I found a podcast on learning to sing and play music. Not through it all but one topic was addressed that I found very interesting. Grooving bad habits while learning.
This is my biggest concern as I live in an area where no harp players are around. No instructors, just books, U Tube and B T B. I attended SPAH and a couple of other harp gatherings to find out if I had some bad habits that were being grooved. They are as hard to break as good ones I/M/O.
Only problem with being self taught from now on is I have no good instructor to take a periodic lesson from that can point out bad habits I may have that need breaking. I focused on single note play, learning how to bend and rhythm from the start. I am improving but other than recording cannot identify all bad habits. I do think mistakes are a good teacher provided you turn them into learning experiences.
For those of you that play well what is the one bad habit you had to break when learning? Mine was playing too fast so I picked some songs that require slow play. It is helping but there may well be more and I do not want to groove a fault, have to break it and then learn the correct way. It is a waste of time but we are just human and groove faults. Any comments are welcome.
To answer your question of sorts it might be a good idea if Harmonica.com had a jitsi meet server then the members might have a place where the could meet at regular times to ask these questions and help each other out. If youāre thinking what jitsi meet is itās a zoom like aplication where people can meet get together over a video conference. Not sure if this site warrants the traffic for it though.
I guess that we talk about diatonic harmonicas. Iāve been playing diatonic since the late ā90s.
Never had a teacher. There were no online schools. In Poland we have only one book about playing diatonic. That book was good at the start. The first time I met other harmonicians was after almost 10 years of playing. These days Iām playing mostly on Silver Stars because of price. Many harmonicians said to me that playing on poor harmonicas can groove bad habits. Of course - I must say that ā90s SilverStars are much better than modern SilverStars, but I have never seen my bad habits caused by poor harmonicas, but I think that some things can be done better in my learning curve:
Go more often to harmonica festivals, jams, etc.
Earlier start to learn throat vibrato instead of polishing tongue vibrato
I also got practices that groove in me good habits:
Having strong general-music background by learning blues/pop piano (mostly be ear).
Start to learn on a chromatic harmonica with big holes (Chrometta 8) and then switch to diatonic.
playing by ear (songs, non-harmonica improvisations: vocals, guitar solos, etc.)
playing in church band
avoiding the praise of beer
The diatonic harmonica had no official āgoodā learning curve. And we cannot say anything about good or wrong habits. Playing music is fun. If I have fun with it, and when I play with others and they have fun too, then there is no possibility to do something wrong. Together fun cannot be wrong.
My main bad habit (or rather, ānot yet perfected habitā) was using tabs to learn tunes. Tabs are okay for ālicksā and for the very-very beginning, but what would happen as I tried to learn melodies was that my rhythm (timing/length of notes) would always be off, and Iād need to re-learn a song like 5 times, since I had to restart since it was wrong. Now Iām always using sheet music with tabs written underneath the notes, foot tapping/playing under the metronome - without this, I think many players will get stuck in ābeginnerās purgatoryā
I use tabs to learn the music by memory. Once this occurs I listen to the tune many times played as it should be for differences in the way I play. Its usually the rhythm is off and needs to be slowed down or some notes need to be help longer. I suspect your reference to relearning because of timing is very important part of learning a song. I feel this is a step in the clean up phase. It seems the closer I get the more the smaller faults show up. Its just part of learning. I do not use tabs once I know the tune but the rhythm adjustments are a step in really learning to play the song correct. I have a metronome but do not use it. I catch myself tapping a foot without thinking about it.
Low end harps and bad habits I/M/O are not correlated. A chain is good as its weakest link and a low end harp can easily be the weak link, even if you play the tune well. Shaping the inside of the mouth to increase how rich a note plays are what I would refer to if this was now a problem. The -1 always sounded so low and A harp tech told me to play it lightly and shape my mouth to maximize the volume inside. Its these small things that really help and if needed to be cured how best it be done.
