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Author Topic: lost enthusiasm  (Read 11346 times)

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Owen Woods

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #60 on: September 07, 2011, 04:01:41 PM »

Yes. I've been playing piano for 17 years and I am nowhere near mastering it. I never will.
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Randal Scott

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #61 on: September 07, 2011, 04:19:07 PM »

I'm actually seriously contemplating getting rid of (or maybe storing them) instruments so I have a maximum of two as I really don't have time to put in the practice on them they need. And I could concentrate on the 2 remaining instruments.
As its less 'lost enthusiasm' more 'stressing out'. Its like I'm constantly trying to find some time to play but then having other stuff crowd it out.

I can totally relate.  I've been teaching myself new instruments for 35 or more years.  Ever since I saw a saxophone when I was 8 years old, I never saw a musical instrument that didn't captivate me and compel me to learn to play.  I amassed around 70 instruments (not counting individual harmonicas and percussion pieces) of every kind--most were kept in closets, but every room of the house had instruments scattered about and I enjoyed playing them.  The problem is that I never practiced them--I only played them and learned repertoire.  I often played in up to five different bands playing different instruments in each.  It got confusing, but fun: everything from dixie-style ragtime to flamenco, scandi, ITM, cajun..  This only stopped a few years ago when I was considering purchasing a sitar I was fooling with--enough!

What I wanted was to be an artist, but whenever I made a commitment to concentrate on one or two, I got a call to perform on the instrument I'd just eschewed!  The only solution here was to get rid of the instruments and decline calls to perform or play in bands.  A couple of years ago I traded half of my instruments for some good saxes and clarinets.  Still, the compulsion persists--yesterday I was fooling with a dilruba.

What I love is music--and all instruments are tools to express myself musically.  I love the sound and feel of them all.  So, I try to just follow the music--let it take me where it will.  People like to hear an accordian, so I squeeze it.
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zubz

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #62 on: September 07, 2011, 04:38:06 PM »

Yes. I've been playing piano for 17 years and I am nowhere near mastering it. I never will.

38 years playing ... nope, me neither. Always good fun though.
I always thought I'd want a piano as my desert island luxury item. Only 2.5 years into the melodeon and its challenging that assumption ...
 :o did I really just say that?  ::)
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Larry

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #63 on: September 07, 2011, 04:46:01 PM »

for Sarah, I have watched you from your early beginnings and your are doing just fine. If you will Sarah, just do your best to play as often as you can and wait as it will all fall into place and you will be happy in the end.  I am a very old person [70] and for ten years I have sought
some consolation in my efforts. Believe me it comes...many days of despair but if you really
like the instrument "it will come". If the melodeon is a friend to you don't every put it down.
a soul mate is what it can be and when it does become a mate you will play better than you ever thought.
Larry
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Clive Williams

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #64 on: September 07, 2011, 04:56:48 PM »

I confess to having sold a guitar (which I *never* got anywhere with) and a bouzouki is upstairs in its case (not very good at that either), not having come out since the kids were born. There was never going to be any time to practice either of them. The piano stayed though.... it was harder to stick in a case on top of the wardrobe! But, I still don't play that much either...

Randal Scott

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #65 on: September 07, 2011, 05:24:04 PM »

I don't know whether it's bad form to provide links to other forums...I hope not, as it might help to observe others' struggles and approaches across genres.

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?166099-Musician-s-block
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Owen Woods

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #66 on: September 07, 2011, 05:40:09 PM »

Years since I've been on SOTW :P That's an instrument which I failed to learn properly.
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Randal Scott

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #67 on: September 07, 2011, 06:10:43 PM »

I started on sax at age 8, and returned to it 40 years later!  :|glug

LT, forgot to mention, or reiterate rather--as I'm sure it's mentioned again and again.  Many of us--or all of us--play music because we have to.  It's just what we do, a natural activity.  Leo Kottke said something that I totally related to for a while: he plays guitar because it gives him something to do woth his hands.  He also said (being of the bipolar-type disposition that so many creative types are) that you create when you're manic, and you edit when you're depressed.

It's just a thing.  Many of us are obsessed, and others are healthier about the whole thing.  Wherever you are is no problem.  If it makes you happy to play, it's great,  If it makes you crazy, you're apt to learn something from it.  As they say, it's all bad  (I mean good).
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Martin J

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #68 on: September 08, 2011, 09:18:42 AM »

Echoing earlier posts, I too have played a fair number of instruments but found my performance lacking.  The melodeon suits my brain.  I still read music onto a piano if I'm unsure of how something goes.  I always say I don't read music nor do I play a piano both for the same reason - no competence at either so I spend most of my time trying to improve what I'm already good at in an attempt to be the best, a good target even if I can't get there.  My guitar playing is quite adequate to accompany singing which suits me.  I can't play jigs reels or any other tunes on it but that doesn't matter, it's good at its function.

