Your Questions Answered: Questions From The Podcast Email - PHH 041

Welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness, the Harp Mastery Podcast. My name is Ann Sullivan and I'm a harpist, teacher, and founder of Harp Mastery. I'm all about creating more harp happiness in the world by helping harp players like you play the music they want the way they want. But as a harpist who nearly flunked out of one of the most prestigious music schools in the world, I, although later not only graduated, but I went on to teach there. I know from personal experience that learning the harp is way harder than it looks. Here, each week on the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast, I show you how to solve the challenges of practicing and playing the harp. Whether it's about making your fingers behave or learning music faster, or getting your piece's performance ready, or just learning to enjoy your playing every day. Sounds great, doesn't it? Let's get started. Welcome to the show. Today's show is dedicated to you, the podcast listener. I have gathered some of the most interesting questions from my podcast inbox and I will be answering them in this episode. Now, I know that it's nice to have advice, especially expert advice. But advice is only good if it's the advice you need when you need it. Obviously, a podcast is not the same as having individual instruction or as having your harp teacher on speed dial, right? But it's important to me to talk about the topics that matter to you, those things that are going to make a difference in your harp playing. That's one of the reasons I like to give you an action step or two with each podcast. Because taking action, doing something rather than just talking about it, is how progress happens. It's how we grow. Just think, if we only talked about practicing and never actually did it, our harp playing would never improve. In fact, it would wither and die, right? So if being a harpist or a harper, if that's more you, is a part of who you are, then playing the harp, not just talking about it or thinking about it, or planning or journaling about it, is what you do. So while here on the podcast, all we can really do is to talk about it. I want to be sure that when you take those earbuds out, you have something that you feel energized and inspired to do. And I hope the questions and the answers coming up on the show today will help motivate you in your practice. So now, just to let you know, here are some of today's topics. Would following a music exam benefit me? And how do I get started? I'm a beginner and I need help with my music reading, how to manage quick lever or pedal changes, how to we'll talk about how to simplify an arrangement that's a little too challenging for you. Yes, there are some step by step things that you can do for this and they can make the difference between having a piece you can play or having another piece that you stick in a file for later. Sad thing, right? So plus, I'm going to share some of my favorite tips for brand new harp players and I'll bet they'll help some of you more seasoned harp players too. So stick around. That's what we're going to be talking about. I would like to take just a moment to remind you about the webinar that we have coming up just a little bit more than a week from today when the podcast goes live. It's coming up on Tuesday, March 8th at 7:30 Eastern Time and it's called Check Check. What's your level? And we're going to be talking not just about what do those mysterious levels mean. Like, you know, how is advanced beginner different from early intermediate? And I'll tell you just between the two of us, there's no real clear cut answer for that. But what I can be much more informative about is how you need to to develop skills and which skills you need to develop that are going to move you from where you are now to where you want to go. The thing is that those levels aren't really very, oh, very regularized. Right. There's no real clear cut system. But in general they do represent particular skills and the acquisition of those skills in a continual sort of, you know, consistent manner is how you move from a beginner sort of status to a more advanced one. And that's what we're going to be talking about, how you get from where you are now to where you want to go by developing the skills you need to do that. After all, what I find happens is I'll run into harpists who think that maybe they're just not good enough or they can't find, you know, they're just stuck at this beginner level that can't find a way forward and they think think that there's something wrong with them. And truthfully, it may just be and often is the case in my experience, that they're missing a vital skill or two, one or two things that if they developed those skills, music at that next level would be accessible for them and they would be able to do it. So that's what we're talking about, not just, you know, what goes into any particular level, but really what you need to be doing to get to the next one, whatever that next one is for you. Um, this is a purely informative webinar. It's about me sharing information that I hope will be helpful with you. There's no sales pitch on here, so don't think that you have to, you know, be prepared to skip out early just because you don't want to hear about any special offers. We're not going to be talking about that. This is purely informational. I will be sending out a PDF so that you can take notes and we'll be sending you some information afterward to help you move forward the however you want to do that. Um, and of course there will be a replay. So even if you can't join us live, please do join us. Register, Go ahead and register so that we know where to send a link to the replay. So we'll be doing that. And that's coming up so soon. I'm really excited about sharing all this information with you. So once again, that webinar is check, check, what's your level? And it's on Tuesday, March 8th. You can use the link in the show Notes to register, or you can just go to harpmastery.com and look under upcoming events and you'll see a link to the webinar there as well. So with that little bit of business out of the way, it's time to get to those listener questions. Our first question comes from Elizabeth, and here is what she writes. You mentioned ABRSM exams in your recent podcast. I would like to know more about this training. I am still at beginner level, struggling to read sheet music. This may help me progress to the next level. Do you recommend any harp teachers that will help me work through each level? Okay, there's a lot in this email, Elizabeth. There are a lot. Few things that we want to be sure to talk about here. So ABRSM exams, what are they? Well, the ABRSM exams. Wow. Or the RCM exams are both really strong music exam systems for musicians of any age, any instrument and every level. So the ABRSM stands for Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music. And that exam system is based in the uk, in London. Of course they have. They send examiners all over the world and during COVID of course, a lot of stuff has gone virtual, so there's that too. But you, no matter where you are in the world, you can take an ABRSM exam. Similarly, the rcm, the Royal Conservatory of Music Exams, are based in Canada and they have Much the same sort of a thing where you can be in Canada, the United States, anywhere, and take those exams. Um, so that's certainly. Those are great options. And they have terrific harp curriculums for lever harps and pedal harps. Um, and you don't have to be any particular age. It's not like you have to be a young person. They do these for grownups of every age too. So that's, you know, they're certainly open to you. The nice thing about these exams is that they have practical exams, meaning these are playing exams. You go and you prepare a few pieces. The, the curriculum tells you exactly what it is you're going to prepare. There are lists of pieces to choose from and etudes and required scales and exercises, this kind of thing. And they're different, of course, at each grade level. And the nice thing is that you know what to prepare. The examiners are very skilled. They know what to listen for. And you get to, you know, you get this wonderful certificate at the end. You get to graduate. It's really checking a box. It's proof that you've accomplished something, and you get to move on to the next level, which is a great feeling no matter how old you are. Those are the exam systems in a nutshell. Those exam systems also have theory components. Usually the theory exams are separate and they help you learn theory as well, in a graded, systematic sort of way, so you can study for those. There are all kinds of online courses that help you with that. So that's also useful for theory, not just for playing.

