Month: April 2022

This has been another week of minor improvements. Following along the video series has definitely helped me keep a better pace, and in general I work better with video learning. The latest lesson was certainly the most challenging yet, introducing improvisation to playing. As I become more confident in playing, I believe it will be easier to riff something off the cuff, but right now I really struggle in what to play.

Video Killed the Radio Star

When it comes to media I consume. videos are definitely my poison. From memes a few seconds long to several hour video essays, I spend a lot of time watching videos.

Most if not all of my online learning has consisted of video content in some form. Whether it’s a simple YouTube video or a more structured course website, I find videos to be the most effective at delivering information electronically. It is extremely helpful being able to see specific actions or results and to hear what something should sound like, in the case of learning an instrument.

If all that is available for a given subject is other forms of learning, they are certainly useful, as the book I started with was a fair introduction. However, a video can deliver much more in a shorter amount of time.

When it comes to learning overall, an interactive course where an instructor can provide direct feedback is the best. However, the option is not always viable, and with this I see videos as the next best thing.

For the harmonica lessons in particular, I find the order, structure, and pacing to be much better than the book. I briefly mention the order in the last post, but starting with how to hold the instrument felt much smarter as it’s the actual first thing to be done. The structure thus far has been the introduction of a general concept along with a specific action with the concept to be able to execute. Once done, the instructor advises moving on to the next lesson.

Having that objective for each lesson provides a good pace for when to know I’m ready to move on.

Improv is Hard

The latest lesson, however, is a bit more tricky. Bringing in improvisation using the skills taught so far is a hurdle for me to overcome.

Improv in general isn’t a major weakness, as I get a lot of practice with regularly playing Dungeons and Dragons with ideas and changes to plans hitting me depending on what players choose to do or the result of a dice roll. Applying this skill to music is something I need to develop further.

Luckily I have a skill that helps challenge this hurdle, being willing to sound terrible. The first few practices with improvisation I am sure I sounded pretty rough. I sort of just played random notes along the small instrument. It’s difficult to say for certain how well I’m developing, but word from my housemate is that I have in fact improved.

I have started listening to some improv harmonica songs I can find on YouTube and it gives me something to get a sense for. I’ll certainly not be able to replicate the exact sounds of the musicians in question, but perhaps at least the rhythm can be a place to start.

My primary goal for this week was to learn a few songs from the book I was working through, and I was about 75% of the way through a third song when I just couldn’t figure out the rhythm in my head. After reading through the rest of the book I had, I found it was time to move on to a video series, as I tend to learn better from audio visual media. However, the lessons themselves are not the biggest challenge I faced this week, as I struggled to make time for consistent, quality practice.

Learning Challenges

The notes were similar to guitar tabs in the sense that they expressed the note to play, but not at what timing. Mary Had a Little Lamb was simple enough to get since the rhythm is burned into my mind for some reason. When trying to move on to the slightly more complex, When the Saints Come Marching In, an old favorite from my saxophone days, I couldn’t really get the rhythm down.

It was here that I felt I needed to move on to a different learning direction. I’ve since started a short YouTube series covering some of the basics. I was very happy to see that the first lesson covered sections that confused me as to why they were so late in the book I read, one of which being “How to Hold the Harmonica.” When hitting this section towards the back end of the book, I immediately thought, “I didn’t even think about if I was holding it right, that seems pretty important.”

Something else that occurred to me as I progressed in the book was how naïve I was in the simplicity of the instrument. There is a lot more to this little device than meets the eye. There are a variety of practices for changing the sounds beyond breathing in and out. The usual suspects of musical instruments are here, such as chords, octaves, and scales, but also bending and vibrato – a practice of tone shifts sustained throughout a note.

I’ve had to keep reminding myself that I need to start small, accept being a beginner, and celebrate the early wins to keep up momentum. Otherwise this could become another lost interest on the pile of trials behind me.

Habit Challenges

Consistency is one of the bigger challenges I faced this week, even as something I emphasized in the last post. I’ve been struggling to make the necessary time to just get started. My plan was to use the space after work, but by then I’d often been mentally exhausted and used the time to do basically nothing day after day. Making better use of this time will not only benefit me in harmonica practice, but also in a variety of other areas.

This comes back to an early retrospective from a couple years ago in which I’d found trials centered around removing things from my life were significantly easier than those that added. In the end, remembering to not do something is pretty easy as seeing the thing reminds me not to do it. While making the conscious effort to make time and energy to focus on a given task has a variety of steps just to get started.

