Summer can be a season of musical adventure and inspiration. For the more ambitious and focused students, summer is a time for learning at harp camps and masterclasses, or maybe even extra lessons. For the less driven students, summer might be a time to explore new musical styles or maybe even take a break from music study altogether.

For us teachers, summer is often an opportunity to reconnect with the harp, to refresh our teaching approach, and to learn new music. Summer inspires and energizes us, but it can be difficult to sustain that positive energy in the face of multiple commitments and jam-packed schedules.

By getting a little creative before the season gets into high gear, you can plan your teaching so that harp lessons don’t drift into the dull or routine. And you can do this without compromising your standards or slowing down your students’ progress.

One of my favorite ways to keep harp lessons interesting is to establish monthly or bi-monthly themes. These themes can be built around a technical element or a musicianship skill, or even around poems or things in nature. They give you the opportunity to discuss subjects like transposition, musical form, or do in-depth study of one aspect of harp playing. Some examples might be:

All about chords month. Review technical aspects like placing and rolling evenly. Assign an etude or two related to chords and choose at least one repertoire piece where chords are an important feature.

Melody month. Work at developing legato, arching phrases and clearly articulated melodies in right and left hands. Listen to recordings by virtuoso violinists or flutists to explore how those instrumentalists convey melodic lines.

Letter “B” month. All scales, arpeggios, and exercises will start on B or be played in B Major. Assign music by composers whose names begin with B or from places beginning with B. Learn the “B” section of a piece.

Work through your chosen theme with all of your students, adjusting the material to suit each student’s level. You could also plan a special group lesson to introduce the theme or hold a workshop day for your entire studio.

For students who like organization, try helping them experiment with a practice journaling system. This is an excellent way to encourage a student to take more responsibility for their own practice and progress. The time you spend in the lesson helping them implement the system will yield big dividends in their future music study as they develop the confidence to direct their own practicing.

Plan a duet lesson each month. No regular assignments are due that day. Instead you and your student sightread harp duos. This is a fun way to help your student with sightreading and ensemble skills, plus it helps the two of you connect as harpists, not just teacher and student. Here’s an extra tip: if you plan strategically, you can have one of these lessons every teaching day. Susan can have hers on the first Tuesday of the month and Ben can have his on the second Tuesday, etc. This gives you a duet lesson to look forward to every week.

For more adventurous students, consider adding an improvisational or compositional component in each lesson. These can be very informal. For instance, I like to ask my students to imagine the left-hand pattern of a Dussek Sonata as accompaniment for a popular song they like. I love to see the lightbulb moment when they realize that Adele and Dussek can make beautiful music together.

These tips are all about keeping your students motivated and interested. But they will keep you the teacher energized as well. Take a few moments to write down the things about the harp and music that are of particular interest to you right now. Consider how you can involve your students in those interests too, even if it’s only a monthly studio outing to a live performance.

When you bring your creativity to your teaching, you are giving your students not only superior instruction and keeping them motivated, but you are giving yourself the motivational fuel you need to actually enjoy those long days of teaching.

Teaching is hard work, if you do it correctly. It’s draining because you’re pouring into your students. It’s wearing because you are helping your students overcome their obstacles. It’s tiring because you need to encourage, correct, inspire, and engage your students every moment.

But when your teaching is also about sharing your love of the harp, of learning, and of music with your students, you will always have energy to spare. •