Progress Comes Slowly

Photo not in the camper but at a friend's bunkhouse

I've been doing better with practicing. Not as much as I'd like, but some is better than nothing. And it means I'm keeping my motivation up.
There's really so much I could be doing, but with training and walking dogs, fixing meals and cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping, there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. OK I confess. I do spend way too much time checking email and FB. I tend to leave them open so I can see if there's something new so I don't have to actually open and read them.
I'm also uncomfortable practicing, especially singing, when the door to the camper is open. My neighbor only about 8 feet away and I don't know if he's a music lover or not. Most people around here spend their days watching TV. I leave the door open sometimes to get some fresh air and to keep an eye on the dogs when they're out on their lines.
I do want to do more video recording. I've found that even old videos can come in handy. Like today I was working on D notes in the third position on bass. I had several videos of me on dulcimer which were mostly all in the key of D. I had a great little practice session with myself.

Jammin' on Skype

I got to jam with my sister today via Skype. It's not the best venue for duets but it's better than nothing.

The first issue we discovered is the time lapse. We can't really sing or play together since one of us is a couple of beats behind.
That doesn't bother us much though since we discovered that we can't hear both parts at the same time anyway. I mean, who ever is loudest gets the bandwidth. If I want to hear her play and sing, it works better if I just turn off my microphone. Otherwise, she'll be cutting in and out. Just have to remember to turn it back on.
We also get dropped calls. I thought it would be better since my WiFi was upgraded. We lost connections about 4-5 times today. It kept telling me I wasn't connected, but my computer told me I was. I hope the new version of Skype fixed that problem. That one is really annoying.
In spite of everything, we keep trying to play together. I can see what she is doing and I can try out my new songs. Maybe when she returns to the mainland things will go better. She's in Hawaii right now and the distance is a definite factor.
Still, with all the issues, it's great to see and talk to my sister. She's really getting pretty good on the banjo and her singing has really improved. I wish we lived closer so we could see each other from time to time, but in the meantime, we'll just jam on Skype.

Practicing

I've been struggling the past few days, today especially, with motivation to practice. Sometimes I get revved up and can practice for hours. When I learn something new, I do feel inspired to practice it a lot, but after a week or two, it turns into a chore. Days, like today, I can barely get through a one hour practice session. I try to take it as it comes but the fear is always that I will stop playing.
I also have symptoms of a condition called piriformis, or also known as a "pain in the butt." From what I understand, it's caused by the sciatia nerve and can be very uncomfortable, especially when sitting for a long time. I could try standing up with the ukulele and the bass uke, but not with the dulcimer. Standing and walking do not seem to help much anyway.
Another frustration is that I play three different instruments. I could easily practice one instrument several hours a day, but to practice each of them several hours a day would  be pretty difficult. I still have to take care of my dogs, clean my living space (at least a little), do laundry, grocery shop, cook and do some work. I really felt I was goofing off until I took a good, hard look at my daily chore list. I need to learn some time management skills.

Things that motivate me

• One of my best motivators is playing with other people. I do like to show off a new tune or riff. I've mentioned that I've been going to jam sessions recently.  I always feel like putting in the time in the "shed" after a jam session. I've missed a few sessions but plan to get back on track this coming weekend.
  I've also been playing with my sister long-distance by way of Skype. There are problems with using Skype. We can't hear both of us at the same time but it's better than nothing.
• I love to listen to really good players. That works really well for dulcimer, but I haven't seen a single bluegrass ukulele player. There are tons of good bass players out there but they generally play upright bass in bluegrass. Most electric bass players play other styles. I have only seen one person playing a bass uke with bluegrass players. So I have no one to emulate in my chosen style of music. I guess that makes me a trend-setter.
• Keeping notes and planning my practice sessions. I know this is a great way to make the best use of my practice time. It helps to keep track of what I'm working on. I can get lazy with this too.
• Reading blogs and articles on how other people motivate themselves to practice. Sometimes I read something that just triggers an "Oh, Wow" moment and that can motivate me for days.  Sometimes I spend too much time on the Internet and not enough actually practicing.

Well, tomorrow is another day.

Two tunes I am working on are After You've Gone and Ukulele Lady. They have quite a few chords and I needed to learn chords. I also already knew the melodies so that helped. Changing chords fast is still a struggle but it's getting easier. I found an old recording of After You've Gone by Coon Sanders Nighthawks (circa 1919) on YouTube that I can play along with. I think I'm going to break down and buy the song if not the whole album.

Starting From Here

 My sting bass fell apart. A friend said he could fix it. He never did. I left to move back home without it. I had sold my wonderful Fender fretless jazz bass to pay the mortgage. I lost my house anyway. I started really playing my lovely dulcimer, but being limited to one or two keys was frustrating. I wanted a ukulele. .By some miracle, I was given one. I'm having a blast with it.