How To Harp Podcast

How To Harp
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Music Interviews
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to the How To Harp podcast, the show that celebrates your harp journey. Join harpist, tutor and founder of How To Harp Heather Downie for weekly episodes full of expert tips, inspiring interviews, real harpist stories, and relaxed chats with How To Harp co-tutor Angela. Whether you’re just starting out or growing your skills, this is your space to learn, laugh, and love your harp even more.

  1. 3d ago

    Ep 58: Sometimes Success Is Just Not Giving Up with Rosie Wilcoc

    Her dad found a harp and a teacher in the early 1980s, and her mum said no. Rosie waited two decades, paid for her own lessons at 30, and sixteen years on she's still going, with a long gap in the middle when life got in the way and she had to stop completely for several years. Heather asks what actually kept her coming back, and the answers are practical rather than motivational. There's a routine she calls her harp survival skills, and a way of thinking about progress that helps a lot if you've ever felt behind. In this episode: - How she met Heather at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival, by booking individual time with every workshop leader - Why a long struggle on the trombone made her insist on rock-solid harp technique - How brass bands and theatre pits turned a shy child into a bolder player - Losing Pilgrim Harps, and the instrument they built for her that her sisters gilded - Adding a Camac Ulysse, and what it brings that her Pilgrim clarsach doesn't - Why sight reading is the hardest part for her, and the block-chord work that's helping - Running the Harpy Musicianship Club, and why the subject puts so many people off Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Guest: Rosie Wilcock - Learner Harpist and How To Harp Community Leader & Member Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #AdultHarpLearner #LeverHarp

    Ep 58: Sometimes Success Is Just Not Giving Up with Rosie Wilcoc

  2. Sep 8

    Ep 57: You're Not an Exam Person or a Non-Exam Person

    Working through grades can be exactly what your playing needs, or the very thing holding it back, and which one it is has nothing to do with the sort of harpist you are. Heather and Angela help you tell the difference. They go over what's on offer, from ABRSM and Trinity to university routes and How To Harp's own certification, and they're honest about both sides of it rather than landing neatly on one. In this episode: - Why "exam hopping" can leave real gaps in what you're able to do - Angela's example of a player at grade five who had never played a harmonic - What sitting in your level for a while gives you that racing ahead doesn't - Why a syllabus is worth a look even if you don't enter - What aural and sight reading tests build in you beyond the tunes themselves - The value of a real deadline, and of a second set of ears - How exams shaped Heather and Angela's own learning and teaching Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Guest: Angela Boraston - Harp Tutor at How To Harp Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #HarpExams #ABRSM

    Ep 57: You're Not an Exam Person or a Non-Exam Person

  3. Sep 1

    Ep 56: Play Like You Have Nothing to Prove with Rachel Groves

    A library book about choosing an instrument for your child, left lying around the house, is where this whole story starts. Heather's guest is Rachel, who read it at 11, came downstairs the next morning asking for a harp, and has since been named BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2026. Heather asks her about the years in between, from a first rented harp in Aberdeenshire to a masters at the Berklee campus in Valencia, and about how quickly everything changed once the result was announced for the Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year. In this episode: - How the Clàrsach Society rental scheme made that first harp possible - Why she wrote a conservatoire application and never sent it - Two years on pedal harp, and what pulled her back to the lever harp - Where her tune Number 43 came from, and why it's really about Glasgow - Applying for the competition on a whim, and the boxes we put ourselves in - Letting go of feeling she had something to prove, and what that did for her nerves - The concert and workshop she's bringing to the How To Harp membership Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Guest: Rachel Groves - Professional Harpist, Composer, BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2026, and How To Harp Guest Tutor Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #RachelGroves #ScottishHarp

    Ep 56: Play Like You Have Nothing to Prove with Rachel Groves

  4. Aug 25

    Ep 55: You Don't Need Permission to Be Creative

    Heather's learning and teaching philosophy has never been spoken about properly before, and she lays the whole thing out here. It came out of a live session during our Celebrating Harmony Weekend, when she heard herself explaining it and realised that's genuinely how everything at How To Harp has been built. It centres on three ideas she's taken from the jazz musician Clark Terry, imitation, assimilation and innovation, but she doesn't think they happen in that order. She makes the case that they're a Venn diagram rather than a staircase, with every one of them at work from your very first lesson. In this episode: - Why Heather refuses to say the word "should" to a learner - The Suzuki idea that we pick up an instrument the same way we learn to talk - Her brother Alistair, the name she couldn't pronounce as a baby, and why nobody corrected her - What's really going on when adult learners feel stuck and impatient - Why our beginner and post beginner pathways are designed to take at least a year - Asking what you like about a single bar of music, and where that question takes you - How waiting until you know enough can end up holding your playing back Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #AdultHarpLearners #TeachingPhilosophy

