Re: [Harp-L] Breaking Out of a Rut

[IcemanLE@xxxxxxx]

This is a common complaint from those that are lick based players. Not that  
licks are a bad thing, but when they are the focus of how you play, they are  
very limiting. A temporary fix is to learn more licks, learn faster licks, 
learn  slower licks, learn licks played by not harmonicas, but this will once 
again  lead to a rut.
 
I suggest to move beyond being a lick based player. Learn how music works.  
Learn how one note played and sustained will suggest the next one - easy to 
say,  harder to understand. Become an improvisor of the moment, play the groove,  
become comfortable "not playing" while the music spins around you. Don't 
reach  for licks and try to make them fit the moment. Learn the beauty of a single 
note  - it's color, shape, size and depth. Play with no vibrato. Listen to 
"Kind of  Blue" and let Miles Davis inside of you - feel how he creates ideas. 
Take a  blues scale and learn to tell a story by using the notes, not playing 
them in  sequence up and down. Create a solo without using any notes created 
through  bending technique. Dig into three hole inhale and all the wondrous 
beauty  contained within a minor third (plus quarter tone) span. Listen to Ella  
Fitzgerald sing the blues.
 
The Iceman



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