Final-Beginning Collection 2025 Q2 – Part 2 [Member Spotlight]

This is an improvisation similar to one that I played recently for a celebration of life gathering.  Starting with my harp tuned in E flat, I put up only the C and D levers.  The left hand generally plays open chords on E flat, B flat, and A flat; while the right hand plays mostly 3rds and 6ths.

What principles from this course or from chats did you use to develop, perform, and record this project – and how did they play a part in your process?

I needed something that would be easy to play and that allowed me to not worry too much about particular notes.  All that practice with snippets in the chats was excellent preparation.  I knew what shapes my hands would find natural and I knew I could shape the character of the improv by choices of rhythm and register.

Give a short description of what it took for you to be able to play what you did – both logistically and emotionally.

The day after I returned home from 2 1/2 weeks in Scotland, I got a call from a local harpist offering me a gig at a celebration of life, just 4 days away.  I figured I had some repertoire in my fingers that could work, but I needed to have over an hour of music prepared.  Being able to sprinkle in some improvisation allowed me to feel confident that I could fill the time required.

What freedoms and blocks within yourself did you connect with (or struggle with) in the process?

Fear that I would slip up horribly at the gig was always lurking around the corner.  I kept reminding myself that playing harp is a superpower and that graceful error recovery is a strategy I have available.

What challenges did you meet while connecting with your own freedom of expression in this project?

I had to keep my focus on finding beauty in simplicity and trusting that a missed note here or there would not disrupt the music.

What other parts of your life were impacted by what you learned in this class, and how?

The more I share my music, the better I become at it.  I didn’t take up the harp with a focus on that, but it has become on of my major motivations.

What were your personal “Ahas”?

Preparation is important, but not everything has to be nailed down in advance.  Having a set of familiar tools allows for spontaneous creation.

Is there anything else you want people to know when they watch your video?

I gave this improvised piece a title after the fact, “For a Memory,” in recognition of the gig that inspired it.

Are you OK with me sharing your final project & answers to the 6 questions on my blog (or just sharing your answers to the 6 questions if you didn’t submit a final-beginning project)?

Yes – and you’re welcome to use my full name

Are you OK with me sharing your final project in the Monday CHATS and if so which Chat will you be attending?

Yes – and I’ll be attending the Monday AFTERNOON Chat

I used ideas from some snippets to create a one minute original piece.

Describe your written materials – if there’s anything in particular you want to say about it to help people know what they’re looking at, add that here.

This is the first TIME I have been able to create a piece to submit.  I used snippet ideas so the title is “SNATCHES OF SNIPPETS”.  It is not really a project – just a little piece of exercises based on some snippet formats.  When I worked on it I couldn’t always remember what I did so I finally had to write out my ideas on staff paper.  Otherwise my ideas kept changing and were not consistent.  I may keep building on it and try some improv to make it longer, but right now I am happy with what I created, especially since it followed a consistent pattern.

What principles from this course or from chats did you use to develop, perform, and record this project – and how did they play a part in your process?

I used a simple theme and repeated it.  The melody went from single notes to thirds and then sixths.

Give a short description of what it took for you to be able to play what you did – both logistically and emotionally.

It took determination to let other responsibilities go and keep working on this creation until I got a format I liked. Then I kept coming back to it to make some changes to make it better.

What freedoms and blocks within yourself did you connect with (or struggle with) in the process?

I tried memorizing it and just playing out my ideas but I couldn’t always remember what I did.  I am still “paper trained” and have to rely on having music even if I make it up!  I wrote out each section on staff paper.

What challenges did you meet while connecting with your own freedom of expression in this project?

I tried to be consistent with a pattern.  I tried to increase the complexity of the pattern.

What other parts of your life were impacted by what you learned in this class, and how?

I did not wait until the last minute, but worked on it all week after I got some ideas from the snippets.

What were your personal “Ahas”?

Some measures had separate left hand and right hand parts without overlapping.  Every other measure had parts where the left and right hands overlapped.

I’m grieving the fact that I didn’t get to share all of the beautiful things I’ve learned and created over the course of the last year. I haven’t shown up in the way I hoped — not to this community, and not to myself. That saddens me.

But this is my offering now.

Just me, my voice. In a cave, alone.
No impressive multi-instrumentation.
No polished production.
Not even a harp.

I recorded this before I even joined HHA, and it feels like a complete admission of failure to submit it as my final project.
But I understand why now:
The song was waiting for this moment.
I couldn’t hear it before.

This isn’t just a song — it’s a shedding.
It’s the moment I stop performing and start listening.
To the sound of my own voice — unarmored, uncertain —
Not to judge who I’ve been, but to feel into what I’m becoming.

