Hey there... VFF friends!  Lol... or whoever else... here's what facts I'm facing at this point:  I learned to pick a guitar just about 50 years ago, with a lot of neglected times in between.  Anyhow, here lately messin' with this Bluegrass band, I've discovered new sublties and new ways to get the most of my guitar pickin' and I've needed lots of time to deal with that... the band sort of caused it to be necessary, but now it's become a passion on top of necessity...assuming the band keeps me... if they ditch me, it'll be a passion minus necessity, which is the usual way in my life!  Anyhow, right now I'm grappling with all the power I got to get a 2 hour slot of my days all to myself for guitar discovery... ain't as much practice as it is flatout discovery... I've got 50 years to work with on this and it's proving to be a real asset!  Well, after my 2 hours are up (which are normally either interrupted like crazy or they just don't happen at all), it seems there is a long line of people needing something and a lot of phone calls to return and a lot of dishes, cooking, gardening, etc. that all threw itself into a big messy pile of neglect during those simple two hours!!!  Maddening, yes it is.  But there is virtually no time at all left for any banjo playin or fiddlin... BUT... never fear... I am sticking with the Virtual Fiddle Festival just for the pressure involved in learning and presenting a new fiddle tune each month... if I can keep that going at least I'm not setting the fiddle down completely, and I'd also like to be learning these things on the banjo too... but what I'm sayin', for now, it'll probably be less participation on my part than the usual.  I'm having so much excitement with the guitar right now it's just gotta be this way for now.  Maybe I'll get some new and improved guitar videos up one of these days.  For now... I'm not saying I'm disappearing, but there'll just be little bits and pieces of me for VFF-ing for a while...

If you need to break from other things and focus on guitar then do. Don't put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.

peggy...seems like, now that you have this thing started, you could let someone else choose the tunes and you can sit back and relax.  I think we should name the contest after you.

Well as pressed as I am for time, I hate to stop doing the VFF because of the fear that all the busy stuff wiil keep me from the fiddle and then time will get away from me and I'll get even worse on the fiddle instead of staying the same or getting better...so if I have that pressure to pick the tunes and put up at least one version, it'll help me be able to squeeze in the time to keep the fiddling going too...I think the activities of the band will make it hard to do much of anything else, at least for a while, in the near future. Also, I think the VFF is a good thing to keep going, and scared it might fade outta existence f I don't keep it going...so ... Gonna try to keep up for now! Unless of course somebody else is dying to take the VFF over...lol...then they can contact me and it might not be too hard to talk me into a takeover.

I agree with Larry....crying....

But...you HAVE to stay true to yourself and follow your muse...where she may take you.....we will miss you and your fiddlin'!! Yes, please share your guitar vid's with us as well! I'm still subscribed to your You tube channel!!! Have fun!!

Or, you could continue to have Roro pick the tunes out of the duck as before, and appoint someone else to "emcee" it the rest of the month.

I suppose, the thing to do is for one of us to take up the mantle.

Understandable! I was in similar situation with guitar and mandolin. I devoted my life to violin / fiddle and guitar and mandolin are only been played occasionally.

If some one asks me how many instruments I play I tell him "one", that's the fiddle. But I can scratch along on piano, guitar, mandolin, bass, viola, harp,... Non of those good enough to teach.

I hope you (groundpeggy) keep always a little space in your heart for the fiddle. I followed your fiddle adventures time from begin on and you got impressively good at it.

Edited by - hardykefes on 07/10/2012 13:05:13

Thanks everybody!  I'm not quitting... it's not like that... and Roro can still pick the tunes from the duck (unless somebodyelse wants to pick the tunes), but I'm just saying I'll consider it lucky if I get ONE chance to get a video up of the VFF tune... I won't be hopin all over it anymore if things stay the way they are for me with the guitar and this band right now.  I ain't really goin away... just becoming more scarce... heck, the VFF might keep me playing the fiddle a little bit just to keep up... if I stop that time will get away from me and I'll turn around one day and realize I hadn't touched the fiddle in too long... been there, done that, on all the instruments I play... how on earth does anybody keep up with 'em?  But I'll be around, just not too much!

