[Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 141, Issue 16

["Steve Power" <stevepower@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Practice (Bored with Blues)

To relate two stories each illustrating a point:

Pino Palladino, one of the best bass players who ever lived, currently with 
The Who, was brought up in an Italian family in Wales who ran a restaurant. 
At the age of 16, school leaving age in the UK, he told his mother he wanted 
to quit school and become a professional bass player.  After some discussion 
his mother eventually said, "Fine. If that is the job you want but I expect 
you to work at it 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week because that will be your 
job.  If I catch you out, you can come work in the restaurant."  The rest as 
they say is history.

Having told that, the best advice on practising I ever hear reputedly was 
said by Merle Travis in regards to guitar. "The question to ask yourself is 
not how many hours you practiced playing the guitar but when was the last 
time you picked it up."

I loved that when I heard it and always stuck with me.  Playing any 
instrument is about muscle memory. If it becomes something you do because 
that's what you do, like breathing, it becomes part of you as opposed "Well, 
I'll do this for an hour or two hours today and then go do something else 
but look,man, I practice every day."

Certainly blocks of x amount of time are required to learn a riff or a whole 
piece of music or whatever but beyond that if you pick up the instument for 
only 2 or 3 minutes but it happens multiple times a day every day, what do 
you think will happen?