RE: [Harp-L] Re: practice

[robert mcgraw <harpbob@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bonfiglio posted a practice plan several years ago, based on four hours a day; this should be in the archives...if you can't practice four hours, you modify accordingly. I try to practice 2 hours a day; here's my schedule:
Chromatic
--10 minutes warmup on longtones, working on tone
--30 minutes playing various scales/arpeggios; these days I focus only on new scales, like half-diminished, for example
--30 minutes on learning new material, new tunes I mean. Here is where i work on reading as well as learning new tunes  
--30 minutes improvising. I use the Jamey Aebersold play-alongs
Diatonic
---20 minutes just jamming along with blues CDs...just for fun. I've been playing diatonic for a long time, and while I'm certainnly NOT a great diatonic player, I'm relatively satisfied with my skill level on the diatonic, so most of my focus [obviously] is on chromatic. The 20 mintues of diatonic serves to keep my chops OK on that instrument.
 
Also, I think having a teacher is very important if possible. A jazz trumpet player has been helping me some recently...and I've taken lessons on both the diatonic and chromatic. A teacher can save you YEARS, let me assure you. Practicing is crucial, but if you spend your time practicing the wrong things...well, I won't say the time was wasted, but it certainly could have been more profitably spent. Hope this helps!
WVa Bob
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