Musical New Years Resolutions

Subject: Musical N/ Y Resolutions
From: Wesley S
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 04:56 PM

Ok - What would you like to accomplish musically next year??

I hope to work through some video tapes I got to learn how to play the mandolin better. The goal is to be able to take a solo with out screwing up.

I also hope to break out of my patterns when I finger pick the guitar. It's time to learn something new.

I'd like to memorize two new songs per month - but I'll settle for one.

And lastly - during the next decade I'd like to start a jug band. Not for money - just for fun.

How about you?? I'm not after the pounds you want to lose or the addictions you want to leave behind. Just the ways you would like to change musically.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 05:27 PM

1. To get into a regular habbit of practicing the tenor banjo. I haven't done any in over 2 years but just relied on playing in a couple of sessions per week. The problem is, round here, I can get awy with it - not much incentive!

2. To learn some new tunes, especially the ones I Should know and have been meaning to learn for ages.

3. To try to get out to some decent sessions.

4. To learn to do a little bit more with the guitar.

Jon

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Mudjack
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 05:41 PM

To lay down some tracks for my FIRST and LAST efforts of getting a CD done. I'm getting to old to be a standup solo act. Folks just have better things to do than lend an ear to an aging old poop.
The second goal is play and practice banjo and mandolin to some proficiency and begin to re-think my musical appreciations.
This might be a good year to consider being a presenter of concerts and start booking acts on a local level.
Crap.... Thats already more than I can get done in one year. How about the next millenium???
Mudjack

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 05:43 PM

To not take my progress so seriously. Carnegie Hall can wait.

To start a longneck banjo society

To not doubt my instincts

To welcome my mistakes with a warm smile.

BB

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: reeebop
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 06:14 PM

1. to play "out" at least once a week.

2. to get my fiddle to stay in tune and actually be able to play something that's not in g or d.

3. to pack up my little musical collective and get out of new york for the summer break

4. get a website up and a mailing list out.

5. learn...learn....learn....learn...

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Helen
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 06:25 PM

Well, I think this is the same New Year's resolution I made last year, but ... I still want to learn how to play melody & accompaniment on the Celtic/lever harp and not just get away with playing accompaniment to other melody instruments.

I've made some progress despite an extreme lack of practice and only getting to half the weekly sessions this year due to work commitments. But, I want to sit down and learn how to do it properly, not just flying by the seat of my pants. It's hard without other harpers nearby, but I seem to be getting more focused on wanting to do this, and therefore becoming more motivated to do the work.

I could say this in a whisper, but I don't feel like trying out html code, but I think ... maybe ... it's possible ... I might just try ... singing along with the harp. I seem to be heading that way, and a lot of it is down to Mudcat & Mudcatters and so much talk about singing songs, and how wonderful it feels to sing. Thanks everyone.

So, that is a Millenium resolution, it might not happen this year, but...

Helen

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Peter T.
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 06:50 PM

1. Keep on keeping on.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Mbo
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 07:09 PM

Well, here's mine:
--Write more songs!
--Use my stereo to create multitrack recordings.
--Have one of my songs played on Mudcat Radio.
--To conceptualize and finish my "thing" about the Wild Geese.
--To hopefully play IN PUBLIC!
--To be part of a tentative Andean Folk Ensemble.
--To make new Mudbuddies, and continue friendships with those I already have!
--To get better on my pipe chanter.
--To still have time for music with 12 Studio Art classes next semester (as if!)

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 08:27 PM

Embo, take up the harmonica: you can put it on a frame around your neck and play while you paint or sculpt or whatever.

Myself, I'm going to try to make and get my students making as many of the "Great Folk Instruments to Make & Play" as I can.

I'm going to spend a lot more time with my Dwight Diller video than I have done to date.

I'm going to learn to play Art Thieme's great clawhammer version of "Scotland the Brave" before the end of January.

I'm going to start PRACTICING my harmonica playing, not just play it at sessions. I've got to work with some of the CD's I have to start really pushing myself to improve.

I'm going to do the research for, and write a song about my ancestor's life being saved by a fish.

