Practice advice Please
David Gday
I enjoyed your lesson on “How to Practice” in the Take it easy now segment. Based on your experience I would appreciate some advice please on practice. My practice sessions start with a bending session. I then revisit Soloharmonica 2 and rerun all the exercises partly as a revision but also focussing on technique improvements. Then I will do one of the earlier study songs from LOA 2 or 3. Once I have that done to satisfaction I then tackle the LOA 4 study song gradually working through the choruses (very gradually). Now partly because I like it so much but also trying to get variety in my practice I do a session with Garys Blues. Then I end with more bending. I also do some bits of practice when the opportunity allows mainly bending at this time.
My question is should I be focussing on one song at a time in the LOA 4, Taker it easy now, before attempting to move to the next or is what I am doing the best use of my practice time. Any other suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.
David thanks. I felt that might be your suggestion. I will have to be satisfied with listening to Gary's Blues until I have Feeling the blues now under my belt. There is plenty of material in LOA 4 to keep me busy for some time, a really interesting and challenging segment.
Yes, L4 is a fantastic level to be on, one of the most formative levels. And yes, tons of material, but I'm sure you'll do great, just give it time.
Hello John. Your regime sounds good. Bending is a good warmup. I would probably say just run a couple of SH2 examples each day, you don't want to spend too much time revisiting old material, unless you're still trying to add the final elements of performance (dynamics, tremolo, etc.). Playing one past study song from beginning to end is a good idea, so you're retaining the material you worked so hard to learn (not to mention that the vocabulary from those songs are important for your improvising down the road). Don't do more than one song a day for review though... it will slow your progress (review is for repertoire retention, not growth).
I would recommend you only do one study song at a time, the other areas of study (theory, solo harmonica, accompaniment, etc.) will give you variety, without overloading you. Just a suggestion... of course experiment and do what you feel works best for you.