They both have wonderful websites that are very informative and so you can look there for more information. So there's those things. Now, as far as reading music goes.

The exam systems will certainly help test your knowledge there. But reading music is its own thing. I mean, you need that whether you're going to do an exam system or not. Playing by ear and only playing by ear is something separate, and we're not talking about that here. But for most harpists, reading music is part of what they need to do. It is one of the most essential and earliest skills in studying earth any instrument. And when it comes to the harp, I like to help students think about the four different levels of note reading that they're learning the four different aspects to a note. And, you know, there are sort of actually five, but when you look at the dot on the page where it is in a particular clef, on a particular line or in a particular space, right, that's its little, you know, its little place right in whichever clef you're reading whether it's treble clef or bass clef or something else. So the. It's the dot on the page that is associated with a particular letter name.

And a particular string on your harp and a particular sound. And it may, depending on your piece, may also have a particular rhythm associated with it. Right? So that's sort of the, the odd one. But we've got the dot on the page that has a name, it's got a string and it's got a pitch. All of those things are things that we want to connect, connections that we want to make. And the stronger those connections, the more automatically the speedier we can make them. And that's part of what makes our music reading and our music learning fast. So that's why music reading is so essential. Now, there are lots of ways to improve your note reading. Flashcards are a great way to do it, right, in sort of a time honored way. But you can also just practice this with any exercise that you're looking at. Any piece of music, pull out a section of it and read the names of the notes. Say the names of the notes. It's even better if you can say them at a steady tempo. Even better if there's a rhythm and you could say them at a steady tempo in the right rhythm and then say them as you play them. Singing them is even better. That's like the bonus skill. And Elizabeth, I know you are one of our My Heart Mastery members. So bear in mind that this is what we've been focusing for the month of February. This was our focus note reading. And we talked. I gave you a bunch of exercises to use that would be helpful for that. So this should really help your note reading. You are absolutely correct that strengthening your note reading skills is going to help you move to the next level. We absolutely want to do that. If your music reading is slow, it is going to hold you back. Think about how music increases, right? The very basic beginner music is just one note in one hand and then maybe one note each in two hands. And then we get more hands together stuff and we get bigger chords. And as we go along, we're reading more and more notes at once. So we want to get your note reading as fluent and as automatic as possible. And those drills that you have access to in My Heart Mastery are great for that. You just working on it with your own music or if you like the flashcard thing, go ahead and do some flashcards. You can find online ones that you print and there are lots of online websites and apps that help you read music too. And they're kind of fun because those online flashcards, right, you can set it for different speeds and it will give you the notes in, in, you know, either slower or faster. So that can be really helpful. There are lots of those websites and I would advise you just to go ahead and Google them if you like music theory.netMusicTheory.net is kind of a good one and has a lot of resources there for you. But working on your reading is terrific idea. And then you asked about teachers, harp teachers that will help you work through each level. And any harp teacher should be able to do that.