I learned billiards self taught and it was a very slow process as the physics are very complicated. It took decades of wasted time as I have had all the fun there is to be had playing pool. I can watch any pro and know exactly what he or she did to accomplish something but 8 hours a day practicing was not going to happen. I grooved many bad habits that had to be unwound an learned correctly. It is this I want to avoid. I strongly suspect a play learns some basic tunes in the beginning and then advances to more difficult tunes. No short cuts just persistence and lots of practice and you enjoy doing it.
Using tabs can be a good tool to get the correct note layout and if played with tabs on U Tube helpful at the start.
The bad habits I am referring to are thinks like inhaling to hard on the higher notes. Something I am doing wrong that causes inconsistent play. I defeated this by play tunes that have several -8 notes and the music requires I play up and down the harp.
One sale I play is starting from the 1 and play all the way down the harp to 10 and back up from -10 to -1 using vibrato and tremolo., and diaphragm It has helped with the highest notes, something that seems to be the toughest part. Its strictly for fun and i always regretted not learning a musical instrument. Its for these two reasons I enjoy the harp even when those days when my play is off. Nothing more. No bands or anything close. I am retired and do not want any time commitments Just sit on my deck and play. If I could only get rid a of the neighbors dog that barks 24/7. If I did not love dogs so much MISS Daisy would stop this.
Thanks for your comments and play well. If you are better than your were six months ago and even better than a year ago you are doing something right.
with each new tune it gets slightly better. The key is not to rely on tabs and use sheet music+tabs combo, otherwise itās just guesswork and you can spend many practice sessions āpracticing/reinforcingā the wrong way to play something. Also, this is the part where both recording yourself AND having someone tell you where you are making mistakes is crucial, especially if itās your first instrument (in my case it is). Unfortunately for me, often even when I record myself and listen & compare it āsounds goodā to me, but it can still be wrong - so at this point I just acknowledge that Iām ārhythm-blindā (or at least, ārhythm-vision-impairedā) and need external guidance.
ALSO
Itās super important not to invest your ego into the way you are playing tune if youāve spent hours practicing it and turns out you have to re-learn
I understand what you mean. Nevertheless, if you listen to various interpretations of a given song ā and especially by jazz artists ā you will notice that many (and in some cases most) take liberties with the rhythm. Granted, this requires a certain level of skill and sophistication to achieve a good result. My point, however, is that rhythm is not something immutable or carved in stone.
Iāve pondered on this a long while, but thereās a difference.
ātaking liberties/being creative/etcā implies you can actually play it correctly in the first place, and got bored of playing it the ārightā way. otherwise itās just an excuse/a cope, and is not really a āchoiceā but itās just that you canāt actually play it right.
I began playing harp holding it in the right hand. It is hell to unlearn and retrain that. It is like, in a marching band, learning to step off with your left foot instead of your right on beat one. Or relearning how to climb a flight of stairs.
I picked Moon River, a song I never hear until recently. I seems simple but getting the rhythm down pat as it is played takes time, especially if you get ahead of yourself. Its on U Tube and apparently very popular. It is also a good tune for a harp.
Well folks I know that this isnāt the proper way that I was supposed to introduce myself , but maybe Iāll get it straightened out sooner or later. Lol
Also want to chime in on the prior conversation, donāt mind I assume?
Some years back, found a harmonica, bluesband, I believe. Fell in love with it,play with it as much as possible. It has kept me out of so much trouble. If I would feel like I need to get away before I get too upset, Iād go for a walk or just go sit on the porch with my harmonica and get my mind released of its anger. Iām gonna try doing some stuff like you said about teaching myself bad habits. It was like you were speaking about me. Lol
My name is Lloyd Kuntz, but I prefer Billbo or Billy. From Bowling Green, Mo. Currently living in Jonesburg, Mo. And I have missed my harmonica too much, beig in situations that harmonica werenāt allowed.
Anyway, pretty excited about the group chat thing like this, I can see alot of relating to others where we know we can give and receive advice to be of help. And I want to be able to truly play. Itās much nicer when you get request coming , instead of the negative outbursts! Lol just kidding I donāt know what I am doing, but very eager to learn. Iām almost 54, and I aināt getting any younger, or taller. 5ā4ā Lol
