Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[Resonator]

Think of it this way, music isn't so much a destination, as it is a journey... don't stop believing. 

But seriously Tom, playing music is something you start at one point, but never really finish. You pursue a path of improving and getting better. Every kind of instrument and chords, tab, notes, etc. is on Youtube, good place to look to get inspired to practice.

[SawyerTed]

Playing music should be fun, find the joy in it.  It's the joy that feeds the soul.  We think it's the music but the music is the vehicle, the joy for you and others is what does it.

Your luthier friend seems to know that.  Go with your gut, find the joy.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Thanks for all the encouragement. All those things you have said are things I have been told over and over by others and also told myself, and yet I still need to be reminded of it from time to time.
 I am more than blessed with support around here given all the pro musicians, instructors, luthiers, venues, studios, music camps, and events. I don't think I have paid for a 'lesson' in close to 45 years, since my first failed and very poor teacher. But I have enjoyed many many hours or lessons given by friends either formally or otherwise. As an example, the gal that runs The Hoot with her husband called me one day about 8 years ago. They also run many music camps at the same facility year round, each with a weekly theme (Cajon/Creole, guitar, banjo, northern music, Bluegrass, western swing music, etc.). They 've been running these camps for over 40 years. Jay Unger and Molly Mason started them and still oversees them all, Ruth is Jay's daughter and now here and her husband Mike help out with a lot of them when they are not touring.
 Anyway, Ruth calls me up and says "What are you doing the week of August3rd?". Well I was just going to be working. She said "go into work Monday and tell them you will be on vacation that week, you are coming to Southern Week this year, I want you there." Well, that was very nice and I would like to go, but I told her I couldn't afford the $1,200.00 or so and I was not a 'player' that belonged in that company. She said "who said anything about money? We don't want your money, we want to see you learn enough to get comfortable, you have the ear and the desire, you just gotta 'do it', so you just come and take classes and let me worry about the rest of it. You will have a blast and enjoy these people, just show up." SO I did and she was right and I tried some new stuff (claw hammer banjo) and by the end of the week I was feeling a little less intimidated. I still sucked, but I learned I could make progress if I put in the work.
 Very few people are blessed as I have have been in this way and I often think I am a fool for not taking advantage of it to the fullest. Since I have 'dropped out' I have forgotten everything I knew (which wasn't much) about chords, progressions, the circle of fifth's, and all that stuff. But every journey begins with one step, right?
 My problem is I just can't seem to parse it all out in my head and have it make sense, so I really think I just suck at it and that will never change. I'm OK with that. I like to play for myself, never play with others so I don't mess them up.
 I just have to make time to work on it and keep at it every day. That was hard to do when I retired and started the business. Now that I need more frequent breaks in the day, it might fit in better.
 I'm going to give it a shot, but first I have to build up those callouses, the mandolin is a real meat grinder on the left hand.

[Hilltop366]

It's funny how different people can do different things easier than others, I have a sister that is a very good piano player but needs sheet music or at least chord names written out to play then there is my oldest brother that can play guitar, bass and piano very well but can not read a bit of music but can improvise, learn a song by ear and seems to remember it easily, another sister that plays the saxophone and harmonica and can read music well and can also play by ear and improvise, another sister that plays piano and violin and sings that reads music and can improvise on the violin and a brother that is a drummer that does not read music but picked up some piano chords and can play blues and boggie woggie better than any of them, I started off on drums/percussion and started playing guitar over 30 years ago but seem to be mostly a rhythm player as well as some bass, I know some music theory and what most things mean on the page but can't seem to pick up note recognition, then I have a sister that does not play at all but enjoys music and can sing well but seldom does. 

[SawyerTed]

Similar to my family.  My brother can play any guitar, mandolin, banjo or steel guitar.   He reads music and is very talented but I hate to hear him sing. 

My sister has a BFA in music and plays woodwinds in the symphony and local big bands. She plays piano and several other instruments.

Me on the other hand?  I can play the radio...years ago I played fiddle and guitar.  Where my siblings love playing and performing, I never found a passion for playing music.  I'm a good listener though. 