The levels for the exams are very clear. All the syllabus stuff is published online. So it's easy for anybody to say, okay, here are the pieces we have to work for. Here are the exercises you're going to or the scales or whatever that you're going to have to do. And it's pretty easy. So any teacher ought to be able to direct you and help you through that kind of curriculum. Of course, I always recommend our certified coaches. Our certified coaching program is the new trimester. We'll be registering students starting the beginning of April. So we're in the middle of a trimester now. But the, you know, I, I can't speak highly enough about my certified coaches. They're wonderful and they'd be happy to work on a curriculum like this with you. So I definitely think you should look into those curriculums, work on your note reading every day if this is a struggle for you and if this is the one skill that you have identified as holding you back. Let's start there. And this, by the way, is something, it just fits right in with that webinar we've got coming up in a week or so. So that's definitely something to think of. And I'll be giving you some new ways to use that skill to help your help you level up too. So good job. Elizabeth, thank you so much for asking that question. It is a great one. So good luck with that. And because you're a My Heart Mastery member, if you have follow up and you want to want to ask me anything else, remember you can ask that in our member forum or on our Monday night calls. So I look forward to hearing from you and following up with you there. Thank you for your email. All right, this email is from Faye and she says, well, I have two questions. She says, I've been working on a song for a while and stumbled upon two lever changes in less than two beats. Of each other, one for each hand. I can see this working on a pedal harp, but I use lever harps. Any suggestions on how to execute that or adaptations to be made? Well, of course I have some suggestions, and we'll get to that in a second. But her second question is also for the same song. She says, I would like to make it simpler because it seems a little more advanced than I'm ready for. The song is Home by bts and she's using an easy piano version, and she'd like to make it simpler because it seems a little bit too advanced for her right now. She says, I haven't played in years and I'm trying to get back by playing one of my fav songs. Thank you for your time. And she goes on, I have to. I have to read this because I have to say thank you for it. She says, your podcast is a delight with awesome tips that I wish I had when I was taking class years ago. So congratulations and that you're back at your heart, Fay. I think that is extremely cool and, and thank you so much for your kind words about the podcast. And so let's get to your questions. Okay. Pedal and lever changes, they are, you know, it's wonderful to be able to do them right, but they are a stumbling block. They're. They just are another coordination. It's like, okay, the notes aren't hard enough. We've got to add these changes on top of it. So lever changes and petal changes, you know, sometimes. Sometimes pedal harps are easier, Sometimes lever harps are easier. It just depends on the changes. And certainly without knowing the particular arrangement that you're working with, it may be that, you know, a petal harpist would have much less trouble with this because it's, you know, like a B natural, and it's just two B naturals that you have to push separately on the lever harp that could be controlled with one petal. And so there's a case where a petal harp is an advantage, but that doesn't mean that we can't work out those lever changes for you. And of course, lever harps have advantages, too, because sometimes we can set things ahead of time and, you know, avoid having to make those changes to where a petal harp has to do all the changes. So it's, you know, if we leave 1B natural and 1B flat, for instance, a lever harp can do that easily. A pedal harp, no, we're going back and forth on the petals all the time. So just so you know, there are times when when either would be easier. But let's talk about this. So assuming that you've got two levers that you need to push, and one is one a low lever and one is a high lever, I'm assuming that that's what you mean by one for each hand. One is a lever that the left hand will play and one is for a note that the right hand will play. So you've got to jump them around. It's unusual that we would push a lever with our right hand. Sometimes it does happen. You might have seen really advanced lever harpists reach over the top of the harp to pull that lever up with their right hand. It doesn't happen very often and it's certainly more awkward. So I'm assuming that you just mean you have to push one for the left hand line and one for the right hand line.

The first thing, and I'm going to answer sort of in general terms, since I don't know your arrangement, the first thing we look when we encounter difficulty with changes, whether they're levers or petals, and especially in a case where they're too close to each other, right? We just don't have time to do it because they're right there. The first thing you look for is if you can make one of those changes earlier. And I'll bet you've already done that, right? Can I push one of those notes a bar earlier? If you can, then, you know, problem solved. And that's the first place to look. And I'm guessing that you already checked that out. The second thing to do is to say, well, do I have to play both of those notes? For instance, if you have a B natural in the left hand and then a little bit, you know, two beats later, you've got a B natural in the right hand. Do we have to have both of them? Do you have to have the B natural in the left hand, for instance? Or could you leave it out.

