Architect Your Harp Playing Growth with 3 Key Systems - PHH 243

What if playing the harp felt easier the way you thought it would be? Not because you practiced more, but because you finally understood what was getting in your way? I'm Ann Sullivan and welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness. Here we tackled the real challenges harpists struggle with. The sticky passages, the tricky fingerings, prepping for performance, and and all the ingredients that go into making music sound the way you want it to. I've studied with world class harpists, taught at a top conservatory for 20 years, and I love playing the harp. But what I love just as much is breaking down the real challenges harpists face and turning them into clear, step by step solutions. The same ones I teach my students and use myself. So if you're ready to play the music you love with more confidence, clarity and joy, you're in the right place. So let's get started. Welcome to the show. A system is comfort. When we have and follow a system, whether it's for completing tasks or crafting or making a grocery list, our mind can be at ease. Why? Because we know we have the steps we need to complete our task. And all we have to do is follow the steps and the task will be done. When it comes to harp playing, I find people frequently make one of two mistakes. One is thinking that harp playing is inherently creative and so you don't need a system. A system is not only unnecessary, but it will rob your music of its soul. The other mistake is trying to systematize everything about your playing in an attempt to get consistent results or make consistent progress. Now, if you heard last week's podcast, you know that the word progress is one of the words I'm trying to steer clear of this year, but it's one I am going to find hard to avoid. What's interesting to me, though, is that systematization is one of the progress traps. Progress meaning in this case, growth. Either overall growth or integration of a single piece of music. Progress defeats every attempt we make to predict it, to systematize it. But that doesn't mean that systems are useless for us. In fact, I think it points out how much we need systems. We just need the right ones. So today I'm going to give you a systems roadmap. Three systems that can predict your growth. I know these systems are powerful and I hope that today's show will convince you to look at how you do what you do with your harp playing and give you some quick and easy ways that you can make an upgrade. That's what these systems can do for you in the show. Notes for today's episode. I've also linked to a blog post from the Heart Mastery Archives called five steps to expand your vision and achieve your goals. And I wanted to include this with this particular podcast episode because if you don't have ideas, if you don't have a little bit of a vision, if you don't know what you want your goals to be for this year, this, this might be a good place to start. Because once you know where you want to go, it's going to be easier to systematize your progress. Doesn't mean you have to have those goals in place first. The systems that we're talking about today are things you can put in place and let that goal appear. Once you see what the systems are doing for you, once you see where your heart playing is going, you might have a great you. Once you see where your heart playing is going, you might have a better idea of what you want to do with it. So I've included a link to that blog post in the show notes. If you don't know where to find the show notes for the podcast, we have them in the podcast link on the Heart Mastery website. You can go to Heart Mastery and just click on the podcast. Click on today's episode and you can see the show notes there and you can find the link that way. If you're listening in an app like a podcast podcast app or Spotify or one of those, you should be able to see the podcast show notes right there. But if you can't find them there, then you can always come to Harp Mastery and get them that way. So there's the link to that related blog post. And I did want to just point out that we're talking about these systems today. There's only so much I can do in a podcast episode, but systems like these are the ones we're going to be talking about at the Getaway retreat. Also, we've had a number of people sign up, but we do have some spots left. And so if you want to take advantage of what we're working on at the getaway retreat and have me help you with your systems, a great way to get that done. Get in there and register. Today at the retreat, we'll be talking about systems around passion and purpose and progress. Yeah, I know that word's showing up again, but we're going to be talking about the systems that you need to make those things happen to bring your passion to life, to give your playing and your practice purpose so that you can see the growth that you're looking for. It's all about knowing what to do and how to do it. And it's a personal thing. I mean, I can give you the systems today that are going to work across the board, and I will give them to you, of course, but they're a little bit general. When we're working one on one at the retreat, I get to work individually and look at where your systems are strong and where we can bump them up just a little bit so that you can get just that edge. That's going to help you move everything forward this year. So that's another thing that I would love for you to do if you are interested in really jumpstarting your growth this year and making those strides that you've been hoping would just show up, but they're not there yet. That's what we're going to be able to do. And of course, it's a wonderful environment to be able to do that. So I'd love you to join me at the getaway retreat and you can register. You'll find that link@heartmastery.com or in the show notes. All right, let's start talking about the systems that are going to bring predict your growth as a harpist. These systems are powerful. Why are they powerful? Well, when you have the right systems in place, you have the foundation for working on all the things you need to work on in your harp playing. All those things you want to improve all those skills, you want to level up all that music you want to learn. In short, your systems determine the music that you can play. They determine how quickly you can learn that music, and they determine how quickly and steadily your skills level up. Now, without a system, everything slows down. I mean, think about that for a second. If you're just sort of working scattershot. Oh, these measures need fixing. Oh, I need to do these scales. Oh, maybe I should try some chords. Oh, let me do this piece. This piece seems like a lot of fun. If you're working sort of scattershot like that, you're not going to make consistent growth. The progress. To use that word again, there it is. But it's not going to show up for you because there are too many pieces in play. You're not lining them up in an order that makes sense, and you're not just doing the things that you need to do. There's so much in system that is powerful and in short, everything. Your entire harp happiness is really tied to your systems. Now, if all you want to do is kind of dabble and you don't care if you get any more growth, you change the level where you are, you up level. If where you are right now is enough for you, then you probably don't need these systems because you've got everything you need, right? You're playing exactly the way you want and you're doing what you want and you have no further ambition. Now I'm guessing that's not you or you wouldn't be listening to this podcast because we're really all about growth and pursuing harp happiness at different levels all the time. And really, you know, I'm thinking about it from my own perspective, I guess, you know, okay, my playing's all right, but for me to maintain that level of playing, I have to have a system. For me to learn new pieces, I have to have a system. For me to prepare repertoire for a recital, I have to have a system. And I don't know anybody who really works at a high level who doesn't have a system. I mean, a system isn't restrictive in and of itself. A system is what you make it. And you'll find that there are artists, musicians, painters, authors, all kinds of really famous people who rely on systems to create. It's part of the framework that they use to support their creativity. One of the writers who is known for his system is Stephen King. Stephen King, absolutely, every day writes 2,000 words. I mean, he doesn't take off for vacations, he doesn't take off for Christmas. 2,000 words a day. And that's because he knows if he writes that much, he's going to get enough words done, he's going to be able to finish that next book. And one of his quotes is, amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work. I love that every time I'm just not in the mood, you know, that one jolts me back to reality. Yeah, we don't get to just have a mood. In fact, that's a quote by the composer Tchaikovsky. This quote is, a self respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. Don't you love that? A self respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. No, Tchaikovsky knew, you have to just sit down and do the work. Now before you get worried that this is just a system for putting in more hours of practicing, we are going to talk about a practice system, but that's not what what we're looking at. We're not talking about doing more, we're talking about Organizing what you do so that it creates the growth that you're looking for. So, yeah, I think practicing every day is important, or practicing five days a week, if that's what you can manage. And the consistency is really what's crucial here. We'll talk about that. That's kind of obvious, but there's so much more to it than that. I love 19th century English literature. It's one of my favorites. And one of my favorite authors is Anthony Trollope. And he wrote in his life he only lived to be 67, but he wrote 47 novels and none of them are short. He wrote 47 novels, a biography, five travel books, 42 short stories. And in his 67 years, he did all that while being an employee of the post office for over 25 years. So this was not a person who was a slacker either. And all that work, all that creativity came out and he was still holding down a job. So this is possible. Systems make this possible. You can't get that kind of a result from just being haphazard. Now, before you think that I'm telling you all this stuff and I'm excellent at all of it, I have to tell you that I'm not. I'm always looking to refine my systems and I'm always trying to find ways to live up to my own expectations for myself. I know how important systems are and I know from experience that when I follow the plan that I set out, everything goes more smoothly. And I also know if I don't follow that