I know you have your heart set on this band thingy, and I wish you all the best.  But WE will miss not only your making it OK to struggle with our journey of fiddling, but making it fun too. Your shoot from the hip, take no prisoners way of dealing with the near impossible tasks of everyday life.  A life you fill to the top everyday with enough stuff for five folks to do, and throw in a truck load of Murphy law stumbling blocks. You always manage.  Thank you for allowing us to share these adventures.    

You're very kind, Larry! And Im sitting here drinking my coffee and was just thinking if there weren't so many people needing this and that from both me and my husband, I might actually find the time to do my own thing! Getting ready fr practice with the band all day, then gotta run up to Ohio and pick up ceiling tiles and start putting up somebody's ceiling...another long day...lol...I'll have mre coffee!!!

Just real quick with morning coffee before I take off for practice and while my French toast burns...lol... here is a sample of my evolving guitar style since getting together with this band.  Forgive my singing, and of course once the light starts flashing on the Ipad camera my mind goes into freeze-mode, plus it's early and I'm still working on the coffee...lol... anyway, 'nuff excuses why I ain't no good... but here is how my style is changing.  Many years ago I did this tune all by myself just with fingerpicking alone.  Now after the band kicked this one around as we are trying to get up a reliable set that works for the combo of people, it got me going on this one again which I just haven't really thought of in years!  So I've been trying to klunk it out by adding in the new style... very new and always changing, but the picking only sprinkled in here and there for effect, and more of a rhythmic strum sorta thing added in heavy... maybe too heavy here by myself still waking up, but the idea is there I think: http://youtu.be/U8m4G2Aynn8

I'm glad you'll still have Roro pick the tunes. I would miss that part.

You cannot become proficient on two instruments at once. I think they should have a guitar hangout for flatpickin and such.. Ive had to set aside my steel string accoustic while I advance my proficiency in fiddle so I know where you are coming from. Perhaps we should set up a commune where all we do all day is farm and play instruments. Id move there. How big is your back yard?

Come on...we don't need space, just TIME!!!! Never enough of it!

quote:

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Originally posted by p1cklef1sh

You cannot become proficient on two instruments at once. I think they should have a guitar hangout for flatpickin and such.. Ive had to set aside my steel string accoustic while I advance my proficiency in fiddle so I know where you are coming from. Perhaps we should set up a commune where all we do all day is farm and play instruments. Id move there. How big is your back yard?

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Umm, there is a guitar hangout 

Yes, there is a flatpicker hangout... I don't play with a flatpick and can't seem to get into it at all... just fingerpicks.  But I really don't need another forum... addicted to this one and Facebook... lol... that's enough... of course it's easier to hop on a forum when you're sleepy-eyed and the TVs on for the other people in the house, etc., than playing an instrument...in a house like mine there is one room with a door... bedroom... besides bathroom with a door.  There is NO PLACE to play music without disturbing anybody else and also then there is no time because people seem to need something from me 24/7, plus my own dirty dishes (some day I'm gettin' a dishwasher!!!, dogs, garden, grass, chickens, clutter, etc. to deal with and rarely any time at all when I'm in a situration where I CAN play music... then, at this point, I really HAVE to practice for this band I'm playing guitr in right now because I have never heard of one thing they do and I just feel like I gotta learn the stuff and get to know it good enough to play something, contribute something to the band worthwhile, not just mindlessly strum along and be boring, ya know? So that leaves what few precious minutes I could be playing anything for guitar only, just about... although I'm finding myself plumb exhausted when I do get anytime to myself...ugh... now where is that time management for the hopeless forum>>>>????  LOL... maybe I'm beyond help!) I think I don't need discussion as much as playing time.  Is there a TIME MANAGEMENT FOR THE HOPELESS forum????? That's really what I seem to need right now...lol!

