How Many Of You Play Music Every Day????????????

[GuitarDogs62]

I find myself for the past 4 years playing Music be it my Guitar or Mandolin almost every night for at least and hour minimum. On average I play closer to 2 hours for the most part. This is week nights for me. on weekends most of the time I average 3 to 5 hours on Saturdays if I include the weekly jam and back to two hours on Sunday. Does everyone else here on this board play/practice music a lot too?

[Paul Hird]

Your schedule sounds pretty close to mine. I pick up my mandolin every day, usually before work and then every evening. In addition, I attend a jam two nights per week, not to mention my lesson every Thursday. On weekend mornings I can sometimes go for three hours as well.

[JeffD]

I am behind a mandolin every day. Its not always serious practice, and its not always at home. I attend one or two jams a week, band practice once a week, work with a duet partner once a week. At home on the rest of the days I take one day per week for a focused practice. The other two I might work on a tune, or play CDs and work on backing up The Skillet Lickers or the like, or just explore some of the edges of my experience and ability.

[Ky Slim]

I try to play something on mandolin or guitar everyday and attend a jam at least once a week. When I do not get to play for a day or days I can definitely tell a difference the next time I pick up an instrument. I think I notice the difference mostly in my right hand. At the same time, I don't feel guilty or feel as if I missed out and fell behind when I go for a period without playing.

[Espresso Geek]

I find myself for the past 4 years playing Music be it my Guitar or Mandolin almost every night for at least and hour minimum. On average I play closer to 2 hours for the most part. This is week nights for me. on weekends most of the time I average 3 to 5 hours on Saturdays if I include the weekly jam and back to two hours on Sunday. Does everyone else here on this board play/practice music a lot too?

I just purchased my first mando. Have been playing acoustic guitar for over 40 years, now with the mando I easily average around 2 hours daily playing both. Music is a huge part of my life. Without the guitar, and now mando, I would be an empty person!!!

[tkdboyd]

I get up between 3:45 and 4:45 AM to practice for an hour or two. Unfortunately I can only play my electric(not plugged in) the majority of the time so as to not disturb the family. Jams around here only happen every couple of weeks, but normally I play for a few more hours on the weekends even when there are no local jams.

[DavidKOS]

Almost daily I'm either:

gigging
practicing
recording
composing

I do sometimes take a mini-vacation and not play for a few days, to let my system rest a bit.

Mostly I play every day in some form or another.

[allenhopkins]

Four or five gigs per week, and a sing-around I attend every Tuesday. As to practice, ashamed to say that mine's limited to when I want to learn something, or prepare for a gig requiring a specific repertoire (e.g., around the December holidays, St. Patrick's Day, such-like).

I keep busy enough that an instrument (not always mandolin) is in my hand for an hour or more five-plus days per week. At my advanced age, that seems sufficient to me, though I do find that instruments that I've neglected for a period of time, such a Dobro or lap dulcimer, end up accumulating some "rust" when I break them out and try playing them.

[notepicker]

I am one of those really lucky self employed home workers. All my instruments live in the corner behind my desk just waiting to be picked up and played. I start almost everyday with about an hour with my mandolin. Throughout the day I usually find a few minutes here and there for it. Gotta be careful though, it is easy to keep playing and not work.

[Tobin]

I play every day for 1 to 2 hours at the very least. If I have a good excuse to be home and indoors on a weekend, I'll play much more than that.

The way I figure it, I have a lot of catching up to do. If, as they say, it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it, and I'm averaging somewhere around 500 to 800 hours a year, it's going to take me a whole bunch of years to get really good at this mandolin thing. It would be depressing if I actually were counting the hours towards that mark. But I just play as much as I can, and enjoy it along the way.

[Relio]

I"m happy to get 45 minutes a day, because I have two kids under 4 years of age. This morning I set my alarm 1 hour earlier than normal for extra practice time.

[k0k0peli]

I am beyond employment i.e. retired. I spend many days at home lounging in a recliner sofa with a ThinkPad notebook in my lap and some instruments beside me. Any long screen-building gives me a chance to pluck a few notes on 'ukes, mandos, banjos, whatever fits. Certain online discoveries may inspire me to play new tunes. At night I precede bed with some time on a guitar or cuatro or mandola. When I stroll, there's a harmonica and/or tinwhistle in my pocket; I annoy the squirrels. I'm in process of cleaning out a room and turning it into a workshop for building rough instruments. I'll be even more infused with music then. Musicmaking is a constant.

[Bill McCall]

Practice everyday, weekdays twice a day. Track the specific exercises in a spreadsheet, and time via my metronome. Don't do much repertoire work, probably less than 30 minutes a day (out of the 2.5-3 hrs) as I am trying to build basic skills. Jam about 5 hrs a month. been playing a little over 2 years and I'm trying to fix bad habits.

