This is just depressing (guitarwise)...

Jack-Flash-Jr · 2010-02-15T15:49:04+00:00

I don't mean to use the forum for therapy but here's the current situation: 6 to 8am fun with the toddlers, work takes up the day (punctuated by tea times of sheer GFSA joy), 5 to 7 is fun fun fun with the toddlers, 7 and after is sheer exhaustion. I am too tired to practice. Oh not to have kids, be independently wealthy and not beholden to movies with the wife. On the other hand I love my kids, wife and job. I feel skills fade away when I miss a week (going on a month) of cradling the guitar for more than 10 minutes at a time. Hints and tips appreciated.

Riaan

Same problem here, time... With the pressures of the job and family life, late nights is the only time I have to play, once everyone has gone to bed. I'm lucky if I can start playing by 22:00. But there's another problem...even though I have the ideal setup - a dedicated music room which is relatively soundproof - SELF DISCIPLINE is my problem... :-[

I'm forever fiddling and tweaking things, instead of practicing. The combination of Sonar and Guitar Rig, and various plugins, all of which can be tweaked, is just too distracting. I often think that I should have started off with just an amp and one pedal, something like an Ibanez Tube Screamer, and just play, play and play. I could've added more pedals as time went on and the need arose. Now I've started off with every imaginable hardware simulator and recording gear, and it's just too easy to become distracted.

But I'm working on that...

Bob-Dubery

Riaan wrote Same problem here, time... With the pressures of the job and family life, late nights is the only time I have to play, once everyone has gone to bed. I'm lucky if I can start playing by 22:00. But there's another problem...even though I have the ideal setup - a dedicated music room which is relatively soundproof - SELF DISCIPLINE is my problem... :-[

I have a similar problem (and I don't even have Guitar Rig). A couple of years ago we got burglarised during the summer. I'd been getting accustomed to practicing out on the back stoep where it was a little cooler, but for a while we had to have the broken security gate welded shut until the insurance paid out and we could get a new gate made.

So I started practicing in the garage, plonked a stool down between two cars, opened the garage doors to get a breeze going and went for it. Nothing to distract me there, and I got some good practicing done.

Another thing I should revert back to.

Corne

Does your wife make supper?
Tell her you'll make supper three times a week.(Mon, Wed, Fri)
Those night you make a nice fire and braai some meat, Chicken, fish.
Don't use charcoal, use wood (takes longer to burn out)
While you're waiting for the fire do die out to braai. Have a little jam session next to the fire.
***Please note (that is what I would do)

Squonk

@ Jack

Start doing the weekly competitions. Gets the creative juices going. Also opens up the whole world of recording ?

Jack-Flash-Jr

Squonk wrote @ Jack

Start doing the weekly competitions. Gets the creative juices going. Also opens up the whole world of recording ?

Hmmm...

Fingerpicker

You guys are going to love retirement....

An hour at gym
Two hours on drills, exercises
Two hours on theory
Work on your newest song
Record what you want
Work out what songs you are going to play at TJ's, add your bits to them

Then all of a sardine the wife comes home from work and all hell breaks loose, did you take the food out ? did you buy milk? what have you been doing all day? etc etc

There is NOTHING better than an interest in music for retirement.

In my working days I used to travel 5 weeks out of six. If I travelled by car, the geet went with. I remember staying at the "International Guesthouse" in Oshakati during the war years. Every now and again the .50 Brownings would open up with occasional automatic cannon fire and you had to crawl into a miniature concrete bunker that looked like a big kennel in your room. (protection against mortar bombs) I soon found out that there wasn't room for the guitar as well...
I had my first compliment in Oshakati. I was playing at about 10pm and the guy in the room next door, behind very thin walls, shouted, "sit af daai f@kk#en radio!!!!" I shouted back "Thanks!".

My practice time, during the working years was 10-12pm, tired as hell.

Jack-Flash-Jr

Fingerpicker wrote You guys are going to love retirement....