plan, not only do my fingers and my music get a little bit rusty, but I don't feel good about it. Because I know I could be working at a higher level. I could be doing more systems, maybe comfort, but they're also power. And that's what I want to impress upon you today. That these systems don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be perfect at following them. But. But every week that you follow it is going to be a week that makes a difference for you. And setting up systems that are going to work for you, that's going to be key. It's going to make such a difference for you. And if you already have systems that are working pretty well for you, well, use what we're talking about today to consider some tweaks. It's that beginning of a new year. It's a good time to tweak those systems. That's what I did. I sat down with my calendar and tweaked my calendar big time tweak just over the past couple days. And it's because those systems are going to allow me to get things done. So it's not just a calendar system for me, it's a practice system. It's a lot of systems that are involved in the heart playing world. And that's what we're going to talk about starting right now. We're going to go into the first system that predicts your growth. Remember, that's what these systems do. You can move forward as fast as you follow your systems. And the first system we're going to talk about is the easy one to talk about, because I think we get it, and that's our practice system. You know what I mean? When I say we get it? We know we're supposed to practice. That's what learning music, that's what being a musician, being a harpist is all about. It's about that habit, because practice is a habit. We have a habit of playing the harp. We have a practice of playing the harp. So that is important. And I think we understand. And of course, there are two factors here in the practice habit itself, which are the drivers. One is consistency, and that's what we were just talking about. And it's, you know. Yeah. The number of days a week that you practice. It doesn't have to be seven days. If that doesn't work for you, you get to set your own practice schedule. All you have maybe are three days a week. Three days a week. It's hard to make a lot of progress. But you will make progress. It'll just be a little bit slower. Five days a week, pretty good. Seven days a week is optimal, but a lot of people can't manage that. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong. You don't have to change the number of days a. You think you can practice just because I'm telling you you should. Because I'm not telling you you should. You make your practice schedule work for you, but realize that the regularity, the consistency of that schedule is what's going to yield results for you. And you may want to set sort of a baseline. Say, okay, my practice is. My practice days per week. Need to stay above this line. I'm like, all right, I want to do five days a week, but my line is three. I have to practice three days. So that if you get to that end of the week and you haven't done that third day of practice, well, it's just time to get there and get it done so that you stay above your line. So consistency in terms of Days per week is one thing. And of course the other factor is time, isn't it? How much time do you need to practice? And I would say here, consider sort of, what's the minimum amount of time you think you need to be able to tread water, to be able to stay where you are? I mean, does it mean, okay, Well, I need 20 minutes a day just to stay where I am? That's a good thing to know. If it's 20 minutes a day, if it's a half an hour a day, if it's an hour a day, you set your minimum daily practice requirement. How much time do you need? Start there, schedule that, and then decide, oh, you know, I'd like to add more because I want to move forward, so I'm going to need more time than that and schedule that. So that practice habit, that's where it all starts because that's where we play the harp and that's what we do, we play the harp. But of course, practice has a couple other components. One is that content. I mean, what do you do in your practice? Obviously, if you just sat at the harp and noodled for your 20 minute baseline practice, that's going to give you not the same kind of jet fuel that a really focused 20 minutes would. So there are a few things that I would suggest here. Your practice system needs to include a plan for your practice. Are you going to work daily on skills on review, not just on your repertoire or only on your repertoire. What are you going to work on? You make your plan. Once again, this is your plan. It's got to work for you. So you decide, what are you going to practice and then write that out. This is where our Spark journal, I think, really shines as a practice tool because it allows you to plan your practice ahead of time, to declare your intention, to say, this is what I want to do, and then to track what you've done. And I think a good practice journal system has both of those components. It's got to have the plan so that you know what you're going to do when you sit down at the harp and then that little bit of, you know, after practice review where it's okay. Yep, did it. No, didn't get to that today. Yep, did it. But I want to do it again tomorrow. You know, it gives you that chance to really schedule your growth. Don't you like that? I do. So that's part of the system that I think is important