We’re approaching one of those dividing lines in the year. The season is changing, and in many ways it feels like a time we can make a fresh start. When I was young, I always looked forward to the new school year.  New clothes, new classes, new books - the possibilities seemed limitless and excit...

What most of us want from our daily harp practice is to be able to see progress. We want to know we are moving forward, improving, becoming more skilled and more musical, more like the harpist we want to be someday.

What most of us discover as we work to create progress is that progress shows up...

Today, as I have been doing all this month, I am revisiting one of the podcast episodes that I think we need to hear again, and today’s topic is one on which we can all use a refresher course. It’s about playing without looking at the strings.

Yes, I know we need to look at the strings to be sur...

Congratulations - you finished your piece! Well done! It’s time to take a breather and relax before you get onto the next piece. But that’s the problem. What piece is your next piece? How can you choose one that you like, that is a challenge but not too hard, and one that you can finish in a reas...

If you have been playing the harp for any amount of time, you will have already discovered the key truth about music study: whatever you have learned, whatever you have practiced for however long you have been practicing it, you will have to do it again. That’s not a prophesy of doom or meant to dis...

I love to read. Maybe you’re like me, with several books in progress at once. I seem to have a book in every room that I can pick up when the fancy strikes. Plus, I always have at least one book on my Kindle and an audiobook going for when I’m in the car. I like to think I spend more time reading...

Ok - I talk about harp happiness a lot. Really a lot. That’s because playing the harp has always brought me happiness. Sure, playing the harp is hard work sometimes, and I’ve had my share of frustration too, but for me the challenges are outweighed by the joy every time. It’s the joy that keeps m...

There are lots of ways to get our music ready for the holidays. Yes, I know it’s only July and we have months to prepare, but that’s actually the point. You could wait until the week before your first Christmas gig in December to practice your music, and I have to say that there were times in the...

This past weekend was a big one for us in the United States. Not only were we celebrating our July 4th Independence Day as we do every year, but it was an anniversary year for us, our 250th. The parties were more festive, the fireworks more explosive, and all of the celebrations focused on freedo...

In 1782, Mozart was corresponding with a fellow composer about the art of composition. Mozart made the point that the true essence of music lies not only in the notes themselves but also in the spaces between them. That thought was echoed a century later by Claude Debussy who said, "Music is the ...

As I look back on my childhood and my very first music studies, I realize that I was incredibly fortunate, blessed, actually. Not because I was gifted or because my parents were not only willing but were able to support my harp lessons. Not because I was in one of the music capitals of the world ...

I don’t know if you’ve ever had this experience, but there’s something that happens when you realize that you have to shift your understanding of someone. It’s a little unsettling, as if that person belonged in one little box in your mind and now you find out it’s been the wrong box all along, an...