January 4th, 2020
Happy New Year!
Well, here it is the start of not just a new year, but a completely new DECADE!
I, for one, am already looking forward to all the new challenges, but as I type this, a few health issues have come up that are kind of slowing me down, but certainly NOT going to stop me.
Part of what I wanted to do this coming year musically is to add more educational content to my YouTube channel as well as more music videos, but of course to do that I need to free up much more time (more on that below), and commit to improving my music skills… and that was where my first set of options came from. Do I start with all new musical challenges or or do I “firm up” music that I used to play? Then I realized that I could do it all, if I just do it in the right order.
My choice in the end was to spend one or two months on firming up songs that I used to play (that I cannot even play as well at the moment) and at the same time, just working on building up a little technique.
My good friend Ed sent over some great exercises that I shall use to start off any practice session, and of course I have the new (to me) Little Czerny velocity studies that I bought just before Christmas. Basically, I am going to divide a session in to just warming up with a couple of exercises, picking one song and working on it, and then also spending some time on getting to know both my Hohner acoustic accordion and reacquainting myself with the capabilities of my Roland V-accordion. As things “firm up”, I can add new material to my arsenal. I think by doing it this way, it brings tons of variety with each practice session to the table and will keep me more interested in the long term.
One of the big mental things that I also decided to do was to not let it bother me as much, if for whatever reason, I could not do a practice session. I used to feel SO BAD all the time because I was unable to spend time on my music, and that added a lot of anguish to me on almost a daily basis. Knowing that I am finally dedicating regular time to this passion removes all such issues if I miss a session here or there.
What makes this all possible?
2020 is going to afford me an amazing opportunity. Currently each day I get up at 4:00AM, traveling to and work like a maniac in super high pressure mode, come home sometime between 6:30-7:00PM, eat and going to bed due to exhaustion.
Things are moving forward for me to start a new position that will permit me to work from home (a lateral move within the same company that I work at now)… what a dream-come-true! I will slowly move to this position within the next two weeks. Next week I wrap up with the current position, and the following week transition to the new position… and from there, work from home from that point on!
The three biggest advantages for me are:
- I will be able to have somewhere between 4-6 hours or more PER DAY available to benefit from (which comes to a theoretical max of 120 hours PER MONTH!). I am kind of expecting to work an afternoon shift (as hinted at by upper management), so if I work from (lets say, as I don’t know yet for sure), 3pm to 11pm, I can be in bed by 11:15, up at 7:00am and free until 2:45 to have a life. Those are daily golden hours that were previously unavailable to me!
- Reduced costs. No monthy fees for public transit, which is significant, lower gas costs per month as I had to drive to the local bus terminals daily, lower food costs as now and then I would go to a restaurant for lunch, which is no longer needed if I am at home. That’s the equivalent of a significant raise for me!
- Lower stress. I was told that this job entails much lower stress levels, and that is yet to be proven, but overall my stress levels will be lower just by the benefits resultant in point #1. If the job itself is indeed lower stress, that’s an additional bonus!
There are many other advantages, but I won’t bore you with them. All this combines to raise the quality of my life significantly and also offer me the ability to (amongst other very important things), have the time to put in to to my music on a more regular basis.
2020 is starting out magnificently!