[Harp-L] Deconstructing/Reconstructing

["Mox Gowland" <mox1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

mjmeadors@xxxxxxx said (with lots of snips):
<After many years of playing harp, in and out of bands, I finally got to the point where I was boring myself nightly....
So I quit. It's now about 6 years later and I've picked up ....
I always justified puckering instead of blocking .... 
...all over again, but this time with tongue blocking ....   
Its so very hard to stop falling back into old patterns because the muscle memory is still there....>
 
They say that a change is as good as a rest.. well you've had the rest! 

I had a similar experience to Scooter <pucker for my first 8 to 10 years> though  mine was more like the first 20.. 

<there's no reason to abandon the pucker embouchure,  just let everything you learn flow together naturally (Scooter )>..
I agree entirely 

<changing my orientation to the harmonica every 9 - 12 months or so (The Iceman) >

My biggest step was to change repertoire..

>From country blues to early Chicago then on to middle/mainstream jazz , hard-bop & even Irish, Bluegrass & Reggae, learning to play with musicians with other cultural backgrounds forced me to change from  <old patterns >, to develop other techniques and even 'attitude'  towards playing.
For example, after having worked on T.B. octaves*, sixth's & tenth's to play R&B horn style, 
I realized that the same approach could be applied to backing banjo players, prior to this I would probably have broken my neck just trying to keep up with them.

<Did any of you try to change but realize that old  habits never go away, or have you made the change and never looked back? (mjmeadors)>

In my personnel experience the learning process has became cyclic. I keep going back to the 'beginning' & start all over again, hopefully, one step higher. 

And the "thrill" ?
Yes it does come back  - 

Mox

*P.S. Does anyone have advice on T.B. octave bending ?
i.e. whilst holding a 6 draw with the right hand corner of the mouth, bending the 3 draw down a tone to get the octave - same thing with 5 draw & 2 draw down a tone.

Thanks in advance