Goodbye 2022, Hello 2023!

I don’t write “New Year Resolutions.” But as the year comes to a close, I always review my year listing what I ended up accomplishing, and compare it to the list of goals I had set the previous year. These are not always the same… Several goals might not be met, but other things may have been accomplished that I had no idea I would be doing. Set as goals, I don’t have to feel like a failure for not keeping a resolution, so I don’t “resolve” to do anything, but instead, put out a list of what I hope to do.

This is a special time for me to reflect and consider if any of the previous year’s goals are still important enough to add to this year’s goals. But also to smile and pat myself on the back for the opportunities that popped up through the year that I had not anticipated.

One thing I had not anticipated is getting to know so many new friends through this blog – I’m loving the interaction and discussion that follows some of the topics!

I wish you a successful, interesting, healthy, happy new year, and hope to see you in the coming months at one of the online or in person events coming up!

Here is what is happening in January, 2023:

Two online workshops:

Saturday, January 7^th, 10 am – 1 pm pacific time: “Mixolydian Magic” for any instrument, any level. Mixolydian Mode is a magical mode for improvisation. We’ll spend some time with a handful of lesser-known Mixolydian tunes to add to your repertoire, and we’ll use them as a basis for improvisation. Handouts include a chart for lever harp and a chart for guitar that show how to play in Mixolydian Mode on your instrument. You’ll also get a list of the coolest chord progressions to use for Mixolydian improvisation in addition to the packet of tunes for the class. Cost of the workshop: $30 per person. Here’s how to register: https://tinyurl.com/Mixolydianmagic

Saturday January 14^th, 10 am – 1 pm pacific time: "Lullabies for Babies & Grownups" open to all harpists, guitarists, and other instrumentalists as well. This class will be a good way to add lullabies to your repertoire that can be used for soothing and calming babies of all ages (0 – 100+)! We’ll not simply play through the lullabies in the handouts – we’ll also cover what it is that makes them lullabies, and what we should consider in both composing and improvising our own lullabies! If you are a guitarist, be sure to let me know so I can send the guitar tablature for each tune. Cost of the workshop: $30 per person. Here’s how to register: https://tinyurl.com/lullabiesworkshop

Two performances (one live and one online):

 

Sunday, January 8^th, 4:30 – 7:30 pm pacific time: Live performance with Gaelic Muses at Wheelhouse of Willow Glen: 1173 Lincoln Avenue in San Jose, CA. Here’s our promo blurb: Gaelic Muses is a high-energy, three-person, all-female band playing Celtic-inspired music from many genres, including Traditional Folk, Rock, and Movie Soundtracks. With a vast array of instruments to match the mood of any song, Gaelic Muses is a powerhouse of musical prowess with a repertoire to match! Jigs, Reels, Airs, Movie Themes, Pirate Songs, Celtic Rock, and original pop-Celtic mashups combined with strong vocals and a playful stage presence make this band a must-see and hear!

Saturday, January 28^th, 4:00 – 5:00 pm pacific time: Live-stream concert on Zoom, “Life Stages: Songs and for those who care for the elderly.”  I had written a number of songs during the time when my parents were facing the challenges of aging, Alzheimer’s, and the end of life. But don’t worry, the songs are not all sad! As I have been performing more and more in assisted living facilities, I have grown to love and appreciate songs of yesterday that bring happy memories and smiles. So, it will be a mix of original songs and familiar songs, with some stories about my experiences with my parents, my work with patients in the hospital, and my performances at assisted living facilities.

This concert will be a way to share in those experiences even if you don’t have aging parents or play music for this demographic. I will sing and play both my Celtic harp and my double-strung harp, with a few songs on guitar. Those who play therapeutic music in hospitals or for hospice and anyone who has a loved one who is in their sunset years will particularly identify with the music. The concert is free to attend, but seating is limited, so sign up soon! Here is the link: https://tinyurl.com/LifeStagesConcert

I just posted an Instagram reel you might enjoy! Be sure to unmute and turn your speakers on so you can sing along! 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmw6GVKqvI0/

Hope to see you either online or in person in the new year!

💕Verlene

 

"To Drive the Dark Away"

Driving home from an outdoor evening gig with Gaelic Muses last night, on the night after the longest night of the year, I was musing about the effect of these long winter nights on mood. Before the gig, I was concerned that we’d be cold (yes we were, but they brought out heaters and it was not so teeth-chatteringly unbearable…) and I was concerned we’d be playing to a lot of empty tables (we weren’t, there were a number of tables full of smiling people singing along on our sillier songs) and I was also concerned that we’d have a hard time seeing each other and our instruments and our audience.

