groundhogpeggy - Posted - 09/01/2020:  05:51:47

I find myself hurrying through the daily chores in hopes of music time...lol...same every day. Feed dogs (they eat homemade food I have to make...don't want nothin' to do with dog food), feed fish and today get it all ready for water change (grandson's fish live here), check on the hydroponics we just setup indoors and add whatever, pick beans and okra that are going wild and keeping us hopping, get beans cooking and some put by, put okra by, cut some greens, change out hummingbird feeders as they are hungry as all get out now as they plan their big trips to S America, wash dishes, try to get a few miles in the woods because we just need to do that, rain coming, then...see if there's time for music...maybe, or maybe it'll be lunch time...once grandson is done with his homeschool for the day, I'm his play buddy...so I might get caught up in a big ol' nerf battle or some lenghthy chess game or something. Supper...dishes...talking on the phone with the old folks... somewhere in there...I'd love to play a tune on my Presonus...I haven't had much time for it here lately and my callouses are about gone...ouch...I never play guitar anymore. Gotta do that...what am I doing on here???? LOL...oh just feel like talkin' 'bout it all.



Who will find time for music today? Or, how do you work it in to a busy day? Or, if your day isn't busy enough, how do you keep momentum if you find too much time on your hands?



I know if you go to jams it keeps you going...thinkin' up stuff you'd like to be playing at the next jam, etc., if it works out that way.

I just feel like playing something...I don't even know what...but just anything.

Edited by - groundhogpeggy on 09/01/2020 05:52:58

Hoodoo - Posted - 09/01/2020:  06:33:45

I've been busy as of late, but I've been working from home since COVID has started. I live about 2 minutes from my office, so before, I used to hurry up and eat and practice during my lunch break. Now, I take breaks every 30 minutes or so and fit in 5-10 minutes of practice here and there over the course of the day.

DougD - Posted - 09/01/2020:  06:51:59

A very sane approach, Hoodoo, IMHO.

Johnbow - Posted - 09/01/2020:  06:59:40

GHP - you lay out your day as though it were poetry. It sounds as though you do as much in one day as I do in two... :)



DougD beat me to it - a sane approach is right and exactly the way I’ve been lucky enough to do it for the last couple of years. Probably the best way to learn something complicated.

Edited by - Johnbow on 09/01/2020 07:00:02

BanjoBrad - Posted - 09/01/2020:  11:35:23

Lately I've been nurse-maiding the wife as she is having some stomach problems, so about all the time I get is a few minutes before starting dinner to pick up an instrument (lately it's been the guitar to play some etudes & studies (same thing, different names) by Sor that I used to play back in the 80's). Hoping to get to the point where I can sit down and record a couple just to post for fun.

Johnbow - Posted - 09/01/2020:  11:47:40

Sweet. I too have recently been playing Sor. Specifically, working through his Opus 35. He labeled them easy (which some are), but some really are not. Very nice and thankfully short, pieces.

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 09/01/2020:  13:08:19

Well I'm done with stuff...but kinda wiped out for right now and gotta get supper on soon. We ended up walking 6 miles in the woods and that took more time...lol...it's slow climbing up rocky slopes and such...I was thinking more like the usual 2 or 3 mile hikes. But it was such a great day and the woods were so nice we just kept a-goin'.

Besides that, I just can't think of anything to play. Maybe tomorrow...I'll try again for tomorrow. I'll probably play something with grandson before too long...get supper, have dishes and then gotta talk on the phone with old relatives who live far away...then it'll be midnight and I'll be pretty much wiped out for the day. No music for me today...lol. Maybe tomorrow.

farmerjones - Posted - 09/01/2020:  16:07:22

Didja ever walk or hike with a fiddle?
Seems like everything turns into a march.

