What Your Favorite Harpist Needs: A Gift List with a Difference - PHH 132

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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. Long, long ago, in what seems like a galaxy far away, there was no Cyber Monday. There was barely even a Black Friday. We all shopped in stores, not on the yet to be imagined Internet. And for the children who were dreaming of holiday presents, there was the Sears catalog, especially the Wish Edition. Now, if you are an American of a certain age, you are nodding your head right now, but if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll explain. Sears is a department store chain that was actually founded in 1892. It was in the beginning exclusively a mail order business, and the Sears catalog was an important resource for shoppers all over the country, but particularly in rural areas that had limited access to stores. But the special Wishbook Edition, first printed in 1933 and released every year at holiday time, was the ultimate catalog shopping experience. It ceased publication in 1993, but at its peak, the catalog had over 600 pages with more than 100 pages devoted to toys. My brother and I waited for that catalog every year and boy did we wish our way through the pages. Now there's no more wish book, but there also seems no end to our burgeoning consumerism. While I have no desire to add to the frenzy, I did want to offer some ideas for harp related gifts that you may enjoy giving to a harpist friend or putting on your own wish list. The twist to this list is that everything on it I have chosen because it will make a a harpist's life easier. Some of the items are recommendations for things that you can purchase, but there are some that aren't things you could buy for any amount of money. It's about increasing harp happiness, not decreasing your wallet. So grab a cup of tea, take a break with me, take a rest from the holiday shopping rush. We'll talk about the little things, a few bigger things, and some of the less tangible things that every harpist could use at the holidays or any time of year. By the way, I've included a link in the show notes of this episode to a list of everything I'm mentioning on today's podcast. This is purely informational. I'm not making a commission or earning any money from any of the things on this list. You don't even have to enter your email to get the list. All you have to do is click the link. Although, if you'd like to show the podcast a little love, I'd be so grateful. Just share this episode or any of the episodes you may have found helpful with a friend. You'll be sharing valuable information to help your harp friend and you'll be helping me to help more harpists. So that's a win for everyone. And it doesn't cost a thing. Before we get to the list, I did want to tell you about a couple things that are happening at Harp Mastery. If you are listening to this podcast the day it comes out, it is today, Cyber Monday. And so today we are offering a special deal at the Harp Mastery Shop on the sheet music, the resources, the merchandise, everything we have there. You can get 10% off your total order. So whatever you're ordering at the checkout, you'll get 10% off. And that's just for today. You can go to heartmastery.com and look at the shop. Also, today is the final deal final day for our deal on My Heart Mastery membership and My Heart Mastery is our live learning community. It is a paid community different from the Heart Mastery Hub, which is more about conversation and more, you know, like other online social groups. You probably know, My Heart Mastery isn't group harp coaching. It's not one on one lessons. But what it is is live learning through live online video workshops every week. So these workshops are either taught by me or taught by one of our Harp Mastery certified coaches and they're designed to support your harp playing whether you're taking lessons from a teacher, working with a coach, just working on your own. My Heart Mastery is about the how to's of heart playing, the things most teachers don't have time to te in regular lessons. We've had workshops on all kinds of topics, every kind of technical Topic musicianship, skills, how to play expressively, working on chords. And of course, we also help you work through pieces. We do this with featured pieces that we have every once in a while. In fact, in December, the first two weeks, we're working on a brand new piece that I wrote exclusively for the My Heart Mastery community called Pax and Tara Peace on Earth. And we'll be working through that in two workshops at the beginning of December. Plus, we have other opportunities we make available to our members to help support their practice and playing. All of this is a pretty reasonable $47 a month. But right now.

