Harp Notes

On November 26, I gave a zoom presentation on my trip to Scotland and Ireland with the International Harp Therapy Program. The link below and the password (at the bottom of the link which you will need to access the link) will take you to the recording of that presentation.

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/zFbeFe9im5490APkR9Bbb5zeyFhupXvtAZANApCHJU3hJ1GwTUFkTDw6694-zMYc.Eqidjf0rvOUT29Gq
Passcode: Y1fj@bQ

We did not hold our regular zoom meeting this month. One of our members, Catharine DeLong, Music Thanatologist, presented a four hour zoom training on Music As Medicine. This was a thorough presentation on utilizing harp and voice to facilitate end of life transitions for patients from a Music Thanatologist perspective and based on Catharine’s extensive years of playing harp at the bedside. I know those of us who were able to participate learned a great deal from Catharine’s presentation that we will be able to incorporate into our own practices as Therapeutic Musicians. I would recommend Catharine’s program to anyone interested in improving their skill set in the area of Therapeutic Music. For more information or if interested in discussing Catharine’s work with her she can be reached at catharinedelong@gmail.com

Utah Theapeutic harp Network Meeting of 8-18-2020 via Zoom

Attendees:  (from L to R, Top to Bottom)Kate Dougherty, Heidi Jaeger, Angela Scothern, Laurel Wright-Fiehry, Cris Watts, Pam Archbold, Peggy Cann, Catharine DeLong, Cyndi Bowen, Kristen  Rogers-Iverson (not pictured).

We did not meet in July due to everybody being busy or out of town.

Introductions of Members and welcome to Catharine, our newest member.  Some highlights: Kate and Peggy took a zoom seminar from Dr. Alice Cash who is promoting her Healing Music Enterprises program.  It is all recorded music she sells to hospitals. Chris is still playing for home bound hospice patients 2 days a week. Heidi is playing for a hospice patient 2 times a month, Peggy played for two weddings of family members which she will talk about later, and sang with a mask on for a hospice patient.  Kristen is spending her time playing the viola these days, Cindy is getting ready for school to start tomorrow where she teaches music, among all her other jobs and activities and will graduate tonight from two programs she has been working on.  

Catherine told us about her journey as a harpist starting at age 11, and graduate of the Chalice of Repose (2013) as well as MTAI program (2019).   After graduation she moved to New York and worked for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York as well as a couple of hospitals including Bellevue.  She promised to tell us more about her Bellevue experience at our next gathering.  She also attended One Spirit Interfaith Alliance https://www.1spirit.org/ where she became an ordained minister.   Catharine has moved back to Salt Lake City due to the Corona Virus preventing her from seeing patients for now in New York. We are so happy to welcome her to our Therapeutic Harp group.

Peggy shared her technique for memorizing music fast which she had to do recently for two different weddings.  Her son married July 11 and she drove down to Arizona to play for his wedding. The happy couple wanted “Memories” played. Peggy was able to listen to it on Youtube and figure out the melody on the harp which she played for us.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4xhbiJ605o

To demonstrate how to break a song down into it’s parts for easier memorization, Peggy shared a song with us called “Prospect” that has been used for several traditional hymns. She encouraged us all to pick up our harps and play along with her while she broke down the song into the A part, the B part and talked about how to remember the chord progression. 

Catherine said she learned this song as The Lone Wild Bird which you can find several performances of on Youtube If you want to listen to it. The sheet music can be found at:  http://www.reigningharps.com/Music%20Files%202014/Prospect.pdf

The second wedding Peggy played for was her nieces’ who asked for Cant Help Falling In Love With You with the following arrangement:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EzbMtyovI8

Peggy listened to it and learned it in 3 days.  (Peggy has a phenomenal ear for music). Peggy was able to break it down to the A part and the B part which pleased the bride who approved Peggy’s arrangement. 

