Creating Your Secondary Practice Style: A New Look at Your Practice Breed - PHH 257

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 Anne Sullivan, and welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness. Here we tackle the real challenges harpists struggle with: the sticky passages, the tricky fingerings, prepping for performance, 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 number of years ago, I wrote a blog post comparing practice styles to two breeds of dogs: a German Shepherd and a Greyhound. Now, this was my metaphor for discussing a topic I found really hard to address with my students. The fact that their natural practice style was a determining factor in the speed of their progress. Let me explain. I had some students who were committed to doing everything correctly and as a consequence learned carefully and thoroughly but rather slowly. I had other students who wanted to play the music right away. Their enthusiasm and energy got them to the finish line quickly, but we often had to go back to pick up some important points that they'd missed along the way. Both learning styles were good to a certain point, but at that certain point, each style needed to incorporate the strengths of the other one in order to get the music to the finish line. So to help my students understand this better, I chose two wonderful dog breeds as representations of the two learning styles: a German Shepherd and a Greyhound, both wonderful dogs with very different characteristics, right? While the German Shepherds like to maintain order and discipline, the Greyhounds like to race to the finish. My goal was to give my students a nonjudgmental way, assuming they like dogs, to think about the way they liked to learn and to inspire them to step outside their comfort zone a little so that they could make more predictable progress and enjoy the process a little more. It seemed to work to capture the imagination of harpists who had felt they were missing something but weren't sure exactly what it was. A few years later, when I started this podcast, I added a third breed of dog, the beagle, the joyful investigator, into the mix. In fact, that podcast episode was the very first episode of the show, and you'll find the link to that episode in today's show notes. What I'd like to do today is to talk about what to do when your practice style needs to shift, or when you find yourself drawn to a new way of practicing that's different from your usual style. Of course, I'll review the traits of all 3 breeds of practice styles, and I'd like to add a 4th too. We're going to add the Golden Retriever today. So by the end of our show today, you should have a pretty clear idea of your primary practice style and why it works for you, when it doesn't work for you, and how to step into the shoes—or should I say paws—of another breed when you need to. It's a different and lighthearted look at your practice today. And oh yes, I'll share my own practice breed with you too, although maybe you can guess and we'll see if you're right. So the link to that episode 1 of the podcast is in the show notes along with a resource that if you're a My Heart Mastery member, you have right in our website. And that's a class that we gave a while back called the Practice Routine Refresh. And that has some ideas. It was specifically geared towards summer when we did this originally. And you know, summer's coming up possibly. Summer always comes sooner or later. And so those tips could be useful for that, but you might find them useful right now to help you think about your practice in a different way. So if you're a My Heart Mastery member, that link is in the show notes and you can click right through to that. If you're not a My Heart Mastery member, then I would encourage you to join. And of course you can always join us in My Heart Mastery, which is our paid membership. We have calls, live calls with me or with one of our certified coaches. We've got all kinds of courses and sheet music and resources and our Scale of Success curriculum to help you be a better harpist. My Harp Mastery is essentially designed to help you fill in the gaps that you may have or fill in the gaps that you may not have. I want you to be the kind of harpist that you want to be, and that's what My Harp Mastery is all about. You can find more about that at on our homepage heartmastery.com and look under programs and you'll see My Heart Mastery and you can read all about that. Let's start by exploring what a practice style is, or at least what I mean by a practice style. This is essentially the way you like to work. It's about your learning, it's about your process, and yes, it's about your comfort zone. Your comfort zone is not a bad thing here because your comfort zone is where you do your best work. It's where you're leveraging your strengths, your personal strengths and your proclivities, what the way you like to learn. Now there are probably as many practice styles as there are harpists in the world, so categorizing anyone's practice style definitively is going to be a little bit tough. So we're really talking in some broad generalizations today, and I wanted you Be sure to think of these things that way. I'm not trying to put you into a box or put you into a dog breed today, but I am trying to help you identify where your strengths and where your best learning happens. Where is that magic sauce for you? And you probably already know because it's the way you like to practice. Think about it. You know, sometimes you can think about somebody practicing and they have to have everything in the room just right, and they sit down and they have their practice journal organized a certain way, their music organized a certain way. That's one sort of practicer, right? But imagine another sort of practicer who dashes to the harp and opens that first thing and plays it through. That's a completely different kind of practicer. Neither