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#150: Practice Positivity: How to Combat Your Worst Critic music and meaning Apr 01, 2024

This podcast episode goes live on April Fool’s Day, and I probably couldn’t have picked a more appropriate day to release it. I didn’t do it on purpose, but today’s topic lines up very nicely with April Fool's. It’s about the fool’s game of self-criticism.

I think the most dangerous pitfall for ...

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#137: How Not Setting Goals May Save Your Harp Playing music and meaning Jan 01, 2024

Happy New Year! It’s the first morning of a new year and I am feeling, as I do every new year, that sense of excitement and possibility that inhabits those empty calendar pages.  I can hardly wait to see what 2024 will bring. 

Since this podcast is going live on New Year’s Day, I thought it was ...

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#136: A Holiday Harp Music Mix - Just For You music and meaning Dec 25, 2023

A special holiday music mix just for podcast listeners!

The program:

  • Two from Messiah
    Pastoral Symphony/He shall feed his flock
    Arranged by Anne Sullivan
  • Greensleeves, from Anne’s Break Forth CD,
    Arranged by Anne Sullivan
  • Coventry Carol
    Arranged by Anne Sullivan
  • Pat-a-pan
    Arranged by Anne ...
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#135: My Year in Review: Remembering What Really Matters music and meaning Dec 18, 2023

The year-end wrap has become a hot trend. The worthy practice of reflecting on the year that is nearly over and the new one about to start is no longer simply a quiet moment with a cup of tea and a journal. It’s an opportunity for businesses to go public with their successes. We at Harp Mastery® ...

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#132: What Your Favorite Harpist Needs: A Gift List with a Difference music and meaning Nov 27, 2023

Long, long ago in what seems like a galaxy far away, there was no Cyber Monday. There was barely even a Black Friday. We 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, the “Wish Book” edition. I...

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#130: Reducing Overwhelm: How Not to Be Your Own Worst Enemy music and meaning Nov 13, 2023

As of today, the day this podcast episode goes live, it is exactly six weeks until Christmas. As I said that, a little shiver ran down my spine. What was your reaction? Maybe you are channeling your inner child who can hardly wait for Christmas and you were jumping up and down. 

But I wouldn’t b...

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#126: Engaging Your Creativity: Making Your Practice Make Music music and meaning Oct 16, 2023

What are the qualities you think you need to be a good harpist? I’ll bet every harpist has a different answer for this.

Understand that I’m not thinking in terms of the skills useful to a harpist, skills like a good ear, the ability to sight read, musicality, flying fingers, and the ability to m...

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#123: If I Were Starting Over: What You Should Know music and meaning Sep 25, 2023

“If I were starting over, I would…”

That's our topic for today’s show. If I were starting my harp journey over again, from square one, what would I do differently, knowing what I know now? Obviously, I have done decades of practice, taken thousands of lessons, done thousands of performances, and...

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#116: Taking the Mystery Out Of Mastery music and meaning Aug 07, 2023

I once had someone suggest to me that Harp Mastery® was a little ambitious as a name. Was I intending that my blog and my website would only help people at the highest level or help them to become masters of the instrument? Or was I proclaiming myself a “master” of the harp? Eek, definitely not. ...

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#109: Why Other Musicians Study Bach And Why Harpists Should Too music and meaning Jun 19, 2023

Yes, this episode is about Bach, the Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach. I know some of you are thinking this is a waste of a podcast episode, that you are never going to play any music by Bach and since he didn’t write any music for harp anyway, this couldn’t possibly be relevant to your harp playing.

...
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#105: Survive an Inflection Point Using Your Harp Story music and meaning May 22, 2023

I’ve been thinking about harp stories lately, not the fiction type of stories. I mean the kind of harp story we each have, the one about the moment we discovered the harp. Maybe it was the first time we saw it or heard it or heard about it. Maybe it was a long time ago or fairly recent. Maybe it ...

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#102: Music To Grow By: Repertoire Refreshers music and meaning May 01, 2023

If you’re like me, and I’ll bet you are, you have a lot of music you want to play…someday. My music used to be in piles next to my music stand, until the piles got so untidy that I filed everything in boxes. And every time I dive into one of those boxes to retrieve a piece I need to work on, I fi...

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