Practicing Harp Happiness

Anne Sulllivan
  • 4.8 (17)
  • MUSIC
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Is playing the harp harder than you thought it would be? Ever wish you knew the secrets to learning music that only the experts and the eight year old YouTube stars seem to know? Want to finally finish the pieces you start and play them with ease, confidence and joy? Harp Mastery founder and Harp Happiness expert Anne Sullivan believes every harp player can learn to play the music they want the way they want. Tune in as she clears the confusion around topics like fingering, technique, sight reading and practice skills and shares the insider tips that help her students make music beautifully. Whether you're playing the harp for fun or you're ready to take your playing to the next level, each Practicing Harp Happiness episode will reveal the strategies and insight you need to fire your imagination, enjoy your practice and love your harp playing.

  1. 5D AGO

    Learning to Play By Ear: a First Steps Seminar

    Playing by ear is one of those things that musicians either know they can do or think they'll never be able to do. Those who are practiced at it seem to have endless tunes at their fingertips. Name a tune, and if they know it, they can play it. To those who can't do it - at least not yet - it seems nothing short of magical.  But ask someone to explain how they work this magic, and you will likely get an answer that isn't much of an explanation. They might talk about understanding and learning to hear chords. Or they might say they learned by trial and error, trying to play along with songs they liked. Or they might simply shrug and tell you they have no idea. But it's only rarely that you encounter someone who will actually attempt to explain their process. Notice that I said, "When you meet someone who is practiced at it."  Playing by ear is something you can learn. Like so many other apparent feats of magic, there's no real trick to it once you learn how it's done. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's certainly doable. Even better, if you decide to experiment with the practice ideas we're going to talk about today, you'll find that you will begin to notice things in your music that you never paid attention to before, things that help you learn and understand your music at a deeper level. That's why playing by ear is really not a magic trick, but a serious musicianship skill, and that's why I wanted to talk with you about it today. What you're going to hear is a part of a live seminar I gave a while back for our My Harp Mastery members. This call was followed by a workshop where I guided them through the practice techniques from the seminar so they knew how to continue developing their skill in playing by ear.  This is the kind of thing we do inside the My Harp Mastery community. We have a live call each week where my coaches and I guide you through every aspect of playing the harp, whether it's learning new music together, or learning how to learn a piece of music, or working on technique or working through our Scale of Success curriculum. If you like learning about topics like this and getting expert instruction on how to be a better harpist and musician, I strongly suggest you check out everything that we include in our My Harp Mastery membership and join us.  Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Become a My Harp Mastery member. Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will he access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-252

    46 min

  2. MAR 2

    Creating Your Harp Life with Dr. Kristina Finch

    I know it's cliché, but when I was a young harpist, I wanted to be just like my teacher, the same way children want to be just like their parents. Specifically, that meant to me that I was going to play in a big orchestra someday. It was years later when I discovered that not only were there other paths harpists could pursue, but that some of those paths actually suited me better. I've certainly done my share of orchestral playing, and I enjoy it, but I have always found more scope and more musical opportunity in chamber music and solo performances.  When I was still in high school, I began to freelance, to play a variety of music in various settings to earn my living. Don't get the wrong impression; I didn't have to earn my living in high school. My freelance playing at that age set me up very well to earn a good living freelancing in college and beyond. I reveled in the variety, in the unusual experiences I had, in the interesting places my playing took me. I still do some of that kind of playing, albeit less than I used to, and I still enjoy it. On today's call, I am speaking with harpist Dr. Kristina Finch. Some of you may know her as one of our Harp Mastery® Certified Coaches. She has an extremely busy freelance career which has taken her all over the world. And now, she has a new harp path, in addition to playing and teaching; she and her husband are the new owners of the Harp Centers in Atlanta, Virginia and New Jersey. I asked Kristina to join me on the podcast, because I wanted you to hear her story about change, about refocusing her harp career and the insights that she has gained in the process. Our conversation was fun – it's always fun talking with Kristina – but I think it will give you some insight as well, and perhaps some takeaways about realizing your passion and balancing your own harp life.  Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Register now for the Atlanta Harp Center Festival Visit the Atlanta Harp Center Visit the Virginia Harp Center Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-251

