Today’s focus

Don’t overdo it! 

“Practice is your musical hydration. Get enough of it daily, but don’t overdo it!”

—Elzbieta Szmyt

Today’s tip

Learn how to make final decisions. 

Elzbieta Szmyt discusses the importance of making final decisions in practicing. She says that “observing somebody else’s hand playing your version is the best test to see what would really work. There are so many ways to arrange the pieces, so the process of making the final decision is the hardest.”

Read more about Szmyt in her Q and A at harpcolumn.com! 

Today’s focus

Hear the progress you want to create!

“Your ears should always hear what you want to specifically change in your daily practice. That gap between where we want to be and where we currently are should be your practice motivation. If you can hear the progress you want to make, then you can do it.”

—Jaymee Haefner

Today’s tip

Learn how to play glissandos.

Harp Column Academy teacher Jaymee Haefner tells us that “a harp glissando seems to be everybody’s favorite harp technique. The important thing with glisses is that you maintain the pressure against the strings. You also want to be careful not to speed up at the very top or at the lowest part of the gliss. You want to keep an even speed throughout as much as you possibly can.”

Learn more from Jaymee Haefner in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Make sure your voice is heard. 

“In everything that you do and every note that you play, find a way to make it uniquely yours.  Make sure that your voice is heard.”

—Brandee Younger

Today’s tip

Don’t be afraid to be your authentic self.

Brandee Younger shares that when it comes to playing the harp, “mentorship is huge.” As important as that mentorship is, Younger also believes it is crucial for harpists to find their own style. She shares: “Don’t be afraid to be yourself. If you feel like you don’t fit into a box, that’s probably a good thing. I wish I had figured that out sooner.” 

Read more about Brandee Younger in the January-February 2021 issue of Harp Column magazine!

Today’s focus

Find harmony in your warmup routine! 

“As you warm up, are you listening to your sound, intonation, and rhythm? Is your mind settling in the moment or are you miles away, thinking about other things you’re going to do later?”

—Felice Pomeranz

Today’s tip

Learn how to play lever and pedal slides.

Harp Column Academy teacher Felice Pomeranz shares some tips on how to play lever and pedal slides. She asks: “have you ever really looked down at the bottom of the pedal harp? Notice that they have little notches so you can push [the pedal] down and you can notch it. But you can also just push it down and let it back up. So after a pedal slide, hold the pedal down, but don’t put it into the notch. For lever slides, you have to really give it some gas. Pluck a little bit harder when you pull the lever up for lever slides.”

Learn more from Felice Pomeranz in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Maintain steady practice habits!

“When it comes to practicing, unfortunately we can’t pay it forward. Cramming one week and skipping the next won’t really increase our progress. Practicing for hours before a performance or a lesson generally doesn’t produce good results. Playing harp is a physical skill which needs to be maintained on a daily basis.”

—Kim Robertson

Today’s tip

Learn how to play large intervals.

Harp Column Academy teacher Kim Robertson teaches us how to play large intervals. She suggests to “start with the interval of a fifth with your third finger and thumb. Squeeze strings, pull fingers into the palm, and relax the hand. The goal is to learn how different intervals feel in the hand.”

Learn more from Kim Robertson in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Put focus and love into practice!

“Remember that all the focus and love that we put into our practice, will be be shared and felt by our audiences.”

—Anneleen Lenaerts

Today’s tip

Learn how to work well with others.

We caught up with Anneleen Lenaerts to learn how to “live the dream.” She tells us she is very grateful for the opportunity to perform with other musicians. “Some things you don’t get in touch with when you only play the harp alone.”

Learn more about Anneleen in the May-June 2015 issue of Harp Column magazine.

Today’s focus

Find your voice! 

“I wish that I practiced more, because I love how it feels when I do practice.” 

—Deborah Henson-Conant

Today’s tip

Learn how to expand your creative voice on the harp.

We caught up with Deborah Henson- Conant to learn how to improvise on the harp. She tells us that knowing how to build chords is an important first step. “One of the most useful chord shapes you can learn is called the 1–5–10 chord. It gives us all three notes of the chord but in a way that is very resonant for the harp.”

Learn more from Deborah in her studio at Harp Column Academy.

Today’s focus

Interact with other musicians!

“To find a way to interact with other musicians and composers and still ground myself in my own voice, that all plays heavily into how I work as a leader.” 

—Maeve Gilchrist

Today’s tip

Get creative with your practicing!