And just by leaving it out reduce the, you know, need to push that lever? Now, it might be, of course, that, that that one note, my imaginary be natural, occurs several times. And so you really do have to push the lever. So if you can't leave out one of those notes that you'd have to change, then we see if. Oh, let me back up. Wait, wait, back up a little bit. It's not always just leaving it out. Sometimes you get to change it. For instance, if you just changed one note of the melody or changed one note in the chord and substituted a different note, would you be able to avoid that change, right? So it's not always just leaving it out, sometimes it's changing it. Okay, having said that, now let me go on. So let's suppose you can't push the lever early and you can't find a way to either leave out or make a substitution for the note that you need to change. The next option would be to see if there is something else that you can leave out in that measure or two before you need the accidental so that you have more time to push it. For instance, suppose there are four quarter notes in the bar before you need to push it.

Could you leave out one of those quarter notes or two of them and maybe play a bigger chord and let it ring longer so that you have time to push the lever you need to push?

Now, there is one more option, and this is not always available to you, just depends on the key of the piece and the particular note you're trying to push. Pedal harpists get used to this lever. Harpists forget to try it often just because, for one thing, they don't have all the, all the possibilities that pedal harps do. But here it is. Is there an enharmonic that you could use? An enharmonic, right. For those of you, if you're not familiar with that term, is a note. It sounds the same, but it's played on a different string, so it has a different letter name like an E flat and a D sharp. So suppose your piece had E naturals, but at some point you had to push back to E flat. But that wasn't easy for you to do or was. You know, that was the problem you were trying to solve. What if you played that E flat as a D sharp instead? Would that solve your problem?

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. And we don't have enharmonics for every note. There is no enharmonic that we harpists can play for a D natural or a G natural or an A natural. There's no half step equivalent for those that we can get on another string, so those are not open to us. But. And not every harmonic is open to lever harpists anyway. It depends on the, the key that your harp is tuned in. Pedal harpists have more options, but that doesn't mean that's always workable for them either. So, you know, consider that. But in general, what you're looking for is can you move the lever or pedal change earlier? Can you leave out or change the affected notes so you don't have to push it to start with.

Can you leave out something else earlier. This is really for lever harpists, right? Can you leave out something in another measure so that you have more time to push that particular lever, or can you use an enharmonic? So those are my best suggestions, my entire arsenal of suggestions for trying to work with lever and petal changes that are a little. That are a little too close together. So give that a shot. I will be interested to know if you want to shoot me an email. Let me know if that works for you. I will be interested to know how you. How you decide to solve the problem. Now, the other question that you have here is about simplifying the arrangement that you have because it seems a little bit more advanced than you are ready for for right now.

In general. And you're working from an easy piano arrangement, which is a great place to start. I like to work from easy piano arrangements because they do leave out a lot of notes and that makes them more suitable for the harp. The extra clarity and control of resonance that the piano has.

Is, you know, means that they can use a lot more notes in their arrangements than sound good on the harp. It can just sound really muddy. And the easy piano arrangements tend to work out pretty well for the harp. But if you need to make it simpler, the first place to look is to see if you can eliminate.

Some of the extra notes in the left hand. I would look for left hand and start there, seeing if you.

Leave out some of the more sophisticated rhythmic patterns that don't translate real well onto the harp. Maybe eliminate some of the notes in the chords. I mean, if all the chords have three or four notes in the left hand, see if you can get them down to just two or three notes instead. And that should make it a little bit simpler. Where a melody has repeated notes. See if you can.

Make those. Combine those note values. So instead of playing two eighth notes of the same note, like two A's, right, in a row, beep, beep. See if you can make that just a quarter note and see if that simplifies things in general. The rule here is to thin out the texture just a little bit, and that should make it simpler to play. So you're just going to be sort of looking for inner notes that you can, you can eliminate. Think about making the. The whole texture a little bit less dense. You. That's sort of on a global, you know, entire piece sort of level.