When I joined Hip Harp Academy and entered the caverns of the past twelve months, I did so like a good adventurer — with all the right tools to plot my course and find the buried treasure.

Then my lamp went out.
My flashlight next.
My rope snapped.
My map muddied.
My vision failed.
I lost sight.

I was left alone. Crawling. Reaching. Navigating by feel.

And it was in that space — and only in that space — that I found her.

Echo.

The voice I’d hunted for years, now singing through the stone of my body like a tuning fork.
She draws me inward like water following the path of least resistance.
She leads me to myself — a still pool, a reflection in the dark.

Here, I learn to trust my own resonance.
To let echo become compass, and stillness, companion.
To stop trying to light the path — and let the dark shape me.
To listen.
To feel.
To sing the song only I can sing.

Attach your homework in PDF or JPEG format here:

Listen.pdf

What principles from this course or from chats did you use to develop, perform, and record this project – and how did they play a part in your process?

The principles of simplicity and patience. Sticking with something you don’t quite understand yet and *listening to it* until it sings to you – and you can sing back. Not adding too much too fast. Not adding at all… letting yourself be seen, and letting yourself see.

Give a short description of what it took for you to be able to play what you did – both logistically and emotionally.

Hours of reflection, writing, wrestling with whether I should or shouldn’t submit it, wrangling perfectionism and trying to find the perfect words to describe the piece and the process and the album as a whole; to describe everything I’ve learned this past year, within and without HHA.

What freedoms and blocks within yourself did you connect with (or struggle with) in the process?

I realized last class when another member shared their flute piece that I didn’t need to share something with harp at all. “Not Just Harp,” I said in the chat as my final 3 word takeaway. All this time, I realized I had put mountains of pressure on myself to be this amazing harpist and to share consistently and practice consistently and blah blah blah – and I completely lost touch with everything I had right in front of me. I was holding back beacause of an imaginary box I made.

What challenges did you meet while connecting with your own freedom of expression in this project?

see above

What other parts of your life were impacted by what you learned in this class, and how?

I think something has shifted in me. like a boulder was dislodged and my water is flowing again.

What were your personal “Ahas”?

See my PDF

Is there anything else you want people to know when they watch your video?

See my PDF 🙂

This is an original song that I wrote using a snippet from a recent class. The words and mood came from a song writing exercise to write a song that uses an element from another song that moves you. I chose to capture the haunting quality of the song “Coming Back to Me” by the Jefferson Airplane. The content is all original, so there are no copyright issues.

What principles from this course or from chats did you use to develop, perform, and record this project – and how did they play a part in your process?

I based the song on a snippet that I expanded. I have also been trying to focus on improving fluency, especially in the instrumental break portion of my pieces.

Give a short description of what it took for you to be able to play what you did – both logistically and emotionally.

I took this opportunity to relish in the beauty of repetition! I spent some time expanding on the original snippet to come up with a motif. I also spent some time working on the lyric to enhance the mood I was trying to create.

What freedoms and blocks within yourself did you connect with (or struggle with) in the process?

I usually feel like I need to try to do something showy. This time I just created a hypnotic motif and sank into it.

What challenges did you meet while connecting with your own freedom of expression in this project?

As usual, the instrumental break tends to be the most challenging part for me. I spent some time practicing getting into and out of the break section and that really helped. I didn’t write out the break music, but I knew that I wanted to throw in some 6ths, 3rds, & single note melody lines. When I got to the break section, I remembered to tell myself that “I got this!” instead of tensing up and worrying whether I was going to screw it up.

What other parts of your life were impacted by what you learned in this class, and how?

I’m starting to let go of judgement and embracing the idea that there isn’t just a single right way to do things. The essence of the task can stay the same, but there are many ways to approach it. This shift in thinking has helped me be more forgiving & compassionate in my personal relationships.

What were your personal “Ahas”?

Seeing how my thoughts influence outcomes.

Is there anything else you want people to know when they watch your video?

I was able to record this much more quickly than my other submissions. I think the shift in my thinking helped me to be more relaxed about being in performance mode and that’s HUGE for me!

Kyrie Orbis Factor Theme & Improv Variations
My Youtube name is Terra Bay
This is a slideshow with music

What principles from this course or from chats did you use to develop, perform, and record this project – and how did they play a part in your process?

Grounded Expansion: Grounding in the Chant melody, Kyrie Orbis Factor, and expanding by doing various kinds of improv experiments.  Lots of improvs from a few seconds to a few minutes each.

Give a short description of what it took for you to be able to play what you did – both logistically and emotionally.

Logistically, making the slideshows– something new goes wrong every time I do one– definitely NOT (yet) grounded or grounding! (Arghhhhh! Breathe… repeat till done.)

