Can You Learn Lyre By Yourself?

 

Can You Learn Lyre Harp By Yourself?

The ideal way to learn any musical instrument is with a good teacher by your side guiding, demonstrating, correcting and cheering you all the way. The lyre harp is no different. But not everyone can afford a teacher, find one locally, commit to specific times or has the time to commute to one each week. 

Fortunately, for us, we live in a time when teachers have made themselves available for us online via live or recorded teachings and there are lots of free resources available at our fingertips! If you’re looking to self-teach yourself the lyre harp or any other instruments for that matter, consider these tips:

1. Choose an instrument that meets your needs. Lyre comes in different shapes, sizes, strings, price and styles. Depending on your needs and the type of music you want to play do your research and select the one that will best serve you and achieve your heart's goal.
2. Choose a style and/or method and stick with it. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by online educational content. I know, I have gone in to many rabbit holes of learning and found myself stuck and confused. To stay focused, pick a method and stick with it for a good length of time (ie. a month) before trying something else. 
3. Keep things simple. Learning and starting something new can be tough. It's easy to get frustrated and give up even before we gave ourselves a real chance. Start with the basic and pick easy songs to play. The goal of every beginner should always be to build a great foundation. Just like any building, the foundation holds and supports everything else that is put on top of it. Good foundation is critical and it is always the overlooked simple things that we as adult learners want to push pass as quickly as possible to get to the fancy songs. 
4. Go in the direction of your favorite music. If you like classical music, work on sheet music theories and fluency. If you like meditative music, get yourself in a state of calm and serenity. If you like pop music, get to know your chords. If you like jazz, start improvising!
5. Train your ears. Don't forget ear training. Listening is half of what music is all about. Learn how to identify intervals by ear and practice figuring out how to play your favorite melodies without sheet music. Noodle around to find tones that speaks to you, notes that you love and start stringing them together and see how they sound and how they make you feel. Music is powerful and healing and the best way to appreciate it is to relax and listen.

Expect things to get challenging. Expect to not want to practice and to feel frustrated. It will happen. And when it does, remember your why. Then bring things back to simple again. Remember the excitement, hopes and anticipation of the first day of wanting to learn and keep that always fresh in your mind. 

Happy Playing!

Sharon Brownell

https://linktr.ee/learningthelyreharp