You might address it more situationally too, right? And say, okay, well, I can do everything except for these couple of measures. Then see how drastically you need to Change those measures. Do you need to, you know, start with just the right hand and see. Okay, if I just played the right hand, can I play all of the right hand? You can. Great. Okay, well, how much of the left hand can I add back? What if I just add back the first note in each measure? In the left hand, add that back. Okay, what if I can add back just a little bit more, add that back and find out what works and what doesn't for you. Remember too, that you can always add more stuff back later as you get to know the piece better. And in your case, Fay, as you, you know, as you get back to your harp skills. Right. As your harp skills redevelop and you, you know, your fingers feel more comfortable, you can always add more notes back. So remember that these changes that you're making aren't necessarily forever unless you decide that you want them to be. What I think is most important is to remember that it's. You need to personalize your music. That's how we talk about it in my heart Mastery. We talk about it as personalizing the music. What works for you right now. It doesn't have to be forever and it certainly doesn't have to be what works for anybody else. All it needs to be is what works for you. There's nothing that's that, you know, nothing wrong with adjusting a piece so that you can play it.

So, you know, do feel free. You have my permission to to make the piece what it needs to be for you and you'll know if you like the way it sounds. So, you know, take a look at it that way and feel free to leave out what you need to change. Change what you need and to make the adjustments that are going to make it possible for you to play the piece. That's what it's all about. So enjoy it. Faye, I. I know you're going to have a good time with with Home by bts. So have a good time with it, enjoy it, and make it yours. You know, sometimes all we need is permission, right? Okay. Well, here's a question from Kelly. Kelly writes, hello, I am a brand new heart player. I've wanted to play it my whole life and was finally able to get started. I love the podcast, especially the ide structuring goals and practice time. I have a few questions. One, is there going to be another cord webinar in the future? I keep hearing about that on the podcast and it sounds great. Two, do you have any teacher discounts available for courses or are there any future sales? I'M interested in the warm ups, finger freedom and etudes courses and number three are the courses for lever harp or just pedal harp? Thanks for sharing your passion for harp, Kelly. Wow, Kelly, what a great email and welcome to the world of the harp. I It's a wonderful place, it's a wonderful community, terrific people play the harp and I'm so glad that I have this chance to welcome you myself to the, to the harp world and you're, you're going to have a wonderful adventure. So welcome and we want to make your harp journey as filled with harp happiness as we possibly can here. So let me see what I can do to answer your questions. First of all, is there going to be another chord webinar in the future? Well, probably. I don't have a chord webinar planned right now, but that's certainly something that we can check and you know, we'll put that in the, in the works for some time coming up here. So as you know, our next webinar is is on leveling up and as a brand new heart player you might find that really, really helpful too. So I hope you us for that. One second, do I have any teacher discounts available for courses or are there any future sales? We don't do teacher discounts and part of that I think is just because we figure we are all students here so we don't do teacher discounts or at least we haven't at this point. So.

That'S kind of the, kind of my thinking there future sales. We don't, we don't often run sales on courses although. Kind wow, that's sort of a good idea. We should think of that. Generally the first time we offer a course it's pretty, pretty, pretty affordable. The first time we offer a course like the, the, the Finger Freedom courses and the, the Warm Up. Well yeah, the warmups courses, lots of most of those are offered at a really reasonable price the first time around and then they, then once they're, they're, you know, firmed up and complete and we are happy with them, then we raise the price. So watch for those new offerings. I can say we've got some new stuff coming up later this year, so watch for that. As always, I will tell you that the most cost effective way to access our courses is as a My Heart Mastery member. Now that membership isn't open just now, but it's $47 a month and the My Heart Mastery members get to just about every course we have comes with the membership. Like the eight a day course comes with the Membership and the, you know, some of the other courses just are included with the membership. So that can be a really affordable way to do that. And all our courses are for lever and petal harp. There's nothing that's just for one or the other. So everything works, works for both just because we like to help every harvest and not just some of them. So there is that. But I wanted to talk to you about being a brand new harp player because there are some wonderful things that come with being a brand new harp player, like getting your nice new harp and having it and getting to know it and maybe even to name it. Some of us like to name our harps and enjoying everything that there is about playing the harp and especially that, you know, doing it for the first time is just so much fun. So, you know, that part's great. But I wanted to give you some specific tips that will really help you learn, learn your way around the harp faster and help you just get to the, get to the fun stuff and feel more confident as you go. So these tips are really good for people who are brand new to the harp, whether or not you have a lot of musical experience on another instrument before. The thing about the harp that nobody tells you right up front, or maybe they do, but you don't believe them, is that the harp is way harder than it seems, right? When you walk by the harp the first time, or maybe you see somebody's harp and you say, can I touch it? And they say, yes, of course. And you run your finger over the strings and you make this wonderful sound. It's like, whoa, this is great. And you know, that's about the last easy moment you're going to have with the harp for a little while. It's very easy to get a beautiful sound on the harp and we have to keep reminding ourselves of that because after that, there's a lot of struggle that comes with the harp. The harp technique is a challenge right where, you know, our hands are in front of us and the, you know, it's hard to see everything that we're doing and looking back and forth from the music to the strings, all of it is awkward and uncomfortable. So I want to offer you first of all that, that reassurance that if you're finding it difficult, it's not just you don't give up. The harp is tricky and just hang in there because it is also totally worth it. But here are some, some tips that I like to give new harpists because.

