Been so tired at work lately I spend my breaks, well, breaking. Too tired and no concentration for practice. Well, got the violin up on my shoulder yesterday anyhow and that was a good thing. (Worked almost entirely on string crossings, silent reverses, and vibrato.)
But I've put aside any illusion that I'm going to be able to come up with the practice hours many people describe. (I'm still not convinced those are entirely useful hours. I think focusing on time spent is the wrong way to go about it; better to focus on the actual learning. The best thing time gives you is comfort and familiarity -- which is also the best anodyne to stage fright.)
At the end of the day, though, I'm Theater. I never got into this to play an instrument. I got into it to make music. The violin is a sound I want for compositions and I'll make use of what I can do and work around what I can't.
I have a good variety of tonal options now. I can't play any of them well, but since I emphasized breadth over depth I have a variety of techniques to employ. I can't play that clean but I can play expressively; it works okay if I'm recording the best take and tweaking it in the mix. I keep having the window shopping urge, though. There's always new accessories, of course. Finally found a plunger mute for my trumpet but want the pixie mute to go with it now (plus I'm starting to outgrow that starter horn). Need a strap for my electric uke but resisted the urge to buy effects pedals for it -- and resisted with more difficulty the urge to build effects pedals for it -- because Reaper is fast enough to do good basic effects in software with almost no lag.
And the sax -- rather, Yamaha Venova -- is coming along better than expected, enough that I am having a longing for a real, alto, sax.
But I have enough to create music. And I'm backing off from the trap of thinking I have to perform everything -- MIDI still has a place. As does collaboration. Drummer friend of mine is quite open to doing some drumming for me.
At a price. His trade is he wants me to perform with him. Incidental music for stage plays. Live.
Maybe I do need to increase those practice hours after all.
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