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Post by joachim on Jul 4, 2021 1:27:53 GMT -6
I shouldn't be the one starting a weekly update, because I played less that an hour last week. I can already tell that I am set back on the difficult licks I was working on.
My new job has taken all my my mental focus this last month, but maybe now I am getting ahead of it, so I hope I will be able to put my mind on playing again. On the upside, it's probably healthy to see just how fast it goes downhill with a long break this; a big kick in the butt.
@bruce, @grampa: how about trying for a new deadline with the licks in 1 or 2 weeks?
Happy 4th of July to you guys in US!
Joachim
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Post by wannaplayblues on Jul 4, 2021 2:00:10 GMT -6
last week I posted 2 videos and things were going well...
this week, not so much. There's been a birthday, various things to sort out and not much free time. Still, managed to record a special piece yesterday just for today - see the other thread for that.
Here's to hoping this coming week is better for guitar
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Post by grampalerxst on Jul 4, 2021 4:52:37 GMT -6
... @bruce, @grampa: how about trying for a new deadline with the licks in 1 or 2 weeks?
Realistically, I don't think I'm going to get fully back into the swing of things until at least the latter part of September. Everything is packed away, or will be by the end of the holiday weekend. I'll have one guitar with me. No amp, no Helix, no computer to record onto. Just unplugged electric twanging for me. You guys should probably proceed at whatever pace suits you. I'll keep working on stuff and will have to get caught up in the autumn. Sorry for getting myself sidelined like this. The good news is once I'm semi-settled I should have considerably more time available to me.
I barely got an hour of "practice" in all week. I did get 45 minutes of fun playing last night, wanted one last go with my Helix before I pack it up today or tomorrow. Still grinding on BLYCU 50 and 51. Doing almost no playing all week actually seemed to help with them. My poor fingers/fretting hand were taking a beating. My fun playing was actually fun, and I was sharper than normal--I think it was also because my hands weren't totally worn down.
I just realized I didn't even make a drive by hello last week!
The short term future of my guitar playing is pretty uncertain. Next weekend I'm hauling all my gear save one guitar to store at a family member's home. Or as close as I can get to all of it by stuffing my vehicle to the gills.
Bruce, you retired yet?
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Post by bluesbruce on Jul 4, 2021 5:55:51 GMT -6
... @bruce, @grampa: how about trying for a new deadline with the licks in 1 or 2 weeks?
Bruce, you retired yet? Wednesday (last day of June) was it, and now I am officially retired! I did actually play at least some every day since then. These past couple of months have resulted in loss of my calluses (as well as deterioration of my already limited skills), so it's almost like starting over (so no multi-hour long sessions just yet). Yeah, our BLYCU challenge has sort of taken a beating, with all three of us facing some major life upheavals recently. I honestly have not even looked at these next two licks, so setting a due date 2 or even 3 weeks from now would get me back in the saddle. Spending some well-earned time at our lake place now, it's kind of cool to think I don't really have to be back for work - like ever! I do have a guitar here, and can always plug it into my laptop if needed, in a pinch.
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Post by jack1982 on Jul 4, 2021 7:38:16 GMT -6
Congrat's on the retirement Bruce! Pretty sure it's customary to get yourself a present to celebrate, and considering it's an entire lifetime's worth of work - we're probably talking Fender or Gibson Custom Shop here Well I got Little Wing posted and I'm actually pretty proud of it (I'll wait and see what I think of it a month from now lol.) Other than that it was a bad week - 90 minutes of practice total I think. I've got an uncle who's been in a nursing home for a couple of years with dementia. He took a turn for the worse Monday and passed away yesterday. He was a super nice guy, I've been trying to give plenty of moral support to my aunt. Then on Thursday I managed to scratch my eyeball - I was cutting some brush, pulled back on a branch and let go of it - of course it snapped back across my eye. Went to Urgent Care and they got it all washed out etc. It's getting a little better now, but I'm in no shape to be reading tab and starting on a new song just yet. I see they took down the "Guitar Backing Tracks" site...how nice. Was kind of thinking of doing "Stranglehold" by Ted Nugent next, but we'll see.
