Improvise with Nature

And now for something completely different . . . ! My workshop students enjoyed improvising to a custom CD that I created from lots of free sound clips I downloaded.

You can do the same thing, if you’re willing to sample lots of sounds and loop them together in iTunes or another program, but I wanted to make it easier for you. I went looking for something you could find online and simply play with, and I found a treasure! Check out this Sound Mixer from a sleep-aid company. You can cue up as many as five sounds to play together and set the levels for each one to get the balance you need. Experiment until you have a nice mix of sounds that appeal to you.

Now pull back your harp, close your eyes, and let your fingers approach the strings in whatever way you like. There are no right or wrong notes, only sounds. Don’t try to match pitch or anything fancy, just play as you’re moved to do so. Breathe, pluck, strum, glide . . . take your time and see what happens.

And don’t worry–I don’t think you’ll fall asleep as long as you are playing your harp! This improvisation exercise is not only very meditative–an oasis of sound in a busy day–but freeing as well. It’s almost as good as going to the beach or the mountains!

This post is adapted from material that I originally published in the ezine, Notes from the Harp.