Harp Column Academy teacher Maeve Gilchrist shares tips on how to get creative with your practicing. “Loop melodic phrases you are working on,” she says. “Start at a slow tempo and increase your speed. When that feels fluid, move into different registers of the harp. That way, you are comfortable with the melodic material.”

Learn more from Gilchrist in her studio at Harp Column Academy. 

Today’s focus

Take baby steps!

“Progress doesn’t require big leaps or aha moments. It needs small, deliberate steps in the right direction, repeated constantly.”

—Anne Sullivan, HCA guest presenter

Today’s tip

Learn how to become independent of your teacher.

Anne Sullivan discusses the importance of teaching students to become independent in their practicing and performing. She shares that “much like good parenting, good teaching means training our students to be independent of us. Our main responsibility is to teach our students how to practice, play, and understand the craft and the art of music.”

Read Anne’s article in the November-December 2018 issue of Harp Column magazine!

Today’s focus

Plan today to be better than yesterday!

“What can I do in today’s practice to make it better than yesterday’s practice?”

—Isabelle Perrin

Today’s tip

Learn how to breathe.

Harp Column Academy teacher Isabelle Perrin discusses the importance of breathing as a musician. She tells us that “breathing is essential for both physical and musical reasons. Physically, when we breathe, we take in oxygen and oxygen is essential for our muscles. When we do not breathe, we have less and less oxygen, and then our muscles become tense. Musically, breathing helps shape our phrasing.”

Learn more from Perrin in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Dream big!

“When you imagine the sound of music you want to create, you are well on your way to playing beautiful music. Dream big. You deserve it!”

—Sunita Staneslow

Today’s tip

Learn how to play in a therapeutic style.

Harp Column Academy teacher Sunita Staneslow teaches us how to play the harp in a therapeutic style. She says “tone and tempo are key to playing more therapeutically, to playing with a sense of openness, space, and breath. Breath is soothing and calm. Simple arpeggios are calming when played slowly, with a bit more consciousness.”

Learn more from Staneslow in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Stop comparing!

“What could you accomplish today if you weren’t using that energy to compare yourself to others?”

—Katherine Siochi, HCA guest presenter

Today’s tip

Enhance your musicality. 

Katherine Siochi discusses the importance of musicality and phrasing in performance. She believes that over practicing can lead to rote sounding performances. She tells us: “Perfection is something I strive for during practice, but if that’s my focus in performance, it’s detrimental to really creating music.” 

Read more about Siochi in Harp Column magazine’s September-October 2016 issue. 

Today’s focus

Channel your unique voice!

 “In performance practice, learning to ‘go for it’ requires as much as courage as it does vulnerability. As artists, we must commit to channeling our own unique inner voice no matter what, while letting go of the inner critic and expectations of others.”

—Grace Browning

Today’s tip

Develop visual techniques to learn a new piece of music. 

Grace Browning goes inside the practice room at Harp Column Academy to perform and discuss Debussy’s First Arabesque. She discusses visuals that helped her learn this piece. She tells us that she tends to be a very visual person. “An arabesque is a visual design consisting of rhythmic, linear patterns. That sort of visual component is so much in my mind when I’m playing this. It’s really fascinating to visualize how all the lines stack up.”

Learn more from Browning inside the practice room at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Head outside!

“It’s not just an artificial construct to play music outside. There is a different connection that happens internally, within yourself, when you are outside that we could maybe consider more in music.”

—Alice Giles

Today’s tip

Learn how to play loudly. 

Harp Column Academy teacher Alice GIles discusses how to make a beautiful loud sound! She tells us “your sound needs the support of your whole body. Keep your knuckles rounded and close into the palm of your hand. Control of the knuckles creates volume. It’s about weight and movement with a follow through rather than pressure and strength.”

Learn more from Giles in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Relax!

“Good technique requires effortless technical ability. The challenge for harpists is to work relaxation methods into actual playing.”

—Sarah Bullen

Today’s tip

Learn how to warm up and tune. 

Harp Column Academy teacher Sarah Bullen discusses warming up and tuning in an orchestra setting. She tells us to “always warm up not just to warm up, but for your tuning. Always tune quietly. Warm up to limber up for yourself, not for others.” 

Learn more from Bullen in her studio at Harp Column Academy! 

Today’s focus

Discover who you want to be!

“In every minute you practice, you choose the harpist you want to become. It all starts with just showing up.”