Loosing enthusiasm is a sign that you have reached a personal goal and not set your next one.  My advice is to choose a piece you can't play just because of one or two difficult passages in it.  Learn the tune and those difficult passages become part of your building blocks of learning taking you to a new level.  The joy is that there seems to be no limit to the number of steps you take.
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #69 on: September 08, 2011, 08:21:22 PM »

It's also important to remember, it seems to be tidal when learning - coming and going all the time  :D
I spent a lot of time over the summer hols trying to learn a particular couple of tunes, one annoyingly simple but somehow it won't stick. I then turned up at my 'first thursday of the month' session and realised some tunes I'd already got to grips with had also gone on holiday and were not in the brain when I came to play them  :-[
Coupled with a old friend returning from Up Country ( really good ) and being the main box player that evening, so of course brought his new repertoire, of which I knew none ( really bad from my playing point of view )
....so I left feeling though I'd gone backwards too.

I felt a bit down, but then realised I've not stabilised my playing yet, so my learning process is still uppermost in my brain and if I practise one thing, the other goes....... but at least a couple are sticking quite well.
Wonder if I tipped superglue in my ear it might help retain some tunes in the brain  ???
Life's a mystery.......
keep yer chin up
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

sqwzboxstudent

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #70 on: September 08, 2011, 09:46:11 PM »

one thing that gets me down, is that to keep up with my family, i have had to cram in a lifetimes worth of melodeon playing and experience and tunes in about 5 years of practice. i know for a fact that one member of the family wont play for months, yet he can switch it on after 9 pints of beer! thats what i cant get my head around!!!! ???
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Pete Dunk

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #71 on: September 08, 2011, 10:55:38 PM »

Tommy, he's done that for years. I've played guitar for 40 years or more so I can leave it alone for months on end and still know I can blow an average player out of the window without practise. One of these days though, I'll pick it up and everything will have gone as sure as eggs are eggs. Don't be frustrated by good players, learn from them.  ;)
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Randal Scott

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #72 on: September 13, 2011, 03:24:50 AM »

Well, as reported upthread, I recently gained a renewed enthusiasm for the box (so I guess this is slightly off topic--but thanks to gypsylad et. al!).  I have been having such fun...seems mashing is a nice complement to blowing horns, and it may even get me back into fiddle playing a bit, as I found myself studying on some fiddle on the radio today.  

Ah the sweetness of life.  We boxists ( or free-reed players -- I suppose a more elegant way to put it) are lucky to have our reeds--a certain essential element of the universe (I speculate that this is musician's mid-life crisis [or life omni-crisis] where--being a string player for some 35 years...reeds feel so darn good)
« Last Edit: September 13, 2011, 05:32:34 AM by catty »
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Randal Scott

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #73 on: September 13, 2011, 03:50:51 AM »

( though I did discover a remedy for colic in my newborn baby was to walk around with her strapped onto me and playing tunes seemed to quietened her, so that was a few months of regular playing! She has now taken up English Concertina and is a lovely player. Wonder why??  :D)  
Also, the opportunity to play out whether at a regular session or after dancing out also went.

This is very nice--about how habits and traits are perpetuated.

Also, yes, I too have forgone playing out a bunch--which I kkept busy withh last year.  But this year, I spent time not pursuing playnig out opportunites, and got to do some study for myself.  I think much of the impetus came with the acquisition of my horn--which did coincidentally coincide with my resignation from my last full-time band.  So I have had a splendid holiday with my horns this summer.  And now with late summer comes this renewal of my accordians.  I even got out the big PA and listened to its beautiful voice today.  

But what got me to thinking re -penny's post , is, what motivates and inspires us to, well, practice.  So many different experiences, but too so many common.  Especially at 50 years, I'm certain many of us have been around the block with many of the same distractions, impediments, whatever...   :|glug

but  as -penny said, "I do regret hardly playing for such a period of time, but on reflection, other things outside of my control had a profound effect on my spare time. I try not to beat myself up about lost time, and am glad I've got back to playing."

On more than one occasion, I've been told: you'll always have your music.  And then I've found--it has a tangible value, as well as more profound. I decided to align myself with it serioulsy fr the past 10 years.  How lucky am I.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2011, 05:33:47 AM by catty »
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sqwzboxstudent

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #74 on: September 13, 2011, 06:36:49 PM »

this reminds me of my little boy, finlay. the best thing to get him to sleep was bob canns "proper job" album. you cant buy class !
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Marje

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #75 on: September 14, 2011, 10:02:50 AM »

Tommy, your Finlay has better taste than my grandson (also a Finlay). When he and his sister got stroppy in the back of the car, the music that always seemed to soothe them was James Blunt. Later (when he was three) he moved on to Mama Mia, although not for sleep purposes, and used to dance alone in his room to this for ages. I don't think, though, that I'll be able to persuade his parents to introduce him to Bob Cann - their tastes are more conventional.
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Marje

Randal Scott

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #76 on: September 16, 2011, 10:23:31 PM »

Ah, the wonderful box!  Not only have I been playing the dickens out of all of mine (and PA to boot!), but this reinvigoration of folk music has got me whacking my hammered dulcimer again as well..

The sad part is...I can't get motivated to play my horns now.  Shall I just read Maimonides, or what?   :|glug

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Ebor_fiddler

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #77 on: September 17, 2011, 12:31:06 AM »

What has he got to do with music?  :||:
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Randal Scott

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Re: lost enthusiasm
« Reply #78 on: September 17, 2011, 12:41:15 AM »

What has he got to do with music?  :||:

Overtly?  Nothing I guess..   :|glug
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