Practice Methods and Storage.

I am always looking for new ways to practice and improve my harp playing. I guess all musicians have their own methods of how to get the best out of their time. Mine is to play in twenty minute intervals as an absolute minimum. Sometimes, in a day I will have three or four of these micro practice sessions.

I also have various focus areas. Occasionally I will go back to some of the old tutor books I used when I first started playing; not the very basic ones, but the ones that still give me a bit of a challenge. Most of my current practice is to play along with some classic tracks; Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Walter Horton,  Slim Harpo, etc.  But it’s how I organise my resources I want to comment on here.

All of the music I work from is digital downloads. I’ll either work from CDs played through a laptop or from downloaded tracks on a Kindle Fire HD. It’s the Kindle I find most useful as I have organised it so that there are a series of playlists all in the different keys (D harp tracks, C harp tracks, etc.). The playlists play through on shuffle which keeps me on my toes. The Kindle has a punchy little speaker and is very compact. Overall it is ideal for storage and keeping information together.