Katherine Siochi Interview – tech & social media edition

Today’s segment is focused mostly on technology & social media. This seems fitting as Katherine & I “met” through social media, primarily Instagram (follow Katherine here & follow me here!).

That, and then also just making sure like you have a very clear view of their hands obviously, and close enough to their hands. Especially for [younger students], still a lot of what I’m working on is hand position and technique. So that’s almost, that’s just as important as sound.

And also if you both wear headphones there’s not going to be an echo, which helps a lot. Or sometimes one of the girls will wear one earbud so she can hear herself playing better on the harp, but then I can also talk to her while she’s playing.

But definitely it can be very frustrating sometimes when you just don’t have a good connection. If I’m not at my apartment where I have the router right in there, then I’m not going to be guaranteed…so that can be frustrating. It always takes way longer than you think it’s going to, with the technical issues.

If anyone wants FaceTime lessons with me, I need more to do.

[Then we had a short discussion on sending Instagram photos to Twitter]

Well, so occasionally I’ll remember I have it, and be like “I have this concert coming up,” but I don’t think that’s actually any of the interactions gotten real results from that…I started using [Instagram] … maybe 4 or 5 years ago, pretty much right when it started, back when it had the real camera logo….so I started using that a few years ago, and I didn’t ever post anything musical to it. Just like, pictures of my dog, or like you know, like flowers. You know, just random things that I thought were pretty. And then it wasn’t until…a year ago or something, I started posting videos of me playing the harp. Or using it more to post harp-related things. And I sort of combed through my photos and deleted certain ones and then changed my username to my actual name so maybe it’s a little more professional now.

But ya, I changed it to my name so maybe people could find it a little more easy. And started posting harp videos and stuff and then, when I started posting videos, I started getting way more followers, ‘cause like it’s more engaging than a photo…And tag them with [#practicalharpist]. And all these harpists started following me, and I was like oh that’s so cool… I mean I still post a lot of just like whatever I want to post, like personal stuff. But now it’s sort of like both things.

Something I’ve talked about with a lot of people, and it’s really hard to find the right balance. I feel like especially among musicians, who use social media….to present yourself in a way that’s authentically who you are, and somewhat self-promoting, ‘cause that is kind of the point of social media, but not in a way that comes across…like you’re obsessed with yourself. It’s really hard to find the right tone, and to find the right balance between just being a relatable, down to earth person, who ya, this is what I do, my whole life is about the harp, and maybe I’m doing some cool things, but to share that with people so they can follow what you’re doing, but still be honest and humble. I find there’s a very fine line, so it’s hard to do that. And there are lots of people who do that very well, and it’s just hard to not feel tacky sometimes when you’re posting about yourself. So, I don’t know, I don’t have an answer to that. It’s just like a very interesting thing that I’m always thinking about. How to find the right balance, which is why it helps I think to just post personal stuff and be like, “I’m just a normal person, I think this coffee is cool, like whatever.” You know what I mean?

…I think social media’s a great tool. I posted about one time back in January I posted this post like all my upcoming concerts for the cities and the dates in one image and there were a couple people who came to them because they happened to be near that city at that time. Because they followed me on Instagram and I had never met them. Or maybe I had met them, but I don’t talk to them regularly, so that was how they found out about it. So it can be really great sometimes. I think it’s just like, it’s very hard to not feel like you’re going too far with it, or being overly self-promoting. At the end of the day, I guess it doesn’t matter what other people think… you want to accomplish whatever your goal is through social media, do that, but I think people respect you more if you come across as just a little more laid back, not too intense about it, I’m not gonna post harp videos everyday.

Well the thing I posted yesterday was this piece I hadn’t played in like a year….but ya I forgot I had that and I was just flipping through my files of music and I was like oh ya, this piece is really pretty, and I’m getting kind of bored with the stuff that I have to record, because that’s not happening until the end of November and I’ve been playing those pieces since the beginning of the year, or at least for the past few months, so I’m like “Uh, I don’t wanna practice again ‘cause it’s fine right now,” but at the same time I have to maintain it, and it’s like what do you work on, and it’s just like uh. So I was just like I just need to play something different so that I remind myself that the are other things you can play on the harp besides the pieces I’m gonna put on the cd…Ya it’s hard to play pieces that you’ve been playing for so long and maintain the same amount of enthusiasm as you did right after you learned it, cause usually when I learn a piece, them I’m just like instantly like obsessed with it. When I’m in the process of learning it, then that’s all I wanna practice. I don’t wanna play the other stuff I’ve already learned, I just wanna practice this new piece, cause I’m like really enthusiastic about it. And then, once it reaches a level of proficiency where I can play it from memory or whatever, then it’s like not as exciting. I mean it helps if I have a performance to prepare for soon…So ya, I’m kind of like, I’m not playing the stuff that’s for my recording everyday, cause I just don’t want it to sound dull, and like I’m sick of it when I actually get in there to record. But, at the same time, it’s like, recordings are so annoying, so it needs to be good, so that I don’t make them cut every one minute. What always happens when I record myself I like start the beginning, and I’ll play one measure and there’s some tiny thing I don’t like about it, and I’m just like restart, restart, restart. And once I get past that spot, then it’s fine.

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-Barbara