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Post by joachim on Jul 4, 2021 8:00:49 GMT -6
Bruce, you retired yet? Wednesday (last day of June) was it, and now I am officially retired! I did actually play at least some every day since then. These past couple of months have resulted in loss of my calluses (as well as deterioration of my already limited skills), so it's almost like starting over (so no multi-hour long sessions just yet). Yeah, our BLYCU challenge has sort of taken a beating, with all three of us facing some major life upheavals recently. I honestly have not even looked at these next two licks, so setting a due date 2 or even 3 weeks from now would get me back in the saddle. Spending some well-earned time at our lake place now, it's kind of cool to think I don't really have to be back for work - like ever! I do have a guitar here, and can always plug it into my laptop if needed, in a pinch. Should we call it 3 weeks from now then? That would give us time to slowly get back into a practice routine.
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Post by bluesbruce on Jul 4, 2021 8:23:39 GMT -6
Should we call it 3 weeks from now then? That would give us time to slowly get back into a practice routine. Sounds good to me, Joachim. Sounds kind of like Grampa may be on the sidelines for a while. Let's say Sunday, July 25.
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Post by Phil on Jul 4, 2021 8:45:12 GMT -6
Bruce: Congratulations on the retirement!
T-Bone: Jack is looking at me because I never came through on at least 3 projects that I proposed. I had a decent week. I haven't done any regular technique practice in a long, long time, but I have been spending time exploring the fret board, chord inversions, and learning how chords go together with melody. So I'm at least doing something constructive. Need to start focusing on technique again. Knowing this stuff doesn't do any good if you can't play it. For those interested, I posted a link in the Jazz forum to the latest Frank Vignola collaboration, "Take the A Train". 19 guitarists from 9 different countries participated. I'm really happy with my short solo and how it fits into the mix of solos that range from struggling beginners to a few very advanced level players. It's fascinating to see how each person's 8-bar solo is so different from everyone else's over the same chord changes.
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Post by grampalerxst on Jul 5, 2021 4:34:25 GMT -6
Wednesday (last day of June) was it, and now I am officially retired! I did actually play at least some every day since then. These past couple of months have resulted in loss of my calluses (as well as deterioration of my already limited skills), so it's almost like starting over (so no multi-hour long sessions just yet). Yeah, our BLYCU challenge has sort of taken a beating, with all three of us facing some major life upheavals recently. I honestly have not even looked at these next two licks, so setting a due date 2 or even 3 weeks from now would get me back in the saddle. Spending some well-earned time at our lake place now, it's kind of cool to think I don't really have to be back for work - like ever! I do have a guitar here, and can always plug it into my laptop if needed, in a pinch. Congrats, Bruce!! 16 more workdays for me. I was talking to my dad on the phone yesterday and he mentioned it was an empty sort of feeling for him finishing off his last few weeks before retirement. I thought it was an apt description of what it's beginning to feel like for me. I've been fortunate having been with the same employer since I got out of school and except for a few short isolated stretches here or there my job's never been a bad one. I'll "only" be 57, and growing up during an era when people worked until "retirement age" without question unless they became disabled or otherwise too ill to continue, I wonder about the wisdom of it. That's a lot of money to leave on the table, as they say. But this way I'll have a chance to spend more time with my dad while we're both still around, and as far as how I've handled my finances I've been myopically focused on this juncture for almost the last ten years, so I should be okay with some breathing room in that regard.
I'm also planning to take a trip up to my hideout (sort of up in Jack's neck of the woods) for whatever is left of the season to decompress, take a deep breath, and get used to the idea that I'm in the phase of my life I'd been working so hard to accomplish. For such an explicit plan, being a few steps from the finish line seems awfully surreal. Then as the gentle Minnesota winter approaches it's back down to Illinois to start putting together a plan for my new home base. I've got a house ID'd, and if that works out I'll have space for a music room separate from my "office" at least (i.e., in the basement).
To get back on topic, I do feel bad about my upcoming hiatus from the BLYCU gang. In part it's due to poor planning--I'm woefully behind where I hoped to be in terms of having my house packed up and ready to put up for sale. I'm babbling here because I dread getting back to it, haha. I'll keep up with the happenings as best I can (up at the hideout I'm mostly off grid). I do almost all of my practicing unplugged so I should be able to make some progress on the BLYCU licks once I get over the hump on the house here. Then once I get something set up later in the fall I can hopefully begin getting caught up with the recordings.
My intent is to make guitar playing and music in general one of my primary retirement activities, if for no other reason to keep my brain active. I'm also hoping to get over some of the humps that I feel are keeping me from doing most of the things I want to do with the instrument. One last hurrah, as they say. I'll probably have a manifesto on that in the coming weeks.