Flat_the_3rd_n7th - Posted - 09/01/2020:  19:28:51

As far as music, mine is mostly practice time--1/2 time technique exercises, 1/2 time playing this week's rehearsal songs on the porch for my dogs. It's rare that I don't put in the time, even though there's lots of daily chores. Seasonal ones are different though.

ie, tomorrow I have to get the cattle up, run through the chute and sort off calves to the weaning pen. Vacc's, etc. Just to make it more fun, several of them decided to get pinkeye while I was on vacation, so I have to doctor that, too. This bi-annual absolutely needs to be done tomorrow, so I won't sweat if I can't practice. But, I'll try to fit it in if I get done early. And if a cow doesn't smash my bow hand like what happened one time.

Hay, same thing. It's got to get done. Lots of time to play after that stuff is over for the year, though.

I personally wouldn't swap playing for a local hike, but I can understand the tradeoff.

Lonesome Fiddler - Posted - 09/01/2020:  19:41:45

I'm retired now, but I was lucky enough to be able to work from home for a good fifty percent of my career. Because my bosses never had any idea how much time it took me or my workmates to do our jobs, I was able to sneak in a good couple hours each day to goof off...in other words to fiddle around.

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 09/02/2020:  05:25:35

Walking and fiddling...I tried it...lol...that's hard to do...lol.

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 09/02/2020:  09:33:53

Well I didn't get time yesterday,but made time this morning...ugh...no matter how hard I tried, all I could do was sound really terrible...on the guitar and fiddle both. I kept trying...for a couple of hours...finally, I just looked at my instruments and asked myself if I've ever been able to play them at all...lol...I mean...this was so terrible-sounding. So...that's it for me today.

Mike says I should practice...yeah, I should. I never do...I used to but since I've had the presonus if I ever get practice time, I just play stuff on that thing instead. Maybe that's catching up with me...ugh..this was so terrible...such terrible music I tried to play today.

Lol...well I'll try again another day. One problem is my callouses are about gone...which always makes for wimply guitar noises. That's a good excuse, i guess...but basically it was just flatout BAD.

Now I'm behind on other stuff...lol...sometimes you just can't win, hey?

BanjoBrad - Posted - 09/02/2020:  10:47:38

quote:

---

Originally posted by Johnbow

Sweet. I too have recently been playing Sor. Specifically, working through his Opus 35. He labeled them easy (which some are), but some really are not. Very nice and thankfully short, pieces.

---

Somewhere around here I have a score for classical guitar for "The Magic Flute."  Bought it back in the 80's but never had the nerve to dive into it.  The Rep books I have contain a lot of Sor's short exercises and etudes.  I also have a book of 20 studies for guitar by Sor edited by Segovia - a couple of them I really want to dig back into, especially #5.

What is Opus 35?  I'm not all that familiar with his larger works.

DougD - Posted - 09/02/2020:  11:20:43

Opus 35 is a collection of 24 ("very easy") exercises.

Johnbow - Posted - 09/02/2020:  15:03:13

Exactly. They’re very nice pieces. Quite melodic and being “very easy” (which many aren’t), they’re accessible to casual players.

Johnbow - Posted - 09/02/2020:  15:10:19

Also, just in case you don’t know. Most of his scores to include Op.35 are available for free on IMSLP. Of course, many thousands of scores are located on that site - for all instruments, ensembles, etc.

I believe quite a number of the Segovia/Sor studies are pulled from op 35.  Segovia arranged them in a different order than Sor did originally.  

Edited by - Johnbow on 09/02/2020 15:12:51

mackeagan - Posted - 09/02/2020:  16:00:30

Peggy raised a good question--what to practice? I've got my playlist from the old Irish sessions, the tune sets from the C'Breton session, the new sets Charlie and I are working up, and the Grappelli jazz solos, and then there's those Mazas duets. So many tunes, so little time. I try to mix them over the course of a week, in between the "honey-dos". Keep on keepin' on, folks.

BanjoBrad - Posted - 09/02/2020:  16:13:03

Ah! When I was living in L.A. I had access to the entire Sol collection via the Santa Monica City Library - I think there were about 20-24 hardback volumes in the collection. Never got the chance to do more than browse through a couple while on lunch.