Emotionally, knowing I’m going to submit something, it is still a challenge to stay focused on the music and be present with it rather than producing a product.  The more I focus on being present to myself, the easier it is becoming to stay focused on the music.

What freedoms and blocks within yourself did you connect with (or struggle with) in the process?

I know I know how to do medieval modal improv, and that is a deep freedom.  The blocks are 1.  Just sitting down and doing it, 2. After recent feedback in HHA to consider making a series of harp chant meditations to be shared with the public, there is an additional layer of challenge to stay connected with myself and focused on the music, rather than letting the anxiety of making a public product rear its head, take over, and second guess everything.

What challenges did you meet while connecting with your own freedom of expression in this project?

I am becoming more aware of what I need to do in my own head and heart and hands to stay focused on the music rather than worry about an outcome or product.

What other parts of your life were impacted by what you learned in this class, and how?

The ongoing challenge of having the energy, and when I do, prioritizing the time to walk across the room and sit at the harp.  If I can manage this, the rest mostly takes care of itself.

What were your personal “Ahas”?

1.  I was about to be lazy and not re-tune my harp to Pythagorean tuning for this recording, and then when I was doing my warm-up in Valotti tuning, it became painfully obvious to my ears that I would have to re-tune if the melodic magic were going to have a chance to work for this improv.
   2.  It’s ok to let myself consider doing a series of meditative harp videos to share in public.  I don’t have to make a decision today or even tomorrow or the next day.  Right now my job is to sit at the harp and Play and record, and that’s all.

Is there anything else you want people to know when they watch your video?

This improv is the 5th of 5 I sat down to do at the last minute, because I promised myself I would get it done.  The pictures are of a peony I took with my phone last week.

I started with Shelley FairPlay’s “introducing the harp” (3- legged dog/2358) and improv from there.  Revisiting “Helen’s Chrysalis” moment— listen, let it ring, let the resonance of the harp pull music from me.

What principles from this course or from chats did you use to develop, perform, and record this project – and how did they play a part in your process?

Lots, but especially
—“use warmups that you LOVE”
—Hip Harp Toolkit
—Listen to the sound and let it pull music from me

Give a short description of what it took for you to be able to play what you did – both logistically and emotionally.

I had to:
—listen
—trust the patterns
— trust the harp
— use toolkit tools
—choose to turn mistakes into motifs

What freedoms and blocks within yourself did you connect with (or struggle with) in the process?

—let go of rushing, hurrying
— let go of the other plans that I had for FBP & half-bake
—let go of long pauses & broken rhythms, breathe & keep playing

What challenges did you meet while connecting with your own freedom of expression in this project?

Stop worrying if anyone else will like it and just play what I wanted to hear

What other parts of your life were impacted by what you learned in this class, and how?

Realizing that my job isn’t echoing other people’s beauty but to release God’s beauty through my own soul—Lord, flow through me — rivers of living water

What were your personal “Ahas”?

—it’s ok that the 9th is my favorite (2358)
—play what I love.  (Like the line from Mr Holland’s Opus to the redhead clarinetist “play the sunrise”— drop the fear & worry, instead let beauty flow)

Is there anything else you want people to know when they watch your video?

I don’t feel like I’m out of the Chrysalis yet—
— but the more I play like this the sooner I will be free to rise on God’s wind and fly.

This is for Quarter 2 Grounded Expansion, Cosita Latina Mediations.

What principles from this course or from chats did you use to develop, perform, and record this project – and how did they play a part in your process?

I had a lot of encouragement and inspiration  to attempt Cosita Latina this quarter, even if it required a bit more thought on how to “make it work”. This quarter I focused on key elements and grounding points from which to expand.

Give a short description of what it took for you to be able to play what you did – both logistically and emotionally.

I broke down each section into smaller doable parts, and left out what I didn’t feel ready or able To do this time around. I planned on doing a lot with my looper pedal, but it started giving me issues so I just stopped pushing to get it done that way and tried a different route- taking multiple recordings of myself and layering them.

What freedoms and blocks within yourself did you connect with (or struggle with) in the process?

I stopped trying to think I had to make it sound like the recordings of DHC and Sally. I started to have fun experimenting again and again once I let that go.

What challenges did you meet while connecting with your own freedom of expression in this project?

I had a lot of technical challenges – causing a lot of delays in creating the project the way I wanted to and eventually causing me to shift course.
When I decided to layer my own playing, I had a Bossa nova click track in my headphones and then played a pattern on my cajon. Somehow one of my layers was off, even though I was playing to the same track the whole time. So, I had to adjust what parts could go together. I’m still ok with the result.

What other parts of your life were impacted by what you learned in this class, and how?

I wound up giving myself more dedicated practice time this quarter.

What were your personal “Ahas”?

This piece felt like there was a lot of room for interpretation so I felt like I could really explore more.