[practice] new practice paradigm
Jun. 12th, 2007 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Or something.
I kept getting stuck on my harp practice - namely, it was not exciting enough nor was I showing progress [in fact, I regressed if I didn't play for a week]. What I'd been doing is trying to play progressively more difficult pieces. Cause I know how to break down a piece into chunks and work through it.
That's still part of the plan, but now I start by working both technique and theory with chord training in any random key (I have a book for this). Actually, I start by doing whatever physical exercise I have planned for the evening, then the thing with the chords. Then I sight-read something new and simple, figure out how to finger it & start excruciatingly slow. Only after that do I tackle ONE more complex song, either something I'm writing down by ear or something that will help me play fast stuff (tonight I picked up a happy little slip jig, which isn't just fast but 9/8). And I finish off with some improv (currently I'm doing anything I want using A and E in the left/bass and only white strings (not C or F). If the harp's tuned in C, this has a very Japanese feel, but in A-flat or B-flat, it's TADA! passably fake-Middle-Eastern. I can do the random stuff Brettocks does, with the same utter inability to remember later what I've just played.
I ended up practicing for nearly an hour, and stopped largely because my fingers started to hurt.
I kept getting stuck on my harp practice - namely, it was not exciting enough nor was I showing progress [in fact, I regressed if I didn't play for a week]. What I'd been doing is trying to play progressively more difficult pieces. Cause I know how to break down a piece into chunks and work through it.
That's still part of the plan, but now I start by working both technique and theory with chord training in any random key (I have a book for this). Actually, I start by doing whatever physical exercise I have planned for the evening, then the thing with the chords. Then I sight-read something new and simple, figure out how to finger it & start excruciatingly slow. Only after that do I tackle ONE more complex song, either something I'm writing down by ear or something that will help me play fast stuff (tonight I picked up a happy little slip jig, which isn't just fast but 9/8). And I finish off with some improv (currently I'm doing anything I want using A and E in the left/bass and only white strings (not C or F). If the harp's tuned in C, this has a very Japanese feel, but in A-flat or B-flat, it's TADA! passably fake-Middle-Eastern. I can do the random stuff Brettocks does, with the same utter inability to remember later what I've just played.
I ended up practicing for nearly an hour, and stopped largely because my fingers started to hurt.