—Anne Sullivan

Today’s tip

Organize your time.

“Perhaps the biggest hurdle for any working harpist is being the performer, the manager, the roadie, the bookkeeper, and the administrative assistant all rolled into one,” says Anne Sullivan. “Choices made in support of your personal priorities and career goals will lead to deep satisfaction; choices made in contrary to your priorities will likely frustrate you.”

Read Anne’s article from the July-August 2019 issue of Harp Column today!

Today’s focus

Practice like you love it!

“If you play the harp, this is quite surely your choice! So always remember it: you practice because you love your harp!”

—Isabelle Perrin

Today’s tip

Learn to play harmonics. 

“Harmonics: even the name of it sounds magical” says Harp Column Academy teacher Isabelle Perrin. “I think this is one of the most specific technical elements of our instrument. How can we be sure to have beautiful harmonics? Know whether the string is flat, natural, or sharp, because you don’t play the harmonic in the same position for each string. To play a harmonic, you split the string in two and only play half of the string.” 

Learn more about harmonics in Perrin’s studio at Harp Column Academy! 

Today’s focus

Keep your ultimate goal in mind!

“Anything we practice, from technique to pedaling to memorization, is simply to serve the music. We must keep in mind our ultimate goal of the shaping of the phrase, the arc of the piece, the statement of the music; and use the technical exercises, memory work, and all the drills and repetitions as a means to get to that goal.”

—Cheryl Losey Feder

Today’s tip

Don’t skip slow practice! 

Cheryl Losey Feder discusses the importance of practicing slowly. As she performs the Salzedo Variations on Harp Column Academy, she says: “I find I can never skip the slow practicing. If I make myself do that first, I usually have an easier time speeding it up.”

Learn more from Cheryl inside the practice room at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Keep an open mind!

“With a good technique, open ears, and willingness to try, anything is possible. Music is a conversation that should make you smile.”

—Amanda Whiting

Today’s tip

Learn to improvise and find your sound. 

“What’s your sound? Have you ever just sat there and played some chords to see what sound you like?” asks Harp Column Academy teacher Amanda Whiting. “Be aware. In order to find our sound, we’re going to free ourselves and put the harp into any random combination of levers or pedals. Start by playing one finger at a time. Listen to it, let the decay happen. Listen to the quality of the note. When you have experimented with that, add more fingers to facilitate better phrases. Let’s be free. Let’s find our sound.”

Learn more from Whiting in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Stay humble!

“Learning is exploration, experimentation, humility, and retrieval. Be a detective in your learning: experiment, explore, embrace the challenges, and always stay humble. In this way you will learn what the music is asking you and your harp will sing!”

—Lynne Aspnes

Today’s tip

Develop a beautiful sound. 

Harp Column Academy teacher Lynne Aspnes shares that “there is a responsibility to produce a beautful sound. Basic, beautiful, even tone becomes the foundation for your color palette of the harp.” 

Learn more about sound production in Lynne’s studio at Harp Column Academy! 

Today’s focus

Prepare in advance!

“The work you do in advance of rehearsal will ensure you never feel lost.”

—Bridget Kibbey 

Today’s tip

Learn how to tune using the circle of fifths.

Harpist and teacher Bridget Kibbey tells us that “it’s really important for all of us to learn to tune by ear and to be comfortable tuning in fourths and fifths. This is really tuning by relative pitch. Always listen for squiggles in the sound and then adjust until you have a laser perfect note.”

Tune in to Kibbey’s technique and sound lesson at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Step outside your comfort zone!

“I’m 100 percent appreciative and I’m learning all the time. Really, the minute you feel like you are settled and comfortable, you are regressing.”

—June Han

Today’s tip

Develop clean playing without buzzing.

Harp Column Academy teacher June Han tells us that she finds that “practicing without buzzing is relatively easy when you realize you are doing it. Sometimes we are in denial about our own buzzing. Anything that is not part of good tone is a buzz. Reach fingers out to quickly grab strings, thinking of a snake’s tongue grabbing a fly.”

Learn more from Han in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Practice at a manageable pace!

“I find it is better to practice slowly and steadily, at whatever pace you can manage the trickiest part of the piece, rather than going too fast! That way you can gradually build up the tempo, but the tune will already be flowing well. If you find that the right hand fingering gets mixed up when you add the left hand, then it is worth practicing them separately for a while longer. Mostly though, try to enjoy your harp playing and don’t get frustrated if things take longer to perfect than you would like them to!”