[Old Greenhorn]

You reminded me of a funny (& true) little anecdote. Several years ago my friends were the opening act for Bela Fleck and his wife Abbie. They invited me to the gig knowing I could say hi to Bela again. For simplicity's sake Ruth just put me on the list as a band member but I didn't know that. So I roll up to the gate and gave the young lady my name and said I should be on 'the list'. She looked it up and got a little excited "OH!" she says "you are playing with The Mammals! What do you play?" She caught off guard and not expecting to be listed with the band, I stumbled and just said 'The Juke Box". The gal maybe was too young to know the term and she said "Wow that's cool, I've never heard one of those, I'll have to get over to catch that!" I smiled and drove on in.
 It kills me to be at a festival and watch some 8 year old kid tearing it up on banjo, guitar, or whatever and hanging right in with the pro players. It's almost unnatural and seems quite unfair to me.

[SawyerTed]

Since my instruments had laid unplayed for years, they weren't much good to anybody in the corner of the bedroom.

I donated 2 guitars, a mandolin, a fiddle, a dulcimer and a ukulele to our arts council.  The arts council sponsors a Junior Appalachian Musician (JAM) program as an after school activity.  They desperately need "starter" instruments.   

It's been a minor mission of mine to facilitate others donations.   

When we went to the year end performance, the joy in those children's faces was wonderful to see.  I was very impressed with the ability of those 8-12 year olds as they played many of the old favorite Appalachian traditional songs.  It was beautiful!  

[Nebraska]

I don't know, I played in elementary and high school. Was fair on a piano. I think peoples brains process sound in different ways.  Some folks  need music  and to visually see the notes and play the exact right note to get the song out. I could memorize songs but it was much repetition and practice, what I couldn't do was improvise from the keyboard to a tune in my head. I had to see the music. My younger siblings are vocally talented my brother sang in a traveling show choir in college, my sister could sing very well too. I on the other hand am much made fun of by my kids for my singing voice, nope can't carry a tune. There is something to natural ear hand coordination.   

[doc henderson]

I have played drums and dobro, as I mostly like to improvise.  I played guitar, and could figure songs out with a chord progression, but not much for solos and riffs.  Buddy Glenn in high school could do it all and we teamed up with a guy named Dan in college.  Dan used cords and could play by ear and improvise on keyboard. We had a band with two names one for rock and one for country.  We could take a request and play a song for the first time at a dance.  Glen even knew all the words to most of the songs.  he was introverted and stayed home playing much of his growing up years.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well Pat, that's a good point. Early on I was associated with a group that has grown way beyond my ability to help. They now travel the whole country collecting instruments, refurbishing them and distributing them to where they are needed most. It's a great group, all non-profit. It's called "Hungry For Music" and they do good work. So if anybody has instruments, these are great folks to contact. They are a shoe-string outfit and even there trucks and vans are donated and rebuilt. I have given them a few things and collected some for them. It gives one a good feeling.

 Doc, you are one of those guys who gets it, I am (apparently) not. I just keep plugging. I played enough today to get my fingers pretty sore, so that is a start. I had to go to town and get batteries for my tuners, I can't work without a tuner. Even the brand new ones I had in my gig bag were dead.  My old cheap mando does not have a very playable action so it's good to beat up the fingers a bit. An hour or so was enough to get me to the point I couldn't do it anymore. I'd like to play some more tonight, but just can't. This is going to take a while. But the tune I was working on is coming back and I am just working on the flow and getting the notes cleaner. It will take a while, probably a couple of months to get my better cheap mando back so by then my fingers will be toughened up a bit, but I know ti will take about a year to get them back to what I used to have which were tiny little clubs on each finger. Holy cow that hurt for a long time before it got better, but here I go again, once more into the abyss, maybe I can do it right this time.
 At some point maybe I will build the confidence to take that really nice banjo I invested in and set it up and try that again. It won't be the same without Bill, but I could give it a shot.
 Thanks again for the encouragement.

[Old Greenhorn]

By the way, do y'all know how to get the banjo player to stop playing?
Put sheet music in front of him.

