When Love Meets Music: A Grandmother’s Gift – Lynne [Member Spotlight]

What happens when a grandmother’s love meets the creative freedom of Hip Harp Academy? Something truly magical.

Last quarter, Academy member Lynne took on an ambitious project: writing an original song for her granddaughters, ages 5 and 7, who are just beginning their own musical journey with piano lessons.

Using every part of the Academy experience – from our weekly live coaching sessions and project accountability to an improv snippet from “The Nightingale” that sparked her inspiration – Lynne created something that goes far beyond notes on a page. She created CONNECTION.

The Story Behind the Song

What makes Lynne’s performance even more meaningful is the story behind it. Lynne spent months planning how to share her love of harp with her grandchildren – she took it on as a multi-quarter project in the Academy – but what started as a simple introduction to the harp blossomed into something unexpected: their very own song.

Lynne composed “Sloan, Teddy & Hank’s Song” using principles she learned in the classes and live chats in Hip Harp Academy, grounding it in a descending baseline and expanding melodic figures in a technique she calls “shuffling.”

From Harp to Piano: Creating Connection Across Instruments

Lynne pointed out that she recorded this video on her 5-octave harp, even though she initially recorded a version on her smaller 26-string ‘travel’ harp that she would take with her to play for her grandchildren.

Lynne didn’t only create the song to sing to them! Through working on modulation in the Academy, she was able to initially write the song in the key that suits her voice best – and then create a version for her granddaughters to play – arranged in C major specifically for their piano practice.

From Perfection to Connection: A Journey of Growth

What’s particularly touching about this performance is the vulnerability Lynne shares about her process in the notes that accompany her video. The performance anxiety that comes with perfectionism is something we often talk about in Hip Harp Academy, because it’s something so many of us face – and it’s why the Academy motto is “Connection – not perfection.”

It was moving to hear that, while it took Lynne 20 takes to share her first version of this song with other Academy members in the middle of the quarter, by the time she shared this version at the end of the quarter, she was able to let go of that perfectionism and share her first take.

Watch for the genuine self-expression in her playing – this is what happens when technical fluency meets deep emotional connection and the pure joy of sharing music across generations.

A Community of Creative Courage

Thank you Lynne, for your story, your music and how you invited us into your process through your notes, letting us into the world of creative colleagues, on a journey together – sharing both our stumbles and our shining moments as we live a life of Connection – not perfection.

Ready to let go of the notes on the page and start playing the music in your heart?

Join us in Hip Harp Academy.