The last two months signaled a turnaround in progress and mood. After a rough second quarter, I hit rock bottom in July with playing music. I lost focus on my goals for the year and barely played fiddle at all. I played the bare minimum to keep my daily streak going and that's about it.
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| Staying hydrated and working on rhythm. |
However, at the end of July, I decided to look into an online fiddle course to see if that might reignite my enthusiasm. Lo and behold my playing time skyrocketed over August and September to help me get back on track.
Although I may not be able to catch up to my fiddle playing time goal for 2020, I'm right on target for my banjo playing time goal that I set back in January. Embarking on this online fiddle course means that I've changed what tunes I'm learning this year. Sometimes plans change. I mean, no one planned on a global pandemic this year, did they?
Another bright spot this quarter was actually getting to play music with others. I attended a socially distanced jam, replete with masked musicians gathered around a fire pit. It was a little hard to hear everyone, but it was reinvigorating to be among my old-time community again.
Banjo
While I got behind on my banjo playing time goal in July, I was able to bounce back quickly. I needed 19 hours to catch up, and I finished the quarter with 19.5 for a total of 54.5 hours for the year.
I got away from learning songs, but I did learn "Give Me a Chaw of Tobacco," which was one of the tunes I learned on fiddle this quarter. I will try to work on one of the two remaining songs on my list for the remainder of 2020, either "Big Rock Candy Mountain" or "My Name Is John Johanna."
My banjo got a new look, which I wrote about in August. My poorly installed skin head from last year required replacement, so I reinstalled my old Fiberskyn head. Before doing so, I stained it with coffee. I like the look of it, but I'm still not happy with the sound. As soon as I can afford it, I'll get a new skin head.
Fiddle
By the end of July, I was 22.5 hours behind on my fiddle playing time goal progress for the year, but over the last two months I've managed to claw back a few hours. I finished the quarter with 45.5 hours for a total of 140.5 for the year. I'm still 17 hours behind my goal (about month's worth of playing), but I'm hoping I keep up the pace I've set the last two months to at least get close to my yearly goal.
Since starting the online fiddle course, which I'll provide a review of after I've gotten a little further, I've learned five new tunes, all in the cross G. Those tunes are "Give Me a Chaw of Tobacco," "Old Corn Liquor," "Sail Away Ladies," "Jenny Run Away in the Mud in the Night" and "Rabbit Where's Your Mammy?"
One thing I've been making a point of doing is recording myself before I move on to the next tune, so I've been keeping track of my progress and sharing with others to get some feedback. It's been a positive development that I hope to keep up with gong forward.
Blogging
My blog writing has suffered this quarter, with only five posts over the last three months. Without jams or festivals or reviews to write for The Old-Time Herald or what-have-you, I haven't had many topics to write about recently.
If there's something you want me to write about, feel free to reach out via the contact section in the menu or on Facebook to propose a topic.
Thank you all for reading. I hope you are staying safe and healthy. This year has been a struggle for so many people. We're lucky to have music as salve for the soul.
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