How do some musicians create
arrangements seemingly 'out of thin air'??
How do others take a complicated piece of music and simplify it?
Are they just more 'creative' than others ...
or do they have skills that anyone could learn?

Watch this video I made to solve an arrangement problem for a harpist recently - then sign up and learn to develop skills, tricks and talents like the simple, effective and FUN ones I outlined in this video!*

And best of all, you'll be able to ask me questions as we go along, get direct input on what you're learning as you apply arrangement skills to tunes you already know ... or wish you could play!

Will these techniques work on absolutely any tune? NO! You'll also learn how to identify which music is likely to be easy to arrange and which pieces are going to be tricky, no matter what.

You'll learn to take music into your own hands and create more than you ever thought you could with what you already have right now.

10 Reasons Hip Harp Toolkit ROCKS!!!

First of all - I LOVE this course!  It's the course I created to help people really get their hands on the FOUNDATION of improvising arrangements – literally!  And here are just 10 of the reasons this course ROCKS!

	YOU GET MY SECRET FORMULA! It’s the formula at the HEART of most of the music we hear from jazz to classical sonatas! You’ve heard it thousands of times - but it’s a secret because it gets so altered and embellished that you don’t hear its basic structure.  So I’ve distilled it (Mwaaaa-haha!!) it into a BASIC 5-Part Formula that YOU can use over and over and over - to turn any simple melody into a improvised arrangement of any length and any complexity!
	YOU LEARN THE JOY of the GAME INSIDE THE MUSIC! Most musicians are stuck playing what’s written on the printed page, because they don’t know how music works as a game.  But once you learn my formula, each time you play a tune, it can be completely different!  Music becomes a game!  An the joy come when you pay WITH music instead of having to play the music you’re handed!
	IT’S LIKE AN ANTI-NERVOUS PILL!! Face it, the scariest part of playing for other people is the first few seconds!  So imagine what it would be like to have a wonderful, simple, INTRODUCTION that makes your audience “oooo and ah” and gives you time to get your musical bearings?  It’s like taking an anti-nervous pill!
	IT SOOOOO MUCH FUN! Did I mention It's really, really FUN -- because you get to just let go of worrying about the notes you're playing and truly just play WITH the music!
	YOU PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS! Because we use a formula, it can be applied to any simple tune, at any level (have I said that enough?).  That means that instead of YOU trying to fit yourself into a written arrangement, you can build an improvised arrangement to take advantage of YOUR strengths - whatever they are.
	WHEN YOU SIGN UP FOR THE "VIP LEVEL ADD-ON" YOU GET PERSONALIZED POSITIVE FEEDBACK FROM A MASTER TEACHER Many students say that the feedback is one of the most valuable parts of the course and the most confidence-building.  And that's not just mindless cheerleading feedback. The kind of feedback I give you is the same kind I use with my professional-level colleagues to develop new material.  (And, don't worry - the VIP-Level is optional - you can sign up for the FULL Level and never have to share your work - that's fine, too) With my own colleagues, we learned that 'critiques' are counterproductive - so my feedback always starts with what IS working because that’s the hardest thing for people to see in their own work!
	YOU CAN ASK ME ANYTHING! You have three different ways to get my personal coaching:  The live chats, the Facebook Group and the "Ask a Question" Form.  And, yes -- you can ask me ANYTHING.  Now … will I answer absolutely anything?  Well, so far I haven't gotten many questions I didn't answer!
	YOUR ARRANGEMENTS GROW WITH YOU!  Imagine playing a tune you love, getting it in your fingers, hearing people hum along ... and then hearing it DEVELOP, as you develop over the years!  Imagine hearing it change and grow as your skills grow.    Imagine that it gets easier when you’re tired, so you don’t have to work so hard!  Imagine it gets flashier when you want to impress people.  THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS when you learn to create spontaneous arrangements because they change as YOU change!
	YOU GET TO PLAY LIKE YOU!! Forget “Beginner,” “Intermediate” and “Advanced” – the truth is that each person plays at their own personal level, with their own strengths and their own challenges.  So I help you tailor the material to YOUR technical level whether you're a professional who wants to create a flashy set of musical variations, to a fledgling who wants to be able to sit down and have FUN!
	YOU GET TO PLAY WITH A SKELETON! OK, maybe that sounds scary, but skeletons are our foundation – they’re what hold us up and give us a strong internal structure! That’s what my 5-part formula becomes once you internalize it: a strong skeleton for every arrangement you play!  And once you have that skeleton, you can start adding anything to it that you want – from musical embellishments to stories, spoken word, dancing ... to your favorite food! (Um ... well, I’m not totally sure about the food part)
WAIT! THERE'S ONE MORE IMPORTANT ONE!!!
	WE GET TO DO THIS TOGETHER! Sure, you could take all the videos, handouts and audio files from this course and work on them on your own and you’d be getting soooooo much that way – BUT I’ll be WITH you each week when you take the course during the interactive, guided session I lead each year in "Hip Harp Academy," answering your questions through the Facebook Group, the “Ask a Question” form and the weekly chats, giving you personal input and totally LOVING having this adventure with you!!
>> REGISTER NOW <<

Q: HOW LONG DOES THE COURSE LAST?