We'Re offering a special deal and you can get your first three months of my Heart Mastery membership for 66% off the price. So instead of paying $47 a month for the first three months, you're going to be paying less than 60, $16 a month. So it's actually 15.98 for the first three months. After that, it would go up to $47 a month. But you can cancel at any time. So, you know, and when you're looking at $16 a month or just a little bit less, you know, you can hardly go wrong for $4 a week, right? So we've got so much coming up there and I have put the link to our special deal in the show notes here. And so if you hop right over and do that today, you can get that special deal. And I will look forward to of our Monday night calls. So also, one last thing. Mark Friday, December 1st, down on your calendar. That is once again the kickoff day for our annual 12 Days of Christmas Sheet Music extravaganza. This is a tradition we started in 2020, and we have continued it every year. This year's extravaganza is called Medleys, Mashups and Merriment. Now, once Again, I've created 12 brand new arrangements and each one is a combination of two or more pieces. Get it? Medley's mashups. Okay. To mix it up even more, while many of the selections are holiday music, there are some arrangements from the classics that aren't holiday themed, so you can use them all year long. Now, we'll release one new arrangement each day for 12 days beginning this Friday, December 1st. On the day of its release only, each arrangement will be available in our shop for 50% off the regular price. Plus, if you purchase all of the first 11 arrangements, we'll give you the 12th for free. We will send you a reminder each day with a special link to that day's music, or you can just follow along on our special Advent Calendar page. So if you're on our email list, you'll get it all in your email. If not, just hop over to heartmastery.com and you'll be able to find the link to join us there. So that's all starting Friday. Whew. So many things going on. But we need to get back to that list. So let's focus a little bit, take a deep breath, and let's talk about how to make that harpist on your list happy. When I'm thinking about gifts for a harpist on my list, I'm thinking in terms of two big categories. One is things that make your life as a harpist easier, right? Things that just make it more comfortable, make it more efficient, make it nicer and easier in some way. Playing is hard enough. Practicing is certainly hard enough. And anything that helps us make things easier is a benefit. And really, what a gift. And then there are the things that make us happier. And so I'll be talking about those too. That's a slightly trickier list, but I've got some ideas for you. But let's start with things that make life easier. And I think the first thing that we need to consider, the first category would be comfort. Physical comfort is important. We talk about relaxing, we talk about releasing tension. And so here are some ideas for things that might make any harpist life more comfortable. Now, I started with sort of a couple big things, thinking that where we sit, the thing we sit on is so important. And I just had two specific recommendations to make here. And as I said, the the PDF has the links to these.

One is a very lightweight, portable bench. If you are taking your harp and bench lots of places and you want one that's sturdy and very light and really super comfortable, there's a lightweight, portable bench by a company called Hamzer H A M Z E R. And it's an inexpensive bench, but it is fabulous. My friend Denise brought one of these to our last Heart Mastery retreat, and a number of us fell in love with it because it is so light. Even my husband picked it up for the first time and said, wow, this is really light because let him move the bench. And so, you know, this is a great one. There are lots of others. I like this for its adjustability, for the sturdiness of the seat. It doesn't creak and it's really light to move. So I put that option in there. But I also if you're looking for something sturdy to sit on at home, I included an option that is Actually on my own wish list this year. It's a folding musician's chair by a company called Adjust. Right. And the height of the chair adjusts. The seat is really just very flat, very firm and it's got a little bit of a back to it, plus it collapses so that it's portable. Some of my students have this chair and I'm always in chair envy when they bring it to a retreat because it's just so sturdy, so comfortable. And I highly recommend this. Once again, these are links I have put in the PDF for you. And I'll tell you again, they're not, you know, they're, they're just my recommendations. And so you might have something that's better, you know, but do check them out just because I think they're fabulous. Some other ideas, a warm weighted shoulder wrap. You know, they have these for people who have, you know, who want like a special heating pad that fits on their shoulder. You can use these. I have a couple students that use them even and I have some friends who use them while they play just to remind them to keep their shoulder relaxed and loose. There's nothing like being comfortable, right? This kind of cold winter weather. We're coming up to fingerless gloves or wrist warmers always an option. You can always share your favorite hand lotion or maybe treat your favorite harpist to a hand treatment at a salon or spa. Even better, go together. Maybe even a massage is a terrific thing for a harpist that you know and love. But that's one of the ways that our life is easier, right? When we're comfortable, everything is easier. Sometimes we need the right tools to make our life easier. So a few things you might want to look into. Those Bluetooth foot pedals for your iPad or your tablet. They're really wonderful and you know, yeah, they take a little while to get used to. But if you are a person who likes to read their PDF music off a tablet or an iPad, then a Bluetooth foot pedal is really going to make a difference whether you're a pedal harpist or not. It's just wonderful to have hands free page turning. And there are a number of companies that make these and they're all fine. You just find one that you particularly like. Now I can't resist my, you know, my, my teacher Gene is going to out itself a little bit here because I included on this list a metronome tuner combination. And I know many of us, including me, love to use metronomes and tuners and stuff that are right on our phone because we always have it with us. But actually, even though I have those on my phone, I love to have the little metronome or tuner right with me at the heart because that means I don't have to be distracted by anything that might come in on my phone. I can just focus on my practice. And I have a little, a little tiny combination unit by Korg K O R G and I love it. It's cheap and it's really dependable. And so I've put a link to that on the PDF as well. So that's a little metronome tuner combination. And in fact you can get it with a pickup. You know those pickups that you plug into the, the jack on the metronome and then you can clip it onto your harp. They have, you can get them all together, the metronome tuner thing with a pickup. So kind of cool. You might want to consider a portable rechargeable music stand light. There is nothing worse than reading music in the dark. And if you're using paper music, then you absolutely need a stand light. And it's so great to have one that' portable because you can just keep it in your heart bag if that's what you want, or switch it from stand to stand if you like it on your stand at home. And when you're going someplace else, rechargeable is nice because you feel like you're helping to save the planet. And there are a million different kinds of those. So you know, you can do a little Google search, take a look wherever you like. You can find ones that are tiny, ones that are big, ones that are, you know, this color light or that color light, ones that have dimmers. So you know, take a look for all of those and see what you think. But that's always a nice gift. And of course, if you're going to gonna go big on this gift thing, a new tablet or an iPad could be a very cool tech gift for, for any harpist, right? So there are some tools that would make a harpist life easier. Now maybe the harpist that you're thinking of does a lot of on the go kind of stuff. You know, they're moving their har at different places. There are a few things that you might want to consider, right? Simple things, everything like a travel mug or a gift card to their favorite on the go eatery or a gas gift card for gasoline or even a car wash gift card. I love those myself, always fabulous. But there are some harp things that are just really useful a couple of very small ones, not necessarily cheap, but one of the things that can be fabulous is a doorstop. Think about this. Think how many times you've been trying or you've watched a harpist trying to take things into a building. They've got bags, they've got benches, they've got harps, They've got all this stuff, and they need somebody to hold the door. A doorstop is a wonderful thing to have. So take a look. Invest in a doorstop. It's a great thing. And, you know, kind of an interesting stocking stuffer for a harpist, right? A string organizer or a pouch to put strings in. A fabulous thing to help any harpist who's on the go. And here's my favorite, an extra tuning key. We all need extra tuning keys. I learned this lesson very young. When I got to a rehearsal, I was still, oh, maybe 13 or 14. I was still pretty young, and my father had driven me. Fortunately, we weren't far from home because I got to the rehearsal and realized I had forgotten my tuning key. So he was able to go back and get it. But ever since that day, I have kept a tuning key in the glove box in my car. I am never without a spare tuning key. So there's one that lives in my harp bag, there's one that lives in my car. I've got some extras for sure. And of course, there's one by my harp, so I always have those. And they're nice gifts to have. So an extra tuning key, always a great tool to make your life easier. Now, depending on the sort of person that the harpist on your list is, this may be making their lives easier, it may be making their life happier, it may be making your life easier. It's hard to know, but it's all about organization. I know that I am no different from many harpists that I know. Where I. I get busy and a pile of music accumulates. Generally, I'm pretty good about putting the music away. The music that I'm not playing or not planning to play, not coming up in the future. Stuff that is coming up, I generally put in folders so that I have it close by, but it's not in front of me. Everything else I like to have put away, but when I get really busy, those piles pile up, and then I have to spend time putting things away. But you need to have places to put them away. So on a very simple level, your harpist might want things like notebooks or maybe even a practice journal or folders or binders, something to keep all that music in, you can look online and find different kinds of folders that hold music, even big music. You can look for sort of orchestra style folders that have pockets and you can put music right in there. And that's kind of nice because it all stays organized and it doesn't get all bent up. But maybe you need a more organized filing system. So there are those, you know, magazine file boxes that are pretty useful, but they have special music box systems as well. Now you can have a, you know, a nice wooden music cabinet. I have a couple of those. And I also have file boxes that are made for sheet music. And what I like about them is that they lie flat so I can put music in them.

