Re-Starting from the Beginning
For a really interesting dialog about going back to the beginning when returning to harmonica, or any instrument, check out the dialog between David and Peter A in the "Ask Instructor David Barrett" forum thread, https://www.bluesharmonica.com/starting_beginning
This is a concept not only for music, but for any endeavor. E.g., back in my more competitive running days, after any layoff due to injury or other cause I never just "picked up where I left off," but always backed up to slower, shorter runs, to effectively get back up to peak level.
It's a concept that works for all sorts of pursuits.
How about others' experiences?
Hi UkuleleRob65 and Winslow,
Just ventured into the general discussion area and have seen these posts. Thanks for the reference, by the way.
My more specific point in mentioning the starting (re-starting, as you correctly point out - just realised you might have meant regarding starting from the beginning, but hey, either way works (-: ) from the beginning approach was to suggest that it was a good thing to do periodically within a learning process regardless of whether you've spent time away from the instrument and in particular when venturing into a new series of lessons such as those here on BluesHarmonica.com. So I completely agree with each of the posts in this thread.
I will add that I have always found when picking up an instrument again that the re-starting from the beginning approach has invariably taken less time to get me back to where I was (or at least where I perceived I had previously got to!) than I'd anticipated, so as well as helping to regain confidence and find a solid starting point for further study/practice it's always been a very efficient method of restarting for me personally. I've just applied it to solo fingerstyle guitar and in just a few weeks I've got back to where I left off a couple of years ago in terms of complexity of pieces - and that's while spending most of my study/practice time on blues harmonica!
Also, as you point out Rob, I believe it is a study/practice method that can be applied to most learning situations and I like your comment about applying it to competitive sports - very interesting.
Peter
Even if you haven't had a layoff, re-visiting what you worked on earlier, with your present (and improved) skillset can offer illumination and can actually improve your playing.