Pam took two zoom courses over the last two months: One from Christine Tourin on how to record videos  and use of Garage Band.  The second one was Harp Mastery Four Weeks to Finger Freedom by Anne Sullivan. More information on this course can be found at Harpmastery.com

 Final Notes :  Catharine had mentioned that the MTIA group was preparing to begin offering bedside Music Thanatology for patients remotely using Zoom. Catharine walked us through how to improve the sound quality on Zoom when playing harps for patients: 

To start, on the Zoom screen bottom left hand corner click on the up arrow^  Then click on Audio Setting then Advanced. This should bring you to the following screen where you click on Audio and check the box to the left to “Enable Original Sound”.  The next two boxes should be disabled and the last box should be marked Auto.  If this is not clear even with the screen shot below, there are Youtube videos to help clarify the directions.

See also:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkG7yOTRIAk

No date was picked for our next gathering  but Peggy recommended we all listen to Rachael Naomi Remen poems on Youtube and she may read one. Catharine will tell us more about playing for patients at Bellvue Hospital in New York. If any of you have something you would like to present please let me know and I’ll add it to the agenda. 

It was so good to gather with you all virtually today and I know we all look forward to when we can gather together in person once again.

Attending:  Laurel Wright-Feighery, Kinsey Mitton, Pam Archbold, Kate Dougherty, Peggy Cann, Angela Scothern, Chris Watts, Kristen Rogers-Iverson, Tamara Oswald, Meg Smith Dawson, Cyndi Bowen

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic we chose to meet via Zoom so everyone could stay home and participate who was able.  Kate was our technical person who hosted the zoom conference on her account and Peggy led the meeting.

We went around the group and each of us talked about what we had been doing with regard to playing harp for patients as well as self care.  It sounded like Kinsey and Cyndi were still working but with reduced hours. Some of us found playing our harps were providing us much needed comfort and others found that they couldn’t play harp right now.  Other activities included:  zoom meetings with friends and family,  sewing masks and quilting, taking long walks outdoors and staying indoors, video game playing, learning new music and foreign languages, reading, napping, baking.  Nobody seemed to be bored.     

Some suggestions during this stay at home time included many resources for online harp instruction.

Somerset will be holding their annual conference online instead of in New Jersey this summer.  http://www.somersetharpfest.com/      $100 discount for earlybird registration.

The MHTP program will be holding their conference online as well June 18-20.   For more information see their website:  https://www.mhtp.org/mhtp-conference      

The Edinburgh Folk Harp Festival Society held their first virtual and free festival starting April 3 through April 8.  Video can still be accessed at Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/user/edinharpfest  and Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/EdinburghInternationalHarpFestival/

Harp Column is offering many freebies due to the virus and if you are a subscriber, Harp Column Academy always has a myriad of harp tutorial videos available and regularly changing. It’s not just for pedal harps. www.Harpcolumnacademy.com

If you are a Facebook User you can follow a number of sites where harpists video themselves and upload to the site. These are not usually tutorials but more relaxing interludes.  Anyone is welcome to post so maybe some of you might want to do this. Music Heals the World is one and I know there are many others. So many musicians are not able to work now they are just posting videos. Check out Youtube also.

Edie Elkan of Bedside Harp hosts an online therapeutic harp meditation every evening at 4:50 pm MDT. This is free and accessible via Zoom However, Edie would appreciate it if you want to join send her an email introducing yourself and requesting to be invited.  edie@bedsideharp.com  Both Peggy and I find this very therapeutic and relaxing.  Edie plays harp to begin and then leads in a guided meditation that changes daily. We’re usually done by 5:30 and feeling rested and energized.

We took turns playing harp for each other. 

Peggy began by playing Reflections by Barbara Semmann in the Angie Bemiss book, The Music of Friends

Tamara said she had been focusing on upbeat music and was playing from Sylvia Woods music from the musicals, Up and LaLa Land.

Heidi played William’s Lullaby from the Angie Bemiss Friends book.

