I've been playing now for around 4 years and I would say I'm an intermediate player... But recently I just don't have the drive to play every day. I used to practice for at least 30 mins a day, but now I just can't get excited about it...i love harmonica and that nearly all I listen to and when I'm listening I want to play but .... I can never seem to get into that focused mind set... What would/do you do? ---------- jj3ff3ry
I play a different instrument for awhile. Or go compose something for the purely electronic side of me. Or even on occasion just let it sit for awhile.
Instead of practicing try just sitting down and playing whatever comes off the top of your head.
Set a groove and just let it roll. Play for the sake of playing not for the sake of trying to get better. All work and no play..etc etc etc :)
Everybody gets stale. My question would be: what music turns you on? Has ALL music gone stale on you, or just your own? If you're still engaged with, in love with, other music, spend time with that music. Put on some headphones and get lost in it. Maybe you can translate a few bits of it into your harmonica. If and when you do THAT, you'll find that the fire is back.
I play blues harmonica, but I don't spend much of my time these days listening to blues harmonica. I'd much rather listen to jazz, or bluegrass, or smooth jazz, or Albert Collins. Or "Uptown Funk."
Oh wow, that's me-- Playing a PentaBender will probably not get you excited, or put you in that focused mind set LOL But a minor tuned Richter is tuned similarly enough to the instrument you want to master--
I'm in a bit of a funk with harp recently. Still play every day but focus on backup horn style rather than being frustrated trying to be like Kim Wilson or Rick Estrin. The sliver lining is my guitar playing has gotten a lot better recently.
Do you only practice technical skills and copy licks from recordings? That could get old, quickly...
Are you playing music with other people?
Do you make music in the styles you enjoy?
What are your musical goals?
I find that playing different genres and switching between acoustic vs. amplified can help keep my interest. Playing music with different musicians in different styles can help keep your interest. Singing songs you enjoy and playing harp can keep the joy alive. Letting yourself take risks and playing music with others that you have never heard before can help you grow beyond routine technique practice. Exercise your musical muscle (your brain) not just harp skils.
When you use your skills to make music with others it shows the value of having practiced techniques. Do what is fun for you, musically! ----------
Personally, I love switching stuff I normally play over to a minor tuned harp (or even a harmonic minor). It's one of my favorite tricks to get the juices flowing too.
I also will spend time on other things harmonica/music/lyrically related. That can range from listening to different music (for some strange reason I've been listening to 80's pop this week... did you know there is harmonica in Duran Duran?) or looking at old harmonicas on eBay. (That's more fun but more dangerous when I have spare cash), to sitting down and looking through old recordings and lyrics I've done to find things I'd never gotten around to finishing. Getting out to small local shows with great musicians always gets my musical juices flowing as well. Playing with other people is great too.
And sometimes just taking a couple days off will do the trick.
Seeing as we have a couple of versions of uptown funk above, I couldn't resist posting this one. I think its probably well suited to the demographics of this forum:
When the inspiration isn't there I leave it alone. It always comes back fresh in its own time and the time off usually leads to a deeper and less cluttered groove. Not playing for awhile often will lead to new roads you never would have found by forcing the issue. I don't believe in the gathering rust philosophy. Creativity has its own time frame and I respect it. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
I've often found that losing my drive to play music (or more often, in my case, to write) is based in something that has nothing to do with music or writing. It can be an event, thought, worry or concern that is occupying too much space in my head. It can even be subconscious (maybe more times than not).
I had one of those moments on harp a couple weeks back. I'm less than a year into this, and have averaged playing an hour or two a day. I've never had a session end with anything but a good feeling. It just makes me happy.
Then, one morning, I simply woke up and had no desire to do anything.
After much pondering, pouting, meditating and fretting, I finally just relaxed to the inevitable (kind of what Walter is suggesting, I think). A couple days later I felt a twinge of need to play some harp. Downloaded Adam's lesson on "Chicken Shack" . . . and it was so damned much fun it kick-started the whole thing for me again.
The fun that makes the drive possible doesn't really go away. Sometimes it just gets covered up with the flotsam, jetsam and detritus of life. The fun will eventually claw its way to the sunlight, as long as we quit poking and picking at it. Given the chance it will tunnel out of the Bastille on its own ---------- Marr's Guitars
Over a decade's experience designing, building & playing Cigar Box Guitars
Last Edited by Rontana on Jun 29, 2015 6:40 PM
I have found getting together with other musicians to be very inspiring. Of particular help is a group here called Slo Jam. They meet once a month and we break into 4 groups, each with a leader who comes prepared with a song. We work on it for an hour and then present it to the larger group. Musicians really help each other out and I learn a lot. It is kind of in between a jam and a fully rehearsed band.
