[Harp-L] In Defense of "the long road to understanding"( long post)

["sam blancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

After having read The Iceman's comments on my practice experiences I want to
comment on them.  Since his comments were somewhat condescending I want to
defend what I was doing.

The first thing to clear up is what my post was about.  The title of my post
was "practice and the mind"; not 'improvisation and the mind' or 'live
performance and the mind'.  Certainly, my goal is not to play "Low Down"
live, note-for-note.  I was talking about practice; wherein you make
mistakes and have problems because you're (hopefully) trying to do what you
presently cannot do.  I was also talking about 'mind', and the notion that
for me (and I wanted to know if this was true for others as well) there's
seem to be a period when not practicing where the thing that I'm practicing
seems to get 'burned' into place.

Now, to the meat of The Iceman's comments:  The first two larger paragraphs
begin with the phrase, "Instead of". 

"Instead of approaching music and solos from the inside, discovering where
inspiration and flow live," 

I wasn't trying to discover where my own inspiration and flow was living.  I
was trying to learn to play an extended instrumental where several ideas
were strung together in a very nice way that involved techniques I was
trying to master.  And yes, my execution was choppy and lacked a relaxed
flow - because my breath control was not very good.  But by learning this
song it got much better, and not just on this song; it got better
everywhere.  Breath control isn't just muscle control, it's also learning to
plan ahead and to think about what's coming next. To do that you sometimes
have to have to ideas set out for you so you have something follow that is
beyond what you might do on your own at your current level.  By learning
"Low Down" I did learn a lot about breath control, stamina, and working with
a lot of technique over an extended period.  

"Instead of learning by rote or memorization the flow of another, discover
how to express the flow that exists within yourself at whatever level you
play.  Granted, you won't be executing ideas as advanced or sophisticated as
Kim Wilson" 

Yep, that's right.  When I was a 5th grade teacher one of the things I tried
to get students to do was plenty of reading at their level, even if their
level was third grade.  Because I knew that this builds strength and
confidence.  But I also knew challenges had to be introduced into this mix
or very little progress would me made. 

At any point in my history of playing harmonica there has always been my
level and the level or several levels I wanted to get to (all of which flows
from trying my best to be a careful listener but that's entirely another
discussion).  If I just played at my own level, using only my own ideas I
know I tend to follow the path of least resistance.  Maybe that's not true
for others but it is true for me.  I'm defiantly not Kim Wilson but neither
am I some dolt out here in Pittsburgh just mechanically memorizing other
peoples playing by rote.   

You use the phrase 'rote memorization' like this is some inferior thing.
You are just wrong about this.  There is this mindset out there that says
that the imitation of really great harp players as some kind of low road,
or, as you call it, the "long Road".  If this it true than Kim Wilson, Gerry
Portnoy, Mark Hummel, and a score of other blues harp greats are guilty of
this low road.  Because they all did exactly what I was dong in my practice
and they told me so first hand.  Actually, Hummel told me he studied and
imitated SB I and II and LW and George Smith.  Those were the guys out there
when he was coming up into his own.       

Look, blues harmonica is a language.  And there are established ways to
learn languages.  If you want to learn Italian, you don't get an Italian
dictionary and a set of instructions on the syntax and grammar of Italian
and start constructing sentences that express your thoughts.  You learn
whole sentences like 'Where is the train station?' or 'Does this restaurant
serve fish?', or 'That was a very interesting film, don't you think?'  The
grammar and syntax are learned both formally and discretely but also in
practice.  You PRACTICE Italian by speaking canned sentences and phrases so
that you eventually SPEAK Italian by reshaping the canned stuff into ideas
that meet your own ends. For me, Kim Wilson's "Low Down" is a long,
complicated, canned sentence in the blues language.  Since I didn't
construct it my self, how could it be anything else? 

"Alternately, a shorter path may be found in discovering one's own flow and
level of idea. If you are true to where you exist in your abilities, even a
simple idea or sustained note will make Kim Wilson come up to you, shake
your hand and tell you that he was moved by your performance."

This isn't a shorter path, this is an incomplete path.  You are talking
about playing original, improvised material and there is certainly a time
and a place for setting aside the canned sentences and trying to find some
place inside yourself from which to speak your own truth.  But even Gerry
Portnoy told me he thought it was next to impossible to create new blues
material on harmonica "whole cloth", as he put it.

"If you are true to where you exist in your abilities" - what does that
mean?  I was writing about practicing harmonica not improvising or
performing. What I was doing in 2002 with a Kim Wilson song helped me a lot.
It made me a much stronger player.  Ah, but you might say it didn't make me
a more original player or a player who's more comfortable in his own flow
and level of idea.  Well for me that is EXACTLY what it did.  Learning that
song, and dozens of others like it, helped me lay a strong foundation so
that I could express my own ideas. 

I obviously have way too much time on my hands today.  

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh