[Harp-L] Re: Practice (Bored with Blues)

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Steve Power" wrote:
<...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."
...
<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?

I've done practicing both ways.  It's easy to find multiple opportunities per day to play the harp if you carry one with you wherever you go.  I find that it's very convenient for learning new tunings, and I make a point of changing the harp I carry around to a different tuning (and perhaps key, so I can experience the high and low ends of the frequency spectrum) every month or so.  But carrying a harp everywhere is the main thing, because brief opportunities to play appear throughout the day, and if you have a harp you can take advantage of those opportunities.

When I was practicing the pieces that were planned for my first CD, "The Act of Being Free in One Act," I practiced for 1-2 hours every day. I recorded every practice session, and I listened to the entire recording before the next practice session.  That was a very effective approach for me, and it led directly to the composition of my piece "Rock Harp," which emerged from a pattern I was playing for technically-oriented practice on a natural minor harp.  When I heard the recording of that practice session, I heard a very straight rhythmic pattern shift slightly and become something much more interesting.  Wouldn't have remembered it if I hadn't recorded it.

However you practice, I do reocommend recording yourself.  Even a lo-fi recording on a cassette can tell you a lot.  

Regards, Richard Hunter