Teaching the harmonica - LOA program
I completed level 7 of the LOA program in January of 2019. Some things came up, including COVID and never got back to the LOA program. However I still am suscribing and enjoying learning new songs. After I completed one of the levels you suggested that perhaps I could take lessons on teaching the harmonica. If that is still the case, I think I may be interested. Also, I have tried to get going again on the LOA program, but have struggled with the accompaniment and improvising lessons. Any thoughts on jumpstarting the LOA program in those two areas again? Thanks
Roger:
Sort of unspoken by David is this: It NEVER hurts (and can be quite profitable) to go back to the beginning. Not only from playing various instruments, but also to a much earlier life as a competitive cyclist and distance runner, when I had (or have) a long break from something, I always start up from an almost-beginning perspective. For one thing, having learned and gotten fairly good at something before, the re-learning goes really quickly, and feels good. And there's always something "back there" that I sort of missed, and it's really a bonus to sort of learn it for the first time.
As a harmonica example: In 2023 I attended Harmonica Northwest in Oregon. Joe Filisko led some workshops where we went back to very basic breathing exercises. This with a group of experienced players. For the first few minutes my own brain was thinking, "Why are we going through at "beginners" lesson here?" But it didn't take long to realize that what Joe was doing was re-teaching us very important fundamentals.
Also from time to time I'll go back through and re-do David's LOA lessons and study songs. There's always something that I missed the first time around.
So if you haven't run a marathon for a while, just going out and paying attention to posture, gait and breathing while easily walking a few blocks can actually help you "build better" the foundation that leads to faster running. Music is no different.
"Re-Enjoy"!
Hello Roger.
I'll send you an email offline in regards to the teaching.
For Improvising and Accompaniment, I suggest you start with the first lessons, and then go through the entire series. This will be a great review, reinforce the important stuff, and may break the issues you're experiencing.