Re: [Harp-L] FEELING THE GROOVE and reflecting it physically

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ron wrote:

> Great post, Ken, as was your recent post on learning thru 
> competitiveness.  Now, I suggest you enlighten us as to how you use a 
> metronome when practicing.

Thanks for the kind words, Ron.

These days I use the metronome to warm up more than anything else, and to 
give myself the sense that I'm improving my time.  I use an electronic 
metronome - or I load a metronome program on my PC.  I don't find that they 
work as well, they can lose fractions of time here and there.  Very 
bad.  But sometimes it's the most convenient thing for me.

I like to start way fast.  210 or more.  I just use blues ideas.  I have a 
few heads.  Then I'll do some slower stuff, though not much slower.  Then 
I'll start to slow down.

I love to practice some of the tunes from Irish Fiddle Tunes for 
Harmonica.  I'll play them with and without the metronome.  Those tunes are 
great practice for blues players because they take you on pathways you are 
not used to using - it's a stretch.

Further, if you learn some tunes and practice them daily your whole sense 
of phrasing and dynamics improves, sometimes markedly.  I will accidentally 
play a phrase softer or louder than usual and then try to get back to 
'normal' and sometimes it's meaningless, but sometimes it's a meaningful 
difference, and you learn something serious thereby.

Sometimes I play them with metronome, sometimes without.

I then speed up again, incrementally.  I feel like my time is very solid at 
this point, but I always suspect there is something yet to learn, and that 
is one of the secrets of constantly growing and improving.  That is, when 
you feel like you can't imagine what more you can learn about an aspect of 
music always remember that there's ALWAYS more to learn, and just keep digging.

After metronome I play a few tunes along with Steve Baker's backup tracks, 
which swing like crazy and make me feel good.  I just improvise my way 
through them.  I'm always working on new ideas for improvising 
creatively.  I'll post about that at some point, I guess.

This routine is even more important before a gig for the following reason: 
The Audience Is Not Paying To Hear You Warm Up.  (Neither is the producer, 
nor the client, if you're in the studio.)

By the way, if you're interested in hearing my music, head over to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHawxwgJaeQ

Some harp shows up 3/4 of the way through.  Since I am not terribly fond of 
playing harp on a rack, I solved the problem of playing harp in a guitar 
song in a sort of novel way.  Perspicacious ears will also hear an extra 
beat somewhere during the scat section.  I liked the take otherwise, so I 
left it in.

K