Small music, you know, sort of that regular, you know, paper size that, you know, for regular music like that. And then for bigger music, I have bigger boxes. Those bigger boxes are hard to find. So I've put a link to one site that carries those. You may find something else that works better for you. The company that I used to, I can't find anymore. So I can't find the boxes that I used to use or I would recommend those to you. But there are some out there that are really good. And as I said, what I like about them is that you can stack them and your music stays flat so it doesn't get all curly and you can file it so it's alphabetical and you can find it. You know, it's one thing to file it, it's another thing to find it, right? So anything from, from a simple loose leaf binder to an orchestra folder to a music box storage sort of system, fabulous idea. And of course it can, you know, look pretty too, right? On the other hand, if your music is mostly on a tablet and you're using an app like Fourscore or Mobile Sheets, perhaps you could be the resident expert for your harvest friend and help them set up up that app, show them how it works, show them how to use it and help them get as organized as you are. Those, those apps are so wonderful for being able to organize music to find it easily to market well. So, you know, just be sure that if you know how to use that, you've got a wonderful gift to offer any harpist friend and you could help them set that up. So that's organization. But let's take this one step closer to happiness. And this is a category I just called Life is Good. These are the simple things, but the simple things that can just make your heart a little happy and maybe just help out your practice mood just a little bit. You could consider some items of harp studio decor, maybe a plant or a candle or a picture. Something that would help just inspire a, or calm your harvest friend. When they get into their practice space, it's just making it a little extra special. Or maybe they are a coffee or tea drinker and you could give them a little extra special coffee or tea that they could have while they're practicing. Do remember to share music related books, right? Things that are just kind of fun to read or informative.

