How Not to be a Control Freak Harpist - PHH 247

Today we're talking about control. Control is a word that comes up a lot in our harp playing, whether it's about controlling our fingers, our dynamics, tempo, tone, focus, or a hundred other relevant things. It feels like we're always trying to gain control over something in our playing, or over ourselves.  But the path to mastery isn't about asserting control; it's actually about letting go of control.  If you search, you can easily find dozens of books that explore the idea of control in music, and nearly all of them start out with the idea - sometimes it's even written in the title - that we gain control by letting go. It's a simple enough concept, but it comes with a big paradox: letting go of control essentially requires us not to do what we've been training ourselves to do. For example, we train ourselves to play the right notes, which usually requires a lot of focus, concentration and sometimes sheer willpower, in other words, control. But if we don't let go of that control, our music doesn't flow. Another example is our technique. We work hard to teach our fingers to play the right way, and we want to make sure that they behave themselves. So we keep paying attention to them; we keep them in our control. Of course, this means that we don't have the attention to spend on making the music expressive, and we don't let our fingers play naturally, because we want to make sure they play correctly. Perhaps the best example is when we try to play faster. We want to stay in control, and the challenge of playing a passage or a piece faster, creates chaos. We resist the chaos, with the result that we never achieve that faster tempo. The crux of the dilemma is this: we need to control many different elements in our playing, but if don't let go of control, we can't achieve the expressive, fluid musical playing we want. And practicing not controlling these things feels uncomfortable and even wrong. But today, I'm going to show you how to let go of control without the fear and without feeling like you're on the brink of disaster in your playing. I'll teach you a three-step system for keeping your controlling instincts in check, to allow them to serve your music instead of hold it back.  Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode:  Register for my free webinar, Your Breakthrough Year Let me help you create your personalized Breakthrough plan on the Harpist's Breakthrough Blueprint Intensive Learn control practice techniques in my Kaleidoscope Practice e-book. [LINK to shop] Harpmastery.com Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected] Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode? LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-247