Does anybody out there feel like they are not advancing, stuck in a rut, just keep playing the same thing over and over. I have been playing off an on for 4 years now, and to me I sound worst now than I did a year into playing the harp. I really notice it when I record myself, what sounds OK to my ears, sounds absolutely horrible when I listen back to it. I am getting really frustrated, at the present, and thinking of trying a different instrument, or giving it up. I find harmonica lessons very hard to follow, and I can't afford Skype lessons, or a teacher. So what do others do to try and move forward. I can do a lot of different techniques, but just can't seem to put together anything rhythmical, or anything that sounds like music.
i think u just discovered what drives me---Just about the time i think' Hay Im getting it" I hear and try to learn Rod Piazza- Jason Ricci Adam Gussow any number of guys n gals, way better than me---I t motivates me-- I have drills I do [LOTS OF THEM]--Get a slowdowner and try to learn 'note for note' your favorite people---slow their run down burn to wav file --burn it to cd and practice ---Don't use the lame excuse people use ''DOing other peoples stuff ,its not my thing'' you won't improve until u do somthin new ie an adam gussow lick or whoever---plus WHEN YOU REALLY TRY TO PLAY WHAT THESE GREATS ARE PLAYIN 'NOTE FOR NOTE' U REALIZE "WOW THEY REALLY ARE GOOD eventually ulearn their lick and add YOUR twist to it ---keep pluggin learning is suppose to be fun
What is likely happening is that your ear is improving faster than you skills. Like Jinx says, this is actually a good thing even though it is frustrating. I advise all music students to make frequent recordings. Then when this happens you can use you newly trained ear to listen to the old recordings and discover that you actually have improved, even though you sound worse to yourself.
Ice .. I couldn't agree more. Each player has their own flavor. And not until you really break it down yourself and learn to play thier stuff, can you really taste it.
Stme that's exactly what i do.
To answer your question simply, yes i think everyone gets that way. Unless your delusional. I think everyone thinks they suck from time to time. But i think you should work on what your unhappy with. Thats what i do. If it's your tone, start there. If your REALLY down n out about nothing good coming out, learn something easy n blow it out of the water. When you take something easy, own it, and then add all kinds of your own flavor to it, that always feels good. Then you get your groove back. N u can push on elsewhere.
Don't give up. It ll come around. ---------- "Trust Those Who Seek The Truth. Doubt Those Who Say They Have Found It."
Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on Feb 18, 2016 6:33 PM
I don't necessarily feel like I'm getting worse, but progress seems to have slowed down to a crawl at times. I complete agree with snowman and stme58. Nothing has helped me as much as copying (or at least trying to copy) the players I like. I may not get it right, but I get something useful out of it and it is great ear training. I'm not there yet, but I want to eventually be where I can think of any line and play it without thinking about it. I think copying lots of lines helps or at least I hope it does.
I think not advancing once in a while is part of the overall progression. Frustration is just a breakthrough waiting to happen. It's a good thing in disguise.
---------- 4' 4+ 3' 2~~~ -Mike Ziemba Harmonica is Life!
Try something different, maybe only new songs in 1st or 3rd position, none in 2nd. Even better, play music in a totally different genre than what you are stuck in. Stop your current music completely. Switch between major and minor songs. Mix it up for a couple weeks, then go back to working on what you are stale on. ----------
I often wish that I had more organized time for formal drills of those boring rudiments, and haven't given up hope to find a way to work it into some part of each day. That having been said, if you have made a habit of always carrying a harp and getting in little 10 to 15 minute practice sessions of what you know so far, great. What has helped me tremendously is looking up and purchasing many songs posted on this forum. From the classic old players to today's greats. I've got great harp songs from every harp genre imaginable. Good quality tools help to make you want to play too. If you reach a plateau in your playing, dig deep into that plateau and mine it for all its worth. I don't think I could currently play any of my favorite songs note for note, but I could play my version and make it sound recognizable and good to most audiences by being compitent at the incomplete arsenal of skills I have developed so far. In the martial arts we have a slogan "Ten years a beginner". Yeah, it can take that long, and then some. Even though I know I need to work on a variety of underdeveloped skills, I still feel good about the ones that have become smooth and spontaneously creative. Listen to everybody, try to imitate all of them, and now and then watch some of Adam's videos as well as those of others and work on the boring but necessary rudiments to build your tool box of skills. Above all, don't be discouraged. You'll never be any worse than me, and I'll never consider myself any better than you. The most exciting thing about anything I've learned and refined thus far is that I can't wait to share it with you. I consider myself to be the least of my brethren on this site, and that is the best place to be, since it leaves me so much room to grow, so many big brothers and sisters to look up to, and no responsibility for being consistently great. Welcome my brother, lets learn, laugh, and love this world together!
