April seems to have brought a bit of a lull to my banjo and fiddle playing. This blog has also felt a bit stagnant. Is this just the April showers that will bring May flowers? I hope so. This month has seen my least amount of hours spent playing music this year. And yet, I'm still on track to reach my stretch goal for the year, thanks to cushion I built up during the last few months . That's the silver lining to this dreary cloud. And boy, has it been cloudy! While there have been splashes of sunshine in Northeast Ohio in April, it feels like we've gotten drenched with rain. The temperature has varied wildly from highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s. I'm ready for porch picking weather. That said, I have enjoyed a couple days of playing on the porch, one of which was jamming with my son, who recently started playing guitar. The neighborhood was treated to a duet of clawhammer banjo and electric guitar. (Don't worry, I have the acoustic guitar I'm going to ge
March has been a relatively quiet month. However, I've maintained my pace to achieve this year's playing time goal so far. Aided by a jam in January and a festival in February, I've actually managed to stay ahead of the curve. With a few days left in March, I have amassed a total of 42 hours of playing time (21.5 banjo, 20.5 fiddle). If I keep this up, I'll reach 168 hours, exceeding my stretch goal of 150 hours. Of course, a lot can change between now and December, but it's encouraging that I've maintained such a steady pace of playing banjo and fiddle these past three months. As a reminder, I played 41 hours on each instrument for a total of 82 hours last year, so my minimum goal is to reach 42 hours on each instrument (total: 84 hours) in 2024, and I'm already halfway to reaching that goal. However, my primary goal is to surpass my 2022 total by playing 62 hours on each instrument (total: 124 hours). As I already mentioned, I'm currently on pace to