I have been playing for a few weeks, and love it! However, currently, I am just messing around. And while that has seemed to be working just fine, and I am already developing a good bend, I know there is a true way to practice I am not following. Can anyone give me guidance on how I can more properly practice?
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I just read “The Practice of Practice” by Jonathon Harnum, it was well worth the time. The book offers a lot of ideas about how to practice effectively and efficiently. I have incorporated some of the ideas such as recording my practice, stopping immediately when I make a mistake when learning a new lick and taking breaks during my practice session to let my brain process. I found it very interesting and helpful.
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Thanks!
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Practice doesn’t have to be formal. Have fun!
Try playing tabs (Harptabs.com is great!), which while aren’t true sheet music, will give a you a great start developing an ear for where note are.
Scales, while incredibly boring to learn, are nice to practice because they give you a pallette to work off of while creating music.
Noodling is also practice…maybe not conventional, but helps you develop random licks that you may think up.
I find the best practice is just to keep a harp in your pocket and play whenever you get a minute!
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Hey @ChrisHenry you could consider Beginner to Boss or taking private instruction to help with this.
@1bakingblackdog great recommendation. Haven’t read it, but it was Carlos Del Junco’s inspiration for the name of this workshop he co-taught with Roly Platt. I thought it was great:
Here’s some more free food for thought on the subject:
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I would like to endorse Luke’s suggestion of taking the Beginner to Boss course. (I get no benefit for doing this.)
I started playing only a year ago and I credit that course for really taking me a long way not just in my chops but in understanding what is important to practice and why.
Luke is a great teacher, the material is a spectrum of genres and he uses songs you already are somewhat familiar with as well as the major pentatonic and blues scales. Luke will introduce you to the Bend it Better tool which is a godsend for me.
I really want to get good so I spend at least a half hour a day practicing scales. My role model is Will Wilde so I need to get fast and be able to isolate single notes well. Luke gave me a great start!
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