ACTIVITY 1 – Create a list for your workspace
Make a list of what YOU need in your workspace, and anything you need to do to prepare. Even if it’s exactly like mine, make your own and put it in the front of your notebook. Then post that list here (you can post a PDF of your actual list, or you can just cut and paste your list here). Don’t worry about the fact that it might change – part of what’s fun about this exercise is that it WILL change, and being able to go back and see what you thought you needed is fun.
ACTIVITY 2 – Set up your workspace
Set up your workspace, take a photo of it and post it to this activity. If there’s anything you’re missing that you’ll need to find or buy, add it to the “Things to Buy or Get” page of your notebook … which … hmmm … I guess I’d probably put in the ‘Timeline/Schedule” area … or I might make a new divider called “Next Steps” — or I might just put a blank page in the front of the binder and add “Next Steps” at the top … or … just choose a way you think works for you – and if you find out, later on, that it doesn’t, then change it.
ACTIVITY 3 – ROMANCE your workspace
We often expect ourselves to function and create in spaces that work against our creative expression. Making them functionally conducive to creative work is a great step. We can also work on the emotional side of engaging our muse.
To romance yourself and your space is to see it (and you!) as a place of romance and magic. That can be as simple as a single flower in a vase, twinkle lights around the window, a pair of rhinestone earrings, a silk scarf. Romance is a sense of hope, belief, wonder and magic all combined. I can feel my whole face open up, my eye sockets relax and expand when I’m in a space of romance. Being in that space that opens us up to a different kind of permission in our playing and self-expression.
ACTIVITY 4 – Give it a Name
You can call it anything — the Playspace, Headquarters, the Muse-Place, the Forest, Inner Sanctum, Outer Sanctum, The Place of Expansion.
Choose one or more of these Activities, do it and then share a picture or a description in the Facebook Group.
18 Comments
Submit a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Have taken over a second space to move the harp into a guest room where the temperature is more stable. The box shelving also works to categorise music and acts as a ‘table’ for phone, project book, tuner etc. Lighting could be better but the space is very conducive to practice with a garden view.
I romance my space with bobbin lace magnets and coaster for coins. I have my resource and performance binders set up. I also have set up a binder with DHC past challenges and Somerset classes that I took.
I have already done most of these. I could add the 10 coins but my harp teacher wants 25 times for learning a phrase. I need a holder for my pencil to attach to my music stand. I have clips and elastic ties to peg lead sheets on cards to my harp. However. My multi focal glasses do not always make them easy to read. So J have started colour coding the chord progressions using the Nashville system so they are easy to transpose. I can see the colour even if I can’t read the printing! 🙂
I have a harp corner in my bedroom with a built in cabinet right next to my harp. I have taken the door off and I have 3 shelves to use. I have a lamp in my corner. I have 3 harps but have not figured out a way to have all of them in my room. I will have to think about that. The ones that are not in my room are not getting played. My computer is also in my room, but my harp is a 36-string and it is really tight and even uncomfortable to play in front of the computer. I think it would be better to bring in my smaller 33 string harp. I think that will be a great improvement for doing stuff on Zoom and such. Otherwise I just need to organize my shelves. They are pretty bad and not very helpful like they ought to be. This is doable. I also have a very small makeshift kitchen in my room. I consider my room my Nest.
I could use some more light in my practice space…
List of things I will need to get started.
The first thing I will do is to clean my studio of all the things I won’t need in these 5 days. I will try to create a welcoming but practical environment for playing and studying with the following materials: Harp, binder, key, tuner, computer and sound card, video camera, cannon cables, solid music stand, desk, lavender and bergamot essential oil, talisman, pencil, eraser and pencil pin, telephone in aerial mode for tuner, water, tea and maybe espresso coffee, lights and glasses. Ten euro cent coins, time and creative study.
My bedroom is large and has doubled as my music studio since a toddler came to live with me! (She can come in for harp time, but it’s easier to supervise in here). I have moved my bed so it is no longer in the center of the room… it’s more to the side. Now I have a big open space with a rug in the middle and my harp is there. Opposite side of rug and harp is my desk. For winter, I put it in front of the radiator so my feet stay warm. In summer, I like my view of the valley. I am going to tackle the music storage corner (a mess right now) today so I can get to sheet music, notes, etc and the guitars are easier to get to .
