David's Tip of the Day: Frames of Mind - Part 2 (Practice)

Our quote from yesterday was, "Practice with the eager intensity of a new student and perform with the complete confidence of a seasoned pro."

Let's address the first part of the quote...

New students are intense... all they want to do is play the harmonica... every chance they can get. Staying in this "this is a new and exciting activity" is the challenge of keeping your practice fresh and rewarding.

I personally like working on areas of my game that are weak. "Find it, fix it," as my martial arts instructor often states. If it's a style or technique not familiar to me, I go to the well of artists that have done an excellent job in that area to get ideas... sometimes transcribing and learning their songs before doing my own thing if I don't feel I have a foundation to work from.

The second time I went through all of Little Walter's music again, I had a very specific goal... I wanted to be able to play rhythmically on the 2 draw like he did so well. Early on in my studies I would pass over this playing, thinking to myself that he we was just playing repetitive stuff on the low end of the harp... easy. No, not easy. I would go to the bottom of the harp and I couldn't come close to how swingin' Walter could play it. I would be playing at a gig and go to the low end of the harp and say to myself, "I'm going to swing like Walter," and it didn't happen... because I didn't study Walter. So, I transcribed a number of his songs that had this element in it ("Rocker" is a great example) and spent many months dialing in this part of my playing. It worked. I can now swing the hell out of the 2 draw!

Working on these areas get me excited... I KNOW I'LL BE ABLE TO DO IT... I just don't know when, but I don't care, because I WILL BE ABLE TO DO IT... so I just get to work, not focusing on the when. This is a very important part of practice. Practice is process oriented, not product. The product comes as a result of the process