    35 min

  3. FEB 23

    Masterclass: Making an Etude Out Of Your Piece

    Today's show is a masterclass, a show where I get to dig in to how to do something. We aren't just talking big picture concepts; we're going to get down to the nitty gritty.  I have to say this is my favorite kind of show to do, because it feels like teaching, almost like we're right here together in the same room, and I'm sharing what I've learned to help you learn too. I love that. And I really enjoy this topic too.  Our topic is how to make an etude from a piece you're trying to learn. Let's say you're working on a piece and most of the piece is ready to go, but there's one part that just won't come together. You could take that section and make an etude out of it. Or perhaps the piece you're learning is really a little above your head, and you're not really stuck, but the going is very slow. There are etude possibilities there too. I'm sure many of you already do something like this, whether it's playing that section in different rhythms or just keeping the tempo slow while your fingers get used to the patterns. But today, I'm going to show you a different way of doing it, a way that I have found to be more effective and one that will help you get to the music faster. We're going to look behind the notes to what's really going on, so that we can find the key to unlocking that passage or technique for you. So grab a pen and paper so you can take some notes and we'll get started with our masterclass. Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Renie, Au bord du ruisseau on IMSLP. Study with Harp Mastery® Certified Coach. Start here. Related resource: Etudes: The Case For and Against blog post Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-250

    31 min

  4. FEB 16

    How to Make Panic-free Page Turns

    Are you ready to talk about page turns? I realize that page turns may not seem like a captivating topic, However, if you've ever had a page turn go wrong in a moment when you don't want to have anything go wrong, you know how important page turns are. Even in the age of bluetooth pedals, poorly prepared page turns can mar an otherwise lovely performance. I'm warning you right now that page turning is a subject that I am liable to rant about, just ask my students. At our harp camp, Harp Quest Summer Live, the evening before our closing concert is spent making sure that all the students who have forgotten to prepare their pages take care of them. The mantra they hear from me is this: "No loose pages!"  And then I usually tell them this story: I was fourteen years old and accompanying our high school choir in a performance of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. This is a difficult work for chorus, and we were doing the version that is accompanied only by harp, organ and percussion. In the orchestral version there are two harp parts, and they are combined into just one part for this version, so you can imagine that the part is challenging. This performance was a big deal for me, because I was still in junior high, and for this concert, actually two performances, I was accompanying the big kids. It felt really important. The first of the two performances went well. The second one was at a church. They provided a music stand for me, and it was one of those folding metal stands that are commonly referred to as wire stands.  Here's where the page turns come into play. We were at the beginning of the third movement, and I went to turn my page and the music stand collapsed. That alone would have been a moment to remember, no matter how much I would want to forget it, but it was worse than that. The choir director had given me a photocopy of the original part to practice from, and that's what I was using for the concert. Here's the rub: I had never taped the pages together. So when my music stand collapsed, the pages went everywhere.  A good samaritan in the audience jumped up and gathered my pages and then I had to find the right ones and jump back in to play. While I wasn't scarred for life, I did learn a powerful lesson about how to prepare and prevent page disasters in a performance. Over the years, I learned a lot about the art of turning pages, not just taping them together, and I want to be sure you know them too. So trust me, you actually need to know how to manage, prepare and practice your page turns, whether you're using paper or a pedal. And yes, you ned to practice them too. Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Last call for the Harpist's Breakthrough Blueprint Plan ahead for your young harpist! Harp Quest Summer Live Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-249

