The In-Between: Time Away From Harmonica

Navigating the Creative Blocks

I love burnout. I love those moments when I can’t stand the sight of my harmonicas. Sometimes, on those glorious, uninspired days, I feel utter dread when I stumble half awake into my office to practice or to write. These are the most important days of the creative process. Coming to your harmonica and looking at it as an enemy might be the creative block you need to catapult you to the next stage in your harmonica playing.

The only way out? Pack up your harmonicas.

They will be no good to you for a while

You have entered the “In-Between” period of musical development.

Utter disgust and self-loathing indicate that you’ve reached the holy mountain top of pure creative exhaustion.

It’s a good place to be.

Don’t rush to get out of it.

Let’s stop and think: how did I wind up here?

Have you been burning the candle at both ends with your practice? Are you sick of hearing blues harmonica? Have you been trying to get blow bends and draw bends so much that your jaw hurts, and everyone in your family rolls their eyes when you tell them you will go practice? Do you not enjoy playing the harmonica anymore? Do you even have a goal in mind for progression, or are you just driving yourself crazy playing the same licks over and over again?

All of these are questions to ponder as you put your harmonicas away.

This time of discontent, of nihilistic musicality, is not a negative passage of days and weeks. It’s a time of reflection and routine change. There’s a lot of talk in the self-help world today about “routine”; it's a hot, sexy topic. Somehow, we concocted the notion that success and routine coexist on the same ethereal plane of self-development. To an extent, they do. I’m a big believer in organizing your life in a way that creates fruitful artistic practices and spiritual solace. However, routines lead to burnout. You are human; no matter how much we optimize our lives for output and productivity, we aren’t robots. We all crack eventually. This is all part of becoming better. As Hemingway said:

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”

A rut, be it creative, professional, personal, or financial, is a good time to assess what matters and how you can avoid it in the future.

But for now, let’s focus on the In-Between.

At this point, you’ve put your harmonicas away. Think of them as hibernating. Now, the question becomes, how do you fill the time you had previously been practicing?

I have some suggestions:

-Switch up the musical input. If you have been shoveling blues harmonica licks into your head, listen to something radically different. Classical, Jazz, and Middle Eastern Music are all my go-tos when I get blocked.

-Replace music time with reading time—poems, short stories, novels, news articles, medical literature, etc. The money you spend on books is worth its weight in gold. Don’t be fooled by the shiny digital devices we keep in our pockets. Even after thousands of years, books are still the go-to for ideas and new avenues of creativity. Close the screen, pick up a book.

Go outside. In the 30 minutes you may have been practicing harmonica, go for a walk. Nature is the ultimate analog source of inspiration. Don’t bring your phone; focus on time away from the digital world.

-Pick up a new hobby. Sports, writing, gaming, painting, etc. Something that has the creative aspects of your brain still firing, but on a different canvas. Most great harmonica players I know have other artistic pursuits outside of music.

-Make a list of all the things that excite you. Seriously. I know it sounds stupid, but give it a try. Finding the elements of life that move you to action is a powerful motivator for the creative process.

Make a list of what you hate. This is equally powerful. Sometimes, deciding what we want to be is easiest when we have a reference for what we don’t want to become.

-Learn a new skill. I’m not saying become an expert, but being a beginner again in something is an excellent way to spark new creativity.

The harmonica develops with you over time. Think of the idea of absence making the heart grow fonder. These weeks away from the instrument allow new perspective, insight, and appreciation to develop. Plus, you will better understand what you want to get out of your practice. Sometimes, it’s hard to have insight when you are too deep in the trenches of improvement. Time away is a concrete solution to burnout. I’ve often considered my off-time from the instrument to be the most insightful and creative moments. Because you are not so caught up in getting better, you can stop and smell the roses; take a second to reflect on your journey to get to this point. Have a more realistic plan of attack when you return to woodshedding.

The value of getting better at anything is pointless without a why. Most burnout in the creative process results from losing touch with your why. Why do you want to get better at the harmonica? Why do you want to learn this Big Walter solo? Why do you want to learn how to overblow? Stopping and asking why cannot be solved in a day. It requires patience. In addition, one of the most potent ways to tell if you are improving as a harmonica player is noticing if your why changes over the years. I know mine certainly has.

To be human is to change. We are all bound to some unknowable end. In this squiggly line of twists and turns, the bumps in the road and the highs, our personalities, like the falling leaves of a tree and the regrowth of the buds, develop and adapt to the stimulus of years passing. A year is the same for everyone; 365 days, 365 chances at change. A day is the same for everyone; 24 hours or 48 half hours. We are constantly evolving and expanding our knowledge within a doomed lens. Learning how urgent our development as harmonica players should be is pretty exciting. Urgency creates creativity. Awareness generates focus. As one of my favorite writers, Jerry Jenkins, said:

“The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.”

With these changes comes struggle. The struggle is what defines us. This in-between time creates the truest identity of who we become as harmonica players. When you return to the instrument throughout your life, you will find that you have changed, your perspective on the harmonica has changed, and your approach to playing has changed.

As Milan Kundera said in The Unbearable Lightness of Being:

"Each time the same object would give rise to new meaning, though all former meanings would resonate (like an echo, like. parade of echos) together with the new one. Each new experience would resound, each time enriching the harmony.”

Do not fear the moments of inactivity or blockage on the harmonica,

For every great shining moment in the sun, there must also be dark periods of inactivity and struggle..

As Thoreau said:

“Live in each season as it passes.”

There must be a balance to creation.

Harmonica is an instrument of duality. You need to both inhale and exhale to get the fullest expression.

So take a deep breath. Pause. Be grateful for some time away.

When you return, it will be like reuniting with an old friend.