A. The "Hip Harp Toolkit" actually lasts for 8-10 weeks because of catch-up and review weeks, but you can get all the "Arrange Yourself" content within the first 6 weeks (remember that, "Arrange Yourself" is the arrangement training at the heart of "Hip Harp Toolkit" - and the Toolkit also teaches you how to package and share that content if you want to create arrangements as gifts for friends - or for professional use, like performing.)

You actually start implementing the ideas after the first week! I just find that having time for review, catch-up and fun 'challenges' that help you apply the material, helps people actually integrate what they learn. We take off Thanksgiving week and we're done with content by the beginning of December to give you time to enjoy the holidays - and play your new repertoire for friends, family, profit (oh yeah!) - and your own entertainment!

Q: WHAT SOFTWARE DO I NEED FOR THE COURSE?

A. Even people who consider themselves completely non-tech-savvy are able to access and enjoy the course. Some people even say that one of the big benefits of the course is getting more comfortable with online tech formats!

Each week the course information is provided in three formats and there's always a "low-tech version" so you'll able to access the basic course materials without interactive software because I'll be videotaping each lesson and providing PDF outlines for you to follow.

Here's how it's provided:

- Training videos you watch online
- Audio versions of the trainings that you can download and listen to on your ipod or computer
- A PDF overview of each training as a reference for any notes you take yourself
- Bonus PDF Worksheets to help you organize and focus your learning and practice
- Homework assignments (optional) to help you put the training directly into practice. Most people find these to be one of the most useful parts of the course - even though most everyone's nervous to submit thier videos at first. (If you've never uploaded video to the web, you can read my tutorial on how to do that, which is part of the course resources.)

There's also a live online Q&A chat where you can ask whatever you want to help you understand, integrate and thoroughly enjoy all the material in the course -- and if you can't make it to the chat, it's recorded so you can watch or listen to it later.

So even if your tech-savvy only goes so far as knowing how to link to a Webpage, watch YouTube and download a file, you'll be able to get all the class information.

The truth is, there's always a bit of a learning curve unless you've taken online courses before -- and online chats and masterclasses will never be as high-fidelity as being there live -- but many people have actually told me that my online courses have given them the added benefit of learning to navigate the web in new and empowering ways -- and that makes me very happy!

Q. WILL I HAVE TO DO HOMEWORK?

A. I encourage everyone to do the homework because each homework assignment guides you step by step to creating your own arrangements. Maybe even more importantly, when you do the homework, the questions that YOU need answered will arise. When you ask those question, I can pinpoint my answers to help YOU.

This, for me, is one of the most important reasons to take an online class with the instructor available - and why I encourage people to sign up for "Hip Harp Academy" when I'm giving the Guided Interactive versions of each course, even though the course material is available any time for you to learn at your own pace once you join the Full Level of the Academy.

Here's why it's so meaningful to learn with an instructor who can answer YOUR questions: People will tell you that "you can find the answer to anything you want on the web" - but that's like saying you can find a particular seashell you want because all the shells are in the ocean. The value of having a guide and a coach is that they can guide you to what YOU are looking for, instead of you having to spend all your time sifting through way-too-much information to find out what works for you.

Q. WHAT EXACTLY IS THE HOMEWORK??

A. Almost all the homework includes createing a short arrangement (no more than 90 seconds) so you can play with the concepts from each module. If you've signed up for the VIP Level of the course, you'll videotape that 90-second arrangement for me and then I'll give you my own personalized feedback via video, pointing out what's great about what you've done (because most people can't see that!) and giving you suggestions for taking it to the next level.

Q. WHAT IF I FEEL ICKY ABOUT SHARING VIDEOS??

A. Well ... if you sign up for VIP Level you'll need to share those videos with me, or you'll have to levitate into my studio for 90 seconds each week. But if you're not signed up for the VIP Feedback option, you don't need to worry about sharing videos (though I will definitely encourage you to share your final projects with friends and family via video!)

Q. WHAT IF I'M SIGNED UP FOR VIP & I'M A TECHNOPHOBE AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO POST VIDEOS?

One of the things technophobes (like I was!) love about this course is that they become so more web-and-tech savvy just by taking the course. I have a short tutorial to help you learn to create videos, submit them to YOuTube and keep them out of the public eye!

Q. WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK DO YOU GIVE?

if you're signed up for VIP Feedback, I'll be giving you my feedback via video as well, usually with your homework video right beside mine - so that I can watch your video and then comment immediately in the moment. It ends up looking as if we were in the same room together.

My feedback almost always focuses on what you ARE doing 'right' and how you can take that to the next level, or what's not 'clear' and how you might make it clearer. What you ARE doing is often the hardest thing for people to see.