[DataNick]

Almost daily I'm either:

gigging
practicing
recording
composing

I do sometimes take a mini-vacation and not play for a few days, to let my system rest a bit.

Mostly I play every day in some form or another.

+1...except for the days off...more like a day here and there for me...

[mando on the side]

I consider myself to be blessed to be able to have music as a career and my hobby. I teach piano/violin 6 days a week, on most days around 6 hours. After dinner, I pick up my mandolin and play for at least an hour. I'm also blessed to have a wife that can stomach that much mandolin

You'd think that after hearing students play for that long that I'd want silence at the end of the day, but that's what's amazing about music...it can feed your soul indefinitely!

Ed

[Londy]

Wow. Gulp, I'm lucky to get few hours a week between work and family stuff. I have started up a jam here in Chapel Hill, NC so I hope this is a weekly thing!

[farmerjones]

"If I miss a day I hear it. If I miss two days, everybody else hears it."
Yah see it's quotes like this that made me think it would go away somehow.
So for fifteen years I missed maybe five days all together. Eventually the fear went away. The way I look at it now, it's like breathing, eating, or speaking. While I still rarely miss a day, I don't have the anxiety over it. Problem now is im spread over probably too many instruments. But again, this may be an imagined problem. Yes. Pretty sure it is.

[T.D.Nydn]

I work at home,so I practice or play on and off all morning,afternoon and especially at night.i average now about 30 plus hours a week but I'm trying to get it to 40.

[Mark Wilson]

I probably play more than I should. Anytime I have spare time I look at things I could be doing and mandolin seems to always win.

[JeffD]

I guess I need to differentiate. While I am behind a mandolin daily, I am deliberately trying to get better maybe once or twice a week. The rest of the time I am playing, with others, or for myself. Sincere focused efforts to improve my playing - once or at most twice a week.

[MysTiK PiKn]

I recently missed a day. I noticed it happening. The next day, I noticed it had happened. I had a conscious thought that missing a day was not what I wanted, needed, or enjoyed. So I fixed that. But if it happens, it's ok - it means I'm doing some of the many other things on my agenda. Those things need doing; and I like getting them done.

Mostly I practice, and not in any disciplined form. I just play whatever comes out; but usually I am chasing something, trying to become a mandolin player. A lot is medium speed picking, kinda like solos; and lately I noticed I was picking a lot faster, and with accuracy - and this is what I have been working on, so practice is good, and progress is noticed.

There's a LOT I don't know. I need to play the chord book. With years of guitar, it was the same. I don't much learn a lot of songs - but I develop the potential to learn songs, or follow songs, or play along in a jam. So, I guess I work on my ability to be a player; and what I learn, can be easily applied to jam sessions, playing with others, or learning songs that I really like. I have never had a huge repertoire of songs I can play. I have always worked on knowing how to play any song - well "any" song would be a stretch. That what I always did with guitar, and it seems it's what I prefer with mandolin also.

I play along with radio a lot - mostly pikn and chasing the mandolin part, or the fiddle or banjo part - they kinda run on a similar track. But I notice, on mandolin, I lack chord knowledge. I can pop out guitar chords; but mando, I pop chords very slowly - although I learn some chord forms by the stumble and fall method - not I said fall, and not fail. I don't practice failing; I practice walking on water instead - it's a lot more fun. but yeh, I need the chord book. And I still have some untouched method books that I spent money on deliberately, as a reference, or a fallback way of making progress. Progress is the only thing for me. It's happening, and it tweaks my interest when I see that.

I have no regular schedule really; it just ends up in my hands, and I play until it gets in my way - never make peanut butter toast when practicing mandolin - don't ask how I learned this.

[Chughes423]

I atleast open my mando case to look at it when times are busy.

[Bob Clark]

I work far too many hours. I often cannot play until late at night when I am completely exhausted. That said, nearly without exception, I play every day. It is my reward to myself for all the time I have to spend doing work.

[Stacey Morris]

Wow. Gulp, I'm lucky to get few hours a week between work and family stuff.

I am really glad you posted that, Londy. Now I don't feel so bad after reading how much most of the people here play. My playing resembles yours way more than anyone else's. That being said, I play for enjoyment and I don't want to beat myself up too much because I don't have more opportunity to play (mostly practice!).

[JeffD]

I work far too many hours. I often cannot play until late at night when I am completely exhausted. That said, nearly without exception, I play every day. It is my reward to myself for all the time I have to spend doing work.

Me too. What I find is that even exhausted from work, I have trouble relaxing and kind of need the mandolin to "bring me down".