Competition – Seven Reasons it’s Good for You

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, then you know that I’m a big advocate for competition – and especially for Scottish Harp Society of America (SHSA) competitions.  Some of you have told me that you don’t agree and I can respect that – but many of you don’t know why I think competitions are good.  I don’t just think they are good, I think they are good for you!  Here are seven ways that competition is good for you:

1. It helps you monitor your progress against goals. Why learn a strathspey? So you can play it in competition!  Why have two sets of tunes – so you can select the one you feel best about on the day you have to play them.
2. It gives you an outlet – you do all that hard work practicing, it’s nice to have a safe place to play the tunes you worked so hard to get.
3. It provides you with social engagement with like-minded harpers.  It’s always interesting to meet and talk with other harpers and the shared preparation means you have built in conversation starters!
4. SHSA competitions are structured so you know what you’re going against.  The rules and the standard are posted so everyone can see them and you compete against the standard, not against everyone else.  The competition is about you.
5. It gives you just a little bit of pressure to work under which often helps improve our performance.
6. Competition helps you develop performance skills in front of and behind the harp.  You will not only have to play your pieces, you’ll have to introduce the music and yourself...and of course, you have to walk onto the stage!
7. You will learn a lot! Not only will you meet new people and seek out new tunes, you’ll also get to hear how tunes have been interpreted, learn something about the tunes, and hear some great music. And, of course, you’ll learn more about yourself!

So, as the competition seasons gears up, consider entering – it’s good for you!

Some lessons are easy!

I'll say something more verbose next week - after I've finished seeking inspiration.

Taking it all in – Learning new stuff

We are always learning – in school, at work, in social situations, and all the times in between are opportunities to learn.  So, when we sit at our harp it would be helpful if we knew exactly how to go about learning new music.  There are many ways to learn and it helps to use as many as possible.  It does help to actively think about how you will learn and here are eight ways to help you learn your music and how to play:

1. Take care of you: if you’re thirsty or hungry you will have a harder time focusing, so before you start be sure to hydrate and have a snack.
2. Know before you go: as they say, “plan your work and work your plan” – you’ll have an easier time learning if you know what you are trying to learn before you start!
3. Think first: it will be easier to take in the music if you analyze it before you try to play it.  Look at the music or listen to the tune so you have some idea of the patterns that are coming and you’re not totally surprised by each note!
4. Don’t start from zero: practice the fundamentals so that when you get to the more advanced stuff you are not also working on the basics, just the new music.
5. Get up: it is important to learn the rhythm and to help get that down you might have to get up and move to find it.
6. Write it down: keep your journal up to date to capture your plans, your progress, your successes and insights you get along the way.
7. Take it in small sections and build it up: music is serial – that is, all the notes don’t hit you at once!  Rather, they stream by over time (except for the chords!). If you have already done the analysis (see 3 above) you can learn the patterns as time flows.
8. Use all you've got (hear, see, feel) – Learning is hard work – use everything you have to make it go better, faster, and learn more music!

Break it up and move along

February is a great month – not so long that you get bored with it, not so short that you can’t learn something new – so this month we’ll focus on learning.

Reading music is a challenge for many people.  It is, after all, a whole new language. Written music conveys a lot of information in relatively little ink.  Ok, it does look like a lot of ink!  Music scores are built from a set of symbols that come together to express musical ideas.  Just like letters build to make words, sentences, paragraphs, or entire stories!

So how do you get to the meaning of all that ink?  Well, you have to read it.  It’s important to remember that just like in a word book, those little strokes and splotches convey a lot of information.  The score conveys pitch, movement, rhythm, volume, and more.  That’s a lot to take in and it can be intimidating.

Musicians with strong formal training quite literally read a score.  Just like you read a book, their eyes move along the lines as they recreate in their heads what's being conveyed. They have a lot of practice - they've already sat at the equivalent of the blue bird table just like you did when you were learning to read words.

Sounding out words?  Reading aloud?  Pronouncing (and mispronouncing) strings of symbols while you learned what they meant and how to voice them.  Remember that?  No, you probably don’t (or the details may be fuzzy) – you practiced very hard to learn the symbols, then to put a couple together (remember sh-, ch-, th- and ae, ai, ea, oa?), and then put more together, until you were speeding through sentences and then whole books! 

You need to do the same thing with your score! Practice reading, learning the symbols.  Then practice reading them in pairs.  Then move on to longer strings, until eventually you are zorching through entire tunes.  Keep at it and soon you’ll be reading Sonatas and Symphonies!!

But it all starts by looking at the sheet and not panicking but by slowly breaking it up, getting the idea and moving on to the next couple...just practice, take it slow, acknowledge the work you are doing.  Break it up and move along!