Oh, all this reminds me of my friend down in the mountains who is a portrait artist (no, he doesn't make a living, he couldn't do that if he didn't have other funds coming in!)... anyway, he is a portrait artist mainly with oils, although once in a while conte crayon.  We used to have long discussions about artsy-fartsy stuff... me with my music and him with his paintings... etc.  Color, intonation, colorwheel, circle of fifths... etc., we found plenty to talk about!  Anyway, his stuff is hanging in galleries and museums all over the country... he's really good.  But his thing always was that he insisted you simply cannot scatter yourself around  in to a million pieces and be sane and get good at what you love to do. He dabbled in drawing, chalk, watercolor, etc., only enough to workup his oil paintings, which he concentrated on and is known among art circles throughout the country for.  His words have haunted me in recent years when I've gone bak and picked up banjo and fiddle more seriously, more permanently instead of jsut messing around here and there... really trying to learn and get good at them.  Plus, messin' with the dulcimer more.  What happened was I just loved all of the old music.  But had only one instrument down in the mountains... guitar... when I moved up here after a few years I realized my guitar playing had become very unlike me: extremely urbanized-sounding, I thought.  I mean, I was starting to play some classical stuff (learned by ear and done all wrong, but still ), Scott Joplin rags, etc.  Then I realized my playing just wasn't me anymore.  By the way, this was also when I learned my speech, that I've come to be comfortable with even to this day, is that of California surfing folks... weird... how'd I get to that?  Don't know but someone theorized it was from working 20 years with college students who grew up hearing surfer speech and it rubbed off on me!  But at that point I did  set the guitar down for many years to buy myself a banjo, then fiddle, etc., and try to get back to what kind of music was really in me.  Now, here is the guitar popping back up into my life because of this band needing a guitar player... it's sort of a older-style bluegrass band... the guy who started it is absolutely into John Hartford, Earl Scruggs, etc. So it's not that new age or rapid fired bluegrass showy flashy stuff, but somewhere a little earlier than that.  So it ain't my kinda playin' exactly, but close enough that I can do something with it on the guitar, although it might be a little unconventional...still, close enough to work out ok.  So my artist friend's words do haunt me as I grapple about in my insane world of taking care of lots of people and their stuff instead of my own, letting my own go, grappling about for a minute here or there and then struggling over which instrument I can focus on from one day to the next.  WAs my friend right?  Can I play all of these instruments?????  Because I love them all and can't help myself.  Yet, sometimes I think of the calm I might find if I set some of them, maybe even all of them, down for good, and just took care of stuff I seem to be responsible for taking care of.  Don't kow... I stay confused, stressed, exhausted, torn.  

Oh, all this reminds me of my friend down in the mountains who is a portrait artist (no, he doesn't make a living, he couldn't do that if he didn't have other funds coming in!)... anyway, he is a portrait artist mainly with oils, although once in a while conte crayon.  We used to have long discussions about artsy-fartsy stuff... me with my music and him with his paintings... etc.  Color, intonation, colorwheel, circle of fifths... etc., we found plenty to talk about!  Anyway, his stuff is hanging in galleries and museums all over the country... he's really good.  But his thing always was that he insisted you simply cannot scatter yourself around  in to a million pieces and be sane and get good at what you love to do. He dabbled in drawing, chalk, watercolor, etc., only enough to workup his oil paintings, which he concentrated on and is known among art circles throughout the country for.  His words have haunted me in recent years when I've gone bak and picked up banjo and fiddle more seriously, more permanently instead of jsut messing around here and there... really trying to learn and get good at them.  Plus, messin' with the dulcimer more.  What happened was I just loved all of the old music.  But had only one instrument down in the mountains... guitar... when I moved up here after a few years I realized my guitar playing had become very unlike me: extremely urbanized-sounding, I thought.  I mean, I was starting to play some classical stuff (learned by ear and done all wrong, but still ), Scott Joplin rags, etc.  Then I realized my playing just wasn't me anymore.  By the way, this was also when I learned my speech, that I've come to be comfortable with even to this day, is that of California surfing folks... weird... how'd I get to that?  Don't know but someone theorized it was from working 20 years with college students who grew up hearing surfer speech and it rubbed off on me!  But at that point I did  set the guitar down for many years to buy myself a banjo, then fiddle, etc., and try to get back to what kind of music was really in me.  Now, here is the guitar popping back up into my life because of this band needing a guitar player... it's sort of a older-style bluegrass band... the guy who started it is absolutely into John Hartford, Earl Scruggs, etc. So it's not that new age or rapid fired bluegrass showy flashy stuff, but somewhere a little earlier than that.  So it ain't my kinda playin' exactly, but close enough that I can do something with it on the guitar, although it might be a little unconventional...still, close enough to work out ok.  So my artist friend's words do haunt me as I grapple about in my insane world of taking care of lots of people and their stuff instead of my own, letting my own go, grappling about for a minute here or there and then struggling over which instrument I can focus on from one day to the next.  WAs my friend right?  Can I play all of these instruments?????  Because I love them all and can't help myself.  Yet, sometimes I think of the calm I might find if I set some of them, maybe even all of them, down for good, and just took care of stuff I seem to be responsible for taking care of.  Don't kow... I stay confused, stressed, exhausted, torn.  

