[Closed] 100 days of hobby/learning/doing something from New Year

For sure! WFH seems to be the norm now, so having something productive to do will really help. I actually started both of these at the end of November so I'm a bit ahead, but I got Yousician on a black Friday deal to learn piano and dabble with guitar, and I'm learning Japanese with Duolingo. Still actively looking forward to both daily, and Mrs Pondo says it has improved my mood. 🙂

That makes 2 of us then haha.
Today has been about 15 minutes of double bass practice plus random jamming so far. Gonna do a bit more before the beverages begin, working on some grade 4/5 exercises.

I'm in too. I've just started learning the lever harp, and will try to do a little every day. I'm finding it challenging to play treble and bass at the same time – having to concentrate pretty hard, so can't do more than about 15 or 20 minutes at a time for now. I'm loving it though. It's great to play an instrument which sounds lovely even as a beginner ... I also play the violin, and suspect that was not as easy on the ears at the beginning. 😬

The last couple of years have been rubbish oboe-wise. No orchestra to play in, no lessons, leading to very limited motivation. So, 2022 needs to be the year to get back into the swing.

I’m keen on this idea, I need my rest days so the exercise one wasn’t for me. Although it may just be an excuse to buy more tools!

Interesting, Cazoo has a Well-being fund for staff to use for a similar range of subjects, we have £100/year to use. Something I’ve fancied for ages is a Yamaha Guitaleley, basically a uke-sized 6-string guitar. I’ve got a  dreadnaught-sized steel-strung acoustic guitar, but it’s really too big to have around the house, as is the Rickenbacker-copy bass that’s up in the loft, so I’ve just taken delivery of a guitaleley. Took a bit of digging around to find a tuning app to tune it properly, because it’s different to an open-tuned acoustic, but I’ve got that sorted. Chords are the same, so it’s just sitting down and spending a bit of time re-acquainting myself with the main chords, but on a much smaller fingerboard.

I'd suggest learning to juggle. It's cheap, quite good exercise (picking them up!), and great for coordination. It's also quite 'mindful' so good for de-stressing.

Whilst I got pretty good about 20 years ago, I never got to 5 balls, so maybe that's a challenge!

I played bass almost every single day until June 6th when mini me was born. It's been really hard to fit in a good session ever since but I managed one today and I'll get back on it tomorrow. I came on leaps and bounds last year and got really excited about it. In 2022 I want to leave the living room and play with people.

I also did over 200 consecutive days learning French on Duolingo but they kept making the free version of the app more and more annoying so I quit. Maybe I'll take that up again.

@keefezza I bought a drum kit 2 years ago for a lifetime ambition to learn - and still haven't. No promises, but I'll use some spare time for it...

2020 I was injured and couldn’t ride so much. I began in earnest learning and playing drum-patterns against metronome/error. 10 min sessions playing (electronic) on a kit (1 x each morning and night). It’s paid big dividends in a few areas of life and continues to help me maintain focus. Now I’m drumming 30 mins to 60 mins a night and looking to visit a rehearsal room in the city to get some acoustic kit practice in. Although sweaty band-room and drum kit sound even less-appealing in these COVID times than does the local chlorine pond swimming pool.

2022 I mean to either ride or walk every day. Drumming continues. Exercise is beneficial in the morning, they say (?). So I’ll first try a ride or fast-walk around the common or over hills before breakfast. 45 mins should do it. With a view to eventually running once sufficiently conditioned.

Also thinking of continuing animation studies. I can draw to some degree, but animation is a fun and challenging adjunct to that skill. Just wish it wasn’t so mind-bendingly time-consuming.

Maybe I’ll just learn to draw more effectively. 10 min training exercises work well for me. Sort of a hyper-Pomodoro method for intense ADD 🤦

30min of guitar a day for me.

I should be doing it anyway, this is a decent prompt.

It might be 10min some days!

I'm in, I did a sketch last year of my boy (black lab) just before he passed away, and my wife said I should keep doing it. So I'll try and do a bit of sketching every day.

Also a bit more on the guitar.

Day 1.
Practice pad plus learning to play war pigs by black Sabbath, about 45 mins total.
Also managed to rope the good lady into doing something aswell so she's gonna do a bit of German learning or drawing of sorts too. If she remembers how to log into her Instagram page I shall encourage her to do that again too.
https://instagram.com/notbadindeed.art?utm_medium=copy_link

Did quite well for the first 3-4 months of 2021 learning guitar with Justin Guitar, then just missed a few days and barely touched it again all year.

Time to start again tonight, 10-15 mins a day.

Also any recommendations for online language learning?

I've been learning Japanese on Dulingo for the last month, really quite enjoying it. Had a quick 20 minutes on that today, a 30 minute Yousician session with the piano and had a ride into town on the tandem with Mrs Pondo - holy shit, we found that hard! Best keep the exercise up...

