You don't say what kind of music you're trying to play. Here's what I found
when trying to learn to play Celtic music, for what it's worth.
It makes me nuts to try to play with the radio or a recording, because even
when my tuner says A=440, I am inevitably tuned a little "off" from the
recorded source (often this is a playback thing). The tuning difference
makes me queasy.
Much more helpful is just to jam with people live. When I was first
learning the harp, I lived near a reasonably good weekly Celtic session. I
learned basic accompanimental & rhythmic patterns, and maybe more
importantly, I learned to hear the chord changes suggested by the modal
melodies, which helped me later in my own arranging. A lot of this stuff I
learned from following the guitarist(s); a lot of it I figured out on my
own. Session playing also encouraged me to start learning jigs & reels on
the harp, along with airs & ballads. The nice thing about a big enough
group is that nobody can really hear if you screw up, but you can hear your
own harp well enough to figure out what works.
Hope this is some help.
Alix Baillie
abaillie@mindspring.com