Lifestyle

Soul Trader Podcast

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Hello, I’ve been working on an exciting new project for a few weeks now so I thought it was definitely time to share it with you. I have created a podcast called Soul Trader.

Soul Trader Podcast artwork
Soul Trader Podcast artwork

What is Soul Trader about?


I want to share ideas of ways to be at our most productive when working for ourselves.

This will be from a holistic, health-driven perspective. I’m not interested in hustling 24/7. Sorry. I’m interested in living a balanced, healthy and sustainable life for as long as possible.

Recent episodes of Soul Trader take a dive into the world of Human Design – I’ve discovered that I am a Splenic Projector 1/3. In previous episodes I’ve also looked at handling finances, scheduling our time as freelancers, the importance of resting enough, and the pitfalls of too much screen time.

So much media that we see on a daily basis glorifies the ‘hustle’, grinding 24/7 until we finally make it. We’re aiming for 5-figure months or whatever lofty goals we set ourselves, ‘inspired’ by social media. We can aim for these goals, but at what expense? Personally, my mental and physical health is my top priority, and I will not prioritise work over sleep or any other form of self-care. We work to live – not the other way around.

So if Soul Trader podcast sounds like it might be your cup of tea, I’ll see you over there. You can find it wherever you normally get your podcasts. It has been something of a passion-project of mine, so I hope it brings value to you.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, please check out Soul Trader – the holistic approach to freelancing.

There is also a Soul Trader Instagram page, although I’m experimenting with taking breaks from social media here and there. Maybe a future episode will go more in-depth on our relationship with social media. Leave me a comment below if this would be of interest to you.

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Lifestyle, Music

2019 Goals – HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Hello and a belated Happy New Year. How was your first week of 2019?

The House.

As I’m writing this, a plumber is replacing our boiler, which of course packed in just days after Tim and I moved in to the new house.

So it’s been a cold few days for us.

Nevertheless, it’s taught me to be very grateful for our usual way of life – have you ever thought about just how amazing it is to have hot water on tap? How wonderful it is that our houses heat themselves automatically? How blissful it is to have a hot shower and dry yourself with a warm, dry towel?

I’m feeling very grateful for these little things today.

This is a time I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time. Tim and I are in the house, and things are finally starting to settle down into a rhythm. The only things missing right now are a washing machine (lost by the removals company *sob*) and internet (being installed on Friday *yay!*).

Life.

My plan going forward is to put these blogs up on Mondays, but as you can tell, this week’s is a little late due to not having sufficient internet/spending all my time doing laundry at my parents’/trying to stay warm in the freezing-cold house.

Last year I feel like I made a lot of progress with procrastinating less, achieving most of what I set out to do and generally staying a bit more organised. In 2019 I want to continue all of that, but I want the increased productivity to result in more income, please. It sounds shallow, but my goal is to make more than I spend. I don’t want or need loads, just enough to pay the bills and have a bit left over for a rainy day/doing up the house/getting married.

I’ve signed up for some extra work online – teaching English to Chinese children – which is actually really fun and will hopefully tide me over while I find work as a harpist and harp teacher in York. I’m very grateful to a friend of mine for recommending this to me – you know who you are – thank you babe.

My piano will be brought over from Congleton in the next week or so, at which point I can start giving piano lessons in York too – hurray! I am also starting to give harp lessons online (when I have internet) so that is a super-exciting new venture.

Health.

Another 2019 goal of mine is to prioritise my physical and mental health, I’ve gone back to the beginning with my running and starting to work my way through the Couch 2 5k app, I’ll be practising yoga and meditation regularly and trying to eat as well as I can – nothing too strict but my long-term goal is to have a good, healthy quality of life for as many years as I can. Of course, once our garage gym is all set up, Tim and I can do our strength training in there as well.

This may be the subject of another blog post (let me know if you’d like to hear more on this), but the life of a freelancer can be a little chaotic (just a little), with late nights, early mornings, disrupted meal times etc., so keeping our bodies on a schedule when it comes to eating and sleeping really helps our bodies and our health. So, as I’m reading The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda at the moment, I’m trying to stick to a regular eating/sleeping/waking up schedule to see if that results in an increased amount of energy. Fingers crossed.

So, that’s probably enough from me for now. I really hope you are well (and warm) wherever you are. Check back next week for another post.

Chat soon,
A x
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Career, Music, Places

Diary of a Wedding Harpist

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There’s a new video up on my Youtube channel – a little vlog of a recent weekend where I had a couple of weddings to play for. Firstly I was playing in Liverpool’s gorgeous St. George’s Hall, then the following day I was playing for a church wedding ceremony up in Chorley.

