I realized that the music for “Baroque Flamenco” was the foundation of me learning how to improvise.

It was all about creating safety, creating structure, and having adventure.

And Baroque Flamenco is still all that to me.

Learning to improvise was urgent, at the time. 

I’d bought my first harp, had a job playing background music in a restaurant to pay it off – and I only knew four songs. I had to make it sound like I could play much, much more.

This was the piece that showed me I could do that. I could immediately expand my repertoire exponentially, and sound like I could play a lot of music – without actually learning any new music.

This is the foundation of everything in Hip Harp Academy. Instead of struggling to fit into someone else’s idea of what it means to be a good harpist or play this kind of music, my goal is to help you:

• Understand how music works – so you have building blocks to play with
• Break down the forms of improvisation – so you have a scaffolding to support your creative expression – at any technical level
• Understand what you’re improvising on – so you have a focus for your creative freedom
• Learn to use the harp as a platform for your self-expression without having to “work really hard to become a good-enough player” –  so that your technical ability is no longer the determining factor in what you can do.

It shifts the entire relationship.

Join me for the creative adventure of a lifetime.

>> Deborah Henson-Conant’s “Hip Harp Academy”<<