Good day

If you have been saying to yourself "wow, that banjo blog has been quiet for a while. I wonder what that's all about," then wonder no more!

The short answer is: I've been doing little other than unpacking. It's driving me up a wall that I (still) have no practice space. Or space to work on freelance projects. Or space to just go have some quiet time at the end of the day. Because the sunroom is still quite full of boxes. I've been focusing on that and other domestic chores lately, and banjo playing has been on the back burner for a while. I wish I could say those days are over, but there's still a lot of work to do to get the sunroom more hospitable. The work never ends. I did move dear Sea Monkey into the only room with a working humidifier, which I hope will be enough moisture to keep him happy this winter. When I have the money, I'll get a proper humidifier for him, but by that time it will probably be the middle of summer and humidity will be the least of our problems. Isn't that always the way?

Today I did break my banjo fast, and did pretty well considering I didn't bother to trim my nails before hand. It's a testament to my improving slide technique, I guess, that having a bit of nail didn't slow me down. I didn't sound that great, but I didn't sound terrible, either.

I wound my brain all the way back to the beginning with many reps of "Good Night Ladies," but this time I played standing up so I can see what my hands look like in the mirror. I mostly did this to snap me out of staring at my right hand (bad!) but also to get me thinking about how I anchor (or not) my non-picking fingers. I clearly need to think about this more, as they were all over the head most of the time.

Other tunes in rotation were "Wildwood Flowers" (I will defeat you, F chord! Later. . . ) and "Cripple Creek" and, in a fit of why-not, a version of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" that had been modified to play off an F chord. And no, I can't really explain what that means. But it was fun to try out a song with a lot of hammer-ons. I didn't get through more than a few measures before I decided I should move back to familiar territory, but I'm proud of myself for not just filing that page away for later. Lots of repetition. Some frustration over how choppy I am, but more than anything, it was fun just to play again. That's why I'm learning, because more than anything else, it's a damn good time. As I can make more time to practice, I'll even out and maybe even discover a sense of rhythm hiding somewhere in the depths of my DNA. (Please come out, little sense of rhythm! The social awkwardness has gone on long enough!)

Problems: my new strap is not comfortable for playing standing up for very long at all. I'm not sure if it's the narrowness or what that's aggravating me. I like the strap in general, now that it's installed, although I think i did it backwards, but I'm now wondering if I can take the pad I previously crocheted and somehow attractively attach that under the strap's existing pad. Gotta think on that more. I might have to crochet something new to best work with the pad's shape.

Speaking of crochet, my little pick bag is full to bursting. It's just too small for three five picks, a 5th string capo, regular capo, and the little wrench for adjusting head tension. I thought about putting the capos in with my mute, which came with it's own little bag, but there's no room there for the wrench, so the new plan is to just make another little bag. It's not like I don't have yarn or half an hour every now and again.