one is bad, and that word was heavily in air quotes in case you couldn't tell. We're not talking about bad styles or good styles. We're simply talking about the way you like to learn. If we were all the same, this world would not be so interesting. So everyone is different, and the fact that that's the way you like to learn is terrific because that's how you're going to learn best to a certain point, as I mentioned a moment ago. And what we need to do is make sure you know how to get beyond that certain point so that you can actually play the music the way you want to. The fact is that the more wedded you are to one particular practice style, the harder it is to break out of that box, because that's kind of what it's like to break out of that box, that comfort zone, if you will. And get just beyond it to where that, that magic happens and all those notes turn into music, or they turn into music the way you want them to turn into music, at least. So that's where we're— what we're dealing with today. It's a little bit mushy, and that's why I've taken this really, uh, lighthearted, I hope, approach to it, because I want you to approach this with a sense of enjoyment, a sense of fun, and realize that I'm not advocating that you ditch everything that works for you. Far from it. What works for you, we want to keep. I just want to be sure that if you need more than that to play the way you want to, that I can help you see perhaps a path to getting there. So whatever your practice style is, remember this: It's at heart good. It's going to serve you because it's the way you're comfortable. So that in itself is very valuable. Second, it is your default, perhaps your comfort zone, your default where you naturally go, but it's not immutable. It's not unchangeable. It's not permanent. And it doesn't mean that you can't learn another way. At the same time without giving up what works for you. So what I'd like you to think of today is you've got your primary preferred practice style, and then we're going to have a secondary style that complements that and gives you that extra edge right where you need it. A third thing about your practice style: Remember that your practice style is derived from what motivates you, from what energizes you, so that it's really coming from your heart. And that's why we need to pay attention to it, why we don't want to just change it whole, you know, kit and caboodle sort of thing. We want to keep that because your motivation and your energy is fueling your learning and has shown you how you prefer to do it. So your practice style comes right from what motivates you and what moves you to do the work that we need to do to play, which is why it's so critical. So we're going to think about this, right? Your practice style is at its core the best thing for you. Because it's what you do well. It comes from what motivates you, which makes it so powerful for you. But it's your default. It's not unchangeable. And if you think about that as the fact that it's not a permanent thing that we can't kind of put off to one side for the moment, sort of like, you know, a hat we could take off. I know I'm mixing hats and dogs now. It's getting confusing, right? At least it's not cats and dogs. But, But if you can take on or put off that practice style when you need to so that you can put on another one, think how much more power you would get. You wouldn't be stuck in this one path that works really well for some things and not quite so well for something else. That's why we're looking at secondary and complementary learning styles today. That's where we're headed, but now let's sort of talk breed by breed, learning style by learning style. As we look at these, we want to consider what motivates people with this learning style. We want to think about what that motivation leads them to do and how that gives them strength as they're moving through learning a particular piece or through their harp journey as a whole. And then where the challenges are and where we might wanna be looking for that secondary complementary learning style, that secondary breed, okay? So let's start with the German Shepherd. The German Shepherd, as I am very lightheartedly again describing it in terms of our heart practice styles, they are motivated by system and order. They like to know what they're supposed to do, know how they're supposed to do it, and then they will go ahead and do it. They are more methodical. They're pretty responsible. They're very detail-oriented in terms of their actual practice. It might be that they're working through just one section at a time, working very carefully. These are the people who find it hard perhaps to think about going to hands together before they're really clear about what's happening hands separately. They want to make sure that everything's right before they go on. Now that kind of attention to detail is fabulous. This is the kind of thing that we teachers love because when I'm working with a German Shepherd, I rarely would have to say, "Pay attention to that fingering. Did you see that dynamic?" Because that's what they're paying attention to on the page. And so this is a real strength because they have accuracy at a very deep level. They're very focused on what they need to know, and once they've learned something, it is learned. So this is a terrific strength. Now, on the other hand, a German Shepherd can get so focused on those little details that they lose sight of the big picture, and it can make it very challenging for a German Shepherd to actually get to the finish stage because they don't want to let go of the details that they've worked so hard to acquire. They have all of this really carefully learned, and they're afraid maybe if they speed it up, they're going to lose some of that. And they're afraid maybe if they start playing past their mistakes that they'll start making those mistakes and they won't be able to correct