To combat this, I plan to set a concrete time for practicing every day 4:30 PM. It’s in my calendar with a reminder just like any other meeting or appointment. I’m hoping this reminder will help me to get a consistent habit for practicing. I may also revisit ideas from books like Atomic Habits to help me think of better ways to help the habit stick like developing proper cues and rewards to reinforce practicing.

It’s been a long time since I’ve really sat down with a musical instrument. I was actually in band in middle school and played the saxophone. While I enjoyed the experience, I moved on to other things. In adult hood, I’ve been trying to find something to scratch a different creative itch, music. Thus, I’ve begun to take the first steps into a new instrument, the harmonica.

Why the Harmonica?

I remember many years ago getting a harmonica while in Boy Scouts. Being a child with no comprehension of musical taste, the instrument was an obnoxious noise maker at best.

Over the years, I’ve heard people make this simple instrument play incredible melodies. I can’t count the times the bridge from Blues Traveler’s Run Around got my body moving. It’s versatility in sound in astounding for such a small, simple instrument.

On that note, its size is another factor. As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, I’ve liked the idea of whipping up a quick song around a campfire after a long day of hiking. Being able to tuck a harmonica in a pocket or a backpack makes me far more confident in bringing it along. Plus, the simple design makes them quite durable and able to face the challenges of the outdoors.

The final reason is just that very simplicity. The instrument is just a bar with holes and a couple of reeds inside. It doesn’t have valves, strings, or switches to worry about. The goal is to blow or suck air and move the bar to the right spot for the right note. In total, it’s 20 notes to remember and as far as I’ve learned so far, one small gimmick.

Talking About Practice

The week started off really well, I found a book at the library that has been extremely helpful. I’ve learned a few warm ups, the notes, and even some interesting history about the harmonica.

As the week went on, I made less and less time to practice. My original goal was to use time after work to get into practicing, but other things have crept into my shcedule throughout the week, my time became less and less focused here. The practice I have done has mostly been going through the warm ups. Even keeping practice short, my lips have been kind of sore.

For next week, I really want to build that daily habit of practicing and get through some of the simple songs shared in the book. I want to play at least three of them by next post.

Vacation comes to a close, and it was good change up from the daily routine. Day after day our group went on exciting adventures from feeding giraffes at the zoo to a murder mystery night. One of the best parts of this trip is the casual nature of how planning was handled. This got me thinking about the importance of flexibility when it comes to pursuing anything. There needs to be some wiggle room for exploration and variation, but it’s also important to provide some loose structure or path to give some degree of guidance.

The Open Road

Among our group, we had some people fly into Colorado, but I chose to stick it out with those driving all the way there. This was a great time, as we were able to pass through the little city of Dubuque where I used to live and meet up with a lot of friends.

Road trips are a good example of what I mean by a high level structure with some options within it. Knowing the route that needs to be driven provides the destination, thus is important to follow the proper roads. However, along that route, there will inevitably be stops at unexpected times. From gas fill-ups to meal time and bathroom breaks, there are a lot of interruptions along the way, not to mention road closures, accidents, and much more. Trying to plan out every step along the way would be a headache and not likely to bear any benefits.

The trip itself had this overall philosophy as well. We had a select handful of items we wanted to do, and came up with a rough plan of when we would do them. For example, a big plan for the tirp was to go skiing. Once we had a day picked, a majority of the planning was open ended. For a lot of us, it was the first time skiing, and we were unsure of how long we expected to go. The night before, we came up with a loose plan of when to arrive at the mountain and when we expected to leave.

Another example of this that worked extremely well, was a day trip for disc golf and a hike. Past experience led to the expectation that we could just show up at the course and play. However, we actually needed a reservation since it was a private course. Instead, we got a slot for later that day, hiked first, and then returned to throw some discs. In hindsight, it worked out better that we hiked first, as we were all pretty tired after 18 holes.

The Structure of Trials

Last year, I experimented with stopping the trial format upon which this blog began. The process of trying something out for a few weeks with the frequent result of dropping the habit or practice after the time period.

This repetition led me to move away from trials as a way to think about how I want to come up with posts going forward. The result was that I took a several month long hiatus without any intention.

Returning to this format has given me the direction and pressure to continue writing once again. At the beginning of this year, I wanted to start writing again and knew beginning trials again would be the quickest way to get back in the habit. However, I knew I needed something guiding what I decided to try, which ultimately brought me to the yearly theme.

As I was writing this post, I realized the yearly theme fits this ideology in a way. It provides a direction to follow while leaving some of the specifics up to interpretation and what a given scenario calls for.

With this brief departure over, trials continue with an old format, learning a new skill over the course of a few weeks. In this case, I will attempt to learn the harmonica, at least the basics. I don’t quite know what’s in store, but I’m hoping by the end I can play some simple songs.