Chris said she had been working on some pieces to accompany one of her home patients who liked to sing but did not play for us.

Pam played Somewhere Over the Rainbow with her own bass pattern arrangement. 

Kate has been working on Irish jigs and played Spring Fever by Nadia Birkenstock, Morrisey Jig and Butterfly jig for us.  She also provided urls for free music in a follow up email (see below).

Angela played a song called Alta Cri on her wire harp

Laurel played a song called Alan is Dear To Me from the Angus Frasier Collection and also Nora Likes Cake from the Edward Bunting Collection, both happy tunes to prove to us that wire harps don’t only play sad songs.

Cyndi was at work and not able to play for us but asked about harp repertoire recommendations. Several recommendations were made including any of  Sylvia Woods harp books, Kate provided the following online sources for free music: 

  8notes.com

https://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://8notes.com

http://www.thesession.org

http://musescore.org

If we are still quarantined for May, Pam offered to host our next Zoom meeting on the topic of making recordings. Tentative date will be May 13 at 10 am. 

Attending:  Keri Kammerman, , Laurel Wright-Feighery, Kinsey Mitton, Pam Archbold, Kate Dougherty, Peggy Cann, Angela Scothern, Chris Watts, Kristen Rogers-Iverson, Tamara Oswald

Guests: Kimber Martinson, Aileen Kelley

Aileen Kelley was our guest speaker at this meeting.  Aileen graduated from BYU with a degree in Music and later earned a Masters degree in Music from California State University, Sacramento. She was always drawn to Music Therapy but there was no program she could attend at the time. In 2004 she certified as a Music Practitioner through the Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP), and now teaches nationwide for that organization.  Aileen coordinated the Healing Music Program at the Kaiser Hospital in Roseville, CA, from 2010 to 2017 where she also played the harp at bedsides of critically ill patients.   Retired from American River College after teaching there for 18 years, she maintained a private teaching studio, directed the Capital Valley Harp Circle, and performed in the community as a freelance harpist until 2017 when she moved to Sweden with her husband, serving a 2 year church mission with him.   Aileen was Peggy’s advisor when she went through the MHTP training. 

Aileen’s therapeutic music journey began In 2001 when her granddaughter, Myra, was born four months early in Vernal, UT.  Aileen came to her granddaughters NICU in Provo and was granted permission to play harp for her in a limited capacity. As the nurses and staff experienced the response of the babies, parents and staff to the harp music, they encouraged her to bring the harp every day and play as long as she could.  The babies responded with increased oxygen saturation, fewer alarms, and steadier respiration rates. Mainly Aileen played simple and soft lullabies and found that keeping the music flowing through improvisation was important.  NICU babies need to sustain their blood pressure within an ideal range: not too low and not too high. Since they entrained to the tempo of the music she played she had to watch the monitors for optimal results. 

Myra was about 26 weeks gestational age before her heart began to entrain to the tempo of the harp.  Aileen learned from this experience that Therapeutic Music was her calling and at the end of the year of playing for the babies, Aileen found the MHTP program.  According to Aileen, the MHTP course took what she had learned playing in the NICU and gave it structure.  Aileen reported that Myra is now 19 years old and getting married this April. She does not suffer from any problems associated with her difficult start in life. 

Techniques for Improving Improvisation Skills

Aileen instructed us all to set our harps in C major, use a G chord for the bass and 4/4 time and improvise the melody using only the white strings (pentatonic). We all played together and then slowly harpists dropped out.  This was a lovely exercise that everybody could participate in.  Aileen used this technique once with an Asian woman who had intractable pain. Nothing else she had tried seemed to connect or soothe this patient until she used this technique and the patient responded quickly and positively.  

Aileen talked about using the sounds of the room including beeps and alarms to minimize their annoying sound and blend then into the background.  Find the tone and then work with it. 

In lessons with students, Aileen uses harp technique exercises as a foundation to improvise which she demonstrated using a 3 finger pattern etude. 