New harpists often tend to, tend to take things a Little bit more carefully and timidly than is really good for them and their heart playing. So I'm giving you freedom to sort of move a little bit faster here. So, you know, take, you can take this advice, you know, as you like it and do it, follow it or not. But these are my best tips. So my very first one is to, as you're starting here, find a beginner book that was written by harpists for harpists and work through it beginning to end.

Find an exercise book or a beginning harp book and work through it systematically beginning to end. It's going to teach you a lot. These books are well designed and written to help harp us over the beginning hurdles, particularly learning the principles of fingering and placing. So all of that is really important to learn at the beginning and working through something systematically so that you're not just sort of picking and choosing, you know, like, oh, this seems like a good thing. This seems like a good thing. Work through one book and when you're done that one, find another one and work all the way through it. Don't be too slow about working through it. You need to. And this, you know, you need to get through a lot. The more music you ask your fingers to play, especially if it's, you know, the sort of technique development that's appropriate for a beginning harpist, the faster your fingers will learn their way around it. Because this is the awkward stage, and we want to get out of that awkward stage as quickly as we can. Play hands together as much as you can. You're developing your technique for right hand and your technique for the left hand. But don't ignore the hands together thing. It's. It's sort of like your third hand. You know, I know you're using both hands to get there, but hands together is so important. So be sure that you're working hands together right from the beginning. It's important because we don't want that to be something you have to learn later.

Next, be sure to play fast and slow or slow and fast. I know you probably are ready to play slowly and carefully and learn in a very consistent and careful way, and I applaud that.

But let yourself play fast, too. Your fingers will learn differently when you're trying to play fast. Even if that means your fast playing for right now is just hands separately. That's okay. Let's experience slow and medium and fast. And, you know, your fast might not be as fast as, you know, an advanced harpist fast right now, but we need you to keep moving. So, you know, don't think you just have to play slowly as a beginner. It will hold you back. Okay.

Number four on my list is to finish pieces regularly. Don't just kind of half play them and then put them away. Give yourself one piece that you actually finish and then play for somebody. It's not that it has to be perfect. It doesn't have to be memorized. It doesn't have to be, you know, you know, ready for Carnegie Hall. But I want you to have something that feels finished enough to play for somebody, because we learn different skills in playing music than just practicing it. So don't ignore that. Okay? Finish pieces regularly. Have at least one thing that you can play for somebody. Now, having told you that you're going to work through that harp playing book and you're going to learn the principles of fingering and placing, I have one more, one more tip for you. Be aware that those rules will change, that when you become more skilled.

Fingering will be less cut and dried. We want your fingers to learn the basic principles of fingering and to learn those basic patterns and to learn how to place.

But the better you get, the more able you are to expand the repertoire that your fingers have for which finger plays what and when it places. So be prepared for those rules that you're learning right at first to change, and just keep that in the back of your mind because there are many more options and many more situations that you'll want to do just a little bit differently as you get more advanced. For right now, we want you to learn the right fingering and learn the right placing, but just be prepared, because later on, you're going to have more options and those rules will change. So I just want you to be prepared for some mental flexibility there as your fingers get more flexible. All right, well, welcome again to the world of the harp. Kelly, I'm excited for you. It's going to be a great journey. You're going to love it. So I know it was just, you know, these were some. These were some powerful questions, and we had a lot to talk about today, so I hope you got a lot out of it. Do register for our webinar on March 8th. Our check, check. What's your level? Webinar. I'm looking forward to talking with you on that webinar. And of course, I'm looking forward to talking to you right here on the podcast next week. So don't miss that show. It's gonna be. It's gonna be an interesting one, and I'm saving the topic as a surprise, so be sure to join me then. I look forward to see talking with you here on the podcast next week and have a wonderful week filled with lots of harp happiness in the meantime. Talk to you next week. Bye. 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.