I am personally an online-course junkie.  I almost always take classes at least twice and I always try to find an Action-Buddy to work through the class with me.  Now that I have my OWN online Academy for harp players, and as we begin the SECOND year of the Academy, I was thrilled to discover I’m not the only one who uses REPETITION as a foundation of their learning.

Why do it again???

The first time I take any class or learn anything, I’m still basically orienting myself, even if I do all the homework and study ‘diligently.’  The second time, I’m able to start integrating the work into my actual life, and get some fluency.  And when I continue to repeat I’m able to make the concepts my own, to start making what I’m learning part of my creative voice, or the way I do my life.  I was interested to hear the reasons why MY students love to repeat their studies with me.

Here are A DOZEN REASONS from STUDENTS that our Academy TA, Margi Miller, collected from chats and Facebook about why people LOVE repeating the courses in Hip Harp Academy:

  1. Each time I go through a class, I realize how I can apply the principles to more and more music. At first I was just learning the guidelines – now it’s enhancing all the music I play.
  2. It’s both satisfying and exciting to take the classes over again when I now know the basics and so I can focus on getting more of the finesses: the fluency, expansion and embellishment
  3. Each class I take gives me more confidence about video-ing myself and sharing the video, and it helps so much!
  4. Last year I kept saying to myself: don’t even TRY the chords DHC suggests for advanced students. NOW that I have the basics under my belt, I want to try them!
  5. I get so much out of the chats because we can ask questions and get demonstrations. When I just learn things on YouTube or in a weekend blitz of videos, there’s no opportunity to get help, to learn ways to apply the learning to me. Now that I’ve been through the classes once, I’m much better at asking questions so I know I’ll get even more out of the chats.
  6. I love getting to know other harpists around the world in the private Academy Facebook group. This year I actually met some of them at harp events and become friends – I even made a live study group with someone I met in the Academy. I look forward to making even more harp friends in the next round.
  7. Last year a lot of life events got in the way. This time I’m looking forward to picking up where I left off.
  8. I know that I’ll get “stale” if I don’t keep learning! With these guided classes, working with a master teacher – a Grammy-Nominated harpist who knows about performance, composing and arranging — wow, it sure beats a weekend whirlwind of workshops, hands down! It gives me consistency, accountability and a chance to ask questions so I can really apply what I learn on an ongoing basis.
  9. There’s no other harpist in the world who is as adept at improv on both lever and pedal harp as DHC. That means that I get tips for both my lever harp and pedal harp playing by someone who’s an internationally-respected expert at both – and switching between the two helps me learn even more!
  10. I’m getting better and better about actually writing down the questions that occur to me when I’m doing the course work, so DHC can answer them in the chats. And I finally realized I can send them to DHC with the “Ask a Question” form as they occur to me and then she adds them to the chat. Duh! Why didn’t I think of that before??
  11. It’s so rewarding to have a class I can tune in to at the end of a day or when I have a spare moment. It’s like opening a good book.
  12. The amount of possibilities to try out in the Academy is mind-boggling. It’s like finding treasures in my favorite department store – and if I know DHC, you can bet there’ll be more new things coming this next year in the Academy!

And yes, there ARE more new things coming this year!

The Academy is already jam-packed with learning programs and resources, and I’m planning new classes for 2018, including programs on how to accompany singers (and instrumentalists), how to sing and play at the same time, how to combine stories with music – and more Looper training.

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