Aileen recommended Joyce Rice’s book:  Petty Larcenies. The point of this reference is that Joyce uses the opening phrases of familiar songs and then spins off in improvisational directions. This illustrates how one can also start with a familiar phrase  but then take off and make it something new by changing the patterns. E.g. changing ascending patterns to descending patterns and vice versa.

Aileen demonstrated using a form of musical question and answer phrases and said there are no wrong notes, just interesting ones. She emphasized listening to the end of a phrase and imagining where it might go…and then play what you imagined.

Peggy told a story about playing for an opera singer who moaned as she was dying and how Therapeutic Musicians can use a patient’s voice pitch and breathing to accompany them.  Aileen called it “companioning the patient”.  Sometimes humming or moaning is a way to vibrate ourselves from the inside out and a way to comfort ourselves.

Kinsey shared an experience of playing for a patient who did not respond to much of anything she was doing but she felt that a particular technique was the right thing to do and after a while it did help that patient to relax. Aileen added that 20 minutes of playing seems to be the magic amount of time needed to really benefit a patient and patience is often critical to success. “Put aside expectations and let the patient drive the session.” She emphasized the importance of working within the moment at the bedside, meeting the patient wherever they are at. She also noted these improvisations should be kept simple and spacious to not overstimulate the patient.  

The left hand should be kept simple unless it is the main improvisation source.  Single notes, simple arpeggios and drones work well. A drone can be a powerful stabilizer for patients. 

Final comments on improvisation from Aileen: Music exists in time. The mind will engage with a melody and go on a journey.  Rhythm = bodily functions. 

Aileen encouraged us all to imagine a patient and a condition or situation and then create improvisations to practice the techniques before it’s needed by a real life patient. 

In addition to the other hats she wears, Aileen is the founder of Music Partners in Healthcare (MPIH.org). This is a non-profit organization that educates healthcare facilities and provides Therapeutic Musicians to those facilities to provide music to patients at the bedside. As the first Therapeutic Musician in the Sacramento Valley, Aileen had to create a demand for her services.   Now, through the non-profit organization, MPIH provides paid positions for Therapeutic Harpists throughout the Sacramento Valley at memory care centers, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities. There is now more demand than harpists supply and it is a model worthy of emulation that the Utah Therapeutic Harp Network might want to consider in the future. 

If anyone would  like to drop Aileen a note she can be emailed at akelley.home@gmail.com

We had talked about having a harp circle at Pam’s house next month but after the Corona virus events of the last week, we will postpone that until a later date. Peggy has suggested we have a virtual UTHN meeting via Zoom April 14, Tuesday at 10 am. She has agreed to be the Zoom host and we can focus on repertoire and self care.  Peggy attended Joanna Mell’s Zoom harp gathering which meets 11 am on Thursdays. Last week the group simply played for each other providing the name of the piece and the composer, although sometimes they just improvised. A calendar invitation will be sent out as well. Hope you all can make it!

I am including a link to a live, unattended performance put on by Utopia Early Music Saturday night at St. Marks Cathedral. Teresa Honey is the harpist on a gothic harp.  Enjoy!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esq0YeXIEw8

Attending:  Peggy Cann, Keri Kammerman, Laurel Wright-Feighery, Kinsey Mitton, Chris Watts, Heidi Jaeger

Guests attending:  Gwen Soper, Laura Wall, Kelly Cann 

I. Introductions

Gwen talked about her musical background and experience and how she and Heidi ended up at the same patient’s bedside at the same time twice and other times she has felt called to sing for a friend who is ill or dying. She also sings with Peggy with the Baroque Ensemble. She is interested in continuing her work using voice at the bedside. 

Laura works for the Utah Alzheimer Association as the Foundation Director and is a new harpist. 

Kelly is Peggy’s niece through marriage and has just been accepted to the MHTP program.  We used the Orff methodology to introduce ourselves clapping out rhythms which was good practice for us all.