    35 min

  5. FEB 9

    Answers to Your Questions: Relaxed Playing and Tuning By Ear - PHH 248

    It's time for another "Answers to Your Questions" episode. I love these episodes because I get to speak to topics that are on your mind, rather than just talking about topics I think you want to know more about. And we have two really great questions to talk about today. Before I tell you what those questions are, I want to say that my personal criteria for choosing these questions is when I have been asked the same question by three or more people in a relatively short time frame. Usually the questions come in response to something I've talked about in the podcast, like our first question today, or something we discussed on one of the Live Monday Warm-Ups. Today's second question came up on a recent warm-up. My feeling is that when three people have asked it, there are a bunch more harpists who would have liked to ask it but didn't. And so I know that there are lots of harpists who really would like to have the answer, even if they let someone else ask the question. So if you're one of those who asked the question, I thank you, and so do your fellow harpists who let you ask for them. If you're not one of those who asked the question but want to know the answer, remember that next time you can be the brave one and do the asking. If you're on a live call with me, I can tell you that I always pay attention to the questions that arise. But if you haven't been on a live call with me, you can always email me here at the podcast, and I'll register your question or comment that way. The email is podcast@harpmastery.com.  So what are our questions today? The first has to do with tuning by ear and why I feel it is so essential, not just because your harp needs to be in tune, but because it's an easy way to intentionally focus on your aural skills, which are key to your learning music faster and playing with more security.   The second question brings up a really vital point about playing without tension. It's this: being relaxed before you begin playing is one thing, but staying relaxed while you play is another, more difficult one. How do you keep relaxed and keep tension away while you're playing? It's a topic that is so important to all of us; aren't you glad those three people asked? Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Don't miss the webinar, Your Breakthrough Year Let's plan the rest of this year together in the Harpist's Breakthrough Blueprint Intensive Live Monday Warm-Up from February 2, 2026 where I talk about sticky placing, tone and tension. View it on the Harp Mastery® YouTube Channel Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-248

    32 min

  6. FEB 2

    How Not to be a Control Freak Harpist

    Today we're talking about control. Control is a word that comes up a lot in our harp playing, whether it's about controlling our fingers, our dynamics, tempo, tone, focus, or a hundred other relevant things. It feels like we're always trying to gain control over something in our playing, or over ourselves.  But the path to mastery isn't about asserting control; it's actually about letting go of control.  If you search, you can easily find dozens of books that explore the idea of control in music, and nearly all of them start out with the idea - sometimes it's even written in the title - that we gain control by letting go. It's a simple enough concept, but it comes with a big paradox: letting go of control essentially requires us not to do what we've been training ourselves to do. For example, we train ourselves to play the right notes, which usually requires a lot of focus, concentration and sometimes sheer willpower, in other words, control. But if we don't let go of that control, our music doesn't flow. Another example is our technique. We work hard to teach our fingers to play the right way, and we want to make sure that they behave themselves. So we keep paying attention to them; we keep them in our control. Of course, this means that we don't have the attention to spend on making the music expressive, and we don't let our fingers play naturally, because we want to make sure they play correctly. Perhaps the best example is when we try to play faster. We want to stay in control, and the challenge of playing a passage or a piece faster, creates chaos. We resist the chaos, with the result that we never achieve that faster tempo. The crux of the dilemma is this: we need to control many different elements in our playing, but if don't let go of control, we can't achieve the expressive, fluid musical playing we want. And practicing not controlling these things feels uncomfortable and even wrong. But today, I'm going to show you how to let go of control without the fear and without feeling like you're on the brink of disaster in your playing. I'll teach you a three-step system for keeping your controlling instincts in check, to allow them to serve your music instead of hold it back.  Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Register for my free webinar, Your Breakthrough Year Let me help you create your personalized Breakthrough plan on the Harpist's Breakthrough Blueprint Intensive Learn control practice techniques in my Kaleidoscope Practice e-book. [LINK to shop] Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-247

