starting from the beginning
Hello David,
First, many thanks for the fantastic resource that you've created in Bluesharmonica.com.
Secondly, I just wanted to share a method I've used over the years to get back into playing an instrument that I've not picked up for a while and that could be applied to finding a way around your site and see what you think. I think you touch on this in your introductory lessons, but I think it's worth exploring. Apologies if I'm repeating what has already been discussed many times.
When I return to an instrument that I've not played for a while, I tend to start from the beginning and work back to a natural progress point. So for example, if I'm picking up the bass after say a year's break then I'll work through a number of tuition books or videos or whatever from beginner level onwards and see where I get to before I begin to create particuar study sessions for myself. So with the bass I'll start with a beginner book (or several) and it will almost certainly be root, octave, fifth, or some variation thereon. for the first few pages. But I won't be spending two months on these pages, more like ten minutes. And so on. So what might have taken two years to learn initially might take three or four study sessions to bring back to the fore. I will be on advanced material very quickly but I will also have reminded myself of elements I might have forgotten and if any element takes longer than I thought, well, then, by definition, it required further attention. By the end of the process, I will be confident that I'm in good shape to move forward on the instrument. Basically, it's like taking an inventory of where I am on the instrument after a break.
Why am I saying this? Well, I've noticed that a few students appear to be pitching in at a fairly advanced level on the site and then wondering why fairly basic things don't make sense. I would suggest that a better approach is to start from the beginning (Welcome video, fundamentals and Level 1) and work through to where the student imagines they are in their blues harmonica playing. This way the student avoids spending a lot of time going round in circles trying to work out something that was explained in Level 1 or Level 2, etc. and gets a review of what they already know from your perspective (which can itself be enlightening and can help with getting the feel of your teaching method). This can also be done fairly quickly, and, again, if anything comes up that demands more time than expected then that was, again by definition, a gap in the student's understanding of blues harmonica and deserves more attention. And, all being well, at the end of the exercise the student will have found a starting place from which they can move forward with confidence.
Does that make sense? And is there anything you would say against this approach or to add to it?
Peter
Hi David,
Many thanks for your kind response. Yes, it's obvious now you say it, that you've built this approach into your LOA programme.
At the risk of metaphorically grabbing the mic, I will just say a couple more things in favour of this approach.
The first is that there may well be areas that were skated over when you (the musician) first leant the harmonica or other instrument (in your rush to play with that band or join that jam session) that you now can see a real value in spending time on. Perhaps, for example, you didn't really get to grips with that tremelo or vibrato, but working again through the material has drawn your attention to this. These elements can be circled, returned to and developed.
Furthermore, in one sense it may be considered a matter of covering old ground when old material (of whatever level) is revisited, but you as a musician will almost certainly have changed and you may well find real nuggets, for example, in things you previously pigeon-holed as, for example, "beginner-level" stuff. You may, for example, have been mainly focused on the mechanics of playing the whole step bend on draw two, but now you can focus on exactly how it sounds over each chord of the blues progression and take time to absorb the way in which it colours the music playing on the backing track (with different dynamics, etc.) and so on. Once again, these elements can be circled and returned to in further studies. I've found when I've worked through this inventory process, that I tend to listen more - to what I'm doing and to how it interacts with the backing track and so on - than on previous explorations when I may have been more preoccupied with getting the mechanics right. In fact, I do inventory studies periodically even when I haven't been away from an instrument.
And, as they say in martial arts, in the end even for the masters the fundamentals are key.
Again, I would very much like to hear your comments on this.
Peter
All good point Peter, I totally agree.
Thank you Peter, I'm glad that you're enjoying the site.
Great tip... this is the way I have done it as well. This is also why I require everyone that's doing LOA to start from the beginning (students miss details along the way in their self-training).
Thank you again for sharing... I will share this viewpoint more often with students that come to the site not as beginners.