Welp, I've procrastinated long enough this morning. Time to start getting busy. 20 minutes with Licks 50 and 51 52 and 53, then packing. Been working on books, and it's beginning to feel like I'm mostly moving a semi full of guitar books and a couple odd pieces of furniture and some clothes if there's room.
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Post by bluesbruce on Jul 5, 2021 7:55:03 GMT -6
Grampa, sounds like you will be the next forum retiree in pretty short order! And even though you are a few days behind me, you are actually pulling it off several years ahead of me (I'm 60). That's interesting about leaving money on the table, but I see it as the cost I'm paying to "buy" those 7 years of my life ('cause the gubmint says I'm supposed to work til I'm 67). I think working until you've got the means to maintain what you consider to be a reasonable life style makes the most sense, and sounds like you've done a good job of this. My reasonable lifestyle probably does not include the Gibson and Fender Custom Shop, but a good LP Clone might be a consideration... I'm with you in that I see music as one of my primary retirement activities - can be a social activity, can be a solitary activity, always something more to learn, always new skills to undertake, etc. I don't think the full reality of it has hit me yet. It's just been kind of like a long 4th of July weekend. But, you know, I don't have to be back to work tomorrow, or the next day, or next week... I think I'm going to like this!
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Post by Phil on Jul 5, 2021 8:18:43 GMT -6
Grampa, sounds like you will be the next forum retiree in pretty short order! And even though you are a few days behind me, you are actually pulling it off several years ahead of me (I'm 60). That's interesting about leaving money on the table, but I see it as the cost I'm paying to "buy" those 7 years of my life ('cause the gubmint says I'm supposed to work til I'm 67). I think working until you've got the means to maintain what you consider to be a reasonable life style makes the most sense, and sounds like you've done a good job of this. My reasonable lifestyle probably does not include the Gibson and Fender Custom Shop, but a good LP Clone might be a consideration... I'm with you in that I see music as one of my primary retirement activities - can be a social activity, can be a solitary activity, always something more to learn, always new skills to undertake, etc. I don't think the full reality of it has hit me yet. It's just been kind of like a long 4th of July weekend. But, you know, I don't have to be back to work tomorrow, or the next day, or next week... I think I'm going to like this! Whenever someone says to me on a Friday, "Have a nice weekend." I always respond, "I'm retired. Everyday is the weekend."
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Post by grampalerxst on Jul 5, 2021 8:20:44 GMT -6
Bruce, that's exactly the calculus I considered: How much would I pay after I'm 67 for 10 additional years of "free" time at my current health and physical capacity. The latter is not as robust as I'd like, but that's some thing I intend to work on. Either way, I'd probably pay a lot more than what I'd get after Uncle's Joe and the State dip their bills into it slogging it out in the office for 10 more years. I'm actually eyeing one of those new Epiphone Alex Lifeson models which go for about $900 versus the $6700 plus Gibson wanted for their version the year or two they built them c. 2013. But I probably won't because it has s floating bridge and nickel fret wire. The former is more/less a deal breaker, and the latter just puts it over the top. Any guitar I play daily with traditional frets I trash them in under a year. Just too much of a headache. Frets on my stainless-fretted guitars will probably outlast me.
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Post by joachim on Jul 10, 2021 1:50:31 GMT -6
Bruce, that's exactly the calculus I considered: How much would I pay after I'm 67 for 10 additional years of "free" time at my current health and physical capacity. The latter is not as robust as I'd like, but that's some thing I intend to work on. Either way, I'd probably pay a lot more than what I'd get after Uncle's Joe and the State dip their bills into it slogging it out in the office for 10 more years. I'm actually eyeing one of those new Epiphone Alex Lifeson models which go for about $900 versus the $6700 plus Gibson wanted for their version the year or two they built them c. 2013. But I probably won't because it has s floating bridge and nickel fret wire. The former is more/less a deal breaker, and the latter just puts it over the top. Any guitar I play daily with traditional frets I trash them in under a year. Just too much of a headache. Frets on my stainless-fretted guitars will probably outlast me. Grampa, I envy both you and Bruce! Regarding a Les Paul, get one of these: www.sweetwater.com/store/search.php?s=gibson+les+paul+standard+50sA fitting retirement gift. Beautiful craftsmanship, solid body, and at a reduced price. Your biggest dilemma will be to choose between the gorgeous Honey Burst or Gold Top. I really want the Burst, I had a traditional model like that, but the neck was a little too chunky - I sold it without loss, though. When I turn 50 in not-so-long, I might buy one.
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