Preparation

The point of prep is so if you are so ill / tired / hungover you can't think straight, you have something to fall back on, a script. This makes prep make sense to me in the context of music making and teaching - something that is so very dependant on how the people in front of you are today.

Noise - the social structures of music

One of my favourite books is Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Attali published in the 1970s. It was mentioned in one of my university lectures, I loved the ideas and chased a copy down two years later.

Attali relates the development of music and the social structures around the function, consumption and creation of music to the social history. He thinks that the social and economic structures regarding music foretell the coming social structures and the form that society will take. Importantly he feels that changes in the way we make music precede changes in the way society works.

He thinks there are four different sections to the role music takes within our society -

• ritual - music as part of the Church and state, musicians are servants
• spectacle - the "star" rises - both the composers and performers feted in their own right (think Beethoven and opera singers compared to the servitude of Baroque church composers)
• repetition - the music industry, music as a commodity, the ability to stockpile so much music it really doesn't matter anymore (how many hours of music do you have on your ipod?)
  
• composition - a swing back towards doing things just because you want to, just because of the experience
  

I feel he is onto something, and more and more I see music as a social phenomenon as much as anything else. Also, I feel we are beginning to see a sea-change with regard to fairly passive consumption - more opportunities to keep learning new things rather than just go shopping, the green movement clearly part of this. Within music there is now such a diy emphasis - myspace, open mic nights, easy access to recording equiptment are all part of this. Roll on the new era....

Teaching harp in an Irish music school

I started teaching harp within an established Irish music school in 2008 and have really enjoyed it. It's great to work alongside another trad music teacher and to see the kids take to this instrument and try and play their music on it. It's put the harp in a context - so important. The harp was a second instrument for each child so they already had a mental stock of tunes from which we could draw. This is definitely a bonus - there's so much going on if the harp is your first instrument - perhaps too much.

I also found it so lovely to be amongst such a nice group of folk - there's a real sense of a community and a relaxedness that is going along with it. It's also been great to hear the tunes on other instruments that kids have been learning and I've really enjoyed hearing the way Colette plays and teaches, firm but with a real sense of fun. You're often stuck inside your own little box as a music teacher, especially as a harpist, opportunities to share and learn are few and far between.

This project has continued, and thanks to the hard work of the folk at that school we have funding for weekly lessons this year and are able to take in a new year of pupils. Hurray! With our new intake we've been doing a diet of tiny pieces and small songs to start, nice and slow. The second years have all been learning a song with a left hand to go with it, some are going onto dances tunes - lots of fun. From my point of view a tried and tested syllabus is gradually coming into focus, so now I have to keep adding to it.

This is one adventure I really want to continue.

Folk versus classical - top down versus bottom up

With classical music my experience has been that you learn a new piece from the bottom up - ensuring each tiny section is very secure before moving on. With trad I've often found the tune enters your ear first, and then you attempt to make it happen. Each time you try to make it happen is slightly imperfect in a different way - the imperfections become an important part of the music.

Now I do also work make my way through each tiny movement slowly but given the improvisatory nature (the ornaments should always be improvised) then you're always reaching for something that's not quite secure.

I had an excellent conversation with a conductor recently. I asked if he improvised, he said "of coruse". Not improvisation as I know it (change of pitch and duration content) but improvisation with guiding a group - maybe this time that section will shine, or this soloist needs a little support ...etc. Each time he performs a piece it comes out differently. I never expected that of classical music... good to have my assumptions shattered.

Musical problems...

"There are no musical problems, only social ones."

This quote about the delights of working in a band came to me via Pete Oxley (jazzer and bow maker). Someone gave it to him... I've lost the name!

Play the music not the instrument...

Harps are such funny little instruments and often they live within a repertoire all of their own. This is kinda cool in a way and part of what "being a harpist" is all about - you're own private magic music, only to be made by other harpists. The problem is that it leaves you isolated and without links to other musicians (except other harpists). So you have to take the harp to other musics and in doing so you can take the harp into other scenes and settings.

The harp doesn't work like any other instruments and you and your fellow music makers have to be very careful to leave space for each other. There are somethings it naturally does brilliantly and some that it does very badly indeed! The challenge is to figure out what you can do with what you've got.

My favourite people who are the playing the music, not the harp, are...

Mary McMaster & Donald Hay with their recent cd
Uschi Laar - amazing jazz compositions
Michael Rooney - Irish traditional music excellence
CatrionaMcKay - in anyone of her ensembles but mostly Starfish

All tbese people transcend their harpiness and step into a bigger realm. Often the harps aren't so clear to hear because of the other instruments present and so harpists per se are not necessarily so enamoured. But all of these folk exist in a bigger setting beyond the harp world, get to share their music more, get to be beyond themselves just a little more. That sounds like an excellent place to be.

I want...

...amazingly healthy arm and hand muscles.

I want my muscles to...
relax easily
do sustained bouts of playing
repair itself easily
move fluidly
ideally not to hurt!

Things that can help with this:
good food
rest
good posture
exercise that counters the oddness of doing one thing so much
good exercise (fluid) *** think this is really important and needs to be explored more

There are more or more subtle / specific distinctions to be made here... this is to be added too.