"The day after"
Yes the day after LOAL 9,now:
I decided to spend 1 month in reharsaling the repertoire, here is the tarcklist, explaining the choises:
1) One 2nd position 16th bars chorus form song ballad: I like the song and its light feel.
2) One 2nd position medium tempo shuffle 12 bars chorus form song that contains some fast runnings.
3) My blues, basic slow blues in 2nd position.
4) Blues for big nate, slow blues in 2nd position that will be soon replaced with a more complex slow blues in 2nd position but that uses a F harp. It's a good challenge for to learn how to bend on high pitched instruments and how to control the air flow.
5) A 3rd posistion minor song, good for improvising in minor.
6) Rolling Rhumba V3: 3rd posistion good for the use uf octaves. I'm still practising Blowing my horn and it is going to replace Rollin Rhumba cause It gives more technical skills on the 3rd position fast licks and contains everything already mastered in the previus song.
7) The stretch, 1st position slow blues with some challenging blow bends.
8) Blowin the blues: 1st position with high end licks and blow bends.
9) A 5th position song with F harp, improves high pitched instruments control and allows to practice pentatonic scales.
10) The big one: Chromatic practising.
11) Quiet world, 2nd position solo harmonica song, for to practising in self accompaniment.
I'm practising the repertoire splitting it in two parts, I play ecah part (5-6 songs) every other day 2 times and after have played the song twice I improvise on the entire song once. Yes, I'm starting to jam on the streets and I want to improvise more than before. This process takes 1 hour per day.
12) I'm learning a new song, one fast country in 2nd position to improve fast speed.
I spend 30-40 minutes per day in learning the new material.
13) I have a set of pentatonic licks, blues licks, bluegrass ecc, 1 take one lick and I play it every day with the metronome for 5 minutes and I go to the next lick when I'm able to play the lick at fast speed. I don't mind about how many days it takes. I think this will improve the technique, I'm not planning to memeorize the lick but only to train my muscle memory. On this topic, I'm quite convinced that playing a lick over and over doesn't mean to use it later but it goes in your brain and gets transformed in something else that pops out when you improvise.
14) Blow bending and vibrato practising.
Until now, the learning process was led by the LOA program, now I need to schedule my time keeping in mind these goals:
1) Have a basic repertoire with different positions, harp pitches and groove type.
2) Practising to improve tone, speed and improvisation.
The challenge is how to balance the time usage.
Assuming I have 1 to 2 hours per day, have you got any idea and suggestion ?
Thanks.
You have all your bases covered there, it's a lot. A couple of things come to mind...
1) Make sure you're applying the Chorus Forms daily. At this point in your training 1/3 of your practice time should be taking a lick and placing it into the Chorus Form process... this is essential in developing great improvising skills.
2) Since you want to play out, it's a good idea to once a week play the songs you like the most that are jam-safe, and play them to a jam track. This way when you go out to play you have a list of songs that you can whip out, depending on the skill of the band and what's been played so far in the night.
You're at the point now that you need you need to play with others to grow... so jam sessions, and even better, a regular group of musicians/friends to play with, i.e., a band, is the way to go.
Don't obsess on covering everything on your list... it's very comprehensive, which is fine, but don't burden yourself too much... as long as you're playing and practicing, you're growing.