The 5 Bad Habits check-in thread

[Judiann]

Right off the top of the video, Habit #1 is what I need to correct first. It’s so easy to get distracted by intriguing new pieces, and I abandon the old ones before they are finished. What’s more, I’ve learned pauses after practicing the hesitations repeatedly.

My plan is to pick a piece that is easier than my current level. I worked on “My Little Welsh Home” last fall, but I never polished it. This week I’m going to use the metronome, starting very slowly at first, to eliminate the pauses. Then I’ll gradually increase the tempo by only 2 beats at a time. This is the step where I usually lose patience. Since I already know that will happen, I’m going to be prepared for it this time and plow through.

I’ll report back on how it goes.

[Wanda Taylor]

Judiann… You mention “My Little Welsh Home” — that is a piece I learned many years ago with all the bad habits… I am starting over as a beginner, but do not have the fingering and bracket placements of a Christy-Lyn arrangement for this piece. Does your arrangement have these critical features? I like to warm up with it — but, my fingering is always changing — I think that is because it is wrong. Now, I am not able to correct it at this stage of my learning. Any suggestions?

~wanda

[Judiann]

Hi, Wanda — I learned it from Carolyn Deal’s three YouTube tutorials for double strung. You can search YouTube for SmilingHarp tutorial 77 to find the first one. Her other two tutorials are 78 and 79. In the first tutorial, Carolyn says she will send the sheet music for free if you email her. I’m using simple triads for the left-hand chords on my single strung.

[Wanda Taylor]

Thanks Judiann…. What a great find “smiling harp” is — I am off to email Carolyn Deal now.

[Kristen Barry]

I have all of these bad habits at times. I’m not entirely sure I want to correct them all though. I know that probably sounds weird. I love being a squirrel. But I will try to tune my harp each day (bonus bad habit). And will try to focus on better technique. I mostly keep to my current level with the occasional foray into music beyond my level. I am currently making my 2nd flub reel to share how I practice and share some laughs.

[Judiann]

Kristen, are you tuning your double strung? That’s 44 strings instead of 22, twice the amount of tuning joy 😅. My problem with tuning is that the whole time I’m doing it, I’m thinking “I hate tuning.” Maybe I should try to make it a Zen experience instead.

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About not necessarily wanting to correct all bad habits, that isn’t weird. Until watching the video, though, I didn’t realize that constantly getting distracted by new pieces was a bad thing. I rationalized that I was learning new skills with each new piece. But Christy-Lyn made a valid point, that I haven’t practiced what’s needed to truly polish a piece.

[Kristen Barry]

Yes, I have to tune all 44 strings on my double plus the 26 strings on my wire strung. It gets old, lol. I am always being distracted by new music!

[Judiann]

That’s more than twice as many strings as I have. I’m starting to feel lucky that I have only 34. 🎵

[Victoria Johnson]

I need to tune my harps every day. 😅 Or at least tune the one that I am playing that day. 😆

[Judiann]

Victoria, have you ever added up the total number of strings on your multiple harps? I should be thankful I only have 34 to tune.

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Do any harpists actually enjoy tuning? I sure hope they will share their secrets.

[Victoria Johnson]

There are 117 strings between the three harps that the three of us in the house play (not counting the small Fireside and a lyre harp that only get played occasionally). 😌 If anyone here enjoys tuning, please share your secrets to tuning happiness with us! 😆

[Judiann]

117 strings to tune. That’s daunting. 😯

[Kristen Barry]

I hope you are not the only one tuning them. I am not looking forward to the extra 34 strings to tune once I build the Ballad harp. Then I’ll have104 to tune. And if I do decide on that cool Harp-E, I’d have 128. So rude. It’s just me.

[Victoria Johnson]

Hubby helps as well, and I need to get my older kid on tuning soon to spread the joy. Hubby has three guitars and he built the Cheyenne so he has plenty of practice with tuning. 🤣 And he can regulate my lever harps too thank goodness.

[Rebecca]

Yeah, guilty of 2, 3, and 4.

