"My biggest problem is that there are levels of skill I know I could get to but I don't have enough practice time for" John P

that I can strongly relate to. It was a hell of a lot easier when I was playing in rock bands to do it on top of the 9-5. But when you're playing solo fingerstyle guitar and singing it's suddenly something that requires constant practice: if I go for a week without running through the songs and practising the tricky bits then things start to slide. Playing in rock bands that kind of thing didn't really show the same way.

I actually have a travel guitar stashed under my desk and a Zoom portable MP3/WAV recorder in my drawer. Because I work in a humungous 10-story building I can normally find somewhere to have a quick quiet play one lunch hour a week. I've also made a few "found sound" collages, just recording stuff around the building and on the streets outside. Achieves a remarkable level of feelgood factor doing things like that during office hours...