Hey, this retirement stuff isn't so bad. In Portland we used to sleep until 8 or 9, but now we wake up at 5:30 a.m. ready to start another sunny day. Lee opens up all the doors and windows to bring the temp in the house down to the mid 70s. We've been keeping the AC turned to 82 at night, so the house is pretty warm by morning. Then we putter around, usually all morning. People used to tell me they found themselves busier after retirement than they did before, and I couldn't imagine it, but now I understand. Instead of trying to find ways to avoid life, now there is always something calling me to do it. I visited a local guitar shop and restrung my dulcimer for the first time in probably 20 years!! I also restrung my electric guitar. Swapped the wimpy 'beginner' strings for strings with more voice. I've found a blues teacher (I hope) - Stan Hirsh. To find a teacher, I did an Internet search and he popped up. When I emailed him, he said we might be able to start in August when he gets back to ABQ. He's on tour now. He's probably older than I am, an accomplished bluesman, and an experienced teacher. He has put his first few lessons on the Internet for his students. I feel very comfortable with his musical philosophy. It's what I've experienced first-hand when teaching myself to play back in the 70s. Here are some excerpts:
The more you are “plugged into” the rhythm, the more musical your playing will sound. All good musicians are rhythm players. Even if you only know one chord, you should be able to get people movin’.
Simplicity or complexity are not gauges of musicality or measures of artistry. Dig into your limitations, strengthen them, your style must conform to them!
Why do we use our strongest hand for the strumming or picking ? Because we need that accuracy and strength for the most fundamental and important part of music making; The rhythm! Most of us forget this because we become unavoidably preoccupied with the fretting hand and all the flashing, shinny, glittering details.
All musicians who play any music (complex or simple) that sounds solid can vocalize what it is they are playing. From the basic rhythm to the most complex arrangement of notes. This does not mean they can “sing” them in perfect pitch (although some can), but they can vocalize the phrasing (rhythm). They hear the part (inside their head) and can bring it out into the physical world by vocalizing it. Then play it on their instrument.
Besides the guitar and dulcimer, Lee and I both are learning to play the ukelele and we have a practice place set up in an alcove of the living room - very convenient! I'm beginning to get used to and even enjoy this bigger house with it's bigger footprint. It's a good thing we can't afford to live like this in our 'real' lives in Portland.
Last night we watched the movie "Danny Deck Chair." In it, the hero, in a desperate attempt to find some excitement in his life, ties a bunch of helium balloons to a lawn chair and accidentally takes off with no way to come back down. He ends up crash landing in a small town far to the north. He remains an anonymous stranger in this town and finds a new, more fulfilling life. "How did I get here?" David Byrne asks in his song "Once in a Lifetime." That's how we feel. We wake up every morning in this palatial, sunny, warm, adobe house listening to roosters, peacocks, horses, and guinea fowl and wonder... How did we get here!
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