for our practice. And then there's a third component to the practice system and that's mindset. First of all, I hope you are approaching your practice with a really healthy, positive mindset. Not as something you have to do, but as something you get to do. An opportunity. I mean, how many people in the world have the opportunity to sit down and play the harp right in their own home? Play their own harp right in their own home. How cool is that? That's something wonderful. So do please remember to frame your own self talk around practice with that really empowering language. You get to practice. Okay, now is my practice time. That's the sort of thing that's going to empower your growth instead of stunt it, Right? Nobody wants to go do something that they keep telling themselves, oh, I have to go do that. I know it seems very basic, but our self talk is very powerful. I would urge you also to watch yourself talk while you're practicing. No. You know, yelling at yourself for making mistakes. Mistakes are part of the process. You don't get to yell at yourself. You wouldn't yell at anybody else, so why would you yell at yourself? So please watch yourself talk. And last little bit here about mindset. Think about your expectations. Are you setting a realistic timeline for yourself? You don't want to set yourself up for disappointment. You want to give yourself just enough challenge. And it can take a lot of trial and error to work out a reasonable timeline, but you get to adjust it as you go. I mean, if you set a timeline saying, okay, it's going to take me three weeks to learn this piece. And you get into it, it's like, oh, that wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. Sure, finish it in one week. Don't stick to your timeline. And of course, the reverse is true. If you get into that piece thinking, okay, it's going to take me three weeks. And at the end of three weeks, you realize, oh, this is going to take me closer to three months. Well, just readjust your timeline. That's okay. So those are the three components I want you to consider for your practice system. Your practice habit, your practice content, what do you do in your practice? And your practice mindset. Your practice system is perhaps the biggest indicator of your growth. It's the rocket fuel. It's where all the good stuff happens. But it isn't the only system I want you to consider. I want you to think now about your learning system. Oh, yeah, that's different from practice. Let me explain. You see, practice is only doing what you know. When you practice, your practice is only as informed as you are. It's only as smart as you are in terms of this is the information that you've gathered, right? It's only what you know. Learning is discovering what others know and then incorporating it and bringing that into your own work, your own practice. So we need to extend our knowledge. If we just practice on our own, that's good and we'll get better. But there are things we aren't going to discover. This is why working with a teacher, working with a coach is so helpful. It's such a powerful amplifier accelerator for your progress because you're getting access to what they know. I mean, now you're getting some of that just from this podcast. I like to think that I'm giving you these things that are going to help your harp playing and help you do what you want to do better. My job is to help bring and spread the harp happiness, and I hope that's what I'm doing. But I don't want this podcast to be your only source of harp learning. Take courses, take lessons, take coaching, don't just watch videos. That's helpful, but it's still. It's kind of half learning, isn't it? Because it's not personal in person. Learning, whether that's in person virtually or in person in person is still the most powerful way to discover those things that you didn't know that are just going to be so helpful to you in your heart playing. So think about your learning system. What are you doing to level that up? Are you taking lessons or are you working with a coach? Are you getting outside instruction that's going to enrich your own tool set and your own ideas about how to solve the challenges that come up in harp playing, about how to grow as a harpist. Think about your learning system. See what kind of upgrades you can make there for yourself. Okay, the third system, a little bit more complicated. And it's your playing system. Yeah. This is different from practicing, too. Think about it for a moment. When we're practicing, we're taking things apart and putting them back together. That's generally what we think of as practice. I know practice is the habit of playing the harp, but generally we think about practice as that, you know, that nitty gritty learning stuff that we have to do to get all the fingers and feet in the right place at the right time. Playing is a little bit different, isn't it? Playing is about starting, beginning to end, and making music. The kind of music you could share with someone. Whether or not you choose to share it is a different matter, but being able to share it, being able to play through something and have it be a beautiful piece of music. That's what I'm talking about. And so often we forget to do that kind of playing in our daily practice sessions. When we're sitting there practicing, it's okay, well, I'm going to work on this, I'm going to fix this, I'm going to do this, I've got to repeat this. And we forget how important it is just