About Jodi Ann

I am a mother and a wife and consider myself very blessed to be able to do what I love every day! I like daisies, summertime, cheesecake, books, and music, of course. I've played the piano since I was 7 years old, taking mandatory piano lessons until I was about 17. Although I didn't always enjoy piano lessons, I fell in love with playing the piano as an older teenager, once I finally discovered music that spoke to me and that I loved to play.

I first started writing music arrangements for the piano in 2011, while serving as the choir pianist for my church.  The  choir director asked me to come up with some interlude music for our Christmas program--some simple, quiet background music to play while narration parts were being read between songs.  I hesitantly started writing some simple original songs to blend into the hymns the choir would sing.  That was my first experience with composing music.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed writing that music and really how easily it came to me.

A few months later, my husband heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." He told me that he wished that I had a piano arrangement of that song to play for him. I searched the internet to find a piece of sheet music of the song, but none that I found quite satisfied me.  I decided that with its simple tune, I could manage to write my own arrangement.  I wrote it in just one afternoon, and performed it at church just a few weeks later. Needless to say, I quickly fell in love with writing music.

In early 2014, I read about a young woman who found solace from playing her harp after enduring some traumatic experiences.  Playing her harp was healing for her and it made me think about how much joy and peace I find in playing the piano. But it also got me started thinking about the harp.  I watched several harp tutorial videos online, found a harp to rent, and I was immediately hooked.  I started taking harp lessons in April 2014, and I bought my own harp a few weeks later.  By 2015, I discovered that I love composing for the harp even more than for piano.  I studied harp under Mary Bircher, former principal harpist for the Omaha Symphony.  

I use Musescore as my music composition software and highly recommend it.  It is free online and extremely user friendly as well as comprehensive. I play a Thormahlen Serenade lever harp, and even after playing several other harps over the years, I'm still deeply in love with my Serenade.  It is a lighter tension harp with 36 strings, and weighs only 20 lbs, making it very easy to take places.

My husband is awesome and has been so supportive and encouraging in my musical pursuits.  He never questioned my desire to start playing the harp, and he remains patient with me as I spend hours at the harp practicing or writing new music.  I'm definitely blessed to have such a wonderful man by my side. I also have three daughters who are equally supportive.