Gift card to a harp or harp store or a website, right? So that they, you know, maybe can buy some new music and then they can file them. You could maybe piggyback that with one of those organization kinds of tips, right? Harp, note card, stationery, all that kind of stuff. Just the little things that make life kind of fun. Those I'm sure you don't need help choosing, but I just wanted to give you some reminders there. But there are so many things that you could give that are better than buying. Maybe it's something as simple as a back rub or a shoulder rub after a particularly fierce practice session or maybe after a lesson. Maybe it's being a companion on a gig on some harp thing that they're playing somewhere. My brother did this for me. I remember one Christmas Eve.

I was playing at a church and it wasn't particularly close by and it was snowing and I said, you know, you want to come along for the ride? And he did. And he came along. He was my companion. He helped move some things for me. He actually met with a friend of his during, during the service. And then they, they came to the service that while I played and then he was there to help me move stuff and take me home. And he didn't have to do it. It was just a wonderful thing to have this extra companion to come along with me and help and just be support and be company. And you know what? It's a wonderful gift to be able to give to somebody to say, hey, next time you play, I'll come along and I'll be your, I'll be your roadie.

All right? You don't have to move stuff. You could hold a door if they don't have a doorstop. So there you are. But what about the things that all of us harpists wish for? The things that would truly add to our harp happiness but that we find difficult to ask for? The things that are most meaningful from our friends, particularly our harp friends and our family. For instance, having someone listen to us play with a friendly, non judgmental ear, not listening for mistakes or pointing out where we need to improve, but just listening and perhaps giving us a pat on the back, physical or metaphorical, for the hard work that we've put in to get there. Now I will say that this can be tricky. Often friends or family members offer comments that they think are helpful but actually make us feel more like we've fallen short of our goal or their expectations. Comments that point out mistakes, for instance it sounded like you missed some notes there, aren't really helpful at all. We are our own biggest critics and we don't need anyone else trying to compete for that role. So if you're listening to a friend play, remember that your comments can help help support them by pointing out what they did well, because I can guarantee that's not the thing they're remembering or observing about their playing. If you're inviting someone to listen to you, don't be shy about priming them by telling them what sort of feedback you would like. Now tell me if you can hear the dynamic changes or I want to know what this music makes you think of or I'm trying to do this particular thing, so would you please listen especially for that. That's the kind of thing that can make the difference. And believe me, if you have particularly a spouse who likes to feel that they're supporting you, but they always kind of say the thing that just grates on your nerves and they don't mean to have them. Listen to this part of the podcast and it'll tell them a little bit more about what to say. Offering a compliment up out of the blue, for instance, I always love to hear you practice is a real gift from a spouse. Or I love the way you play that piece from a harp friend. Those kinds of compliments are so meaningful. Even better is asking your harp friend to play a favorite piece for you. Not necessarily at that moment, but sometime. Like, oh, I love the way you play that piece. Would you play that for me again sometime? I'd love to hear you play that on your next concert. It's perhaps one of the most gratifying things any harpist could hear, or one of the biggest compliments any harpist could give to another. But what about a gift you could give to yourself? I think there's one important gift that all of us need to remember to give to ourselves, and yet it's the last one that we usually think of. It's important to give yourself the gift of acceptance, the gift of, of the understanding of the value of your harp playing. Harp playing isn't about mistakes. It's not about notes. It's not about fingers. It's not about all those things that we work so hard to practice. Those are all important to the music that we present and to the way that we present it, to the level of mastery that we demonstrate when we play. But. But harp playing is a journey. And no matter what kind of music you play or where you are in that harp journey, whether you're right at the beginning or well along the path, your music is valuable. Your gift of music can truly change the world around you. Playing the harp isn't about playing perfectly. It's about playing the harp and sharing that gift of music. We know playing the harp is hard. We get that, and we know we want to do it better. There isn't a single one of us that is totally satisfied with what we do. We're always looking to improve. But to temper that with the gift of acceptance, self acceptance, and with the gift of understanding that your heart playing is valuable not just for you, not just for the people that you know are listening to it, but for everyone. It adds. It adds to you. It adds to your household. It adds to your neighborhood. It adds to your community. It adds. It adds grace. It adds beauty. It adds. Adds value.

Remember to be kind to yourself. I'd like to take just a moment here to thank you, to let you know how grateful I am for the time you spend listening to this podcast. I'm grateful to have you and your heart playing in the world. I'm thankful for. The podcast shares the sharing that you do with your friends. Thank you for being a harpist. Who cares? Who cares about your craft? Who cares about the music you play? Who cares about adding more music and beauty to the world around you? That's what's important, I think. And it's the special gift that all of us who play the harp can give. And so, as I say, every week, 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 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. It.