[Harp-L] RE: Making Connections

["Jeff Steckley" <jb.steckley@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark,

I don't understand why you'd be in a slump so soon after Jam Camp in New
Jersey. I feel I got enough direction from that one weekend to keep me busy
for a long time. I think Jon's a genius at helping people find that
direction they are looking for.

Remember that one class where Alan Holmes talked about arpeggio's ? Well, if
you take that info and combine it with the handout Dennis Gruenling gave us
on Degrees of Scales, there should be enough stuff there to keep you going
for a long time. It should help you see harmonica playing in a whole new
light that will project you forward in leaps and bounds. It's really
inspired me to learn more about music theory and position playing. To me, it
really beats trying to remember riffs and licks for now. It helps me with
improvising and coming up my own riffs. I'm starting to feel more and more
confident about where I am and where to go next as I'm improvising. It's
awesome. E-mail me privately if you want to know more about what I've been
doing with it.

For anyone else in a slump, consider Jon's Jam Camp. I think his next camp
is in Anehiem and I believe Alan and Dennis will be at that one as well. To
find more go to http://www.gindick.com and click on the harmonica jam camp
link.


Jeff


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Message: 5
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 22:10:46 -0700
From: "Mark Wilson" <markwilson53@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Making connections
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <19b001c49306$b39e7650$6501a8c0@markrdk0fk4qu1>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

I've had a few experiences where I've looked at and adopted something fairly
basic and simple, that has completely revolutionized my harmonica playing.
I guess you'd call those experiences quantum leaps.  This seems really basic
now, but it took me more than 6 months to figure out that playing the root
notes that fit with the I V  IV chords sounds really good, all the time,
even if you can't do much of anything else. Of course, I'd come across this
info numerous times early on,  but for some reason it took 6 months for it
to stick.  Another biggie was the play softly with resonance, achieve big
tone, don't blow too hard, feel the music in your head thing that took me
almost 3 years to get, (even though I'd heard it a million times).  It's a
miracle, but now I can make a Special 20 last for more than 6 months.  In
the past I'd blow one out in a weekend.

 Here's what's getting me now.  I spent about an hour recording myself
tonight playing 3rd position over a major I IV V.  With annoying regularity,
I went up the the 8 draw on the one chord and worked myself down to the 1
draw. When I went back and listened the recordings, I thought to myself,  if
I've played that lick once, I've played it five hundred and eighty seven
billion, gazillion times!  OUCH!


This is my biggest problem right now.  If you can't tell already, I'm in
major slump mode, and have been there for almost 2 months.  I'm looking for
something to snap me out of it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Mark