Absolutely! Been playing for about 6 years. Some times more often than others. 12-14 hour work days really limit the amount of practice time available.
First off, don't think that skype lessons are the be all end all of progress. I've been taking lessons every 2-3 weeks for a year and while they're incredibly helpful I still feel like you do.
Theres tons of free lessons online that are super helpful:
-Adam Gussow has TONS of good stuff for free or for a couple bucks down load his stuff from the for sale page (typically. $7 for the video and tab sheet)
-Ronnie Shellist has lots of good stuff for free on YouTube and also has great lessons on his web page (harmonica123) for a few bucks
-Lee Sankey has some AMAZING multi video lessons on YouTube
-Michael Rubin has great theory lessons for free on YouTube also
-check out blues harmonica . Com ($20 a month I think) and well worth it. Not free but substantially less than private skype lessons.
-also check out Rhythm Slim on YouTube. Dudes from Canada (I believe) and has decent stuff daily on YouTube and facebook.
Search these guys stuff and find who is offering lessons on whatever topic you want to improve on and spend two weeks on each lesson and really milk every drop of knowledge out of them. If you like what they're doing spend some money on their respected sites to show your support. Drop them a line too. These guys are offering so much information for free. Don't forget to thank them. All these free resources could keep you busy for several years. Easily.
Last Edited by Seven.Oh.Three. on Feb 18, 2016 9:22 PM
You're probably not getting worse. You're probably just developing an appreciation for how crap you are. Like Jinx said, that's a good thing. Heaps of us are in denial about that. Now you can start listening to yourself as you play as well as when you're listening to recordings. And you'll probably start getting better as you eliminate the worst sounding things from your playing. Or, giving up and taking up something else could be a good idea too. Harmonica is a fairly silly instrument and quite hard to make sound good. Sure, it's portable and quirky but beyond that, not a lot going for it.
Yeah, I feel like that sometimes. I usually take this as a sign I need to put the harps down for a while. Sooner or later I remember why I like harp and what got me into it in the first place. When I do go back I often find the things I was struggling with have fallen into place.
So take a break for a while. Maybe take up another instrument for a bit if you still want to play music. I think you'll probably rediscover your love of harp at some stage.
For me, once I reached a certain pointy in my playing, I either had to take a total break from playing and be a civilian for a while, or I had to get out and lay what I knew on the line, at a jam or even better, with a steady band or partner. Proof in the pudding as they say. Recording very important too. BUT I am my worst critic, so if I can divorce the emotion from my self critique and look at the business of learning and improving, and devote effort where it's needed, I make better progress.
The other side of this is that if you play out, you get good response from your audience and you know you are doing some things right. The question is, who are you playing for? Yourself? Your peers? An audience?
I play for my own self but I know what I can do and pretty much how I sound. I have recorded many hours of audio and video for years. One thing I've had to come to terms with is, I may not be getting the sound I thought I was, but I am getting quality anyway, and I can always work to improve if I know what needs attention. I also play for my partner. We are co-writing our next cd currently and it is sometimes a bitch finding the next cool thing to do on a harp. Keeping it simple as possible helps. I play for whoever is walking by or sitting at a table or whatever the situation is. I accepted a long time ago, I will not please the whole crowd, but if I play pretty well there are those who will respond to my work and play. Those are the audience I work for.
One bad habit I have struggled with is, when I'm not sure what a new song needs, I need to shut up and play less usually. The harp guy is not the center always but only a part of the larger whole. Better a few very tasty notes here and there than a lot of honking and annoying where it's not needed. Note I am speaking about myself here!
@Bassman410, if you need a break, take one. Put that stuff away for a few weeks. When you get it out again you may discover that your mind has sorted some stuff out for you and you may be pleasantly surprised.
I've noticed that folks tend to forget a salient point about harp playing; it's supposed to be fun. Unless you are working frantically toward playing as a profession - in which case you likely know that years of practice, study and performance are required - then there's no reason to get stressed about progress or the lack thereof.
What I would say - and I say this about many things - is that there's no quicker way to suck the enjoyment out of something than by turning it into an ultra-serious, regimented discipline that demands constant benchmarks and plateaus.
Again, don't forget to have fun. In fact, make that your first priority.
Music is the literal voice of life. Enjoy it. It really is as simple as that
i have been playing for over 40 years. i think i have perfected the art of getting worse :) but at least i get better too :) ---------- www.shakeylee.com
Jinx is right. Just being aware that you're not playing well, being frustrated with where you actually are, is the prelude to actually getting better. The opposite of that would be to have exactly the same skill level but NOT know just how much room for improvement there is.
