63 Days

I have recently embarked on a new tune learning and playing endeavor.  In my yoga practice, I have this fantastic little application on my phone called the Mediation Helper (which I believe I've mentioned before).  A little widget on my homepage shows me how many minutes of my meditation/yoga goal I've met for the day, along with my current streak for meeting my daily minutes and my record streak.  It has been a fantastic device to help encourage me to do a little yoga or mediation each day.

Sunday I decided to take this application idea into my playing.  I grabbed some of my favorite paper (the only I have that isn't plain or lined right now) and drew a calendar with a spot at the end of each week for notes.  In big letters across the top I wrote Tunes with a goal of 20-30 minutes each day.  I counted up the number of days I'd drawn (fairly randomly) in my calendar.  Nine weeks.  63 Days.  I numbered each square starting that day.  And promptly colored in the first square.  Solid Black.  One day reaching my playing goal (by far)! I had worked on some old favorites that I'd never quite been able to dredge out at a session on my own: Maids of Mt Kisco (or Cisco), Over the Moore to Maggie, Dezi Donnelly's Gan Ainm track (found it's called Paddy Ryan's Nightmare and...... Gan Ainm. Doh.). Along with some others. Must've spent a good several hours playing tunes. Then I promptly texted Pete to check on the session on Wednesday. Yep! Was happening. Sweet!

So, I have just completed Day 5 of my Tune Day Succession. 58 more days to go. And although I made a goal of 20-30 minutes, I find I start playing and I cannot stop. There's one more tune and one more tune and one more tune I find I want to try out before I call it good. I feel so in-the-moment when I am playing. Time is lost, and I am happy there. I think I should count it toward my yoga practice some days as well :)