[Harp-L] I'm stuck! Where to go from here?

[Jim McBride <jpmcbride@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm an intermediate level harp player and am looking for advice from the more advanced players here on Harp-l. I'm at a place in my playing where I feel stuck and am not sure what to do to progress. As I said, I'm an intermediate player. I'm comfortable playing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd position. I have pretty good tone with a decent vibrato. I'm OK with my bends but still struggle with isolating the individual bends on the 3 draw. My blow bends are a not so clean. I play in a band (very much an amateur situation - local coffee shops and restaurants). I can play OK when I have time to develop and rehearse my part, but I'm not so comfortable improvising. I find myself playing the same riffs over and over again. Very boring.
 
So my question is how to approach practicing/learning/advancing at this point? I play a lot but its very unfocused if you know what I mean. For someone at my level of playing, what do you think is the best approach to getting going. Some ideas ....
(1) Playing scales and exercises
(2) Bending exercises
(3) Practice jamming with jam tracks
(4) Pick a favorite harp player (mine is SBW-2) and seriously study his playing.
 
I'm motivated to improve my playing but just don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I've been playing 2.5 years now and I've made steady progress/improvement constantly until now. Any help in this would be greatly appreciated. I suppose this is something that all musicians go through. You reach a plateau in your ability and have to do something different to get to the next level. I'm hoping that some of you that have been here and moved past it can share your experience and lend some advice.
 
Thanks,
 
Jim McBride
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


		
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