to plan this and plan this out before you go away. And here's what I suggest. Pull out a few of your favorite warm ups and exercises. Nothing hard. Things that are Easy things that are slow things that will just get your fingers working correctly again. Because the first thing you're going to do when you get back from your vacation is tune the harp and replace those broken strings. I mean, you need to do that, right? So just, you know, grit your teeth and get in there and do that because you need to get that done. But after that first couple of days when things are, you know, you've gotten the heart back in shape on its own, then it's time to sit there with your warm up exercises and those easy exercises that you've already prepared, you already know what they are, they're on your music stand. And just play those for three days. Just get your fingers working. Practice in short bursts so that you don't get blisters because your calluses probably will have softened up. And you don't want to overwork anything here because we don't want to create any tension or any damage for anything, right? So you need to ease back into this. So please be patient. Give yourself three days of tuning the harp and doing your warmups and exercises slowly and gently. Then after those three days, then you should move on to pieces that you know well and enjoy playing. You can play those and add those to your warm ups now so that you're going to bring those in. You know, them start a little slowly because even those pieces may take just a little while to come back. So give yourself three more days of playing your warm ups and playing your favorite pieces.

By then, you and your harp should both be back to normal and you can get back to the things that you were working on and learning before you left. But this gives you a week essentially of just getting back into the harp easily. There's no point in kind of rushing back to it and trying to do hard stuff. You're only going to frustrate yourself and your fingers won't be ready for it. They won't want to respond and that's going to get more frustrating. So the key to doing this well is to have this planned beforehand and know that that first week back is a rehab week. Have those favorite warmups and exercises are already planned out and on your stand. Have those favorite pieces already picked out and on your stand so that you're all set to go Write out your plan if you have to. And remember that it's going to take you three days of exercises, three days of pieces to, you know, to get back to where you were. Take it slowly. Now, if you find that you're back in gear a little sooner, that's terrific. But give yourself that week. Now, I know that some people are always surprised to find out how, how far out of shape they can get in just a few days. But I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes with you that speaks directly to that. This was a quote from the Polish pianist Paderewski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski. And he was born in 1860. He not only was a pianist and a composer, but he was actually Prime Minister of Poland in 1919. He was born in the Ukraine, but it was his piano playing that took him all over the world. And so he was an extremely busy concertizing pianist. And here's the quote that I wanted to share. This is what he said. He said, if I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it. So if he felt the rust start to accumulate after one day, and he felt that the audience could hear it after three days, who are we to to think that we could do better after a vacation? Right? So please give yourself some grace here and take that week to get back after your harp vacation. You don't have to feel guilty about taking the vacation. You just have to know how to get back to the harp properly. And now you do. So there are seven things that you could practice when you have nothing you have to practice for. You can choose one of those that you might want to try sometime in the next couple months, or you could choose a few of them and you could do one for a week or two, another one for a week or two. You could consider staggering your goals the way we talked about before with a sort of a high pressure, push ahead kind of a goal, and then something that's a little bit more relaxed. However you do your summer, however you do your vacation or your downtime, whenever you get it, that's up to you. And isn't that a good thing? Now, do remember that I mentioned before that the Momentum Miracle course that we have at Heart Mastery would be a great way to build on what we've talked about today. Today we talked about finding that motivation. But if you're looking for tips for techniques for strategies for tools for keeping momentum going, even when your energy flags, you will find those in that Momentum Miracle Intensive course. The seminar is a terrific one, I think, and filled with lots of good information. Plus you get to work through those techniques in the workshop along with me. So those I think you'll find very helpful. And you will find the link to that course in the show notes here. You'll find it on the Courses page on the Heart Mastery website and my Heart Mastery members, you will find the course on already in your table of contents so you can look for it there. Next week on the podcast we will be talking about spot practice.

Done a little differently. I'll be telling you exactly how to work with a tricky spot in your music and find exactly what you need to work on, how you need to work on it, and to get it back, fitting into the piece seamlessly. So it's spot practice on next week's podcast. In the meantime, remember, every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. Thanks so much for listening and I will see you next time.

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.