How do you measure time

**bjc** · Feb-09-2006, 10:37am

OK, so I'm obsessed with playing/practicing...So this may be something that the most "unbalanced" here think about, but here goes: Have you ever been coming home and get stuck behind a slow driver/big traffic/long light and think "Ten minutes...TEN MINUTES!!! I could've run one of Ted's FFcP exercises and 2 of my memorized pieces..."?

Or, when organizing your morning you realize there is a 30 minute gap between tasks and think "I could get through half my reading repertoire in that time."?

Anyone think like that or am I alone here?

**gnelson651** · Feb-09-2006, 10:58am

I too am obsessed with playing/practicing my mandolin. I don't think of it in the same time management terms as you, but I do think about practicing or reading about music.

My job requires a lot of windshield time so I listen to mandolin CD music as much as I can. #I also carry a reading stack in the car for when I'm stuck between appointments or have down time, like when I pick up my daughter from school. I try to grab playing time when I can as well. When she has her weekly violin lesson, I'll set in the car playing my mandolin.

My problem is staying focused on using my practice time constructively. I am easily distracted noodling or playing stuff that is not part of my practice routine. I've tried to structure my practices with picking exercises, scales, arpeggios and instructional books. But I drift into playing other things like songs I know or am working on. Consequently, I am moving slowly through the books and feel I'm not making as much progress as I should.

I am self-taught and don't have a teacher, which may be part of the problem. Unfortunately, there are really no decent teachers in my area, so I have to rely on instructional books and DVD's.

Between MAS and practice/play obsession, it is almost like being a druggy. You can't wait for the next fix.

**bjc** · Feb-09-2006, 11:08am

Glenn,

I bring a mando almost everywhere I go...I play during lunch at work, when I go to my second job I bring it for slow periods, on road trips I'll pull it out whenever I have a minute or two...and it's a lot easier than setting up my Marshall and packing my Les Paul....tee hee

**Pete Martin** · Feb-09-2006, 12:21pm

How do I measure time? Usually by counting to 4.

**Mando4Life** · Feb-09-2006, 12:25pm

For me it's more like:

Wow, I have a half hour to play mandolin(that is after not having a half hour for about 3 weeks).

When I tell folks that I play mandolin for a hobby, that's even stretching the truth.

Work, work, work ,play, repeat....

WBL