    35 min

  7. JAN 26

    Next Level Repertoire: Turning Baby Steps into Giant Strides

    Have you ever started learning a piece that seemed like it should be relatively easy to learn, and then discovered it was actually much harder than you thought? Of course you have; it happens to all of us. In this situation, we have a choice. We could persist, digging our heels in and fighting our way through the piece anyway. Or we could put the piece aside for the time when we are ready for it. (By the way, that time only comes when we are very focused on leveling up our skills.)  Neither choice feels good, mainly because we feel like we aren't growing. We feel like our playing is staying at the same level. In fact, one of the reactions I see from harpists in this situation is that they choose to put aside the challenging piece and play another piece by a composer or arranger whose works they know they can play easily. Unfortunately, this can mean that the music they're playing and the finger patterns they are learning don't stretch them at all, but actually keep them stuck in the same place.  Obviously, there's a gap we need to bridge. It's the gap between our actual skill level and our perception of our skill level. It isn't that we think we're better than we are; it's not a case of inflated ego. It's just that we can't see the holes we need to fill before we are actually ready to learn the piece. Sometimes the holes are missing technical skills, like independence of the hands that makes playing hands together fluid and easy. Sometimes it's a musicianship skill, maybe fluency with a rhythmic pattern or quick chord recognition.  My point is this: you shouldn't have to take baby steps with your music. It's important that you play the music you truly want to play, not feel trapped playing music that isn't what you really aspire to. But you don't have to take such a giant step that you're struggling to learn a piece in a reasonable amount of time.  If you've ever ridden the Underground in London, you may remember the signs and announcements alerting you to "mind the gap" as you step from the platform onto the train. That's my idea for today; I'm going to show you how to mind the gap between the music you can play and the music you want to play so your journey will be faster and easier. Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Plan your growth with The Harpist's Breakthrough Blueprint. Register now! Last call for the Getaway Retreat. Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-246

    32 min

  8. JAN 19

    Next Level Musicianship: The Sensory Triangle

    If you've listened to me for a while or taken any of my classes or workshops, you know that I love finding the solutions to problems we harpists face and creating the step by step plans to take action to solve them. I've discovered over my years of teaching that it's not hard to define the problem, at least the surface problem. For instance, if your left hand can't play the notes in two specific measures of your piece, then that's the problem, and the solution is easy: drill the notes. Sometimes, however, the real issue lies a few layers down. Maybe the reason the left hand can't play those measures isn't the notes. Perhaps there is a technical issue, or maybe reading bass clef is the sticking point. It could be a counting issue or even not quite understanding what the meaning of the music is at that moment. So when I'm working with my Gold Circle students, we often spend some time digging a little deeper to see where the real issue is. Then we can define the proper steps to address it. I'm mentioning this, not because we're going to talk about solving problems today, at least not exactly. What I want to point out is that music study isn't as linear as we would like it to be. It would be terrific if we could practice a piece, put extra time on the hard spots, polish it up and play it, but we all know that it doesn't always work that way. That's because when we play music, we are using a very complex set of skills that involves much more than just playing with our best technique or learning the notes. This is the skill set that comes under the heading "musicianship."  In today's podcast episode, I want to talk about the specific musicianship skills we use everyday in our playing and how to keep them growing and developing. These skills are truly key to your growth as a harpist. I'll help you understand how they connect to each other and to your playing, and we'll talk about how to integrate more intentional musicianship skill development into your daily practice. And we'll do that using a concept I developed called the Sensory Triangle. Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Get organized with The Harpist's Breakthrough Blueprint Intensive - register now! Cracking the Code: The Better Way to Read Music blog post Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-245

    34 min
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4.8
out of 5
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About

Is playing the harp harder than you thought it would be? Ever wish you knew the secrets to learning music that only the experts and the eight year old YouTube stars seem to know? Want to finally finish the pieces you start and play them with ease, confidence and joy? Harp Mastery founder and Harp Happiness expert Anne Sullivan believes every harp player can learn to play the music they want the way they want. Tune in as she clears the confusion around topics like fingering, technique, sight reading and practice skills and shares the insider tips that help her students make music beautifully. Whether you're playing the harp for fun or you're ready to take your playing to the next level, each Practicing Harp Happiness episode will reveal the strategies and insight you need to fire your imagination, enjoy your practice and love your harp playing.

Information

  • Creator
    Anne Sulllivan
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Anne Sullivan and ARS Musica
  • Show Website
    Practicing Harp Happiness

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