Summer is a busy time for harpists and it feels so good to have a full diary for the rest of the season.

 

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Career, Lifestyle, Music

Staying productive all day.

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When you’re a freelance musician, all the responsibilities of organising yourself fall on you. So you’d better have it together. I’ve done posts before on productivity, the benefits of getting up early and keeping a realistic schedule, but I recently had a bit of a break-through in this area and I wanted to share it with you.

I had been thinking that I can get the same amount of productive activities done at whatever time of day. So theoretically, if I can’t practice until after dinner, so be it. I saw my energy levels as a constant, horizontal line on a graph that spans my waking hours. Sure, I feel groggy and tired mid-afternoon, but that’s just too bad and I need to get on with being an adult and actually sorting my life out.

I’m starting to see that there may be another way.

Having recently discovered that I am in fact, a morning person (I haven’t drunk alcohol in over 100 days, I think that has something to do with it), I find that the morning is the best time to get important stuff out of the way. For me, as for most musicians, that means morning practice. I’m finding that if I do anything reactive in the morning, replying to emails, checking social media etc., my energy dwindles and I’m left feeling like I don’t have the energy to practice later. I mean, I still do it of course (most of the time) but it’s not the golden, focussed, immensely useful practice that happens first thing in the morning.

This article probably explains the idea much better than I can. But the basic idea is to do the most important, focussed tasks when our energy levels are highest (probably between 8am-11am) so that would be my best time to practice (sorry, housemates) then while our energy levels are ok, we can do tasks that aren’t as crucial but still need doing, replying to emails, making calls, running errands etc., then, when our energy dips further, we’ve reached chill time, time to read, listen to podcasts, do any housework that needs doing.

So time management becomes energy management. It’s time management, but also remembering that we are human and we aren’t robots who go through the day feeling exactly the same and always willing to knuckle down to that tax return we’ve been meaning to get to for months.

I’ve been thinking of how I can take and use this technique in my own day-to-day life. Schedules, of course, are subject to change, but I’m thinking here of a regular day at home, no gig, maybe a few private students in the evening, but basically, a big chunk of the day to do with as I wish.

My priority needs to be getting practice done in the morning. I already have a rule about screen time before 9:30am but maybe I can extend this to no phones before I’ve practised. I will try this and report back. I’ll try and get a decent pomodoro of harp in before lunch time (a pomodoro is made up of 4 lots of 25 minutes of focussed work, with 5 minute breaks in between).

These mornings need to be sacred, I’m going to try to limit other activities encroaching on this time. I feel so good on the days where all my practice is done before lunch. This needs to be the case most days. 9am-11am – where possible – is harp time.

At that point it might be a good idea to get some exercise in, either going for a run or doing some yoga before lunch. Then after lunch will be admin time, emails, sorting through paperwork, and starting my tax return. Maybe another pomodoro of this? I realise that I’ve fallen off the blogging (and the vlogging) wagon recently so this is a good point to jump back in to that.

Then, any housework that needs doing, and chill time has arrived (unless I’m teaching).

Angelina’s ideal schedule:

7:30am – Get up, get ready and have breakfast

9am – 11am – Harp

11am – 11:30am – Break

11:30am – 1pm – Exercise

1pm – Lunch

2pm – 4pm – Admin

4pm – 5pm – any housework that needs doing

5pm onwards – Teaching / Dinner / Chill time

Good points about this schedule:

  1. Practice is done first thing, no guilt, yay!
  2. Two hours of harp & admin per day is good going
  3. Plenty of time to relax in the evenings

Crikey, this has been a long and rambling post. My apologies, I find it hugely helpful to write these things down, I do love lists and schedules (as anyone who has met me will tell you while rolling their eyes). But I’m really going to try this and will report back with how I’m getting on.

How do you organise your life if you are freelance? Let me know, let’s share the wisdom.

Chat soon,
A x

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Career, Music

Thoughts on teaching.

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Can you believe I’ve been writing this blog for over six years now??! I can’t. I began writing it when I was fresh out of college, had no idea if I could ‘make-it’ as a freelance musician, and had a bar job on the side to supplement my income. My RNCM days were just behind me, and Chet’s was not too far in the past either.

I did bits and bobs of teaching here and there but felt like I wasn’t experienced enough to teach with much authority. Maybe I had imposter syndrome. I thought, why come to me when you could go to someone who’s been teaching for longer than me? Why come to me when I don’t have that many students and am obviously not in high demand?