[doc henderson]

well, I had a group in med school call the 'scrubs".  yes, a pun on Earl Scruggs.  we did folk, country and bluegrass.  had mandolin player now a rheumatologist.  Banjo player now a Dermatologist after the Airforce.  His wife was my dissection partner and now and internist who does mostly diabetes.  A short blonde singer who is now a psychiatrist.  her sister and Dad are as well.  Her dad worked at Meningers in Topeka.  another classmate had that last name and yes was related to the founder.  I played guitar and sang.  the calluses on my fingertips did eventually interfere with accurate drawing of blood gases and starting arterial lines.  sacrifice!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well you had a band with a lot of smarts and credentials. I hope everybody is still. playing. I will however respectfully say that I think the only folks with bigger callouses than mando players are 12 string players, bass players and cellists. Those double strings do a number. I have a guitar that I plunk from time to time when I am inspired by a good riff (I learn the riff and nothing else) and that never has challenged my fingers at all. Never tried a 12 string, but I assume it's the same as a mando with those double strings. Tiny frets on the mando too, so it will be nice to get my better cheap mando back with a professional setup on the neck action. Last time it was a dream to play after the reset. Right now I am suffering, but I know it will pass. Trying to do a session every 4 hours to speed things up. Of course, that might backfire on me.

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

   Did you all wear a standard uniform - one rubber glove?

[Resonator]

I owned a 12 string guitar for a while years ago, wasn't too different feeling on the fingers than regular guitar. Thing I didn't like about it was it took twice as long to re-string and tune, (and keep in tune), as a 6 string. Did have a really nice jangley sound, fit well playing John Denver songs or old folk music.
Side note on callouses, I worked with a friend of a customer putting up a steel panel building, he wore no gloves. He said working in a machine shop all his life his hands were so toughened up he seldom ever got cut.

[doc henderson]

his hands were leather gloves.  

Tom we would make a good pair.  I will play rhythm and chords, and you can do the riffs.  I got a little guitar and took lessons at age four.  My grandfather on my dad's side had polio and it was something he could do.  Not many farm jobs for a guy in the 30s that needed to be driven across the field and helped up on the tractor.  He had a good understanding of music and could play anything with strings.  He played a song on the harp the first time he saw one.  So, I got the guitar.  played that till 5th grace and took up the drums.  too hard to move a trap set in college and in apartments in med school.  Had an ovation and the dobro.  got a 12 string in residency.  It gives a nice full sound if you are playing solo.  Now the dobro at 1 am after a few beers.  It really helps me play better... or maybe I am just less critical.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I am sure the neck length has a lot to do with it. Short necks make for tight strings that are harder to deflect. I have cheap instruments and this one I am playing now is not so easy. I know the last time I got my other mando back with the neck reset it was a huge difference in playability. Things got a lot easier.
 When I started on the mando the first time I was in great pain for several months when I tried to play. Finally a friend gave me a set of flat wound string$ and that was a huge improvement until my fingers finally shed the first callouses and grew the next (permanent) ones. It's that shedding period I found most tough.

 When I was a full time shop rat I had really tough hands, you can't wear gloves in a machine shop, it's a no-no except for handling raw stock only. BUT, that would not have made my hands any better for playing if I tried at that time. Finger tips are something a machinist learns instinctively to keep out of the way. In fact it took me a long time to learn to put my finger tips on the strings, it was really hard for my brain to accept. 

[gspren]

He said working in a machine shop all his life his hands were so toughened up he seldom ever got cut.

I worked in machine shops all my working days and my hands bled a couple times every week. Now that I'm retired my hands bleed a couple times every week. Maybe I'm a slow learner.

[SwampDonkey]

My father had tough hands and a grip like a vice. Famous for saying, 'you can't do anything with mittens on'. 

Me, I don't. And I can't walk bare footed out doors either.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well as I said I spent Monday on Steve Poltz, it has cleared somewhat, but I still find new videos once in a while as I have time.   I did some epoxy fill work on Tuesday and tried to mow the lawn but could not keep the mower running. It's finally time to put some work into it, but not that day, I need to think on it. I spent more time on the Mando. Now my fingers are chop meat.
 Yesterday I had that big pile of junk that fell off the splitter from doing the firewood and had picked out most of the chunks and threw them in the box which is nearly full up already. Bill saw the pile and told me to wait for a machine to be handy that could pick and dump it in the swamp. I didn't want to wait that long so I just set the pile on fire and tended and raked it all afternoon to get it burned down. It took all afternoon and part of the evening to get it down to a small pile. This morning I raked it over a few times and now it is just dust. I took the day off from the mando yesterday, my fingers hurt pretty good.
 This morning I pushed the lawn tractor from the shed/hut up to the shop brought it in and took the carb off and apart. I couldn't find anything 'wrong'. I cleaned what I could and had thought I had a hole in the diaphragm but I just could not find one. The issue is it's not drawing gas into the carb. If I dribble in gas with a syringe I can keep it running until I run out, but the carb will not pull the gas up. I was looking for a leak or a plug. No joy. Tried to find a rebuild kit, also no joy. I can but a cheap card for 50 bucks, but that's not my preference. SO I put it back together and changed out the filter. Got it started with a little help and it ran fine, it still hunts on low idle, but it cut the lawn for a couple hours without a burp. It's just a mower, I just want it to mow and it does that. I pulled down the mando today and holy cow, my fingers were still pretty touchy, but I stuck it out for a half hour or so. It will come in time. 
 I have a show on Saturday if the rain holds off, so tomorrow is prep day, pull the trailer and clean it and get the odds and ends ready.  This one, as with many, will be a little different. I have a show every weekend for the next 4 weeks and that should finish off the season. I just hope I get some decent sales in there somewhere, it's going to be a long winter or so I'm told.

