How do YOU stay focused?
Hey Guys,
I was wondering how this up-and-coming generation of harp players keeps their focus on different aspects of playing and learning. I feel like I'm a part of the first generation who has begun learning solely based off information found across the internet via articles, YouTube, and sites such as this (THANK YOU David!). Some of the problems I have is there's almost TOO much information to digest . I read David's tip of the day regarding "knowledge" and that's what sparked this post. How does everyone process and organize all the information that's available? I definitely have HADD (harmonica attention deficit disorder) and I just jump around at every new thing I hear about and by the time I get back to working on one of the "earlier discoveries" - often from months ago, I feel like I've only made an incremental step forward.
So, how do you stay focused with learning and developing your harp skills with all the available knowledge we have today?
-Brian
It takes time. There's a study that was done about becoming an expert. They figured it takes about 10,000 hours to become a world class expert in any field. That's about 3 hours a day for 10 years. Of course they were using violin virtuosos. One thing you have to consider is the meteoric rise in the curve. I think we could be happy with the level of playing skill after 5 years of intense study. Aki Kumar is a good example. Although Aki, as I understand it, had some music background before he started playing the harp.
Hello Hank, Great way to stay focused.... I like your answer and will try and remember it.
I also have this problem of wandering all over the place... which I need to control. :(
on how much time you are putting in i reckon...if i only have a little time to put to it i definitely do better to stick to the plan and cut the extraneous stuff...
you gotta attend to the progression and keep building on the skills ..i think if you work on the lessons here in the order David suggests, you will definitely progress...and if you want to check out other stuff, learn other songs, etc thats all cool too, but not at the expense of your core study...
i dunno if this (bluesharmonic.com) is the optimal way to learn, but its pretty good and it does work. i mean maybe private lessons with a skilled tutor would be better..but in lieu of that this is the best i have found...
anyway, thats working for me: i'm gigging with a rock band, playing a bunch of material which is very different to any of the material here, but the skills developed in these lessons definitely transfer.
Oh yeah - exactly what I felt when I started - especially here! So much to learn and so little time. The biggest thing I found to help this is to really follow David's recommendation and only work on 2 studies at one time. I find it hard to limit myself. At first I'd be trying to work on 4 or 5 things at once. I have cut out all the YouTube instructional videos and strictly follow David's progressions.
I always leave myself room to jam with backing tracks but now, I try to go for a theme in my jamming - like I'll work on a particular chorus form (eg AAB) for a full song or I'll focus on dynamics (my current focus) and try to work on something like warbles or note bleeds for a full song. or I'll take one of the licks out of a song and just play it in the right chord place all the way through. This helps me feel I am getting somewhere because the last few chorusses will sound like I know what I'm doing (hah)..
I really have to force myself to ignore all the other stuff out there (really hard to do) but as I feel I'm progressing, it's giving me confidence to stick to the one instructional source. Now I do have to admit when it comes to gear, I do stray ;-) But for me it has been the development of the confidence that I am progressing by not running all over the place trying to find the silver bullet.
Good luck - its a tough one when you are as anxious as it sounds like you are (me too) and want it all at once. Hang in there!!