Step By Step

There is a special sense of satisfaction that comes from finishing a piece. In my early piano lessons, that occasion was celebrated with a sticker that I was allowed to place at the top of the page. That sticker also meant there was another new piece, and potentially another sticker, on the horizon. That piece was fun. What’s next?

A musician’s growth is something like a spiral staircase. We are continually moving up the staircase as we grow, learning new skills and relearning old skills at a new level.

I have often had harpists ask my advice on what piece they should learn next. They’ve just finished a piece and they want to know which piece is the next stepping stone for them. They are sometimes disappointed to find that I can’t give them a definitive answer, that there’s no list somewhere that gives the ideal order of harp pieces to learn to become a better harpist. 

In fact, we don’t become better harpists primarily through the music we learn. In order to learn the music that demonstrates our growth, we need to keep improving the skills that make it possible for us to play those pieces. 

Similarly, I sometimes hear harpists wonder why a piece that they expected to be simple for them to learn should be surprisingly challenging. They have seen the music in a store or online, purchased it, only to discover that it isn’t as easy as they thought. Of course, sometimes music is challenging in ways that aren’t evident on the paper. Often, however, the difficulties stem from our own missing skills. While our repertoire is built with the pieces we know, we learn each piece with the skills we know. If we don’t have the skills those pieces require, the pieces will have to wait until we do. 

In my experience, building skills through the context of pieces alone is not enough. It gives a single situational experience rather than a secure foundation that is dependable in a variety of musical contexts. On the other hand, if a harpist has practiced and is comfortable with a set of skills, any pieces that require those skills will pose little difficulty.

Looking at these skills in a big-bucket way can help you see what you may be missing. For technique, for example, there are foundational skills like scales, arpeggios, and chords and independence skills for both fingers and hands. Musicianship skills fall into groups like note reading and rhythm skills, key and chord identification, and expressive skills. When you look at these groups and then the individual skills that are related to them, it becomes easier to see what to work on next.  It also becomes clear why you can’t play that piece you’re trying to learn that seems like it ought to be so easy. The answer is that there is a skill you don’t know well enough or haven’t learned yet. 

This doesn’t mean you have to wait to play any more pieces until you’ve mastered every skill. A musician’s growth is something like a spiral staircase. We are continually moving up the staircase as we grow, learning new skills and relearning old skills at a new level. If we review and strengthen the most fundamental skill areas regularly, adding in new specific skills as we are ready for them, we can continually improve our playing, and learn the music we want to play as we move up the spiral staircase.

I developed a study plan based on these categories and skills groups as a resource for my students, who are all at different points in their journeys. Some play pedal harp, others lever harp. They have different areas of musical interest—folk music, therapeutic music, church music, classical repertoire. All of them want to play more smoothly, expressively, and confidently. 

In creating this plan, it was important to me to show these harpists a bigger view of their harp journey, not just the next step. I wanted to be sure it would serve their varied interests, so the skill areas are general rather than specific. Most importantly, the plan needed to be actionable with clear steps. I discovered that this plan, while far from a complete curriculum, has allowed my students to see the path ahead of them more clearly and follow it with fewer unintended detours and less frustration.

In this plan, I identify four areas, apart from repertoire, that every harpist must be continually strengthening: technique, musicianship, practice, and sharing. Technique and musicianship are obvious categories and by far the most complex and the most critical. Practice and sharing, however, are also important. Without efficient and effective practice skills, progress is slow or non-existent. 

Sharing is the word I use instead of performing. Not all students desire to perform concerts or recitals. Some want to play primarily for their own pleasure. However, they still want to be able to play a piece that sounds expressive and polished, and they realize the value in having a piece or two they could play for a friend or a dinner guest. The skills involved in preparing a piece to play well, whether in a performance or just for yourself, need practice, just as technique and musicianship skills do.

Technique

…the secret to efficient and effective practice is not in what or how long you practice, but in how you practice.

Technique is the easiest area to explain and the clearest to segment into skill groups. We all know the importance of a strong technique, and we have a fair idea of what is involved to make it strong and keep it that way. Plus, there are plenty of exercise books to help us strengthen our fingers and help them move with more agility. 