We got set up with the sun still up between 3:30 and 5, (sunset was expected at 4:54 pm) and then played our first tune. Lynda exclaimed, “Look at that sunset!” It was hidden behind the building from my position, so I went over to where she and Alison were oohing and ahing and was blown away by the beautiful display framed by buildings on either side.

We continued with our performance as the sky darkened, and I was delighted to find that the pole I was set up next to transformed into a bright street lamp so my side of the “stage” (which was in a parking area next to the outdoor patio) was well lit. Lynda also supplied us all with fully charged twinkly fairy light strings to lay around our instruments, so the effect was lovely and magical. With our music stand lights and the lights on my carbon fiber harp, we were in pretty good shape as far as the lighting went.

The heaters placed near us and all around the patio for the audience provided both warmth and light to “drive the dark away.” And our performance turned out to be fun, and a good time was had by all…

Driving home after the performance, once I turned off the freeway and got into my neighborhood, I noticed all the over-the-top Christmas yard decorations that lit up several streets. My more cynical side thought “what a waste of electricity” although I’m guessing many of these are solar-powered. And “how commercial can you get!” I didn’t even know what some of the characters were representing. I must be out of the loop, but what are Disney characters doing standing next to Santa and a creche? But I also thought “How pretty” and felt somewhat uplifted by all the twinkling lights…

Then this morning, I saw a post by my friend Deb on FB:

This started my neurons firing in several directions:

Dark vrs light – using major chords in a minor tune, and minor chords in a major tune – balancing? or leaning one way or the other? Hmmm…

Long nights and short days – long notes followed by short ones, dotted quarter notes with their eighth note partners, rubato (which is Italian for “robbed”) stretching some measures and shortening others. As one jazz instructor said “you can rob Peter to pay Paul.” And I have noticed when I’ve recorded multiple takes of a rubato tune that even though I am not playing any one phrase exactly the same way, the overall length still comes out the same… So there’s a balance there too.

But then there are all those fun Celtic tunes we played last night that started slow, and then sped up with each repeat to a dizzying tempo. Like how the long nights will gradually get shorter and shorter until we’re celebrating another solstice in mid-summer on the shortest night/longest day. It all comes into balance…

And like how this very long post is balanced by the shorter ones…

Here is a song that is not a “holiday” song, but celebrates the balancing act of the seasons. It’s the title track of my Persephone’s Art CD:

https://open.spotify.com/track/1ImosS2cy2MMZPxCgGw3cS?si=3f83ec3095c14666

And if you’d like to own the CD, here’s where you can order your copy! https://verlene.com/persephone.html

Wishing you all the joy and twinkling lights of the season!

Verlene

Practice vrs. Play

Growing up, we had strict rules about when we could practice and when we could play. We were expected to put in a half hour of piano practice plus a half hour of our band or orchestra instrument (mine was violin) each day. With four kids in the family, this meant assigning times before school and in the evening. Afternoons were for homework while Mom taught piano in the dining room, so evening practicing would happen once she finished teaching, and just after supper. We could practice our other instruments in our bedrooms, but both boys shared one room and us two girls shared another, so we had to take turns. There was a lot of music in the house at all hours… 

Here's a picture of Mom posing by the piano in the dining room/music studio just before the 1968 student piano recital:

So time for playing games or playing with our toys was pretty limited. But that’s not the kind of “play” I mean to write about today. What I’m musing about is the difference between the time we spend between practice and play on our musical instruments.

My husband, Jon, who is a jazz trombonist, needs to spend time each day on his horn to keep up his embouchure, so he does warmups and technical exercises daily. And if he has new tunes to learn for an upcoming gig, he’ll spend time rehearsing those. But then he puts on his headphones and plays along with jazz tracks on the iPad to “play” his horn. I’ve envied his dedication to the “play” aspect of the horn. Sure, there are technical things to work on and new material to learn, but he rarely omits his playtime…

I sometimes spend more time in the practice portion, learning new tunes, working out fingerings, developing muscle memory, getting ready for a performance, and not as much time just enjoying playing unless I’m in a casual jam session. I think it has to do with a sense of obligation or requirement that I “practice” until I am ready. And are we ever truly ready? It seems that as soon as I’ve conquered one hill there’s another to climb, with no time to rest…

Okay, yes, I take on a lot, between all the instruments I play, and all the groups I’m involved in performing with. But I find that when I squeeze in time on any of my instruments, it’s to learn something new, or to improve my fingering, or bowing hand, or vibrato. I have sometimes played along with the tracks on my iPad, but it’s difficult to transition from the practice mentality to just simply playing because it's fun and makes me happy. 