[Old Greenhorn]

Geez Louise! I am going to have to do a lot of thinking on this craft show stuff over the winter. I wanted it to generate about a third of my meager income over the year and this year was a 'test year' to try a bunch of stuff and see if I could figure out what works. But I tell ya, it's frustrating. These organizers are more of a source of frustration than I expected.
 Tomorrow's show is a 'pop-up sale' at at locally made goods store. They plan on 4 or 5 vendors. I drove out there last week and had a meeting with the organizer about where I would be, it's not a lot of space to work with and they work under the general assumption that each vendor has a 10x10 tent and a few tote bins of merch to set out, which all fits in their car. I don't fit that 'profile'.  I explained this to them and we talked it through and they proposed I consider using their covered porch, so I looked it over and although not ideal, it was workable, I would just have to figure out another arrangement for my stuff. The last show they did, they had a DJ on the porch, but they assured me, that was not the case this time and I could have it. We discussed this on 2 occasions. For over a week I have been laying out a plan in my head, at least I wouldn't need the canopies, saving me some time and work.
 I've been watching the weather too, it looks 'iffy' for tomorrow but should hold off raining for most of the day, it will be cooler and overcast, not ideal.
 So tonight I am sitting down to dinner at 6:45 and I get a text "weather looks like it will hold for tomorrow and we should be good. By the way, I forgot I have a DJ for this event so he will need the porch, we'll have to find you another spot. I won't tell you the words that came out of my mouth but I have to question how somebody "forgets' who they have scheduled for an event how how they think telling me around sundown on the night before the event can be a good thing. I am not happy because any of the other ground is not flat and I have no idea how we are going to fit this trailer in and make it work comfortably. Suffice to say I am not a happy camper and likely will not sleep tonight worried about how this will work out tomorrow. I might be wasting another day.
 One of the biggest shows I do is next weekend and I had been offered a spot by an old friend who told me last year he would not be there this year, so I should ask for his spot, which I did. Well, turns out he will be there this year and gets his old spot and there are new organizers (who apparently can't read and understand the letter I attached explaining my booth requirements, which I paid double for). They called me again this week to talk about where to put me after I had the same conversation with a different gal 3 weeks ago. At least for that show I can pull my trailer in the day before the show and get stuff roughly setup, so we will have time to mess around if we need to. But it still adds to the stress of dealing with these groups. Every group presents a challenge. I have 4 shows in the next 4 weeks, then I think I am done for the season and will park the trailer for the winter and start building inventory, but for what, I don't really know yet.
 I'd like to figure out a way to sell my stuff and cut out these show people, except for a few select shows. I have no firm ideas yet, just spitballing at this point.
 It is SO dang frustrating some days. People suck.

[aigheadish]

Stick with it Tom! I feel like the pop-up show will be good for you (hopefully it already is!). Keep in mind that this is your "job" now and is likely a lot less stressful or whatever than a real job. 

[doc henderson]

Tom, you are prob at the event.  Can you find other ways to promote your custom wood service.  I know you do some online stuff.  maybe make a push on craigslist and or other low-cost options.  that would get work with a sale already and can be done all winter.  

[thecfarm]

Yes Tom, we have done shows before. 
Got the cover up up and started to put items out and had to move 30 feet. We were not the only ones that had to move.
Seem like the ones that are running the show, don't talk to each other.

[21incher]

I think next show you should leave a place to sit on one of your chairs under your tent and play music with a hat on the ground for tips. See which makes more your music or your woodworking and go from there. It's retirement and should  be fun.