Why Give Up

[McDouglas]

21 minutes ago, Mikefule said:

It's strange.  If you play an instrument and make a mistake, it feels "understandable", but if you sing "badly" then there's a feeling that it is something about yourself: that you have a "bad voice".  Playing a bum note can sometimes be embarrassing, but singing a bum note is automatically ten times worse because it is so much more personal.

 

You've identified something essential here.  An instrument exists outside of the player.  How many times in high school did I hear a clarinet squeak and the player removes the instrument and stares at the instrument as if to say, how dare you.  But a voice exists inside the singers.  The singer is the instrument.  Yep, it is so much more personal.

[John Wild]

I  am not a regular singer, but I have found that my singing seems to improve greatly after a few pints of west country cider! ?

 

[RAc]

Another issue is that the voice is a microtonal instrument. At least in my case it would greatly help if the vocal cords were fretted...

Edited December 8, 2018 by RAc
"vocal chords" also make a good pun but distort the meaning...

[Breve]

I had to give up last year for a couple of reasons - I developed tennis elbow from playing concertina so had to rest it. Then life got busy - moving house, my job etc, and some health issues where I was too tired and had low energy. If you're focusing on keeping your job, and day to day stuff, it's easy for music to be pushed aside. Now finally I am picking up the concertina. Discovering of course that I have forgotten a ton of chords I'd learned and whatever progress I'd made last year - well it felt like 3 steps forward then 2 steps backwards. I know I have to be patient, and have short but regular practice sessions and do my elbow exercises as preventive measure.  Playing with others is key for me to keep going and keep motivated.  Otherwise I run out of steam quickly and get distracted by other stuff going on in my life.  I wish I was a more serious musician, but by nature I'm a dilettante, flitting from one shiney thing to the next shiney thing. I finally have learned not to take on NEW shiney things and just bounce back and forth between a few shiney things.  That way, I see some slow improvement, although never as much as a dedicated serious musician.

[Mikefule]

5 minutes ago, Breve said:

I had to give up last year for a couple of reasons - ... I finally have learned not to take on NEW shiney things and just bounce back and forth between a few shiney things.  That way, I see some slow improvement, although never as much as a dedicated serious musician.

 

So (1) you didn't give up (2) you are quite a dedicated musician (3) you are quite a serious musician and (4) you are certainly a musician.  ?

 

I found the more tunes I learned, the easier that practising became.

 

10 minutes every day is better than 1 hour on every 6th day.

 

The main thing is to enjoy playing. 

[Breve]

Thanks Mikefule for the encouraging words. I realize I'll never be particularly skilled but I do enjoy it. What has me puzzled though - and I know this has probably been discussed ad nauseum here, is why so much Anglo is played on the C/G concertina - such as Irish trad. music. I've reached the stage where I am wondering if I need to pick up the C/G tuning fingering and would it be an advantage or not in the long run. My brain and fingers are locked into G/D tuning and as I read music I can sight read well enough to get along  and play "nicely" with the C/G crowd.  I can slowly play a borrowed C/G instrument going by the numbers on the tab (eg Gary Coover books) but the button positions/notes aren't fixed in my brain yet.  I assume something about the C/G layout makes fast playing easier than the G/D layout - hence the prevalence of anglos in that tuning.  I'm at a bit of a cross roads now in my concertina learning about whether to upgrade my G/D instrument, or go get a beginner C/G concertina and pick up that instead. Anyway, it's all good fun!

[Wolf Molkentin]

The C/G is widely chosen to play in D (and A), in ITM style. It would give you an advantage over a G/D as long as you‘d restrict to the occasional (if any) harmony...

 

Beyond this approach, which seems to be much about speed, or - to do it more justice - lift, the G/D is fantastic, as long as you‘re loving the rather profound sound IMO.

 

Best wishes - ?