I think I need to name my space, but the name is elusive… Nana’s Room is what my space is usually called, but the harp aspect… hmmm… with let that marinate.
LIST: Harp, Music stand, light, water, practice log (might try coins), Tuning wrench and electronic tuner, notebook, nail clippers in desk drawer, writing tools (pen, pencil, sharpie, paper), clock/timer
I have named my harp space “The Harp Faery’s magical studio”.
1. I need to buy a timer that isn’t my phone
2. I put a big jug of spring water and a cup there so I don’t have to get up.
3. I reset my room so my computer or office corner is facing my harp. The Harp Faery’s magical studio is always in my awareness when I am working. Then I can get up and go play and focus without the computer right there.
Great tips, DHC! I have added plants, lights and also a difusser to bring in the smell of the trees.
Activity 1 My Working List for my workspace.
*Lights! My Happy Harp Corner should be better lit.
I have purchased LED string light to stick on my harp. I would like an additional lamp too.
*Either a stand up mirror or a mirror on a stand, to put on the right side of the harp so I can really see what my left hand is doing!
* A small area rug to help muffle sounds my neighbor below me may hear.
*Shelves or baskets to hold my books, binders, etc.
*More essential oils for my diffuser.
Activity 1: Workspace needs – a place to fit at least 1 harp and a large kantele that can easily share the same effect station, looper and other technology without tripping over cords, major arrangements or having to put them away. A table on wheels with everything else. I’m wondering about moving the whole studio to the bedroom of the log cabin that I downsized to before the unseen fortunate partial recovery of my joints from the effects of the mouldy school so I could touch any instruments again. That was 2 kanteles, 5 harps, 3 organs, a sax, a synth, several smaller instruments and 2 nyckelharpas ago, luckily not all of those harps are here. My adult children would definitely approve but maybe my boyfriend won’t be crazy about having a bed in the living room. That new studio space already has 2 tall filing cabinets which I hope will be enough space for all the notes not in books that I haven’t scanned into the cloud yet. I would be drowning in notes without having almost everything on the I-Pad for the last 4 years.
My personal odd adds are:
1: Cotton towel (I struggle with sweaty hands and fingers)
2: Hand warmers (Boston can feel like a tundra and my hands get cripplingly cold.)
3: Forest App. It’s a silly thing but phones are so distracting. The Forest App lets me plant trees for the length of time I don’t use my phone. Great for avoiding those convenient distractions.
4: Lip balm! I tend to lick my lips a lot when I’m focused, so they end up really chapped. Having lip balm in every reachable corner of my house is necessity!
And the naming of my space! Brilliant! I love alliteration so I have named my space “My Muse’s Musical Manor” Thank you for this wonderful suggestion. <3
Great ideas! I’m happy my workspace already lives up to them.
Well, I have a couple work spaces.. my main is my corner of my bedroom, ‘my own little corner, in my own little chair, where I can be whatever I want to be!🎶!’ I have my Old 34 string Rydecki Isolde, my music stand with an AWESOME Light, a tone of RX music stand glasses ( I’m an Optician) a stand for my iPad for recording , and zooming. Pencils, notebooks, metronome..( cover in dust 🤦🏻♀️, true) a rack of tuning keys. A few baskets and bookshelf with music.. my CD player to play nature sounds, or something to attempt to play along with.. and ( please don’t get creeped out, but a heart shaped urn with some of my dad’s ashes to lobe close to me while I play.
Activity 1: Workspace needs:
1. Swap punishing stool with comfortable chair (already have).
2. Small table for harp key, tuner, water, etc. Or use bookcase shelf.
3. Widen area in general.
Activity 2: Will come after above is done.
Activity 3: Put electric candles on table. Fairy lights?
Activity 4: Name space. Harp Corner.
Excellent ideas! I’m all set up in my dream space!
The hammered dulcimer must remain secluded in an upstairs room, to protect it from the cats, but the harp has weathered their storm at last & can be out in a corner of the main living area – as I must see her to be reminded I must practice. Her corner will be called the Secret Garden. That has meaning for me from my childhood.
Notebook
Journal
Harp
Stand
Table
Lamp
Candle
Incense burner
Metronome
Tuner
Key
Talisman/inspirational art
Nail file
“Chunking” coins or stones
Glass/cup
Mirror
Pencil & pen
Music/iPad