How many instrumentals should a guy know?
Sun, 12/30/2018 - 18:31
How many harmonica instrumentals should a player know, note for note? I realize that the answer depends on the player, and your current focus is teaching, but how many instrumentals do you know, note for note? How many instrumentals do you think a pro player should have memorized?
And how many instrumentals are you familiar with? To the point that, if a patron requested it, you could play maybe the head and a few of the choruses and improvise the rest?
The memorizing at first is more about developing your lick vocabulary (hugely important) and something that you can confidently play when getting up to perform (important if you like to perform). After about five years (for most players) the focus is not as important to learn an entire work... we tend to pick through the licks we like the most and leave the rest. A player should always be searching out cool material to add to their repertoire (this is how we grow as players). Me, personally, I could probably play thirty... not all note-for-note, but as you say... play the head, the first couple of choruses, and then improvise.