You can sometimes find groups to play with using the internet. I am in San Diego and there are a lot of options here.
Another thing like to do that helps motivate me is sit out on a park bench and play. Thee reactions of passers by has been very positive. I try to learn things that I can use to make little musical comments. I stopped a kid wearing a Darth Vader shit the other day by morphing what I was playing into the original John Williams Star Wars theme. Playing in public, even just by yourself on a park bench, brings an energy and a focus you can't get in the woodshed.
I struggle with not ending my life a lot. When this gets bad, the process of getting back into harp stalls, and that makes me feel worse, one more thing, you know?
I find that sometimes taking a short break, and listening to some music (not to 'learn from', but just to enjoy) and letting myself breathe before coming back to it, is quite helpful.
---------- My YouTube Channel - Any Likes or Comments appreciated. :)
Over the years I had some real angst about playing. Mostly before I began to make real progress and actually get out and play. I think i have performance anxiety sometimes no matter what I've done or accomplished. There have been times I just put the damn things away out of sight and went fishing or something for a while. Eventually the harps would call softly to me and I'd bring them back out. It has been a long time since I practiced every day. Maybe I've hit a comfort zone and gotten complacent, but there is no rule that tells me I MUST practice every day. I can grab a harp and be in the groove in seconds, I have been working at it on and off so long that it's become natural. Now there have also been times when I needed to up my game, try a new position, style, genre, etc etc. New key harp, new gadget. Recently got a jaw harp for fun and it's a riot! Point is I do sometimes have to shake up my routine to get the juices flowing again. And sometimes it's just break time for a few days or a month. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
James - I think that 'intermediate' is a stage that has it's own special difficulties. As a beginner, it's all in front of you and there's constant novelty. Intermediate is a long slog with fewer Eureka moments.
Lots of great advice here, I'd echo and expand Walter's and Rontana's points. It's a bit like getting insomnia - the worst part of it is worrying about having insomnia, and fretting about it won't fix it.
I'll add to long list of things to try, which is just to go through the motions. Make yourself sit down (or stand up) and practice even if you don't feel like it. Some advice I picked up from Sam Friedman was to always make sure you have improved something, however small, before you stop and stand up (or sit down) again.
It's the 'you've got to fake it to make it' idea. Now I say it, ok it's the opposite of what Walter and Rontana :) said but hey ho. Not saying it's what you should do, but it's what I do.
Yeah, I think part of the problem is that I'm at the point where to develop i think i need to work on my creativity because i have most of the technique... and that's a lot harder!! ---------- jj3ff3ry
For me music is a joy that is exempt from the dollar and cents world we live in. When I played full time it was a different story. Then I had to force myself to play when the spark wasn't there due to lack of inspiration on my part, issues with band members, club owners, etc.... Basically it is the same as a job you do for your livelihood. You have to push through on those off days. But now I am not in music for $ so why would I force myself to play? There are many other things to do that I enjoy that fill the void when no music inspiration is there. I often think most of us really don't know why we are here and fall in line like sheep to fit in with the norms to keep our identity intact. It is like am I this scripted character in the movie of life or am I someone that is not a scripted character? The latter forces one to explore who they really are and not fall into the pressures to carry a "nametag" with our model number from the choices society has in its catalog of personalities/job titles. I have fought this most of my life and finally I am reaching the other side where I am accepting who I am. There are no rules with ones hobbies in that we are not bound to do them for material survival and thus can have the freedom to let it dictate instead of having feeding the stomach dictate and by having blind faith this can be carried to ones entire life. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
As waltertore said. " When the inspiration isn't there leave it alone ". Unless you have to play harp, why force yourself. Turn to something else you enjoy and pursue that. If you find yourself drawn back to the harp that's ok, if not that's ok too.
Reading through these suggestions it struck me that motivating ones self is very similar to motivating a child. If you push too hard, it becomes drudgery and there can be a strong revulsion to the subject (music, sports theater, martial arts are all similar in this regard). On the other hand, if you don't push at all, one could give up at the first sign of difficulty, and be robbed of the joy that comes with a higher level of mastery. When to push through and when to move on to something else, at least for a while, is a difficult decision. The intermediate level of anything is when the effort required to advance begins to be a lot more than at the beginner level and you start to wonder if you have what it takes. At the intermediate level your understanding of what is required is advancing faster than your skills, and it can seem like you are going backwards, even though you are making progress.
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