How’s your summer going? Heading to a harp camp or maybe a music festival? Have a pile of music you’re trying to learn? Or perhaps it’s wedding season where you live, and you are busy playing those brides down the aisle. Whatever your summer looks like, hopefully it is a satisfying mix of work, play, and—most importantly—rest. 

Rest doesn’t fit into our culture of productivity, where being booked and busy are badges of honor.

Rest? Seems like an odd endorsement from the same magazine that has published articles like “50 things you can do to improve your harp life this summer” and an annual summer camp roundup that pitches dozens of programs for harpists to fill the months of June, July, and August. Rest doesn’t fit into our culture of productivity, where being booked and busy are badges of honor.

Rest and work are opposite sides of the scale we all have to balance in life. A few of us have this figured out, but I’m guessing most of us (myself included) struggle to find our footing. Work is a non-negotiable in our lives, while rest is an afterthought.

I was reminded of this earlier this summer when I was giving a workshop on productivity with Harp Column founder Kimberly Rowe at the American Harp Society National Conference in Orlando, Fla. Before you ask—no, the irony of rest slapping me in the face while I was waxing  poetic about productivity was not lost on me. We were having a robust discussion with everyone in the session about strategies to work through roadblocks that keep us from finishing a project—do this, try that, work on this—when a wise man raised his hand and asked, “But what about rest?”

What about rest? What about relaxation, restoration, recharging? What about what happens when we aren’t working? If we aren’t being productive, then we’re unfocused or disengaged or—*gasp*—lazy. At least that’s the message we constantly receive from the rise-and-grind productivity culture. So we push ourselves and we hustle to keep moving forward—learn the piece, write the grant, play the gig. In our well-intentioned pursuit of goals, we often relegate rest to the bottom of our priority list.

Of course, we know better. We know rest is critical to everything we do. Take harp technique, for example. When you break down the process of plucking a string to its basic components, rest is one of them. You place your finger on the string, produce tension by squeezing the string, play the string, and relax everything so you can start the process again. If you skip the final step of relaxing you’ll be a hot mess of tension. Your hand and arm will quickly tire and hurt, and you won’t be able to produce the sound you want. It’s impossible to play the harp without building relaxation into your technique. Similarly, building a harp life without rest and relaxation is at best undesirable and at worst, destined for failure.

So whatever you find yourself doing this summer, I hope you are finding some time for rest. It will be different for everyone. Maybe rest is spending time playing a piece for no other reason than because you like it. Or maybe rest is not touching your harp for a while (distance makes the heart grow fonder). Or perhaps the rest you need is from the monotonous tasks of harp life—the emails, invoices, and contracts. Consider this your permission slip to schedule a mental break for yourself. If you aren’t sure what rest means for you, try turning the page and perusing this issue of Harp Column. Perhaps reading the stories of other harpists will recharge your battery and inspire your harp life. •