In order to do this I'm probably going to have to restrict my Mudcat time to no more than four hours a day.

--seed

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 08:34 PM

I think Peter T. said it for me.

Oh yes, and as Bob Dylan put it "To know my song well before I start singing."

And keep coming to the Mudcat Watering Hole.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: alison
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 10:31 PM

practice my uilleann pipes and get the damn drones in tune.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Lenny
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 10:35 PM

Well I guess questioning the Mudcat Cafe's current direction won't be one of them. I found out what GG was and to be compared to someone that scary simply because I disagreed seems pretty heavy.

I'll sure try to get out to as many live folk and blues shows as I can. Less TV and more jamming with friends would be nice. I could always go nuts and get a Taylor. Maybe this is the year for it

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Michael K.
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 10:47 PM

(a) to practise, evolve, write, arrange and record

(b) to be at least twice as good on guitar as I am now, in a year.

(c) to REALLY impress Rick Fielding

(d) ...and, to purchase the exclusive rights to his story, develop it into a feature film, and have various Mudcatters as cast members.

Then of course there are the merchandising possibilities. (ie: Rick Fielding Doll replaces ''Woody'' from Toy Story 1 & 2...and debuts in Toy Story 3 a.k.a.''Folk Story''........joined by a Pete Seeger Doll, a Doc Watson Doll, etc.etc.etc......

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: _gargoyle
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 10:49 PM

To continue to question non-musical threads.

To be more supportive - Nice resolution Mr. Seed...Welcome Lenny!! (they WERE harsh on you, but your post was Right-On!)

To MASTER the transformations from MP3,MIDI,and WAV files...(so they still sound OK....with minimal loss....sort of like the BabbleFish transformations)

To play more RagTime and Boogie (because they are fun!)

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 12:56 AM

To heed Duckboots advice, that if after 11 years SHE doesn't know when I'm kidding or serious, break my vow of NEVER using "big grin" (or something like that) to indicate that I'm joking about something!

To justify Mudcatter Jeri's faith in me by learning to PLAY the fiddle she so generously lent me.

To hope that I'll have the energy and perseverence to do a certain something on the next album that I've wanted to do for 15 years but have been too lazy to follow through on.

To see Texas, New Mexico, Alaska, and The NorthWest Territories

To re-start my "Django style" swing band.

To spend at least 10 more days at Folk Legacy with Sandy and Caroline

To have as much fun teaching music to people as I've had this year. (it's been amazing)

To keep finding the time to be part of Mudcat. (I've given up Seinfeld re-runs and Masterpiece Theatre, but I won't give up "Yes Minister"!

Rick

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: sophocleese
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 01:05 AM

To actually practice my bodhran playing. It might prevent some of the irritation on real musician's faces.

To learn one new song a week. Once I get started it gets easier I just have to push myself into the rhythm of it.

To learn to tune the damn guitar by ear not by tuner.

Mostly just to keep on doing what I like doing and getting slowly better at it.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Mitzi
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 06:53 AM

To never, never, NEVER, enter a thread that starts with 'BS'. To pray more for gargoyle, and to continue to be a silent Mudcatter.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 07:03 AM

Last year I resolved to work on my finger-style guitar playing. I did, a little. A few weeks ago I lost a fingernail on my right hand (OUCH!) and a week later a fiddle came into my life- perfect for my wounded hand, hard on the ears right now (I keep finding myself playing with clenched teeth!) but slowly improving. I'd like to resolve to practice so I can play in front of my friends a year from now!

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 07:20 AM

To begin again the business which had been going more and more towards the kids end of things and to develop a new and more focused school/group program. And to be building at least 3 hd/month by the end of the year.

Few other things, but if I do the above, life will be happier.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: bill\sables
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:31 AM

I intend to learn a new tune every week and try to meet as mant mudcatters as I can. Cheers Bill

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Terry Allan Hall
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 09:45 AM

Help/encourage my daughter to learn her fiddle, and my youngest son to learn his electric bass.

Figure out all of "Hungarian Dances" on my 12-string (Why?...why not?!!)

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 10:09 AM

Practise, dammit, practise!