What is the value of play? Well, turning off the critical mind that is analyzing each technical aspect, or working through a difficult fingering, and just enjoying the music is what refreshes me. I can’t always wait for opportunities to jam with friends, so I need to schedule in some play time for myself! We did it with 4 kids in the house growing up, so I should be able to get this to work now with only two musicians in the house!

My plan is to practice one piece of music or one technical skill, and then switch to play mode, either by improvising, or playing something that brings me joy, alternating practice with play. If you have a strategy for balancing practice and play, I’d love to hear from you!

By the way, I’m preparing for my first-ever Live Stream concert (which I talked about in the last blog). I took a poll and the time and date that is the overwhelming choice is Saturday, January 28^th, at 4:00 – 5:00 pm pacific time. So, mark your calendars! It will be on Zoom, and there is a limit to the number of people who can attend, but since it will be free to attend, it would be good to sign up early.

Here is a link for reserving your seat: https://tinyurl.com/LifeStagesConcert

Musical Switch-Hitters

Are you right-handed or left-handed? And do you play your instrument in the “normal” way or reversed?

A recent discussion on the harplist got me musing about handedness in music. (If you play harp and are not on the list you can subscribe at: main+subscribe@harplist.groups.io)

Most harpists play with the harp on the right shoulder. This allows us to play the melody with the right hand and accompaniment with the left hand much like we would play the piano, with the right hand playing higher notes than the left hand.

But there are some harpists who play with the harp on the left shoulder and play melody with the left hand. There are various reasons why a harpist might choose to play “left-handed.”

1. In the music thanatology program “Chalice of Repose” started by Therese Schroeder-Sheker, the philosophy is that the harp is nearer the location of the heart when it is resting on the left shoulder.
2. Those who play cello hold the neck of the cello near the left shoulder, and play melody with left hand rather than right, so a cellist may find it more natural this way (I know one in particular!). And likewise, a guitarist might feel more at home with the left hand on melody.
3. Some wire harp players believe this is historically more accurate, and site drawings and paintings that depict harpers holding the harp on the left shoulder. This has been debated since some of the drawings may have been printed from woodcuts that would then be reversed from the carving. And if artists’ renditions are expected to be accurate depictions, then this is how we should hold the harp: 

So the interesting thing is that to play a lever harp on the left shoulder, either you’ll have all the levers on the side of the harp that you can’t see, making it awkward to adjust for accidentals, or you would need to have a harp maker build one with levers on the opposite side. In that case, the harpist would have a difficult time playing on someone else’s harp…

This is a similar issue that left-handed guitarists deal with – if they re-string the instrument so that the strings are reversed from the standard guitar, they can only play that instrument, and not borrow someone else’s at a party.

I played in a folk group in the early 1970’s with a guy (Joe Sharino – excellent musician and stellar human being, by the way) who played left-handed on a standard guitar – even though he was right-handed for everything else. He flipped the guitar over so he could play chords and leads with the right hand and strum with the left.

If you flip a standard guitar over, what happens is that the lowest pitch string is at the bottom rather than the top, so strumming downward would be going from high to low strings instead of low to high. And fingerstyle playing where thumb plays bass notes would be impossible.

Joe would strum up for his down beats and down for his up beats. It was really unnerving at first to play with him – it looked like he was a half a beat behind or ahead. Kind of like when you play along with people on mute in Zoom… In addition, the formation of the chords were completely backwards, so watching him for chords took an additional mental calculation to see the chord.

I got used to it though, and the advantage he had was that he could pick up any guitar, flip it over, and play in his way -- and make great music! Here’s Joe in 1976:

So, who says which hand is correct? If you play piano, you might think that logically, the right hand does the finer motor movements in playing the melody, while the left hand plays larger reaches with patterns like “root five octave” as accompaniment. So it would make sense to play harp this way as well. But what if you are left-handed and want to play the finer motor movements with your dominant hand?