What we MISS is what we ARE getting and how to enhance that. The big value about looking at our work this way is that, by enhancing what we ARE grasping, we constantly move closer to our own personal style.

We tend to zoom in on what we're doing 'wrong' and inflate it, as if avoiding mistakes was the only way to move forward. Instead, we focus on imperfect completion, imperfect practice, imperfect action.

By focusing on what we ARE doing and on how to make what we WANT to be doing CLEARER, we become more and more fluent, so we get closer to expressing what we want to. For me that's just a faster, easier way to get where I want to go than focusing on what I'm doing 'wrong' - so that's how I like to focus my feedback.

Q. HOW MUCH TIME WILL THE COURSE TAKE EACH WEEK?

A. That's pretty much up to you. You could spend as little as 20-30 minutes a week if you only wanted to download and read through the PDF - and you can get tons of great ideas that way. Some people who are busy like to do that, and then watch a couple videos and come to the online chats (or watch them later). That's one way to take the course 'just for fun' - and that's perfectly fine.

People who want to 'get the most bang for their buck' can spend as much as an hour or more a day, watching the videos, downloading the materials and then putting it all into practice on their instruments, and then submitting homework for feedback.

Most people fall between those two extremes - and it's totally fine how YOU want to use the course and how it fits into YOUR life right now. That's also why you get access to ALL the courses in the Hip Harp Academy for as long as you're a member - so you can go back and review.

The absolutely most important thing you can do each week is to find one simple concept from the lesson and put it directly into your playing at any level.

If you do that ONE thing each week you'll get more out of the course than reading and watching everything but not putting it into practice. So if you don't have much time one week, you can skim the lesson, find your 'nugget' for the week, put it into practice and feel great that you're getting something that will change your playing.

On a practical level, to just go through the videos and the handout for each lesson each week takes about 60-90 minutes.

And you don't have to do it all at once! I break up each lesson into a bunch of mini-sections so you don't have to do that all at one time. So you can log in once a day for 10-15 minutes and go through one or two 'activities' each time.

A lot of people take the course more than once because there's a lot of content - and you simply won't get it all the first time through!

Going through it again is what "Spiral Learning" is all about - and that's why I also have two mini-courses that go together with Hip Harp Toolkit, one from a Celtic Coach (Marta Cook) and one from a Latin Coach (Christina Braga) - so you can take the course several times, add some different flavors each time - and find new ways to put the principles into practice.

Q. WHAT IF I CAN’T KEEP UP?

A. You can go at your own pace – you can take what you want from the course, you'll have the PDF handouts and you’ll be able to access the course videos 24/7 to review or learn at your own pace for as long as you're a Full-Level member of the Academy.

Different people will take different things from the course. Sometimes I get one ‘elegant idea’ from an online course that gives me all the knowledge and power I need to shift to the next creative level – which is what I want for you.

Sometimes I need to do all the homework and get all the feedback in order to feel I've gotten what I need from the course.

So I wanted to structure this course so that regardless of which way you like to learn, you'll be able to get what you need from it.

Q. DO YOU PROVIDE MUSIC TO GO WITH THE COURSE, OR DO I NEED TO PROVIDE MY OWN?

I provide several sets of lead-sheets you can use - Holiday Music, Celtic Music, Latin tunes and some generic originals I wrote specificall for the course - and even if you've never read a lead-sheet I'll show you how to read these.

Q. HOW DOES IT WORK WITH THE DIFFERENT PLAYING LEVELS ALL IN ONE COURSE?

The way I deal with the different levels is by starting with concepts rather than specific techniques, and then showing how you can build those concepts with basic techniques or with expanded techniques.

By "concepts" I mean, for example, a basic arrangement structure is the concept: intro-melody-exploration-melody-coda.

Those concepts can be expressed very simply, with very basic skills, or they can be expanded to any level of complexity. These are truly the same concepts I've been using, and both expanding and distilling, for the last 40 years.

So, what I try to do is to DISTILL the basic concepts of each thing you learn, and from that distilled concept you can play it in a very basic way, or embellish and expand it as far as you want (I'm still exploring all the ways I can do that). The 'simple' version is not 'dumbed down' or simplistic - to me, the simple is equally as beautiful - and sometimes more beautiful than the embellished versions - it's just less complex.

Since we start with the skeleton of each piece, we can flesh it out at any level of technical ability so long as we understand the basic underlying concept. That's part of what I love seeing: all the different ways people express these same concepts, based on their own individual skills, innate talents, instruments and preferences!

We then have the Q&A chats, and the VIP level coaching option to help fill in any gaps specific students have. Students who want a bigger challenge can ask me for that and I can show them how they'd go further, and students who need it simplified ask for that and I show them simplifications.

There is no limit to how much you can simplify or expand a musical concept. That's part of what fascinates me about music.

Got more Questions? Use the "Ask a Question" form.