—Gráinne Hambly

Today’s tip

Learn to play slides.

We caught up with Harp Column Academy teacher Gráinne Hambly to learn more about slides. She shares: “a trick I find really useful when playing fast songs is to slide either with the thumb or with the third or fourth fingers depending on what’s happening. Like everything else, the key is to feel relaxed when you’re doing that. Slides can help connect melody notes at fast speeds.”

Keep up to date with all of Hambly’s lessons at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Set a timer!

“Don’t feel like practicing? Try setting a timer for 15 minutes. You’ll be 15 minutes better than you were before.”

—Emily Levin

Today’s tip

Learn how to play cleanly.

Harpist Emily Levin discusses the importance of playing cleanly in the Handel harp concerto. “One of the challenges with this type of music is that the harp just rings and rings,” she says. “Especially in this early music, you really need clarity. Each voice has to be clear. Otherwise, you lose the intention.”

Listen to Levin’s performance of Handel’s harp concerto at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Become an extraordinary thinker!

“Legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz gave us these great words to live by: ‘The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is practice.'”

—Nicole Brady

Today’s tip

Learn to play without tension.

Harp Column Academy teacher Nicole Brady points out that playing without tension is something every harpist has to pay attention to and work on regularly. “Use the hot touch,”she suggests. “It’s when you close your fingers into your palm pretending that your palm is hot and you touch it and you want to release away from it. That release is when your fingers relax completely after plucking the strings.”

Keep up to date with all of Brady’s technique tips in her studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Think outside the notes! 

“There’s a lot more to practice than just learning the notes. Discover the art of making a piece your own!”

—Rhett Barnwell

Today’s tip

Learn how to arrange music. 

Harp Column Academy teacher Rhett Barnwell tells us: “Once I’ve figured out what I want to arrange, I sit down at the harp and start playing until I come up with something that sounds good to me. I quickly write it down before I forget it! There really is no method to my own madness.” 

Learn more about arranging in Barnwell’s studio at Harp Column Academy!

Today’s focus

Practice deliberately!

“Looking for a new year’s resolution? I’ve got one for you: DELIBERATE PRACTICE! Practice with a plan, intention, discipline, audible results, and fun. Let’s get started!”

—Maria Luisa Rayan

Today’s tip

Learn how to articulate.

“What is articulation in general?” asks Harp Column Academy master teacher Maria Luisa Rayan. “Articulation is the clarity with which we speak and enunciate words. Applied to music, articulation is the same concept. It’s the clarity in our playing. it’s the clarity in production of notes.” 

Learn more about articulation in Rayan’s studio at Harp Column Academy! 

Today’s focus

Find structure!

“When we structure our practice time it is often surprising how much we can accomplish in such a small amount of time.”

—Angela Schwarzkopf, HCA guest presenter

Today’s tip

Practice slowly. 

Angela Schwarzkopf gave us some great advice when we interviewed her for the September-October 2020 issue of Harp Column magazine: “When I started my master’s degree, I spent months only being allowed to play things very slowly so I could be thoughtful and mindful about how I was moving my hands and body. We all have things in our practice to keep working on to be the best we can be.” 

Read this article now to find out more about Angela! 

Today’s focus 

Expect more of yourself in the practice room!

“You are your own biggest critic. In other words, of all the people in the world, you are the biggest expert on yourself! Expecting more of yourself in the practice room will grow you in unimaginable ways.”

—Rachel Lee Hall 

Today’s tip

Put purpose into your practice.

“If you want to have a successful practice session, you need to first set your harp down and think big picture,” suggests Harp Column Academy contributor Rachel Lee Hall. “What’s your purpose? Why do you pursue music? If you know your purpose and it’s something you really believe in, you’re going to want to do whatever it takes to fulfill that and it will fill you with energy and motivation.”

Today’s focus

Get moving!

“‘Nothing happens until something moves,’ said Albert Einstein. Let’s get that music moved from our wish list to our fingers! Join me at the starting line and get ready to move!”

—Robbin Gordon Cartier, HCA guest presenter

Today’s tip

Re-energize your practice sessions!

To help you get started, we’re sharing great 30 Day Practice Tips from our challenge a few years back. We’ve got tips to help you with:

• Time management
• Maximizing efficiency
• Working with your external environment
• Mind and body focus
• Gaining perspective

Read this article from the March-April 2017 issue of Harp Column  FREE today!