I also agree with Rontana: taking pleasure in your own playing is important. This means not comparing your skill level with that of much better players in a way that makes you feel like a failure. In your case, it might mean that you begin by taking a deep breath and asking yourself which song in your repertoire gives you the most pleasure. You need to reconnect with THAT. Sometimes this means just slowing down and playing something simple, with feeling.
Thanks for all the advice, a lot of good info here. Yes I think I do just need to relax and just let it happen, and stop concerning myself with improvement. Also maybe a short break would do wonders for me, then come back with the attitude of just enjoying it. Adam your spot on as usual, playing something simple with all your feeling, is much better than trying to play over my head, and just making noise. This has giving me a new way of thinking about the whole process, much appreciated from all.
I don't know of any musician, pro or non pro, regardless of what instrument they play, who hasn't gone thru something like this and if they say they never did, they're telling you a straight up lie because every musician at every level goes thru periods like that.
Sometimes one needs to be completely away from the instrument and not play it at all for maybe a couple of days to a couple of weeks just to get their head cleared up and allow themselves to relax and stop worrying about it and then come back with a much fresher mind set.
Regimentation can work well but at some point, you do have to break away from it a bit just to relax your mind and then come back and be unafraid to experiment and be unafraid to change up some things that maybe you thought were minor and then suddenly a whole host of things open up for you and then you're back in business.
Occasional frustration is part of the learning curve for anything in life, not just for learning how to play an instrument, so instead of putting yourself down because of it, learn to embrace it and grow from it. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Wow, that's great an extremely difficult, way above my capabilities. But I get the point about learning from listening, hopefully that will become easier for me, as my ears develop. I haven't had much luck with that so far, even slowed down.
As I get better, I've been lucky enough to find better and better people to play with, and to take on harder and harder material. I'm playing better than ever, but am also painfully aware of how much better I need to get to do justice to what I'm doing now.
As others have noted, it's important to keep striving to get better, but also to appreciate how far you've come. I always record when I play; you learn an awful lot that way, even if it's not fun to listen to.
As Harry Chapin's "Mr. Tanner" says:
"He did not know how well he sang, he only heard he flaws"
Wow, I bet u didn't think you would get this many posts---good ones as well---
The very bottom line is ---jts suppose to be enjoyable and fun ---I enjoy playin stuff I can't yet play over and over again- Im super patient--Its a great feeling to work on something for several monthes,or even years ---then when I get I it , I take a long break from it maybe weeks or monthes, when I come back to it ----I hear it in my head and through muscle memory , I play it musically. Sometimes with a different feel—
I learned trying to get a bunch of “Pat Ramsy runs” that hitting the notes and playing it musically are 2 different animals—that’s why I take a break
Wow, I bet u didn't think you would get this many posts---good ones as well---
The very bottom line is ---jts suppose to be enjoyable and fun ---I enjoy playin stuff I can't yet play over and over again- Im super patient--Its a great feeling to work on something for several monthes,or even years ---then when I get I it , I take a long break from it maybe weeks or monthes, when I come back to it ----I hear it in my head and through muscle memory , I play it musically. Sometimes with a different feel—
I learned trying to get a bunch of “Pat Ramsy runs” that hitting the notes and playing it musically are 2 different animals—that’s why I take a break
Wow, that's great an extremely difficult, way above my capabilities. But I get the point about learning from listening, hopefully that will become easier for me, as my ears develop. I haven't had much luck with that so far, even slowed down.
Not sure what happened there, wrote a new post, enter it and one of my old post came up??? anyways.
Long story short now, yes snowman this is the best question I ever asked about harp. It has made me see everything from a new perspective. Thanks to all the great replies, from you all.
@Bass410man -- Sounds like a typical problem if the browser you're using is Internet Explorer, which is one of the biggest reasons why I now use Google Chrome as my browser, which is better, more reliable and a lot faster.
#Garry -- You make very astute observations and you're pointing to a goal that's important for EVERY musician, regardless of what instrument the play (vocalists and harp players definitely included here), as well as pros and non pros. If you're not looking to improve at any level, all you do is stagnate or worse, regress. And then there's the old saying that "Rome wasn't built in day," which basically means just because you are unable to do some things now doesn't you won't be able to at a later time, is very important to remember. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Lick for lick is an excellent exercise but as you find you own voice the gold standard changes. Whether progress comes in baby steps or giant leaps, as long as you play you are progressing. Looking back on success is one thing. Leaning on it is another. Keep at it.