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 10:22 AM

Practice what? Your spelling? LMAO!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Victoria
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 10:30 AM

-To learn to play my Grandfather's 1910 fiddle (given to me in good faith) well enough to play it in the group. (Preferably not while singing!) -To co-write at least one song a month (with my partner,who I hope will share my resolution!) And begin to write music on my own. - To play one "big" folk festival with the group, and sit around some campfire after hours and sing till I fall asleep! :-) -For the group to get that first album recorded, despite this past year of changes, setbacks and illnesses.

Good luck with your resolutions everyone! Here's to 2000!

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Mike Billo
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 10:53 AM

Well, this will probably place me at the head of the "whiners" list, but this year I plan to play less and enjoy it more. My wife and I are full-time working musicians who work for retirement and convalescent hospitals leading sing alongs. We perform about 40-60 one hour programs a week. Don't get me wrong, it's a GREAT job, and very rewarding spiritually as well as financially, but it's a lot. Also, I'm currently in 4 different bands as the bass player/percussioninst, and gig 3-5 nights a week. I usually do about a half dozen weddings/private parties a month, and I currently have 14 guitar and 8 percussion students.

I have always said that anyone who is lucky enough to earn a living at music and then has the nerve to utter a word of complaint should be taken out and tortured and then shot. Or, worse yet, taken out and given a real job.

I'm thankful for the very good luck I've had, but I really feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends musically, and I sure don't feel any inspiration anymore.

I plan to trim back on the night time gigs and get out to more jam sessions.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: SpitWhistle
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 11:43 AM

Wow... what an inspiriing thread! I want to stop leaning on written music when I play and learn to play by ear!

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 12:35 PM

Yeah, PSAW, oops. I mean SPAW, that's right, dammit!**BG**

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: selby
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 12:42 PM

To learn a new tune every week. Keith

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Banjoman_CO
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 01:07 PM

To continue to find people to play with in this wasteland. To practice more and learn to fingerpick that darn guitar. To learn more tunes on banjo. To get up enough guts to try to build my own Hammered Dulcimer. To continue to associate with people like the ones at Mudcat. To give of myself to others in need and to do what I can for those who are less fortunate than I. To love my neighbor, to increase my Faith, and to enjoy the heck out of the new millennium.

Happy New Year to all my friends at MUDCAT.

BANJOMAN-FRED

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: emily rain
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 03:55 PM

oh-ho! yes yes yes, Helen, come into my lair you pretty thing... once you start singing along, dearie, you will never ever want to stop...

for myself, i resolve to tune my harp and play the damn f***ing thing at least once a week. %*@>!!! so frustrating!

ditto hammered dulcimer.

i also resolve to quit feeling like a fool when i pick up a bodhran. i understand now why bodhran players have such low self esteem. those things are deceptively hard to play! i'm lucky if i can keep a steady beat, let alone use the top end of the tipper for fancy little rolls... but darnit, it's not because i'm not a real musician. it only seems that way.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Helen
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 06:20 PM

emily,

I have a bodhran which I used to take to sessions, but the fear of being *one of those* bodhran players made me rethink whether I should be playing it, especially without knowing the first thing about it. It wasn't helped by a particularly nasty woman standing over me in a practice session one night and telling me she couldn't play her fiddle with that awful rhythm (she reckoned) I was playing. She reckoned I was speeding up the pace, but I thought that since I was playing along to the tapping of *her* foot then if anyone was speeding up it would have been her.

Looking back it wasn't a good week for me for playing anyway - I was tired, my Mum was in hospital having a triple by-pass operation & I was worried sick - I couldn't have carried a rhythm in a bucket.

So maybe my other New Year's resolution is to start playing the bodhran again & get some confidence based on knowledge *BG*

Also, emily, I don't know if you use an electronic tuner to tune up your harp but before I bought an electronic tuner I used to take hours trying to tune up and then got so frustrated that I didn't do any practice. The tuner meant that I could tune up in a few minutes & then use the time constructively to actually learn how to play. Can you remind me, too, is it a Celtic type harp or an autoharp. I think you posted in my More Strings Than Most thread, but I don't remember which instrument you play.