An hour at gym
Two hours on drills, exercises
Two hours on theory
Work on your newest song
Record what you want
Work out what songs you are going to play at TJ's, add your bits to them

Then all of a sardine the wife comes home from work and all hell breaks loose, did you take the food out ? did you buy milk? what have you been doing all day? etc etc

There is NOTHING better than an interest in music for retirement.

In my working days I used to travel 5 weeks out of six. If I travelled by car, the geet went with. I remember staying at the "International Guesthouse" in Oshakati during the war years. Every now and again the .50 Brownings would open up with occasional automatic cannon fire and you had to crawl into a miniature concrete bunker that looked like a big kennel in your room. (protection against mortar bombs) I soon found out that there wasn't room for the guitar as well...
I had my first compliment in Oshakati. I was playing at about 10pm and the guy in the room next door, behind very thin walls, shouted, "sit af daai f@kk#en radio!!!!" I shouted back "Thanks!".

My practice time, during the working years was 10-12pm, tired as hell.

I truly do look forward to retirement, but I don't want to defer progress in my playing (even if it's for my own entertainment) for the next 20 years... ?

Riaan

You guys are going to love retirement....

I want to see the pension scheme that can accommodate GAS in addition to the cost of living... ?

But yes, I can imagine music being the perfect thing to do after retirement. In my line of work, people are nowadays emphasizing the idea of a second career, as opposed to retirement. Most of us have had enough by sixty, skills and eyesight deteriorate and the stamina is not there anymore. Then it's time to call it a day - while one can still do so with dignity and while at the top of your game, and before being asked to stop - but if you're lucky enough to be in good health otherwise, it's time for a second career. The thing is though, that's too late to start preparing for a second career. The trick is to make the time to start preparing for that when in your forties, by having hobbies such as music.

Not that I can see myself as a rock guitarist, hitting the road with my band for the first time at 65... ?

PeteM

Riaan wrote Not that I can see myself as a rock guitarist, hitting the road with my band for the first time at 65... ?

I didn't visualize doing the music thing after 60, but by default I find myself playing solo gigs, playing in a rock/cover band, writing and recording music for advertising and teaching guitar. And this has all happened in a space of about 18 months.
Is it adding to my pension? Not very much but it's growing and I'm having a ball.

BTW I have a lot more energy and stamina now than I did over the past 10 years because I'm doing what I really love.

Bob-Dubery

PeteM wrote I didn't visualize doing the music thing after 60, but by default I find myself playing solo gigs, playing in a rock/cover band, writing and recording music for advertising and teaching guitar. And this has all happened in a space of about 18 months.
Is it adding to my pension? Not very much but it's growing and I'm having a ball.

BTW I have a lot more energy and stamina now than I did over the past 10 years because I'm doing what I really love.

My late uncle Gordon was a sax player. He worked hard and saved well and provided for his retirement but didn't really like the various office jobs that he had over the years.

Once he retired he was happy as a pig in the proverbial. He had gigs most nights of the week, and was getting paid (or at least wasn't out of pocket) for engaging in an activity that gave him great pleasure.

His parents didn't approve. He came from a family with a background of classical music and jazz was the work of the devil. His mother could never say the word "gig". She would always ask him "do you have an ENGAGEMENT this weekend?"

Jack-Flash-Jr

X-rated Bob wrote
PeteM wrote I didn't visualize doing the music thing after 60, but by default I find myself playing solo gigs, playing in a rock/cover band, writing and recording music for advertising and teaching guitar. And this has all happened in a space of about 18 months.
Is it adding to my pension? Not very much but it's growing and I'm having a ball.

BTW I have a lot more energy and stamina now than I did over the past 10 years because I'm doing what I really love.
My late uncle Gordon was a sax player. He worked hard and saved well and provided for his retirement but didn't really like the various office jobs that he had over the years.

Once he retired he was happy as a pig in the proverbial. He had gigs most nights of the week, and was getting paid (or at least wasn't out of pocket) for engaging in an activity that gave him great pleasure.

His parents didn't approve. He came from a family with a background of classical music and jazz was the work of the devil. His mother could never say the word "gig". She would always ask him "do you have an ENGAGEMENT this weekend?"

The secret of life is in these two posts...

Squonk

Spot on Jack +1

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