Johann Sebastian Bach is a name every musician knows. He is revered as a composer whose music defined musical practices in the Baroque era and whose compositions still influence music and musicians today. Learning about his music and learning to play his music is required study for any music major.

But we harpists do feel a little neglected. We play one of the instruments that Bach did not write any music for. Of course, that doesn’t stop us from borrowing extensively from his keyboard music, his violin and cello sonatas and partitas and his lute music. Much of Bach’s music is well-suited to the harp with rippling scale passages or rich chords.

My first in-depth encounters with Bach’s music were in my piano lessons when I was about 12 years old. My teacher was insistent about how the preludes and inventions I was studying should be played: how long each note should be, how the music was made up of melodies played together, or how the harmonies moved in progression. It was my first exposure to the real building blocks of music, besides simple key signatures and chords. Somehow Bach’s music seemed to define and explain much of the rest of the music I encountered.

In my studies in college, at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, I learned much more about the inner workings of Bach’s compositions and the lasting impact it has had, not just in terms of the wealth of beautiful music he wrote, but also in the effects his music had on every composer since his time.

What I want to share with you today is not simply how learning more about Bach will make you a better harpist and all-around musician, but specifically how three familiar pieces by Bach can work together to help you improve your finger agility and evenness, your chords, your melodic flow, and your understanding of a couple of key musical concepts. You probably already know and play at least one of these pieces, and possibly all three. What I want you to come away with today is a new understanding of how these pieces are constructed and how to use this information to become an even better harpist.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:

• Fall Retreat registration is open now.
• Related Resource: Podcast Episode 109 Why Other Musicians Study Bach and Why You Should Too
• Related resource Bach and My Friend Edward Aldwell blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-154

Today’s podcast is all about tempo, and I have to start by saying that tempo is a funny thing. We define it with numbers or with the familiar Italian words, or less familiar French or German ones, and it still seems elusive.

Much of the time we try to pin a piece of music down to a number, a mathematically precise ratio of beats per minute. Perhaps the composer put it there as a guide for the performer. Perhaps it was added by an editor, an arranger, or a teacher. But it still doesn’t necessarily satisfy us. In fact, everything about this feels wrong. How is it possible to limit a piece of music, a creation that lives in a single moment, to one number?

I remember reading the liner notes to a CD recording by legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein. This recording was made toward the end of his life. He was already in his 90’s, but the producers of this recording wanted to preserve Rubinstein’s interpretations of piano masterworks for generations to come who would not have heard him. The producer writes in the liner notes how he was moved to tears by Rubinstein’s performance in the recording studio of the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. He felt he had witnessed a definitive performance.

The next morning, however, Rubinstein returned to the studio for that day’s recording session and asked to re-record the Beethoven, saying it was too slow. The change in tempo was apparently barely discernible, if at all, to a listener, but it made a difference to Rubinstein.

What made the tempo difference important to Rubinstein? Clearly it wasn’t the metronome mark. Beethoven didn’t include one; the movement is only marked “Adagio sostenuto” and so a range of speeds would seem to be allowable. So from this we can conclude that tempo is more than a metronome marking. But what is it and how do we know what tempo is right or wrong?

Do we have to play a piece at the metronome marking, particularly if we can’t play it at that speed or we don’t think it sounds right at that speed? What do we do if there is no metronome marking? How do we know how fast or slow the piece should go? With so many recordings available to us, it is clear that harpists can play the same piece at very different speeds. Does that make some of the performances correct and the others not correct?

Okay, I just threw a bunch of difficult questions at you, but you don’t have to come up with the answers; that’s my job. I think it’s important, though, that you have a clear idea of what the parameters are for finding your tempo for a piece, a tempo that you can play that sounds appropriate for the piece. In fact, that’s the secret right there. But I have lots more ideas and practical advice for you on this topic so don’t go anywhere.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:

• Harp Mastery® Fall Retreat registration is open now!

• Related resource Tempo is Not a Number blog post

• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-153

When I was preparing for this week’s show, I couldn’t help being reminded of a couple of tired old jokes.

Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
Doctor: Then don’t do that.

And,

Patient: Doctor, it hurts and I don’t know what’s wrong.
Doctor: Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.

When we’re thinking about our harp lessons, we may sometimes think of it like a doctor-patient relationship. Something is wrong with our playing and we want to get it fixed. Give me the prescription and let me go home.

Or we may think of our lessons in a less transactional, more relationship based-way. Our teacher isn’t just our expert harp guide but our friend as well. We look forward to our lessons as a time to reconnect with our harp and with our teacher too.

While both of those scenarios may be accurate to some extent, neither one truly describes what a music lesson is or should be. If our lessons are transactional - just give me the scrip, doc - we’re missing out on the deeper experience and knowledge our teacher can offer us. If our lessons are mainly relational, we may find ourselves meandering through a succession of pieces and wondering if we’re really making progress. Fortunately, most teacher-student interactions have a little of the best of each of those scenarios, plus a whole lot more beneficial instruction and guidance.

But all that can sour quickly if you have a bad lesson. That’s what we’re going to discuss today.

First, let me say that I don’t like the term “bad lesson.” Oh, yes, I had plenty of them in my student days, the kind of lesson that would leave me in tears, frustrated, angry and wanting to quit the harp. From the perspective I have now, though, with decades of teaching experience, I can see that most of those bad lessons were the best learning opportunities. They were the times when my teacher’s expertise and guidance made the most difference for me. They were the lessons that taught me the most about harp playing and being a harpist. I simply didn’t have the perspective at the time to understand it.

I believe adult students bring a more sophisticated and mature viewpoint to their lessons and usually, so-called “bad lessons” aren't an issue. But they still happen. Occasionally you have a lesson that leaves you feeling demoralized or frustrated, and that’s what I want to talk about. I want to help you sort out the facts from the feelings, help you set clear expectations for your lesson outcomes, and give you my not-so-secret tips for preparing for a lesson so you know every lesson will be a good one. And I won’t ignore those bad lessons; I’ll share my best pep talk with you too.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:

• Certified Coaching registration is open. Find out more and register here.
• Related resource Never Have a Bad Lesson Again blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-152