Too often, though, our technique practice falls into a rut. We have a set of exercises we like which has worked well for us, perhaps for years. This is a way to maintain our technique, but it won’t allow it to grow. The same old exercises, scales, or warmups played the same way will keep us where we are without moving us forward. If we want to be able to play faster or more smoothly or with more facility, we need to find the next step on the spiral staircase. 

I place technical skills into three broad skill groups, each beginning with the letter F. 

Foundation: These are the key technical patterns that are the standard daily drills: scales, intervals, chords, and arpeggios. Practicing these fundamentals daily allows us to maintain and strengthen our finger mechanics for more precision and security in our playing. 

Facility: Fingers that are facile are comfortable with a wide variety of patterns. They are agile, independent, and can play evenly in different combinations. 

Fluency: A harpist’s technique must be fluent, playing smoothly and evenly at fast and slow speeds. In each of these groups there are simple steps to making daily technique practice more effective.

The first step to elevate your fundamentals practice is to make sure that your technique work takes you all over the harp. Don’t be a “middle C” player—use the entire range of your harp. Playing every string every day not only helps you feel more comfortable when you play in the high and low registers but it helps develop the sound of your harp as well.

Next, practice your exercises hands separately and hands together, not just with your hands an octave apart, but at different intervals too. Playing scales and arpeggios hands together in tenths or in sixths develops more independence of the hands as well as technical facility. Even more effective is to play scales and arpeggios in contrary motion, with the hands playing in opposite directions. Most exercise books contain drills like these, but you can easily do these without a book.

Last, you must develop speed. It is vital to train your fingers to play comfortably at faster speeds in your basic technical practice so that they are prepared to play your music at whatever speed is required. A technique trained to play securely and fast will meet the challenges of any repertoire piece with ease.

Facility is sometimes misunderstood as the ability to play fast. What’s more important to facility is the ability I call “every finger, every job.” Much of the time, our fingers are specialists, fulfilling specific functions. Our right thumb is the melody specialist; left-hand fourth finger plays the low notes with strength. A facile technique, however, is developed to the point where each finger plays equally and can take over any role it needs to in the music. Facility allows you to have more fingering options for a tricky passage. In performance, it means you can recover from a misplaced finger without missing a beat.

The simplest way to improve your technical facility is to work through a wide variety of exercise books. Your favorite exercise books may be effective, but they also may be too comfortable to truly challenge your skills. The key to growth is variety and experience with many different finger patterns. Don’t spend too much time trying to perfect each exercise. Learn it and move on. The more patterns your fingers play, the better.

Third, your technique must be fluent, which means playing with evenness, flow, and speed. These characteristics of harp playing are important to practice apart from the repertoire we play so that they become part of our toolbox of technical skills. Develop evenness by practicing your scales, arpeggios, and patterns in different rhythms. Varying the dynamics as you play your exercises will help create more musical flow. To increase fluency, practice exercises and etudes at varying tempos, fast and slow. Exercises are the best vehicle for training your fingers to play faster so they will be prepared for the demands of your repertoire.

Musicianship

Musicianship is a vast topic that is difficult to reduce to just a few skill groups. It is the craft of music—everything about music that is common to all musicians, not just harpists. In short, it is everything about music except technique.

The first group of skills I call the essentials. These are the key points of basic music literacy: note reading, rhythm fluency, and the ability to identify common keys and chords. These are the fundamental elements that are required not only for learning and playing music, but also for sight reading, improvising, and memorizing. Don’t take these skills for granted. Any weakness in these areas slows down progress as a whole. 

While there are numerous note reading resources in print and online, the simplest practice method is to say or sing the names of the notes while you play. You can try this with a difficult passage you are practicing, a piece you are memorizing or even an exercise or etude. Be sure to practice both treble and bass clefs. Tapping the rhythm of a piece while you count or saying the rhythm while you tap each beat may seem elementary, but these are effective ways to sharpen your rhythmic fluency.

Transposing your warmup or daily exercises to other keys will keep your knowledge of key signatures fresh. Choose a key, set the necessary accidentals, and play the drill, using your knowledge of the key and the pattern as well as your ear to guide you. For more of a challenge, practice chord progressions in different keys, perhaps using them as starting points for brief improvisations.

Expression: This second skill group includes dynamics, phrasing, pacing, articulation, tone, and more. Expression is not optional. It requires just as much coordination and practice as the notes and is just as essential in every moment of our practice. First, make sure you are observing all the expression indications in the music, not just the dynamics, but also any other indications the composer has included. Be sure you understand what is indicated and then be sure you do it. 