them. And they might just not be able to release the, the individual notes enough to actually make music out of them. So those are the strengths, and they're considerable. Of the German Shepherd, and you can see where the challenges are as well. But this breed of practicer on the whole is motivated by getting things right, so they want to learn them right the first time, they want to understand what they're doing, they want to know how to do it, and they get in there and get it done. Now compare that to the Greyhound. As I'm talking about these first two breeds, remember that we're not talking about either one as bad bad or good. They are both perfectly fine learning styles, but they both have strengths and limitations. And so please remember that it's not like, oh, you're good if you're a German Shepherd and bad if you're a Greyhound, or the other way around. They're both important. All 4 of these breeds are important and they have wonderful strengths that can complement each other. So let's look at Greyhound. Think about the Greyhounds, right? They're the racing dogs, right? So this, this breed of practicer is motivated by that by that need to get to the finish line. They've got this piece, they're gonna start it, they're gonna play it. These are the students that you give them a piece, they come back next week, and they're playing it. So they're just— they race through it all and they're excited, they learn that whole thing, but there are all kinds of details that they may just leave in the dust. This is where their challenge is. While they thrive on that momentum and on that energy and on that, "I'm gonna get this done and play this piece," their challenge is that the repetitive work that works so well for the German Shepherds bores them, and they tend to skip over a lot of important details. The same things that the German Shepherds focus on are the things that the Greyhounds just skip right over. "Oh, I made that mistake? That's okay. I'm playing past it." That doesn't bother them. They will come up with the flow of the piece. The German Shepherds may struggle to make a piece flow because they want it to be right. The Greyhounds are pretty much the exact opposite. They'll get that piece flowing beginning to end, but you may have to go back. I may have to go back and say, "Okay, but you know there's this and this and this and this, and we need to pay attention to those too." So the motivation here is just to get it done and play it, but the challenge is that sometimes when they get to that playing there's a lot of important stuff that they've left on the floor that we need to go back and pick up and put in place. So there's the Greyhound style for you. These are pretty much polar opposites, and you can see that they would be very complementary, wouldn't they? But what's difficult is that if you're a real Greyhound, it's very hard to adopt German Shepherd learning styles. And if you're a true German Shepherd, the Greyhound learning style just seems so haphazard that you're really resistant to it. And that's why we might find a secondary learning style with one of the other breeds. So as I was reimagining the, the original blog post about the Greyhound and the German Shepherd, I realized that I had come across a third learning style that was motivated entirely differently. They just loved music. They liked this piece and this piece and this piece, and they had stacks and stacks of music that they were going to get to someday, and they were always ready to get on to the next one. And sometimes this left them with a trail of unfinished music. They were completely motivated by the new and the interesting But they weren't very systematic about being able to finish. I mean, this breed, which I called the beagle, and if you've ever had a beagle, you might recognize this. We did have a beagle at one point. They're wonderful dogs, but boy, they are interested in everything. So this particular kind of practicer, getting back to harp people for the moment, might start a practice session with a clear intention. I'm going to do this and this, but then they get totally distracted. Start, okay, well, first I'll do a review piece and that review piece will lead to another one and they'll get further and further away from their original practice intention. Or maybe they know they want to work on this particular passage but, you know, this other piece that was so cool, why don't they just read that through? Or, oh, I think I'll put this piece I was learning on the back burner and I'm going to start this one. So it's just they're joyful, they're curious, they're really interested, but it's hard to sustain progress and forward momentum because they're always taking these little, these little side trips. So they love what they're doing, they enjoy it all, but every once in a while they wonder why they don't have pieces finished that they can play. They've got a lot of them that are started, some that are half finished, but not a lot that they can actually play because they're always on to the next one. So there's the beagle. But there's another kind of harpist with a different style that I started noticing, and these are harpists— they're energetic, they enjoy their harp playing, they like practicing, they'll get in there and dig into some of the details. They're definitely not greyhounds. They're people who enjoy playing the harp, but they're not necessarily go-getters, but their harp playing is very important to them. They do enjoy the connection it gives them with other people. These are the harpists who are very likely to be part of harp circles or harp communities in some way. They enjoy learning, they enjoy being around other harpists, but they're not particularly driven inside to achieve or to, to go through a particular process in learning. They're a little bit more relaxed about it, and a lot of their motivation comes from being around other harpists or other people, or