    Ep 55: You Don't Need Permission to Be Creative

  5. Aug 18

    Ep 54: Walk Your Own Path with Niccie Hughes | How To Harp Podcast

    Niccie heard a harp at the ballet when she was little, then waited more than four decades before she started playing one. Heather sits down with her to find out how she finally got going, and why doing it her way has mattered so much. She's nearly three years in now, and she knows exactly how she learns, what she wants from an instrument, and what she'd rather take her time over. Heather gets into both harps, the teaching that suits her, and the mindset that holds it all together. In this episode: - Why weekly lessons weren't right for her, and how monthly ones with Angela work instead - Choosing a Pilgrim Clarsach, and the harp she never expected to fall for - Building and painting a Harp-E from a bare kit, levers and all - Being on the autistic spectrum, and how the harp settles a busy brain - Picking music that's far too hard on purpose, and preferring exercises to pieces - Harmonics on the lower metal strings, and getting two hands to agree with each other - Practice Togethers, the technique bank, and a community where nobody feels behind Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Guest: Niccie Hughes - Learner Harpist and How To Harp Member Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #LearnerHarpist #HarpJourney

    Ep 54: Walk Your Own Path with Niccie Hughes | How To Harp Podcast

  6. Aug 11

    Ep 53: What Adult Harp Learners Get Wrong

    Plenty of people come to the harp later in life already sure they've missed their chance. The Heather and Angela episodes are usually a Harpy Tutor Chat, but in this one Heather is asking Angela a set of questions she hadn't seen beforehand. It's part celebration of Angela's two years with How To Harp, and part honest conversation about what teaching adults asks of you. In this episode: - Angela's first ever one-to-one lesson with us, and the 10pm high that kept her awake - Why adult learners compare themselves to a fantasy self, and stop seeing their own progress - The maple tree from our goal-setting session, and the member who planted one at home - Knowing how hard to push someone, and why she calls it a tightrope - The piece a learner falls in love with that's well beyond them, and why there's no easy answer - The one gift she'd give every adult beginner - How her confidence changed once she was actually doing the job - Heather on what it's like having another harpist on the team Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Guest: Angela Boraston - Harpist, Harp Tutor at How To Harp Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #AdultHarpLearners #HarpTeaching

    Ep 53: What Adult Harp Learners Get Wrong

  7. Aug 4

    Ep 52: Where the Music Comes From with Nadia Birkenstock

    Nadia's best-known tune sat in a drawer for eleven months before she published it, because she wasn't sure it was good enough. It's since been heard well over a million times, and the German harpist and singer joins Heather to talk about how she works, and what she listens for. Much of it goes back to her training in Lieder, where the piano part is written to illustrate the words. She's spent a career carrying that idea across to the harp, treating it as a duo partner with a voice of its own rather than a set of arpeggios underneath the melody. In this episode: - Falling for the Celtic harp at sixteen, after hearing the duo Sìleas live - Why she went back and took classical lessons after teaching herself - Starting every song arrangement from scratch, hunting for patterns she hasn't used before - Building "Sagittaire" around a short film, and writing music to picture - Collecting light, wind and acoustic spaces as raw material - Putting her first video online when most computers couldn't play it, and the invitation that arrived two years later - Whether the tradition can be stretched too far, and why she doesn't think there's a line - Her concert and harp and voice workshop inside the membership - One piece of advice for adult learners, and how to know a teacher is right for you Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Guest: Nadia Birkenstock - Harpist, Singer, Composer, and How To Harp Guest Tutor Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #NadiaBirkenstock #HarpAndVoice

    Ep 52: Where the Music Comes From with Nadia Birkenstock

  8. Jul 28

    Ep 51: I Spent a Year Dreading Something for No Good Reason

    Heather turned 40 last weekend, and this week she's flying solo with something a bit more personal than usual. It's an honest look at how she handled the run up to a birthday she really didn't want, and what she'd do very differently next time. It's not really a birthday episode though. If you've ever put something off because you were dreading it, you'll recognise a lot of this. That same pattern turns up all over harp playing, and Heather talks through how to face it, why changing your mindset is much easier said than done, and why she's heading into this next year with a lot less dread. In this episode: - A whole year spent worrying, and the moment Heather realised nothing had actually changed - How a poor attitude sucks the fun out of something before it even happens - Why a bit of a wallow is fine, but a year-long one isn't - The stressful lesson, the exam, or the technique problem you're quietly avoiding - The three choices you've got when a concert's coming and you're dreading it - Reframing the work you've put in, the people listening, and the sound of the harp - Why sharing it with someone is the most useful thing you can do first This is a vulnerable and funny one, and really it's about how much time and enjoyment we can lose to something we can't change, and how quickly that turns round once we choose to look at it differently. Host: Heather Downie - Harpist, Principal Lever Harp Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Founder of How To Harp Learn with us: https://www.HowToHarp.com (membership, courses, retreats) If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with a harp friend. It really helps the podcast grow and helps us connect with more harpists around the world! #HowToHarpPodcast #HowToHarp #HeatherDownieHarpist #MusicianMindset #PerformanceAnxiety

    Ep 51: I Spent a Year Dreading Something for No Good Reason
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Welcome to the How To Harp podcast, the show that celebrates your harp journey. Join harpist, tutor and founder of How To Harp Heather Downie for weekly episodes full of expert tips, inspiring interviews, real harpist stories, and relaxed chats with How To Harp co-tutor Angela. Whether you’re just starting out or growing your skills, this is your space to learn, laugh, and love your harp even more.

Information

  • Creator
    How To Harp
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    61
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © How To Harp
  • Show Website
    How To Harp Podcast

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