Helen

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: sophocleese
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 06:32 PM

Helen, when I first started toying with a bodhran I had a little booklet which told me how to play it. It was also filled with all sorts of advice on how not to bother people by actually playing the instrument. I can see that there are people who need to be told that they need not play at full tilt and volume through all songs but I'm one of those that needs encouragement to get up in public ( Okay, I WAS one of those, I'm trying to change it.) That little booklet of good advice scared me away for a year or so. Now I'm back at it and if I'm not brilliant neither are most of the other musicians that I play with. I'll get better.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Paul G.
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 06:42 PM

-- To finish the "Ashley Gang" CD prior to the end of May (in time for the Florida Folk Festival)

-- To learn MANY more traditional tunes than I currently know

-- To spend more time with my music and less time at my "other" job

-- To sing to the grandchild that our daughter will be giving us in July.

pg

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: emily rain
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:09 PM

hi helen,

it's a celtic harp (salvi mcfall, 38? strings). i am touched by your concern. : ) actually, though, all that frustration and swearing is related to playing the thing, not tuning it. i have a tuner and i'm not ashamed to use it. though lately i have been trying to build my ... um ... ear muscles? by tuning instruments without electronic assistance. sure does make the final product sound homespun. *grin* is it my imagination, or is there some sort of added nobility in being able to tune perfectly without a tuner? some of my guitarist friends are so quick and deadly accurate; i watch them in awe.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: JenEllen
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:18 PM

I'm resolving to sing where there's music, not be so hard on the bodhran players (cheers em and helen), to remember to get my nose out of the books and play every once in a while, to support our local musicians and to hear more from musicians far and awa, and to never quit singing a song to an animal I have to put to sleep, no matter how much flack I get from anyone else. Elle

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:32 PM

Helen, best wishes to your Mum--I trust the triple bypass came out all right?

--seed

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Davey
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:45 PM

I'm going to a few more jam sessions

Going to write a few more songs

Keep my granddaughter (16 months) exposed to as much misic as I can

Sing more with my friends

Try to find more Mudcat time

Bonnie, you've got a realistic and healthy approach to your music (and your life too, it appears)..

Seed, 4 hrs a day ?? Why are you going to deprive us...?

McGrath, "Know your song well..." I agree but it's getting harder as age intrudes and CRS creeps in...

Davey... (:>)

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:47 PM

To teach Americans not to split infinitives.

To teach harpists not to believe that guitarists can tune until you have heard them play chords (not finger broken chords) at least E major G major D major C Major A major E major.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Davey
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:51 PM

To prufreed my posts.....

Davey... (:>)

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: emily rain
Date: 31 Dec 99 - 08:55 PM

again richard: you may trust me. : )

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Escamillo
Date: 01 Jan 00 - 12:26 AM

1) Quit smoking
2) Make some money
3) Sing at the Metropolitan in NY
4) Stop fantasizing
Un abrazo. Andrés Magré

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Jan 00 - 02:19 AM

JenEllen, good for you! Those animals need you and your singing no matter the opinions of others. Blessed Be!

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Llanfair
Date: 01 Jan 00 - 03:04 PM

Now that I don't have a job any more, I intend to:
Improve my guitar technique, getting by won't do.
Get the CD finished and circulated.
Go to as many festivals as possible, and meet some mudcatters,
Learn new songs, and relearn ones I did in the 60's and have forgotten.
Get to know my grandson, due in January.,
Use my time constructively(and that includes time here) Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Dec 15 - 08:09 PM

I have GOT to learn to play something I can sing along to and that goes just from one side (lower) to the other (higher), like the hammer dulcimer or xylophone. I thought piano, but too many fingers, chords, I'm better with one note at a time. Cimbalom would be great, but I don't think I can just pick one of those up here in Central VA...

Subject: RE: Musical New Years Resolutions
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Dec 15 - 11:39 PM

1) Learn more songs
2) Keep thinking about learning to play Ukulele...
3) Keep learning bass parts in choir, now that we have a "critical mass" of bass singers
4) Learn to dance without hurting myself (click)