Re: [Harp-L] Practice Makes Better -- Parts 1 & 2

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

 Biggest drawback to self imposed practice regimen...setting personal bar too high.

I've approached this issue from "underneath" with students....

(this has been posted before on the "L")

5 min/day is all you need....

Question "Is 5 min/day too much to ask of myself in regards to practice?"
Answer "No"

So, we establish a doable....5 min/day

Simple. Easy. (Maybe too easy)

So, we put a few conditions on it...

1. It must be EVERY DAY (no skipping one day and making up by doing 10 min the next day)

 2. It must be THE SAME TIME EVERY DAY (no 5 min in the morning one day, then 5 at night the next)
3. It must be in some "dedicated safe place" where you are alone and guaranteed not to be disturbed (turn off cell phone, no significant other knocking on the door during the 5 minutes, no "car practice while driving").
4. You spend the whole 5 minutes on one aspect of your practice....(long tones, blues scale only, bending 3 hole inhale)

Still too much to ask of yourself?
If the answer is "No", then you proceed.

Set timer for 5 minutes, shut off cell phone, tell significant other you are not to be disturbed, go to your safe place, close door (if there is one), pick up harmonica, start timer and practice your one aspect.

DING...timer goes off, your homework is done, now you can go outside and play with your friends.

However, if, for some reason, you wish to continue practicing, this is called EXTRA CREDIT.

Try this for 2 weeks. See what happens....

(HINT - more happens than meets the eye on a few different internal levels - you set in motion a sense of personal ritual, dedication and respect for this 5 minutes that starts to affect you in a - dare I say it - personal sacred way).

This works. I've taught this for years to personal one on one students as well as classes as large as 25 (at Augusta Heritage Center Blues Week). Of course, only about 5 - 10 % of the students actually commit to it for two weeks (90% pooh pooh it without attempting it or feel it's silly after 3 days).

However, the feedback from that 5 - 10% is VERY INTERESTING.....it changes something in them - a change for the better in regards how they approach their instrument and their personal attachment to the outcome.

5 - 10 minutes of "SACRED FOCUSED PRACTICE" beats the hell out of 1 hour of all over the map practice (running scales for 20 minutes, 10 minutes working on that 10 hole blow bend, 15 minutes on the first 4 bars of JUKE, and 15 minutes of chugging train sounds, for example).

Not everyone will get this. Many shoot it down in theory without giving it the 100% two week commitment. Many just don't like the sound of this approach.

However, the ones that do "get it" are amazed at the results.

HINT - that "Extra Credit" time might just start to expand every day, and before you realize it, you are into it for 1 - 2 hours/day easy without numbing your mind (of course, when you expand into extra credit, you don't have to just commit to one aspect, but slowly add another aspect and another and another and....).

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth Hess <TrackHarpL@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, Sep 27, 2012 7:20 pm
Subject: [Harp-L] Practice Makes Better -- Parts 1 & 2


A friend that I met at the 2012 SPAH convention attended Jon Gindick's seminar 
called "Beginning and Intermediate Troubleshooting".  He told me that the one 
thing that came up repeatedly was that people said they didn't practice enough.  
"In fact," he said, "It was almost like a 12-step meeting for people who don't 
practice:  'Hi, my name is Liz, and I don't practice,' 'Hi, my name is Beth, and 
I don't practice...'"

I have heard of people who practice hours per day.  I tried to work myself up to 
that amount and almost burned out before scaling back and finding an amount of 
practice that is right for me (at present).  And I always wonder how those 
people  *structure*  hours of practice per day in a way that is productive 
rather than mind numbing.