====== Weeknotes 4 ======

** Thu 12 Mar 26 **

And yet more recorder playing, as well as mandolin.

I've been watching a lot of You Tube content, instrumental folk music of all types. Nyckelharpa, Hurdy-Gurdy, recorder, fiddle, viola. Most of it is awe inspiring and very good to watch and listen to - but there's a danger of falling (again) into the mindset that I'll *never* be anywhere even remotely close to this good, and therefore there's no point continuing to play at all.

==== Comparison is the thief of joy ====

Most of what you see on You Tube is by very accomplished players with ***years*** of hard work and dedication behind them. Many are professional or semi-professional. All of them spend *way more* time and energy on practice and playing than I'll ever be able to. I have other things in my life that need attention. Music is just a relaxing hobby for me and not a form of identity and something I'll get totally immersed in. 

I now treat these not as aspirational, showing by how I *might* play if I keep at it, but as entertainment and a source of good, interesting material to learn. 

My playing will ***never*** approach that of the people on You Tube, and that's ok. As long as I ***enjoy myself***, that's all that matters.

And I seem to have made a small breakthrough in mandolin playing, after 40+ years, something feels different, or is it my shift in mindset?

The recorder still needs ***a lot*** of work, but the *work* is fun. And that's all that matters.

### Wed 11 Mar 26

Playing more recorder music - fingers and breathing and tongue slowly starting to feel less alien. There is a **long** way to go, but I'm enjoying the start of the journey.


### Tue 10 Mar 26

**Diary** Rethinking my index. I have decided to switch to a "library card" style, with a 5x3 card for each "topic" and on it a list of sub-topics and their references in the diary in the form of 

```
Sub topic Volume/Page
```

I played with this method before and should really have switched to it *then*. It's much more flexible than the index-in-a-book method I first started.

####  Fairphone6 display

I cracked the screen on my phone just before Xmas. Today I received a replacement display from Fairphone and fitted it without any problems. If only all consumer electronics was built like this, to be maintainable. #righttorepair


### Sun 8 Mar 26

**Swimming**  - I **am** eligible for senior 60+ discount! Swim price is now £4 instead of £5.80 Some confusion with their system initially, but should be fixed next time I go.

**Frogs** loudly croaking in garden pond.



### Sar 7 Mar 26

**Frogspawn day**

more recorder practice. it's going to be a long and winding road, so I should enjoy the process and not get too impatient. 

### Fri 6 March 26

**work** Jobs at Bressay and Collafirth Hill

**home** got a copy of "Daphne" music and starting to work through it as tuition material. Concentrating on trying to control breathing and tone production. Trying to make it sound nicer. Its a steep learning curve, once the basics of knowing where the notes are, actually making them sound *good* is incredibly difficult!


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