It’s pretty hard starting out.

Slowly though, confidence grows and I started to see my students doing well. I thought, they must be enjoying my lessons because they keep coming back. Some took exams, some did really, really well in them. Some don’t want to take exams, they just have a passion for music and love the harp or the piano, and these students are every bit as rewarding as the conventional high achievers.

I feel so proud of the little group of students I have, every, single, one of them. Thank you for choosing me to help guide you through this part of your musical journey. I learn from you just as much as you learn from me. Thank you for working hard, thank you for forgiving me when I make mistakes. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for sharing your love of music with me.

There is one student who I’d like to give a little mention to. Isabelle Halstead. Earlier this year I had the idea that she should apply for Chetham’s School of Music. I attended Chets for sixth form and going there was one of the best decisions that has been made in my life (at this point I’d like to thank the teachers who prepared me for my Chets audition, Rachel Dent and Honor Wright). While at Chets my playing transformed under the tutelage of Eira Lynn Jones, and it proved to be a spring-board into music college and beyond (and it was a lot of fun). Plus, as one of the best music schools in the country (and maybe even the world) it doesn’t look too bad on the old curriculum vitae either.

So you can imagine the pride I feel when, as a teacher, one of my students is offered a place there from September this year. I’m absolutely over the moon for her, and grateful that I was trusted to guide her on this path. She’s worked so hard, with a lovely and supportive family behind her, and she thoroughly deserves her place there. I’m so excited for you, Isabelle!

It’s easy to slip into a funk sometimes and think how far I have to go in my career. Here I am, almost seven years after graduating and almost thirty years old, still no full-time playing job, bank balance still far from healthy, still living from month to month, no ‘big breaks’ and plenty of failed auditions under my belt. But, just for now, I’d like to look at the positives. My student has been offered a place at one of the best music schools there is. And that’s pretty awesome.

As ever, thanks for reading.

A x

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Career, Lifestyle, Music

Alderley Edge, Prestwich, and the 10k that didn’t happen.

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I’m writing this week’s post in a Caffe Nero in Alderley Edge. I’m here to play with Alderley Edge Orchestra for a concert tonight, we are performing Holst’s The Planets and Elinor Nicholson and I are the harp section. 

We arrived early to get good parking spots (harp life), warmed up, and are now both catching up on some admin over cups of tea/coffee.

How’s everyone coping with the Beast from the East? Where I am in south Manchester it hasn’t been too bad, and I’m thrilled that I haven’t lost out on any work due to snow. It can be super frustrating when snow means cancelled gigs, which means no payment, not ideal.

The 10k race that I’ve been training for however, that has had to be cancelled. I can totally see why the organisers took the decision as lots of people were no doubt travelling from a good distance away. It’s a bit gutting to have trained in snow, wind, hail and freezing cold to end up not doing the race, but training is never wasted is it? I’m still fitter and stronger than before and that was the whole idea of competing. I’d decided to treat myself to some new gear after the race, so when I heard that it was cancelled I went ahead and ordered them anyway, maybe I’ll chat about them in the next post. Totally off-brand but exciting anyway…

On the house front, I do have exciting news, a house that we viewed back in January has finally accepted our offer! Hurray! The house is in Prestwich – north Manchester – and I’m keeping everything crossed that this time everything goes smoothly. This is the third house we’ve had an offer accepted on so hopefully it’ll be a case of third time lucky… I’m simply far too excited about actually having a music room/office, and I know Tim is looking forward to having his own gym in the garage.

Could this be the new music room??

I wasn’t expecting buying a house to take this long and we’ve certainly learned a lot along the way. But maybe, just maybe, we’ve finally found our home.

I think that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading as ever, and if you’d like these posts to go straight to your inbox, just pop your email address in the box at the top of the page. I’d love to connect with you that way. These posts sometimes get sent out a day or two early to my email list – so if you fancy that then do sign up.

As always, you can follow me on Patreon, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook to keep up with harpy and other shenanigans.

Ax

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Career, Music

How we can all support The Arts

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We are living through an age of austerity. Spending cuts threaten the funding that major orchestras rely on. Cuts to school budgets mean that music and other arts subjects get side-lined in order to prioritise subjects like maths, science, and english. Yet it has been shown that actually increasing the amount of music in the timetable is hugely beneficial for students and increases their performance in all subjects. Check out what happened at this school in Bradford.

As the cost of living feels like it’s getting higher all the time and wages don’t keep up with inflation, people are feeling the pinch, and possibly not going to concerts or hiring live musicians for their events in an attempt to save money.