I am not sure if my original harp teacher ever taught me the correct hand position for playing the harp, if the high string tension on her harp caused me to lose form, or if I just never realized what the correct position was. In any case, when I took my first course, that is what made me realize my hand positioning was wrong. I have been working on my position since then. It is interesting that is is easier to have the correct position for new songs rather than for ones I learned before now. Unlearning a bad habit requires a lot of stopping and correcting oneself.

I see now that Christy-Lyn is exactly right: continuing any of these bad habits will slow down progress. It did for me.

[Judiann]

You’ve raised a good point about it being easier to use the correct hand position for new pieces rather than for ones you learned earlier. I picked up a piece from last year, and I find myself slipping into my old hand position. The muscle memory for that piece is wrong, yet it still persists after all these months.

[Markus Faller]

I was so lazy and tuned my harp only once a month. Now I know why my music does not sound the same as Christy-Lynn’s. This I will fix now and start tuning my harp once a day! I noticed that now the music sounds much better, the Bach Prelude in C now sounds indeed more like it should. And I noticed too, that the more I tune my harp, the less out of tune she is. A famous harpist once said in an interview that half the time you have to tune your harp and the other half you can play. Hope that is not true🙏.

[Judiann]

Poor Bach must be rolling in his grave. 🤣

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Prelude in C is the most advanced course Christy-Lyn has done to date. And you got to that level by tuning only once per month? Maybe it was all that time you would otherwise have spent on tuning, you spent on actually practicing instead. 😆

[Markus Faller]

I hope Bach will forgive me, but I’m afraid he wouldn’t😱, because he was a perfectionist (I’m not). I don’t think the piece is as difficult as “Clocks”, except for the lever changes, which are quite demanding. And I play it much slower, which also sounds very nice.

[Judiann]

Have you seen Josh Layne’s YouTube video of Prelude in C? He’s outdoors at sunset, and he has chosen such a peaceful tempo. Every note is elegant.

[Markus Faller]

Thanks, yes I know it and it sounds great. But the speed of Christy-Lynn is closer to that envisaged by Bach. Dr. Cory (on youtube channel “BachScholar”) investigated years to evaluate the historical speed of Bach’s pieces and clearly could show that the speed of the prelude in C major should be played with a speed of around 60 beats per minute (quarter note). But on the harp it also sounds good when played slower, as Josh Layne demonstrated👍.

[Victoria Johnson]

I always think Bach will wake up from his grave and hit me with a hammer when I play his music lol!!!!

[Judiann]

It has been over a week since Christy-Lyn uploaded her 5 Bad Habits video, and it’s time to check in.

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Working on Bad Habit #1, I picked up a piece from last year that was never polished. It was at 35 bpm and only increased to 50 over the week. However, it’s now smooth and has no pauses.

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I also decided to tune more frequently. Christy-Lyn says it might take only a minute to tune, if you do it every day. I must be supremely slow at it, because it took me 6 minutes. (The harp was moved to a different room, which could have influenced it.) No wonder I begrudge the time tuning takes away from my practice sessions. Instead, I’m trying to work tuning into my daily morning routine around the house — with limited success.

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I’m finding it’s really difficult to actually change a habit. How did everyone else do?

[Victoria Johnson]

Admittedly I did not tune all my harps every day 😅, but I did:

1) remember to tune before I record a video (instead of hitting record and then remember that I needed to tune…)

2) check the tuning on the harp I am playing on that day

3) tune the harp for my kids

Overall I paid more attention to tuning.

[Helga]

Well done!

I took the video to heart as well and tuned my harp every day. And instead of starting the next course now I wait till I am able to play Für Elise together with the fast play through. It would be my first time ever 😊. I wonder how many weeks it will take me🙄.

[Victoria Johnson]

You can totally do it, @Helga ! 💪🙌

(Oops tagged the wrong Helga! Fixed!)

[Helga]

Thanks 😁!

[Judiann]

Hi, Helga — Für Elise is such a lovely arrangement. It will be well worth the effort to learn. Good luck with it.

[Helga]

Thank you 😀!