@slowoldman – I tend to struggle with motivation too, when I don't have a performance or exam to work towards … or even just trying to avoid my teacher saying: you haven't really practised this week, have you? (flashback a few decades). Anyway, my strategy is to tell myself I can do just 10 minutes (or even 5 minutes) – somehow, for me, that removes pressure – and, more often than not, I just carry on past that time and end up doing a productive and enjoyable practice session. Also, I start with something fun, rather than scales or studies, and that can help me build enough momentum to get on and do something more boring or challenging. Funnily enough, I've found renewed motivation for the violin from starting to learn the harp … I suspect because I can just pick up the violin and play without thinking. I feel your pain about lack of orchestra – my community orchestra has done a couple of online projects in the last year, which have been great, but it's just not the same as all being in the one room and creating that big sound together. We have some in-person rehearsals scheduled for the spring – fingers crossed they will be possible.

100 days update – day 1 … no practice! Never mind … it happens, and I'll get back to it today.

Well done everyone. 🙂

What a fantastic thread! Thanks for the kick up the backside.

I've been dabbling with Italian on Duolingo so will pull my finger out with that. Thanks to whoever mentioned Yousician. I'd never heard of it but I'm loving it so far.

Bust my knee so can't walk or ride so appreciate this thread even more. Cheers.

Good luck with the lever harp @Rona. Are you playing folky stuff on it or planning on a future upgrade to a massive pedal harp? I know what you mean about treble/bass. I never learned piano but had a bit of a go at classical guitar some years ago and I reckon my brain isn't wired to read and play more than one note at a time. Anyway two days in and the oboe is languishing in its case. I have been industrious though - cooked breakfast and dinner, repaired a rear derailleur and of course there is CX to watch.

Maybe tomorrow.

Thanks slowoldman. The plan is to play folky stuff, and hope hope hope that I don't end up wishing for a pedal harp some time down the line … I think I would need to move house for that! Repairing a rear derailleur sounds much harder to me than playing any musical instrument!

100 days update – day 2 … no practice for the second day in a row! Too tired after an afternoon of particularly fresh sea air. Day 3 … finally some practice, which I really enjoyed. Trying to get to grips with the need to play a note, while at the same time placing fingers in preparation for future notes. My head is fried!

I do find that I need to pay attention if I've missed a day or two of practice – so easy to fall away from even a fairly well established routine.

How's everyone else doing?

Day 2 - nothing haha.
Had my kids for the day and then ended up in the pub for the whole evening.
Day 3 update later, half day of hangover and a quick ride out so far today, after food I'll be on the drums.

Trying to get to grips with the need to play a note, while at the same time placing fingers in preparation for future notes. My head is fried!

Totally get that! 🙂 Had a half-decent runthrough of the tune I've been trying to learn on Yousician yesterday and was happy with that, then it's started learning me another tricky one - ran through two segments first then it launched me into the main tune. Brain fried... 🙂

Japanese has hit a curious segment with Duolingo, teaching me names of countries and matching symbols to sounds without really explaining why. I shall persevere... 🙂

Day 3 - success, worked on rudiments and exercises within grade 4 for about 45 minutes then it got tedious.

I'm thinking about putting a schedule together and seeing if it works. Something like a 2 week program linked into my drum lessons, which are 2 weekly, to help keep my focus on the learning.

Ohayō pondo (hope that's right! I only know about three Japanese words). Glad to hear it's not just me!

Day 4 … 25 minutes this morning … consolidated what I've learnt so far – starting to feel it come a wee bit more easily. Was excited to finally get onto page 3 of the book, having somehow forgotten the stuff over the page would be even harder! 😆

keefezza – will be interested to hear how your schedule works out.

I've tried to develop the habit of stopping if it starts to feel boring or a strain … after something I read about running and writing in a Haruki Murakami book – along the lines of ... stop when the going's good (I'm paraphrasing).

https://www.harukimurakami.com/chapter_sample/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-running-excerpt https://www.harukimurakami.com/chapter_sample/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-running-excerpt < Third paragraph, starting: 'Right now I'm aiming at …'

Been doing this for years now ever since getting a 3D printer re-invigorated my love for tinkering! Got really into home automation during the early stages of the pandemic which turned into a great lockdown hobby as there's an infinite about of stuff to learn and do without ever leaving the house 😃 It's great because now I'm never bored even when stuck at home which really bugs the Mrs 😂 Really into electronics as well and spent an extremely frustrating but ultimately successful day yesterday converting an analog train set into a DIY digital computer controlled one!

Ohayō pondo

Ohayō Rona to arigato gazaimus (I think 🙂 )! That Murakzmi excerpt is fantastic, thanks for sharing - as someone who's given many things up in the past, I think it's important to make sure your hobby doesn't become a struggle, or something to dread.