from having some sort of deadline, some sort of performance that's coming up where they know people are counting on them. They're a little bit more relaxed about their learning doesn't mean they don't care about it, but they're really looking for some inspiration and some spur from an outside source. They want somebody else to sort of push them forward, to give them a reason to do it, whether it is a performance— put that performance on the calendar, they'll be ready— or a lesson or a group or just a teacher telling them that this is what they need to do next. They're really looking for somebody to tell them what is, you know, what's coming up, whether it's a teacher or whether it's a performance. They're sort of externally generated motivations rather than just inside. Now, they've got some strengths because they're generally more regulated sort of players. They're not stuck in details necessarily like a German Shepherd. They're racing across and ignoring them the way a greyhound is. They do exactly what they need to do. They will get a piece prepared and they'll play it. They enjoy what they're doing, but if they don't have that motivation coming in—for instance, if it's too long between lessons or too long between performances—they'll sort of lose their, their way. They lose their sense of direction. They're, you know, as a breed of dog, these dogs are intelligent and they're friendly and they're wonderful to have around. And as a harpist, they are too. They're intelligent, they love to play, they love the harp, they love what they're doing. But, you know, they will stand there and sort of wag their tail waiting for you to tell them what they're supposed to do next. So that's kind of the golden retriever. A great dog, a great practice breed, but one that is going to need a little bit more direction. Now, how does that work with the other 3 breeds? If we're looking for primary practice, uh, traits and secondary complementary practice styles, how do we put this all together? So here's the thing we're talking about. Suppose you're a German Shepherd. You love those. You're a rule follower. You You like to work slowly, carefully, get everything right. But suppose you're finding a time when that's just not serving you and you're ready to move on and move a little faster. Maybe it's time to get your music across the finish line. Maybe it's time to speed it up a little bit. Whatever is happening that your usual practice system isn't working for, that's what we're talking about. So now German Shepherd, there you are. You might think, well, all right, this is the time I need to channel my inner Greyhound. Not that you have any, but this is what you're telling yourself, thinking, ah, all right, I've gotta work like the Greyhounds do. But see, I think German Shepherd and Greyhounds are essentially opposites. And I think trying to go from German Shepherdness to Greyhoundness is very difficult. That's a very hard shift for us to make. It's too extreme, it's too uncomfortable. So rather than trying to go 180 degrees the other way, you know, instead of trying to move that needle all the way over, let's find another breed that's a little bit less uncomfortable. It can complement the style that you're more comfortable working in without creating conflict for you. That's what I'm talking about. So let's go back to the German Shepherd. Okay, you don't have to become a greyhound, but what if you could channel some of the characteristics of a Beagle. Think about a Beagle. They're joyful. They're kind of distractible. They love stuff. They like experimenting with things. I think the Beagle would be a great practice style to add when you feel like you're a little too stuck in your German Shepherdness. It can add experimentation, add lightness to your work. So what you could do would be decide that Part of your practice was going to be about reading new pieces. I'm going to get a new book and I'm just going to play through them. I'm not going to learn them. I'm just going to play through them. Or you could go back and play easy repertoire that you have previously learned and see if you can let them move a little more freely now that you're a more advanced player than you were when you played those. Can you play them with a new level of mastery and confidence? Notice that I'm not saying you have to change the way you work on the pieces that you're trying to do now. What you want to do is experiment a little bit with this beagle-ness and find what is interesting about it. Find where you can connect with it, and then you'll know exactly how to bring those qualities over to your regular practice and move the pieces that you really want to make progress on. Move those ahead. So this secondary practice style doesn't have to apply to just the same things you're working on. It can, and if you find the right way to do that, then you'll move forward even faster. But if you just need to get out of the box a little bit, this would be how to do it. So the German Shepherd, their opposite would be the Greyhound. Not really a great combination. But if you can channel some inner beagle-ness, then I think you'll find the freedom that the German Shepherd quality might not have. So I think that might be a good mix. On the other hand, if you're a Greyhound, yes, your opposite would be the German Shepherd, and we don't wanna go there either. When you try to force a Greyhound into a German Shepherd role, they resent it. They resent the structure and the must do this the following the rules. They don't do very well with that. Too much structure. So a secondary breed that will offer a different kind of practice style, but one that will serve them well, is probably the Golden Retriever. The Golden Retriever gives you a little bit of lightness that the Greyhounds like. You know, it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's got a little more control and a little bit more direction. So in order