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Staying Ahead of the Curve: Q1 Report

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 beat my stretch goal of playing 75 hours on each instrument for a total of 150 hours.

Let's take a closer look at the numbers ... 

2024 Q1 Report

In past years, March has tended to be a big slowdown month for me. While I definitely played less this month than in January and February, it's encouraging that I've played enough to keep pace with my goals. It definitely helped that I got off to a great start in January with a total of 18 hours played. 

Total hours played: 42 hours

Banjo total: 21.5 hours

Fiddle total: 20.5 hours

Monthly average: 7.16 hours on banjo, 6.83 hours on fiddle (14 hours total)

Projected 2024 total: 168 hours 

Jams attended: January jam at a coffee house in Ashtabula County, Ohio

Festivals attended: Lake Erie Folk Festival at Case Western Reserve University in February

Tunes learned: "Indian Ate the Woodchuck" (Key of C - fiddle) and "Forked Deer" (Key of D - banjo)

Notes: I surpassed 1,500 hours on fiddle in February. I'm currently working on "Saturday Night Breakdown" on fiddle. March marked my 16th banjoversary. 

Vinyl Hunter 19: The Big Red One

In February, I added another album to my old-time music collection, scoring the Highwoods String Band, Fire on the Mountain (aka, the "red album") from Last Exit Books and Coffeehouse in Kent, Ohio. This is actually the second time I found a Highwoods album at this shop, a couple years ago I found No. 3 Special here. (Now that I think about, it's odd I didn't write about that.) 

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