I’ve been out of action for a few days with Double Man Flu. Picked up a harmonica today and I’m feeling rusty after just a short break. It’s got me thinking about how long it would take for me to forget how to play a tune. I also ask because I have too many songs on my practice list and since there are more songs that I would like to learn, I might have to cast off some of the old, long practiced ones. There’s not enough spare time in the day to play through them all and I don’t want harmonica to be my raison d’etre or a monkey on my back where I feel like I have to achieve certain targets every day. Have some you been unable or chosen not to play for extended periods of time? If so, what was your experience when you started playing again?
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Hello @PapaCurly,
I don’t think there’s a blanket answer to that.
When I started playing the harp in 2021, I had to take a break for several months after about 3 months. I had just laid the foundations for the harp by then, but hadn’t consolidated them. I could play simple songs. I repeated these daily until then and the C major to warm up. Then after several months of forced break due to deaths in the family, I started again and, to my surprise, it worked as if there hadn’t been a break.
Due to my own health situation and personal reasons, there are always longer breaks. But it doesn’t seem to really harm me. But I try to practice at least several times a week for 10 - 15 minutes a day with different pitches and harp models. I then play everything up and down, including bends.
Otherwise, I work on a maximum of two new songs at the same time. Playing the harp is and remains one of my hobbies. But all obligations take priority and I mustn’t forget my social environment.
I don’t know if my explanations will help you. Maybe?
I used to feel guilty about the breaks. But why? It just causes stress and that doesn’t make it any better. I can’t and don’t want to play under pressure.
Best Regards Astrid 
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Thank You @AstridHandbikebee63 for your reply. I know there is not a definitive answer., Your response is exactly what I was looking for. Just other people’s experience and perspective. As you said, there’s a guilty feeling about having a break. I want harmonica playing to be fun, but I also feel like I should be disciplined in my learning, so I’m kind of caught between the two aims. I’m also afraid of losing/giving up what I have worked hard to achieve.
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When I left my seagoing career to take up law I stopped playing to devote time to study, then the job took over and I didn’t play for almost 20 years. During the Covid19 lockdown in the UK with time on my hands I did a full clean, re-tune and re-build of everything in my old gig bag. It took a while to get my mouth working properly but after a couple of weeks everything started to come back. so PapaCurly to answer your question it probably depends on the person but it’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget, just fall off a few times! As to practice lists, I don’t practice songs I practice scales but I play chromatic. One tip that might be useful if you use tabs is to write the first few tabs for each song in a note book to give a starting point and then rely on memory to continue, Hope that helps Jay1
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Thank You for taking the time to reply @Jay1. Your experience is very reassuring to me. I think your tip about writing down the first few tabs is a good one too. When I play songs that I now know, I sometimes get stuck at the first note, Then, once I get a start, I can play the whole tune as you suggest. I should probably pay more attention to scales, I’ve pretty much been winging it, just with the free online tutorials and help from this forum. Thanks again.
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I have a notebook with index tabs showing each key and the Blues scale; Pentatonic minor scale and Pentatonic major scale with the notes and tabs for each on a C chromatic so, for example Am Blues scale A C Eb E G A -3 +4 -5 <-5 +6 +7 -7
Am Pentatonic A C D E A -3 +4 -5 <-5 +6 +7 -7 with no Blues note Eb
A Major Pentatonic A B C# E F# A -3 -4 <+5 +6 <-6 -7 [the < indicates chromatic slide in] Each page has the three scales with one page per key so the next page is for Abm/G# Blues; Pentatonic & Ab/G# Major Pentatonic etc.etc. Tabs will be different for diatonic harps but hopefully you’ll get the drift. Any time you’re in doubt just use the appropriate Pentatonic, using that scale it’s difficult to go wrong. Jay1
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Great tips. I need to start a note book.
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Hi @Jay1
I agree 100% with @toogdog : That is a super tip that is also so simple. I have been doing almost the same thing on my PC and smartphone, but I really believe that a notebook is the best solution for me. Thank you !!
Best regards,
– Sllim 
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I’ve never had a long break but I do find strangely that if I have a couple of days break I often improve. I seem to sort of reset.
I have a really bad habit of playing a tune wrong and not correcting myself.
I am currently recovering from a bad dose of covid so I don’t have much puff also it’s tax return time so im busy but when I get beck to playing more I’m going work harder on note taking, scales and generally making sure I play it correctly from my tabs when practising.
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Oh do I know the feeling, we have family owned commercial forestry estates and as the lawyer I get to deal with annual returns etc. So I sympathise with tax return time. If it’s any help I’ll try to download a picture of the notebook but it’s very simple and easy to carry around. It’s just an aid but just having the starting point allows much more freedom to improvise when playing. Improvisation is just having a basic point to return to, Pentatonic scales are safe, a lot of musicians/writers have made thousands out of them. Jay1
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You won’t forget to play, if that is what you are worried about. I have skipped practice for 1-2 weeks at a time before since I was busy.
The only thing I really notice is my timing might be a bit off, and I definitely haven’t improved any, but that is really the extent of ‘losses’ from not playing. Nothing 10-15mins of practice won’t take care of😁.
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Thanks @Dk360, I’m not so much worried about forgetting to play harmonica, just forgetting tunes. Good to hear about your experience. What you say makes sense i.e. picking it up again after a few minutes practice. I think Luke says that all practice is useful, or something similar, so I suppose that means if I do forget a tune, I will still have gained something form learning it in the first place.
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Hi @PapaCurly ,
I’ve found that breaks of a few days to a couple of weeks seem to help me improve. I started playing in 2021 (never played prior to doing Beginner to Boss - thanks @Luke) and find that techniques I’m struggling with or tunes I’m trying to learn seem to somehow consolidate in the break so when I get back to it, the thing I couldn’t do properly last week is all hunky dory this week. I’ve noticed that this happens but don’t really understand why - maybe the break eases frustration or something, so when I go back I’m more relaxed?
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Hi Barry @barry.bolton
The nervous system’s neurons (nerve cells) need time to grow new connections (synapses), increase the number of existing synapses, and strengthen them (they become larger and then transmit their signals more efficiently). Thus after several days you can activate the needed neural networks more easily and they respond with improved precision.
If a break is too long then this results in a decrease or reversal of the above changes because the nervous system naturally strives for efficiency and those unused synapses eventually will become weaker or even be removed if you do not use them regularly.
This is all similar to the loss of muscular strength when bed-ridden or, for whatever reason, you do not regularly work with those muscles. And building muscular strength also works best when you give those hard-worked muscles a day to build the new proteins required to become stronger and to repair the microscopic damages that the workout produced in the muscle cells.
It’s all physiology.
Regards,
– Slim
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Hi @Slim. Thanks for that - good explanation and all makes sense to me. Certainly the little breaks seem to help stuff bed in - good to know it’s not just imagination!
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I have found also that I really improve when I try to play a tune by ear - as in I dont use tabs or any instruction.
The tune will sound weird at first, but once you get the hang of it, this skill is pretty valuable!
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Thank you everyone for your replies. I’m having a little holiday in Denmark / Walpole area of Western Australia. All artistic people would love it here. Big trees, love and hippies. Peace to you all.
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