Just like you’ve said here, my feelings exactly! If it wasn’t fun I would have quit a long time ago. Every song, every gig should be fun. God gave us this talent to use for our enjoyment and, for people to listen and, enjoy. It takes us to places that we’ve never been and, opens doors to new horizons we’ve never seen! All the best to you Brother.
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What Terrygh1949 said!!
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Yes
I am having a bout with this now. I feel its like anything else you are trying to learn. Just part of the program I/M/O. Once your natural ability and practice has taken you to a certain level this happens. I went across the big pond for about three weeks and did not play. I always wanted to see Omaha beach and it was great. The Dutch are fantastic people but the harmonica is not something they play. Point is I got little to no practice and my single note play is off.
If the harmonica is like anything else I enjoyed there will be “slumps” no matter how good someone gets. It can cause some doubt about ability but play through it. Negative thoughts creep in.
The very best pro baseball players have slumps. A pitcher can toss a no hitter and the next outing be headed for an early shower after two innings.
I do not like these slumps but finally except the fact that sub par play will set in periodically. I just play for the fun and realize I will never be as good as I would like. I started at 68 and the older your muscles are the harder they are to train.
I have a level play period and the it seems to take a step up, especially when I figure out something like the harp is not far enough back or my timing is off. We don’t have to like this but do have to accept them as part of the program.
I feel if you are better than you were six months ago and much better than you were a year ago its a positive sign as the long term trend is what counts. Just how I view these periods and persistence will win every time over the long haul. I practice every day and my wife will come walking through the room and mention “your playing too fast again” and she is right.
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After over 60 years of playing, I’m not sure about plateaus. If I’m writing regularly and defining solos for each new song, I keep moving forward. That doesn’t preclude improvising when playing but as a writer it requires thinking about how a solo differentiates a new song from similar ones. Here is an example: Yonder Wall. It’s the same old Green Onions bass line, but Junior Wells style, not the familiar pace of Sonny Boy’s “Help Me”. Check out Junior’s break at 2:03
I didn’t used to like the idea of creating solos specific to songs, but I noticed Rick Estrin (and some others) had done that and how it created definition, so each album had songs with different feelings. Not tosay he wouldn’t improvise or riff off the solos. I was friends with a guitar player who duplicated solos in songs when he played with name performers (Muddy, Cotton, SonnyBoy), but playing on his own there were nights when he seemed to play the same staccato solo, all night, every song. Plateau? Not moving forward? Just in his comfort zone?
I also noticed that using a particular style amp, hearing the tone of you and the amp, it’s easy to plateau, to forget to do different things. Recently, I tried out a non-harp amp, a screamer, and suddenly mellow was not in the vocabulary. The next few weeks, the amp didn’t matter. I was playing every amp with the same feeling. I got off the plateau of the last many months.
Plateaus are escapable by different routes.
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@BnT wow great post man! And fricken AMAZING Junior Wells stuff here. Thanks for sharing. He is so dynamic man. Really appreciate it.
Yes, this all speaks to my mantra: The #1 Priority is to stay inspired! 