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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Approaches to Practicing
Approaches to Practicing
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BronxHarp
34 posts
Dec 27, 2010
7:51 PM
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I'm interested in the different ways you all approach practicing. How do you divide the time? For instance, how much time do you spend jamming along with songs and trying to copy riffs? Do you spend a little time on particular techniques (warbling, vibrato, etc.)? How much time do you spend with Adam's lessons or other types of instruction? There's obviously no one right way, but I'd love to hear a little bit about what you all do in the woodshed and what type of practice has helped you break through to the next level.
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Harp boy in progress
41 posts
Dec 28, 2010
6:21 AM
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well for a start i play three instruments: piano, sax and harp. I spend atleast half an hour upto an hour on each. I find that if you practice to much like the chineese, you will not take it all in. Little and oftern as my nan says. I spend alot of time jamming and at gigs. I oftern swap betweed instruments when im onstage! I also love to "custom" my harps and experiment with them. I am also a gear "geek" so to speek as i love all of my eqipment. I also spend quite a while looking and learning off Adam as i find he is an excellent teacher
Nick
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WestVirginiaTom
25 posts
Dec 28, 2010
7:58 AM
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I try to get in 40 minutes of practice per day, but I probably only average about 2.5 hrs per week. I hope to increase my practice time in 2011. My practice sessions have evolved to the point where I have a basic structure:
10 minutes for scales, triplets, and other exercises to build speed and proficiency at tongue-blocking, bending, etc.
10 minutes jamming to backing tracks, trying new riffs in context, and writing/arranging 12-bar verses.
15 minutes practicing songs. I currently have 3 songs in my repertoire that I am fairly solid on. I am working on 3 additional songs. So in a practice sesson, I typically pick one of the "solid" songs and spend 5-10 minutes trying to add expression/improve dynamics, etc. Then I work on one of the new songs trying to get all the notes in the right places. I want to get to the point where all six of these songs are in the "solid" category before I add new songs.
I use the last 5 minutes to practice train songs and such to gain better breath control and improved articulation.
To this point, I am largely self taught. The practice structure outlined above is working for me, but progress is slow. I think I can do better. Any advice from the board would be appreciated. I am looking into taking lessons via Skype in 2011. One of the things I want help with is to increase in my practice efficiency.
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Michael Rubin
41 posts
Dec 28, 2010
8:36 AM
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West Virginia Tom, I give skype lessons and have references. Even though my Meat and Potatoes Videos are theory oriented, my lessons are also about techniques and jamming.
I have a four month old baby and work at home, so when I have a minute off work I am in charge of the baby. Even still, I seem to be getting some practice in.
I am working on the modes of the jazz melodic minor scale and the half whole scale on diatonic in all 12 positions. I am learning songs on the harmonetta. I am taking lessons on mandolin and mostly my teacher will show me a song and within that song are the techniques I am learning. I also do some technique exercises not in the song.
Basically, when I have a moment to practice, I just practice one thing until the moment is over. I tend to split my instruments into an every other week thing, one week mando, one week harmonica and harmonetta.
I also find myself just jamming on the diatonic quite often.
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com
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Jim Rumbaugh
349 posts
Dec 28, 2010
9:40 AM
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Practice when Driving to and from work, pumping gas, sitting on a bench at Walmart while the wife shops, running erands on the weekend.
I play, 2 hours evey Tuesday at the Harmonica Club (of Huntington,wv), 1 hour Wednesday night at a friend's jam)
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intermediate level (+) player per the Adam Gussow Scale, Started playing 2001
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Diggsblues
661 posts
Dec 28, 2010
1:12 PM
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I have a series of exercises I use for warm ups.
I play them six keys going from low to high.
G,A,C,D,E and F harmonicas.Then I rotate other
material in and out as I feel.
That's just my Diatonic practice.
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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AV8R
86 posts
Dec 28, 2010
2:12 PM
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I typically practice with a Gussow Tradebit or YT lesson. Recently I have been jamming along with Jimi Lee's jam tracks (they're really good).
Sometimes I'll watch TV and just practice vibrato up and down the harp-this works!
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BronxHarp
35 posts
Dec 30, 2010
5:59 AM
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Thanks, all.
Another related question: How do easy/hard do you personally find it to try to copy licks from songs on CDS, etc.? Any particular way you go about that? For instance, in itunes it's easy to keep pausing and going back to keep hearing the lick. Any other ways you go about that? Do people use the Amazing Slow Downer that Adam often mentions?
Thanks again.
Jordan
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kudzurunner
2175 posts
Dec 30, 2010
6:07 AM
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I like Jim's suggestion about stealing time while you're going about your daily activities. Here are a couple of suggestions:
1) Carry a harp with you and, if possible, build a 10-15 minute walk into your day (lunch hour, commute, after work), one that takes you into a park or into some other zone where you can practice as you walk
2) If you're practicing at home, bring a timer into your woodshed. I do this a LOT. Set it for 30 minutes, or 15 minutes, or whatever you've got. A timer frees your mind from needing to worry about when the practice session is over, and knowing that it's there also lends focus to what you're doing. Even 15 minutes twice a day, BTW, if used conscientiously, can help you incrementally up your game. At minimum, it helps you maintain chop strength. There's no need to moan because your day doesn't let you practice for several hours on end. The point is to maximize what you DO have.
3) A great way to work on position playing, I've found, is to take a song you know in cross harp and translate it to first or third. "St. Louis Blues" works well for that.
4) Look in your lived world for potential woodsheds that have notably nice acoustics. I used to go to the very end of the NYC subway platforms. Tunnels in parks. (Central Park, Riverside Park, Inwood Hill Park, Van Cortlandt Park.) Rooms with lots of hard surfaces, especially wood floors and high ceilings. Stairwells.
5) Walk along rivers. You can play as long as you want as LOUDLY as you want if you're walking alongside a river, and nobody will think twice about it. Good practice in really cutting loose.
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harpdude61
584 posts
Dec 30, 2010
6:52 AM
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Lots of good tips here.
I try to avoid practicing at my computer desk too often. Seems like if I have an hour window to practice, I'll lose 1/3 of that time answering an e-mail, checking facebook, or getting caught up in harmonica forum chat...lol
I know there are lots of youtube vids etc. that are great to practice with and I do, bit if I'm going to practice scales, a technique, or a specific piece...I'm much better off if there are no other distractions in the wood shed.
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