to play. And it is, it's critical. So I want you to think about your playing system. What do you do to get used to. I was trying to avoid the word practice. It's not going to work there. What do you do to practice playing? What do you do to incorporate playing into your daily harp playing every day? And these could be common things. It could be things like review. Do you review pieces daily? Do you practice sight reading? That's another way that we actually play. Right. Do you ever share your music? Because if you do, that's actually playing, playing for someone. Right. That's a wonderful thing to do. Or maybe you just sit down and play through a piece just for fun. I certainly hope you do. Being able to just pick something up and play it is a wonderful thing to do. It's perhaps one of the most enjoyable things I do. I know, I love that aspect of my playing. So remember that sitting down on the harp bench doesn't necessarily mean that every moment you're there you have to be struggling and improving and working at all the little details. You actually get to play the harp. You get to make the music that you're working on. Whether that's through regular review, whether it is just playing for fun or preparing to share your music with others, in which case you get to do the playing for them as well. Or maybe just sight reading or reviewing, just reading through an old book, all those things. Just playing music is not just a fun thing to do, but it's important for your growth. Yeah. Because if you don't practice playing, you're going to have a lot of catch up to do when you finally want to play something for yourself or for someone else. So getting that habit and that skill set and in play every day of your practice is really, really vital. So be sure that you have some system for that. If you need a review system and you are a My Heart Mastery member, that's what we're talking about. All this month, all of January, our theme is reviewing and how to do it. Right. So we'll be talking a lot about review and you'll be able to incorporate that into your daily work easily. If you're not a My Heart Mastery member, well, I think you should be, because it's a great way to just keep all these things fresh. But if you're not, you can find your own system. I want to be sure that I have a playing system, and I'm going to include review, I'm going to include some playing for fun. I'm going to include some sight reading. And then plan it, write it down. Be sure you plan it, be sure you do it. Create your system for that. That's all a playing system is. It's perhaps the easiest one of all three systems that we talked about today, but that doesn't mean it's any less important. And those three systems, taken together, your practice system, your learning system, and your playing system, that's where your heart playing needs to be. It's where it's nurtured. That's its little petri dish, it's little laboratory, it's garden bed, right? It's there in the hot house and it's being nurtured and it's going to grow. And that's where you're going to see all those wonderful results that we want. The strength of your systems is your heart plan growth. It's that simple. And if you need just a little bit of an additional thought to go along with that, I'd like to remind you that music itself is a system. We play notes and those pitches that we play, those notes that we play, they're systematized into scales and into keys, into chords, into rhythms. We have a system for writing them down. We have musical form that has a system, right, like a minuet or a gavotte. Everything about music itself is a system, a framework, if you like, but it's a system that allows us to. To express our ideas, to communicate in a deep, nonverbal way in a way that is beautiful, that has melodies that soar and rhythms that pulse in ways that can be so inexpressibly beautiful. Without system, without any kind of a system, we wouldn't have that. We wouldn't have music. That's a system. Next week on the podcast, we're going to continue Sort of a theme all the way through this month. We've talked today about key systems to architect your heart playing growth. And over the next several weeks, we're going to be talking about the specific areas that we all have to work in pretty much every day in order to keep that growth going. And we're going to be talking about technique and we're going to be talking about musicianship and repertoire and where the next levels are in each of those. So we start by next week talking about next level technique, what the next level of technical facility might look like for you, and how to get there. That's what we're talking about on next week's podcast, and I think you'll find it interesting. I know it sounds a little bit daunting, but I think you'll find it interesting and I hope that it will help you find ways to level up. Because that's what I want 2026 to be for you. All the progress, all the growth, all the harp happiness that you want happening for you this year. And we do it one day at a time here, remembering that every day is a day. You can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit and and all you have to do is play. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time. Enjoyed today's episode? Then share it with a harpist friend. Subscribe for your weekly Harp Happiness Boost and check out harpmastery.com or the harp Mastery app in your app store for more resources and ways to connect. I'll see you next time.