Harp and creativity session: 5pm to 6.30pm on Saturday 17 October 2020

Keep your creative juices flowing by exploring where the sounds of live harp music can take you. Take some time on a Saturday afternoon to listen to me playing the harp via Zoom while you paint, draw or write.

Half copywriter, half harpist

During the day, I work as a copywriter for clients including Nike, Nokia and the Paris Opera House and for brilliant charities such as the Environmental Investigation Agency. In my spare time, I play the harp and for years have played with choirs and orchestras, including the London City Orchestra.

Get creative

Since lockdown started, I’ve been experimenting with new ways of connecting with people through music. Which is how I came up with the idea of running harp and creativity sessions.

How it works

I’ll play a series of pieces for solo harp, each lasting between two and five minutes. At the start of each piece, I’ll give you a phrase to act as a prompt. If you’re writing, those words will be the first words that you write. If you’re drawing, just take them as inspiration.

I encourage writers to use a stream-of-consciousness ‘automatic writing’ technique which draws on Zen meditation. Developed by Natalie Goldberg, the rules are: “Keep your hand moving, don’t censor yourself and don’t edit as you go”.

You don’t have to prepare anything and you’re free to write or draw whatever you like.

What people say

“I loved listening to and following the music, its rhythms and associations.”

Sam Griffiths, artist

Writers and designers who’ve taken part in other sessions say it’s liberating to express themselves without aiming for a specific destination. So let your mind go with the music and see what happens.

“I loved the experience of allowing myself to be freer and more playful, and I’ll definitely try and use the technique again.”

Kate van der Borgh, writer

How to book

Buy your virtual ticket for the session by following this PayPal link. Tickets cost £15 each. Please remember to enter your email address in the notes section.

Please get in touch with me at fiona@wordspring.co.uk if you have any queries.

I’ll email your ticket to you as an invitation to join the session through Zoom. If you’ve paid but haven’t received a ticket within 12 hours please email me. You can download Zoom in advance on your phone, tablet or computer. I would love you to leave your video on so that it feels as close to a face-to-face session as possible.

I can’t wait to see you on the 17th and share some live harp music with you!

Would you like me to run this session for your company?

If you’re interested in me running a harp and creativity session for your work, do get in touch and let’s have a chat about it. The session gives people a chance to clock off from the everyday and tap into a different kind of inspiration, without any pressure to create anything at all.

Here’s what Francesca Tenenbaum, Head of Words at Here Design, says about the session I produced for them.

“I have been lucky enough to write to Fiona’s harp music twice now, once as part of 26, and once at Here Design – where she did a special recording for our radio station Hear Here.

Each time it was an illuminating experience, refocussing the mind, clearing out all the messy thoughts that sometimes stop you thinking well, and allowing us to experience something much rarer than it should be in the creative industries: true creative freefall. No expectations, no demands, no restrictions.

Whether you write, draw, paint or anything else you might want to do in response to Fiona’s creative prompts and beautiful harp playing, you will feel its value, and sheer enjoyability, immediately.”

To find out more, please email me at fiona@wordspring.co.uk