#110: Play Your Way to Progress: How NOT to Practice This Summer

What are your plans for your harp playing this summer?

Do you have pieces you want to learn, maybe Christmas music you want to get a head start on? Do you have a few exercise or etude books that you plan to get through so your fingers will finally do what you want? Are you thinking summer is a great time to learn your key signatures or chords or improve your note reading or learn to improvise? Or maybe all of the above?

If your summer harp list looks anything like this, let me hear you say, “Amen.” 

Most of us start out the summer with big plans, and not just for our harp playing. We have this imaginary idea that summer is endless and less busy and we’ll have time to get to all those things we can’t manage in the other three seasons. That’s a classic example of wishful thinking. Life doesn’t really slow down just because the days are longer and warmer. What usually does slow down is our drive to achieve, and that’s actually a healthy thing.

Continually pushing ourselves to achieve and accomplish drains our emotional gas tank. If we don’t take the time we need to refuel we will eventually be running on fumes. Balancing this with our desire to keep making progress and our fear that if we don’t keep practicing we will lose everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve is the real crux of the problem and what we will be talking about today. I don’t want you to lose the ground you’ve gained this year by taking time off. But I absolutely believe that switching up the way you practice - or maybe not even actually practicing at all - is essential to keeping your connection to your harp healthy and vibrant. 

You know me; I love setting goals and working toward them. You can achieve great things with dedication and passion. However, it's important to be aware of the hidden traps that might sabotage your efforts, the very real costs of staying focused all the time. I also want to share with you what you can do instead. We are not going to give up on progress, just because we’re not goal-focused. Instead, I’ll show you how you can actually move your playing ahead without really practicing. I promise, it’s not a trick. It’s real progress and it’s almost laughably easy.

My apologies to those of my listeners in the southern hemisphere, where it isn’t summer right now, but by listening to this podcast now, you’re going to be able to plan your next summer the right way ahead of time. Not a bad idea, right?

So let’s get on with our discussion about how you can indulge your desire to slow the pace this summer and still feel like you’re moving the needle with your harp playing.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Join me every Monday Live in the Harp Mastery® Hub JOIN THE HUB
• Related resource The 30,000 Foot View: Letting Go of the Details blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]