Peggy, Keri, Laurel, Chris and Heidi briefly introduced ourselves and experience

II. The Business of Therapeutic Music

Kinsey mentioned that CMS pays hospices more during the last two weeks of a patients life who is covered by Medicare/Medicaid. This is a good selling point for utilizing Therapeutic Harpists at the bedside as patients are transitioning.

Kinsey told us about her experience getting hired at Elevation Hospice after she earned her certification from MHTP, her negotiation for salary and how she accepted something less than what had been agreed upon and why. We also included the online discussion on the MHTP Facebook group regarding one person’s idea to get Patreon or other crowd funding methods to pay for Therapeutic Music in Assisted Living facilities.  Another contributor wrote that if nursing homes/ALFs don’t pay for this service and it is either offered as a volunteer service or paid for through another means, they will never appreciate what is being provided to them or the value of it. 

Pam Archbold sent an email differentiating offering a performance as a gift or sample of Therapeutic music versus providing Therapeutic Music to residents/patients for free. Naturally, when we Therapeutic Harpists are completing internships the exchange for the learning experience is to provide the service for free.  Therapeutic musicians are specifically trained. Once credentialed, they should be paid for providing therapeutic music services. Providing therapeutic music services at no cost undermines the perceived value of the service and the training.

Heidi shared her experience getting her first, second and third jobs at different hospices and how much and how she is paid both as an employee and as an independent contractor.  Several members work for more than one hospice and as a contractor this is perfectly acceptable.

Keri uses the harp in her work as a chaplain providing spiritual comfort where words sometimes fail us. She has left Inspiration Hospice and now works for Solstice Hospice.  She also shared her musical background with us.  She came to this group through Tamara Oswald’s invitation.  Keri also shared that she has worked for facilities owned by Kisco Corporation and they pay $60/hour for Therapeutic Harpists at their special events. 

Tristan was unable to attend but sent an email that was shared with the group reminding everyone that we all need to support each other in this work and communicate with each other to enable that support.

Laura Wall discussed her reasons for taking up the harp this year and offered a number of marketing suggestions as that is her strength and role with the Alzheimer Association.  She recommended we all subscribe to the Professional for Seniors network. To receive notifications of networking opportunities, contact Lorraine@seniorsbluebook.com and request to be on the notification list of events. Then go to those events and talk about our work. As Laura left for one of these events, she said she would be talking about us where she goes and the benefits of Therapeutic Music. The differences between Therapeutic Musicians, Music Thanatologists and Music Therapists was explained for our guests benefit.

Takeaways from the discussion:  If you’re not sure what the going rate is for Therapeutic music, ask one of us, we will share what we know and have experienced with you.

If you need help marketing yourself ask another member of the network for some pointers and practice. This is not easy for many of us but it’s a necessary skill for this field of work.  Organizations don’t know what we can do for them until we educate them.

If you are certified and looking for work (or more opportunities) share that with the UTHN members.   Many of us have contacts at facilities that may facilitate your search.  Most of us got our first jobs in this field because we knew somebody who introduced us or recommended us to the hiring agency.  

Just a reminder, some of what is shared at our gatherings is confidential and should not be repeated outside our meetings, or in our notes.

Music we have recently learned or are in the process of learning:

III. Presentations of music we are currently learning or working on

Heidi played See You Again by Charlie Puth,

Laurel played Begone From My Window, Song of Flattery and Truth, and Beloved Maiden on her wire harp,

Keri brought the sheet music for Debussy’s Premiere Arabesque which she intends to learn. 

Peggy demonstrated the use of style and its effect on a piece of music by making us guess what lovely piece she was playing.  (The Flintstones Theme song). 

IV. Book Recommendations:

Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization by Stuart Isacoff  or Temperament: The Idea That Solved Music’s Greatest Riddle, also by Stuart Isacoff

Imperfect Harmony by Stacy Horn