Re: [Harp-L] Practice Makes Better -- Part 6

[Elizabeth Hess <TrackHarpL@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, William,

Well, there are regimens, and there are strategies and tricks.  On the regimen front, by which I mean WHAT I practice, I have it easy, because I take lessons (from Michael Rubin), so I give myself permission to neglect  *everything*  except what's asked of me for the coming lesson.  Deciding what I should practice in a given week is part of I pay him for.  More than anything, this has helped me get past the paralysis of feeling overwhelmed.  And I like him enough that the anti-authority problem is more often against myself than him.  (Hi, Michael!)  If I want to practice other things, then I do, but this is the core of my work for now.

If one doesn't take lessons, then I hark back to something Jimi Lee said at one of Jon Gindick's jam camps:  "Learn to do a few things well."  Again, this is a way of managing the enormity of it all.  When you have enjoyed the satisfaction of doing a few things well, maybe you'll get hungry to learn to do another thing well, and that means being game enough to do it badly, at first.  Being able to do some things well makes that particular pill go down more easily.  If working hard is daunting, give yourself permission to work gently.  Take a new technique or song on a "shake down cruise", just to get acquainted, and don't worry if you don't master it (whatever "it" is) right away.  With time and repetition, you will improve.

On the strategies and tricks front, the single thing that has made the biggest difference to me lately was to make a habit of "suiting up and showing up" near the beginning of the day rather than at the end.  Work expands to fill the time allotted, and if I wait until I've dispatched those things I must do, then there barely seems to be any time left to practice -- it's bedtime already, and I'm "too tired."  Somewhere along the line I realized that the obligations would still be there after a practice session was complete.  Variations on this mind set are "Put first things first," and/or "Eat dessert first:  Life is uncertain."  And, "If you had started practicing when you first started thinking about practicing, you would be done by now."

I hope you find some of this to be helpful.
Regards,
Elizabeth H. (aka "Tin Lizzie")


On Oct 1, 2012, at 9:11 PM, William Madel wrote:

> Elizabeth, great post! I'm curious to know if you have any specific practice regiments that you have found to be particularly beneficial?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------Original Message------
> From: Elizabeth Hess
> Sender: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Practice Makes Better -- Part 6
> Sent: Oct 1, 2012 9:02 PM
> 
> NO!!   I WON'T DO IT!!!
> 
> On Oct 1, 2012, at 8:59 PM, Michael Rubin wrote:
> 
>> Drop and give me twenty.
>> Michael Rubin
>> Michaelrubinharmonica.com
> 
> 
> 
> -WM
> 
> 
> Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®