So what can we as ordinary citizens do to help support the arts? Here are a few ideas:

 

Attend more concerts

Perhaps this is the most obvious and immediate way we can help. If you live in a big city like London or Manchester, chances are there are free concerts all over the place. Here in Manchester there is a huge choice of free concerts, from organ recitals at St. Ann’s Church in the city centre to lunchtime concerts at Chetham’s and the Royal Northern College of Music. If jazz is more your thing, find your local jazz club, look on the website and find something you fancy.

Have a think about where you live, is there a local orchestra that perhaps does a few concerts each season? Could you perhaps consider attending one?

Of course, there’s more to the arts than just music. Many art galleries now allow you to look around for free, and theatres will probably have cheap matinee tickets on offer.

You could even set yourself a challenge of seeing something creative once or twice a month. Try to go for things outside what you would normally go to. Avid Handel fan? Go to a Gospel Choir concert. More of a jazzer? Go and see a Mahler symphony. Only ever seen Andrew Lloyd-Webber shows in the theatre? Try some Gilbert & Sullivan. You might find a new passion. At the very least, you’ll have more to talk about the following day than who got kicked off X-factor or what time your cat stayed out until. Going to see new things broadens the mind and you know that you are doing your bit to support hard-working, creative people.

 

Hire live musicians for your event

This may seem obvious, but having a live musician playing during your wedding/social function is far, far superior than having someone press ‘play’ on a cd player. It adds so much to the atmosphere that someone is there, playing just for you. Plus, you are supporting that person in a very real way. So please, hire musicians, pay them a decent fee, and perhaps give them snacks at your event? Maybe even talk to them at your event and thank them for playing for you? These things make such a difference – trust me.

While we’re on this topic, please, never, EVER, ask a professional musician to play for free (or worse, purely for the ‘exposure’). It’s insulting and completely undermines the fact that we have trained for years to play to a professional standard, and we deserve to be remunerated as such. For more details see the MU page http://www.worknotplay.co.uk/

 

Get invovled in the creative process

The internet really is an amazing place. Most of us are familiar with crowdfunding, where anyone can donate towards a creative project to help it get off the ground, and in turn they receive a reward and a glimpse into behind the scenes of the project itself.

As well as crowdfunding, there is a website called Patreon where you can support creatives on an ongoing basis – rather than for one big project as you do with crowdfunding. You can either donate monthly or per piece of content released (with a monthly cap so you don’t donate any more than you want to). Donations are generally much smaller (say $1-5 dollars) and patrons have access to a ‘patron-only feed’ of news and behind-the-scenes updates of the creative process.

My Patreon page is geared around making videos of harp pieces, both on and off the exam syllabus. Rewards include having your request played, recorded and uploaded, early access to videos and blog posts, and credits at the end of my videos.

 

Encourage your kids to get creative

Whether it’s playing a musical instrument, taking them to a dance class, or encouraging them to perform in the school play, encouraging kids to get involved with the arts will do wonders for their confidence and academic achievement (assuming of course that they don’t actively hate it – don’t force anyone here – keyword is encourage). Many musical organisations now place a lot of focus on outreach work, bringing music into the community and enabling people to get involved who normally wouldn’t be able to. See what’s going on in your local area, and if you are a musician and have the opportunity to get involved, do it.

Encouraging kids to learn an instrument may lead to them finding their passion in life, or at the very least, might improve their grades and give them an interest in music that they otherwise would not have had. Regular practise also encourages self-discipline and gives them time away from their phones, which we could probably all do with.

If there is not much music going on in your area, it might be time to…

 

Get vocal!

If you think your child’s school needs more music provision, tell them. If your local music service is desperately in need of investment, how about writing to your local MP to let them know how important this is to you? Would you love to go to more orchestral concerts but find that you can’t afford the ticket price? Write to them.

Musicians: see if you can join some sort of trade union (I’m in the MU but have heard lots of good things about ISM too). Get involved in the decision-making process and have your voice heard.

People aren’t psychic, and if they don’t realise there’s a problem, nothing will change.

If we value the arts in our society, we must look after them and invest in them. It makes all of our lives richer.

 

 

I really hope this has given you some ideas of ways we can support the arts and have our lives enriched in the process. I’m aware that this has been a bit of a long post! Thank you for reading and well done if you’re still here. A big thank you as well to those of you who contributed ideas via facebook and twitter. If I’ve missed anything, please do speak up in the comments. Let’s start a conversation.

Chat soon,

Ax

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