And if you play guitar, or mandolin, or violin, or any similar instrument, you are used to playing melodically with the left hand and either strumming or bowing or fingerpicking with the right hand. So is the standard guitar, violin, etc., a left-handed instrument? Of course, they can be built or strung in reverse, but I’ve never seen a left-handed piano with keys going up to the left instead of the right. Hmm…

Here’s an interesting piece to the puzzle:

The two hemispheres in your brain are connected by a thick bundle of nerve fibres called the corpus callosum that ensures both sides of the brain can communicate and send signals to each other.

And in a study:

Part of the corpus callosum connecting the two brain hemispheres was indeed larger in musicians. The team also found that musicians' brains seemed to fire more symmetrically when they listened to music – the activity in the left and right hemispheres was a much closer match than that of the non-musicians.

So, even though we may be still primarily right or left-handed (or for some, ambidextrous), our musical training enhances the use of both hemispheres. I find this fascinating since I play several instruments in their “standard” configuration. So, even though I am right-handed for writing, eating, catching a ball, etc., I play piano and harp “right-handed” and violin, guitar, mandolin, etc. “left-handed.” Does that make me ambidextrous? And I know I’m not the only one who plays “ambidextrously” – if you play both piano and guitar, you are a musical switch-hitter by playing the melody either with right hand or with left hand.

My musings have brought me to the conclusion that right or left hand does not equate to right or wrong way. And that any musical instrument you learn is good for enhancing the corpus callosum, and worth pursuing no matter which way you want to play.

May you spend many joyous hours in your musical pursuits!

--Verlene

Mitigating the Fear Factor

If you read my September 30^th blog post “Fear is a Powerful Thing” you may remember that I talked about my anxiety about doing a live-streaming concert. If you didn’t read it, here’s a bit from that post:

Many people have stage fright, which I haven’t really had since I was 5 years old, and found out that humor made the audience smile…  “They love me, they really, really love me!” But there are aspects of performance anxiety that I do experience – video, and live-streaming. Oh my! What if I forget the words? What if I mess up this tricky part? If it’s captured on video, it might be watched more than once, and no amount of humor is going to help those imperfections slide by unnoticed. Whereas in live performances, there is a connection between the performer and the audience that makes it okay to not be perfect.

So, I’ve been looking at ways to mitigate the fear factor and create an online concert that allows people from far away to attend virtually, but also gives me the experience of connecting with those who attend. YouTube and Facebook Streaming allow people to type in their comments and send icons like hearts and thumbs up to show they’re listening and enjoying the concert, but I really like to see faces and hear responses.

After these past few years of teaching workshops using Zoom, I began to think about how Zoom might be used for a live-stream concert. I can have my computer screen show the gallery view so I can see the audience, but highlight the speaker view so that not only does the audience in zoom see me instead of themselves, but it can also be recorded that way if I decide to use any part of it to post at a later date.

Then I would invite people to both use the chat if they like, and to unmute to make comments, or for applause. This would give me the feeling of really being in the room with them.

If you have had any experience with doing a concert or attending a concert this way, I’d love to get feedback or any advance warnings so I can prepare!

When will this concert take place? I haven’t officially set a date, but it will likely be sometime in January, and most likely on a Friday, with a start time of 5 pm pacific time (which is 8 pm eastern time) to accommodate those who live in various time zones in the US.

And what will be the theme of the concert? I had written a number of songs as my parents were facing the challenges of aging, Alzheimer’s, and the end of life. But don’t worry, the songs are not all sad! And as I’ve been performing more and more in assisted living facilities, I have grown to love and appreciate songs of yesterday that bring happy memories and smiles. I expect a lot of people attending will be singing along on familiar songs – on mute of course! So, it will be a mix of original songs and familiar songs, with some stories about my experiences with my parents and my work with patients in the hospital and at assisted living facilities.

This concert will be a way to share in those experiences even if you don’t have aging parents or play music for this demographic. I’ll be playing harp and guitar, and of course, singing. Anyone who plays therapeutic music in hospitals or for hospice will particularly identify with the music, and also anyone who has a loved one who is in their sunset years…

There will be an opportunity to purchase CDs at a huge discount, but I will leave the concert free to attend. Oh, and maybe I’ll add a tip jar…

So, stay tuned for more information on this new endeavor, and please do let me know if you have ideas about how best to make this work!

--Verlene