I understand what you are saying Peggy....and I had a friend tell me that people that have so many varied interests AND abilities are VERY CREATIVE PEOPLE!! So, but I also agree with your artist friend...that you can't get good unless you pick one to settle down with. I know someone who, it seems, has a truck load of instruments he carries to jams..and he is well proficient in all. But..he is a professional musician...who has played one or the other for most of his life, picking up another one along the way. I think you need to have a MAIN instrument, but still can play different ones. I'm still grappling myself which is my MAIN instrument...I love the piano, but the fiddle has captured my stubborness on trying to master it. And I love the way both of them sound. I haven't picked up the tin whistle since coming accross the fiddle. It's a hard decision to make. I want to be GOOD at one of them, good enough to contribute in jams or to play for the elderly or at some type of function...paid or not...that's not the issue..but for someone to ENJOY listening to me...that's the goal. I, for one, will miss you terribly...as I have tried to get your sound out of fiddle....sigh. Thank you for all you have done around here! I've enjoyed reading your posts and listening to your music, as i will continue to do so...even if you are posting guitar playing! You ROCK Peggy!

Good luck with the guitar efforts, we'll miss your frequent fiddle forays on the forum. Hope you find some more time to play all the instruments you want. Maybe look in the couch cushions....

Hmmm...never thought of finding time down in the cushions with the spare change and cookie crumbs! Just reminder, though, I'm not leaving, just diminishing, like a jazzy chord!!!! Maybe half diminished is all I'll be,..look at the bright side: the bluegrass band hasn't officially chosen me as their guitarist yet...maybe they'll give me the boot!!!

Nancy... you are far too kind to me... thank you for the kind, undeserved words.  I want the same as you... to enjoy playing/ to bring enjoyment to anybody that might listen... ugh... unfortunately both take lots of practice, for me!!!

One way or another... I am gonna have to have a real confrontational battle with time management!!!  I used to be able to work stuff in... this retirement junk is for the birds... suddenly I can't get anything done but other people's stuff... my husband still works but the same thing is happening to him.  Somehow, some way, I've got to grab some control back into my life again!  I know the music makes it more complicated, especially my love of so many instruments.  But I have to figure something out before I lose my mind!  I put up a kinda preliminary idea on the immprovements forum... thinking some sense of time management and making time for music could be done by sharing problems, solutions, or even just comaraderie online... maybe yes, maybe no... I don't know... but it's a stab in the dark for me to find my way out of the insane, unpredictable nightmare that time management has become for me!

Well ok.... while doing the dishes and listening to this band's CD from when they had some other members... I think I'll get kicked out!  LOL... they are way too good... I can see why they can't find a guitarist (the one on the CD got sick and died)... he's doggone good flatpicker!  I can also see that Bluegrass, even early Bluegrass, is not my thing... my concept, what I play with them is not this... it must be crazy/weird to them because how I've adapted my gutiar to playing with them doesn't sound anything whatsoever like what they are doing... mine is way different.  MY concept is way different... I can see I'm probably not what they are looking for.  But I'll just hang tight with them and maybe they'll find who they are needing at some point... I think they'll probably let me go, though... of course, I still have mounting time management issues... but if I get kicked outta the band it should help... LOL... oddly enough might be a good thing for me... yet I still need to work out how to live my life less for lots of other people's problems and more attentive to my own, what's before me, what I'm responsible for, and finally, what I enjoy and would like to share with whoever else might enjoy it too.  But the band... ugh... they are good... better than I'll ever be... plus it's just entirely different... I'm not sure I can play to their satisfaction for what they are doing.