You should also include dynamic practice in your daily warm-up. Practice extending your dynamic range and your control over your technique at every dynamic level. You can do this as part of your technique practice or with the repetitions you do of any section in your piece. Practice using a variety of tone colors and articulations as well. 

Exploration: This third category is more a study group than a skill group. Music theory, music history, and music of other cultures are important areas of study in this category, and each of these could be a lifelong study on its own. I believe every harpist needs to know something about each of these, but how much is truly up to the individual. 

One simple but effective way to keep exploring and learning is to merely pay attention. When you start a new piece, make it a habit to learn something about the composer, perhaps when and where the composer was born and what other composers influenced their music. Study the chord structure of each piece you play. If you don’t understand a chord, ask your teacher, but don’t be shy about making your best guess. Looking for repeating patterns and chords you know helps you become a better musician.

Learning a little bit at a time in the context of music you are playing is a good way to begin exploring. If you find a topic of particular interest to you, pursue it more deeply. Then, bring your new knowledge back to the harp to speed your learning and inform your expression.

Practice

With all there is to learn in the areas of technique and musicianship, strong practice skills are vital. Using your practice time well allows you to make progress faster. Of course, practicing regularly, meaning daily or at least most days, is essential, but the secret to efficient and effective practice is not in what or how long you practice, but in how you practice.  

Repetition: I believe the key growth area in practice habits is results-focused repetition. Repetition is how we make our playing consistent and correct. However, repetition without focus is simply rote learning, not making music. Focusing on the results we want from each separate repetition multiplies the effectiveness of our practice. 

The common practice of repeating a section a given number of times in order to secure it misses the point. The goal of repetition goes beyond correct notes; the ultimate goal is the music itself.   

Variations: Instead of just repeating a section that needs extra drill, try making it a study on an aspect of technique or musicianship. Play the notes in different rhythms or patterns to add technical security. Focus on tone or dynamics to add more expression. Practice it very slow and very fast to develop more fluency. Practice it in different keys to refresh your music theory. 

Narrowing scope: Don’t practice what doesn’t need practice, however. As your skills develop, you will discover that you can play more of a new piece at sight, there are fewer challenging parts, and you can play more of the music with less repetition. Certainly, repetition is always required to create the habit and the deep knowledge that is required for confident playing, but you will need less drill merely to get around the notes. Save your precious practice time for what you must practice.

Sharing

The essential element of sharing is communicating the meaning of the music. This is more than making music expressive—it is about making the music speak to a listener. 

Joy: Don’t focus on performance nerves or making your music concert-ready in this category unless you desire to perform. Instead, focus on finding the joy in sharing your music in whatever way you choose. I start by asking yourself what you love in each piece you play.

Although this sounds so basic as to be beneath consideration, it is vital. We share most happily when we share what we love. We often begin a piece because we love it, but quickly shift our focus to working out the challenges of the notes, fingerings and rhythms. Sharing music isn’t about sharing the notes; it’s about sharing our love of the music. Whether you love the melody, the harmony, or a single chord, find your joy and put your focus there when you practice and play.

Continuity: Next, strive to create continuity, the flow of the piece that allows a listener to be completely absorbed in the music. Continuity begins with playing past mistakes. If stopping to fix mistakes becomes a habit in your practice, it will be a habit in your performance as well. Sustaining the musical flow as you play is essential. Keeping your mind on the next note, rather than the one you just played, is key. 

Pacing: Then, study the pacing of the entire piece. Consider the entire piece and how it progresses from beginning to end. Imagining a story for your piece is often a helpful way to pace the piece so the sections connect to each other in a logical and musical way. Create your musical vision for the piece, then ensure that your expressive choices and all the musical details support your vision.   

The next step

The biggest benefit of looking at musical growth through the lens of the skills a harpist needs is that it creates a path to progress. At every level, a harpist can identify the right next steps to strengthen the skills necessary for the music he or she wants to play. Although the progression of pieces will be different from one harpist to another, the skills needed to play those pieces and the steps to develop them are mostly the same. For instance, a glance through the standard exercise and etude books is enough to confirm that there is a basic technique grammar that applies to all harp players. When we follow the steps we need to take to grow, then the wealth of harp repertoire becomes available to us, piece by piece. •