Practice
Posted Sun, 01/24/2010 - 17:47 by Ron Wikstrom
Do you recall what you incorporated into your daily practice routine the first few years of playing?
Also, was it one year, two years, three years, or etc. that you really started feeling comfortable improvising and playing in front of large groups of people?
Lastly, is the time it takes to master a new song (i.e Creeper, Juke, and etc.) greatly reduced compared to your earlier days (i.e. instead of 2 months on average, maybe a week)?
Comments
practice
I mainly worked on single notes & bending first-simple songs first like Room To Move by Mayall. Then I learned TB & Octives & started working on things like Big Walter's Boogie with it's tongue slaps. I was learning first position on John Brim's Ice Cream Man but didn't know it was 1st at the time-I think I even leaned it on on a B harp instead of an A-record players sped up back then. I remember working real hard on the Sonny Boy 2 lick that everyone does. Jr. Parker was another early guy I tried to copy cause he seemed like he wasn't as complex as Walter. Another was Buster Brown that did Fanny Mae. I could grasp that. You don't want to bite off more than you can chew. I didn't master Creeper till I had found out about TB bending-it was one of the major reasons I wanted to lean that technique was to play that song! That was about 4 or 5 years of playing harp.
I didn't start improvising for quite awhile ,like 6-7 years. I would play solos I'd learned off of records & make them fit whatever song I was doing. Or it was very simple improvising-molodically easy. Learning off records gave me an arsenal of licks & helped my technique immensily-having to lip,TB,bend & TB bend-when I heard something I always tried to copy it. I went thru a slew of players doing this-starting with Jack Bruce of Cream(I remember telling my mom"If I get that good,watch out!") thru to Little Walter. You must put the time in-I'd say that's the key. Juke could not be learned in a week,I don't think because of it's complexity,phrasing,technique-maybe a rough variation but not a accurate repo?
Thank you
Thank you Mark for your frank insight.
I have only been playing 18 months (about 2 hours everyday), so clearly I still have a lot of work ahead of me (albeit fun "work"). I truly thought there was something wrong with me that I could not belt out an unrehearsed solo even though I know all the blues scale notes. You have put my mind at ease and now I can just enjoy the journey for now.
As a side note, I have been a David Barret student by means of his series of Books and CD's and really have pretty much only known TB, TB Bending, and Octaves, Pulls, Pull Slaps, and etc.......Therefore, based on your comments, I feel fortunate that it is more of an issue of time to mature my tone, speed, and technique. It seems to come back to David's comment of listen, copy, and then try to use.
Thanks again, and I am sure I will have questions for you in the future as your time permits to answer!
sure thing!
sure thing!
PRACTICE
i too am kind of lost what to practice this site is great for doing that i mean i have been playing for about a year and a half took some online lessons with richard sleigh focusing strictly on the train rythems and foxchase stuff and the ocassional melody started some scale exercises then our time never worked together so went and sat with jason ricci for a day and got somethig towards the blues going then went to a guy here in town were i live that studied under joe filisko for lesson had to have a shoulder redone and feel like i have gotten nowere thats why im lost in what to learn other peoples songs play scales learn licks what is the best approach cause mine seeems backwards
playing along with cds?
Do you ever play along with cds? Start with something really simple-Bob Dylan ,if neccessary,then move on to Jimmy Reed or Jr. Parker,then the two Sonny Boys or Sonny Terry. Don't start with Little Walter if you're expecting to play like him. The point is try to learn parts of song solos or intros or anything you can develop your ear on & trying to sound like the records,make sense? This is how most of us players my age learned to play. Hope this helps-it's about hearing what's being played & you'll pick it up by ear believe it or not!
am I right?
Mark,
I just read the posts about practice and I know what the guys are dealing with. I have been playing for about 5 years and have days when i don't think I have learned anything in those 5 years and other days when I think I get something. It seems that part of it is that initially I think everyone believes it is going to be a lot easier than it actually is - disappointment comes quickly. Next i think we want to play just like XYZ - disappointment comes quickly. We hear certain tones and want to capture them - disapppointment comes quickly.
While all of this happens we are still learning more than we realize - look both ahead and back. Tell me if I am wrong here, but a lot of us have a tendency to move on when we can't get a technique or learn a part of a lesson that occurs in a logical order. I have done this many times and I have told myself that I am not going to do this with David's lesson plans because his very personal involvement insures that you will get it eventually. I still struggle with what seems to be the most elementary things at times, but I am guessing that this happens with lots of players who are much more advanced than most of us taking this course.
I know of a couple things I
I know of a couple things I just couldn't seem to get-like the side to side tongue flutter -I practiced & practiced for months & never got it past a certain speed. So there are a few things that may be genetically challenging to some of us? But all in all practiced & drive are what it's all about & just barrell on thru till it becomes second nature & it didn't seem like the big deal it did at first!