Hello Indiana, I ask my students all the time (and I'm sure I've asked you this before) what are your goals and how are you practicing to achieve them? Almost aways the response is a mile long. Goal: Feel comfortable getting up at my local jam session What I'm practicing each day to achieve this: 5 minutes of scales, 5 minutes of bends, 1/4 notes with a metronome, 1/8th notes with a metronome, triplets with a metronome, run through all the licks that I know 3 times, run through all the songs I know twice, practice vibrato for 2 mins, practice warbles for 43 seconds, practice fkldfjsdhglsfhkhjgf…. Just look at all that. It's really confusing. Yes, these are all important skills which are essential to learn to be a more confident musician BUT this is not the way to learn them. I tell them "Don't be a donkey". This comes from the philosophical paradox that is "Buridan's ass":- A donkey who is equally thirsty and hungry is placed at the same distance between a bucket of water and a stack of hay. The donkey doesn't know whether to eat or drink first and instead dies of hunger and thirst (probably thirst because that usually gets you quicker). If the donkey had drunk the water and then eaten the hay OR had eaten the hay and then drunk the water we wouldn't even be having this discussion. So, how does this relate to harmonica practice and goals? We know all the things that we need to be good at in order to feel confident as a harmonica player. We try to tackle them all at the same time and get nowhere. Instead, pick one thing and work on that until you have nailed it or you have made significant improvements. This means that you might just be practicing playing consistently clean notes by themselves, then in the context of scales and then in the context of tunes. Once you have made significant improvements in this one area, you can pick another area to work on such as playing clean notes in time with the beat using 1/4 notes. This could take days, weeks or months. BUT. The result will be consistent measurable progress. Are you being a donkey? Happy harping! Tomlin |
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