to keep yourself on the golden retriever side of greyhoundness, you might want to add more frequent lessons so that your teacher or coach can help you keep coming back to center and keep you from going a little too fast and, and not paying attention to what you need to pay attention to. Or you might want to add a book of études so that you can work through those fairly quickly. You're a greyhound after all, but at least you'll have a specific focus that you're working on for each one. Or perhaps you could add a performance to your schedule. So what's the deal with that? Well, greyhounds don't mind performances, but they often don't have their pieces really polished to that degree where they're really ready to play for other people. They've got some stops and starts, and they've got some imperfections that are a little bit more than they really want to put out there in the world. So that Golden Retriever is going to help just calm that down a little bit. It's still a goal to work for, and the Golden Retrievers like that too, but it's going to help you find the direction that you need, whether it's in your own self or coming from a coach or a teacher, to really finish up those pieces so that they sound polished and finished. But maybe you're a Beagle, one of those with that joyful, playful tendency that's always off onto the next thing. "Ooh, look at that. Ooh, look at that." Sort of the shiny object thing, right? So your opposite again would be the German Shepherd, right? They're very controlled, very dignified. They don't get distracted. They are on the job. So once again, that could be a stretch for the beagle just the way it is for the greyhound. So let's channel the secondary characteristics here. Of— actually, this may seem counterintuitive, but let's move into greyhoundness. Think about the difference between a greyhound and a beagle. The beagle is distractible and joyful. The greyhound really wants to get to the end. They want to finish it, and that's something that the beagle doesn't usually do well. So if you channel your greyhoundness, this may help you finish a piece. Maybe you want to set a repertoire goal. I'm going to finish this piece by so that you can stick to it. And like a true greyhound, don't put that goal too far in the future. We want it to be soon. But your greyhoundness will probably allow you to do one thing at a time, prioritizing your learning speed over just the, the breadth of experience, because greyhounds want to get it done. And that might be a good thing if you're a beagle. But if you're that lovely breed, the golden retriever, your opposite would be the greyhound. Greyhounds are sleek and they just want to get to the end. Golden Retrievers kind of wander and they want to make sure that you're right there on the journey with them. So that's quite a difference and probably a little uncomfortable. So here's a surprise secondary breed for you to channel. Channel the German Shepherd. Yes, that's what I said, German Shepherd. I know, seems like it's a little bit different, but you know, It's still a dog of great intelligence and still, you know, they want to follow, right? They're a rule follower. German Shepherds might set the rules too, but they're right there in the same sort of idea. And if you are channeling your German Shepherdness, you could set a plan, you can follow the process. And what we want you to learn as a Golden Retriever is to learn to follow that process on your own, to learn the steps that come next so you you can take them yourself with confidence to keep you moving ahead and not just in circles waiting for someone to take you somewhere. So there you go. 4 breeds, 4 different practice styles, but you can see how they interchange. This isn't meant to be scientific. It isn't meant for you to take this as gospel. There's no, uh, there's no actual survey, actual data that confirms this other than I've seen a lot of harpists practice and a lot of harpists learn, and I've taught a lot of harpists. And this is just sort of a fun way to think about what you do well and then figure out where that's serving you and how to address that point where it isn't serving you. If you're that greyhound and you just run from beginning to end and you know you need some more detail in there, Well, that some of the golden retriever characteristics could be really helpful. Just think about it. It's a new way to sort of consider it, and, and I hope you enjoy it. It's just kind of fun. Don't take it too seriously, but on the other hand, see if it can help you because it likely will. I thought it was really illuminating for me. Now you might not know, or maybe you do, I am an absolute greyhound, absolute get me to the end, I love that. And in order to play the one the way I wanted to play, I really had to pull up some serious German shepherdness. And I can tell you, working in your opposite dog breed is not so easy, but it was what I did and it has worked well for me. But I've also learned to lighten up on both ends of that scale. I don't run through things quite as fast and I I don't feel the need to dig in quite as deeply and with quite as much concentration as a German Shepherd would dig in, at least not most of the time. But when I, I need to do it, I can. And that's what's been a game changer for me. So just as I said, a little bit lighthearted, see what you can take away from it and take it in good fun. Next week we're going to get a little more technical and we're going to talk about placing chords. You can't play a chord well if you can't place it quickly and accurately. And we're going to talk about 7 ways to place chords. Not quite as much fun. We won't be talking about any kind of animals on that, on that call. So, but it should be very practical and I expect very helpful. So 7 ways to place chords on the show next week. 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'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.