Sounds good. Just started learning about hifi speaker design and looking to make as a hobby. 1st a boom box with semi decent drivers / bass radiators with an attempt to sound better than Apple / Google / Amazon models. Next project a mini 3 way design.

Learn / tinker / solder a bit each day.

That's an interesting view on life, Rona, that I've never seen not considered before.
My current way is to just plow on until I hit a specified time, get fed up or feel like I've done well but rarely with any plan. I've often tried to start out with a warm up and focus on a certain activity or multiple activities as this gives the practice session a strong focus.
But that approach is effectively a "go until you can definitely give a lot more, then stop" and is an odd one.

I'll try it though.

Zilog, we're gonna have to see some examples, always fancied the idea of automating things around the house purely for the hell of it and because why not!

pondo – nice for me to learn some new words, thank you! Glad you liked it. It works pretty well for me for writing (for pleasure) and music – I think it keeps me looking forward to the next session, rather than dreading it, as you say.

keefezza – I think of it as stop while I still have something else to say (for writing), or while I'm still enjoying it, or have just realised I'm not enjoying it so much anymore (for music). The way I see it is … I may get less done today, but I'm more likely to go back to it tomorrow and the next day.

Pics would be great … what you've made, built, baked, cooked; musical set-ups; part-finished or completed art … or maybe even write your post in your language of choice (and give us a translation!). Will attempt a pic in a day or two.

I use an electronic drum kit and it's a post Christmas mess around here at the moment so once it's a bit more tidy I'll chuck a photo up of the kit.
Had about 45 mins tonight after some unexpected evening food shopping, ways a thrill.
Some work on double kick endurance again and continuing to work through the black Sabbath song war pigs.

I used the method of finishing up whilst it was going well, partly as it was getting late in the evening and also to test the theory out. I'm already eager to crack on with the song and some more double kick practice, I wonder if that will still be the case tomorrow though.

I have also rekindled with my drum kit that's been piled in the loft for the past 8 years or so... Honestly thought it was still in my moms garage, turns out it did move in 🤣 also was asked by my brother to teach my nephew how to skateboard(its been about 12 years but it was life in my youth) Subsequently i ended up bbuying and building a new setup mid November and ive been hooked on that. I turned 31 last week and feel 15 again. Hopefully this year stays as positive as its began. None of the bikes have had a look in since mind...

You must enjoy whatever it is you do.
Try to do something every day.

I enjoy going home from work everyday. Hate working which makes it feel even better.

I do this nearly everyday.

Karate Kata for me. My memory is terrible so I've got to try and hold on to the ones that I have and learn 2 new ones for the next grading.

Got to nail Ananku first.

How's everyone doing?

Day 5 ... nothing. Had a really busy day.
Day 6 ... another busy day, but since I missed practice yesterday, I made an extra effort to get something done at the end of the day today. Skipped ahead a wee bit in the book to try the first two bars of Frère Jacques – really motivating to hear something recognisable after playing exercises for days. 🙂

Playing songs is the best, get so much more out of it than practice exercises.
Did some of that yesterday plus a bit of double kick workout.
Low on motivation today, done a bit of just jamming and double kick/fill exercises about 10mins worth, that's enough for today. Seem to be getting hand ache easily for some reason these last few days which I've never had before.

No work tomorrow so I'll be doing a couple of longer sessions whilst the boys are at school.

Well done on getting something done even though you were low on motivation. Sometimes it's a struggle.

Been a bit busy but now we're back at work, Mrs Pondo wakes me up when she goes to work so I spend half an hour on Japanese before I get up, and I can normally fit 20 minutes or so on the old Joanna in at lunch time. I'll do more when work quietens down. 🙂

Day 7 and the longer session turned into only about 45 minutes at the most. But I got on the kit and that's the main thing. Hands didn't ache this time which was nice.

Should get some time on today either whilst the boy is on games or after he's back at the mother's.
Then a free Sunday, day before my first drum lesson in several weeks so I'll be working on the graded exercises and back to learning war pigs again.

Still haven't put a schedule together, still planning to though.

^I’m greatly enjoying the ‘nailing War Pigs’ tenacity/obsession.

Quick Q - where does the hi-hat bark occur!? Drives me mad. 😉

As a diversion, maybe try ‘Down On The Street’ by The Stooges? Deceptively simple. a great hat/bass - RF/RH limb-independence exercise - and it also helped me along the way to nail When The Levee Breaks that much more easily. I struggled with these more than anticipated.

My main hobbies (riding/fettling bikes and drumming) have conflicted. Managed to put a big sharp flat screwdriver properly inside of the left hand/base of thumb, resulting in bandages and stuff. (Too much info warning slightly graphic) So no real drumming or cycling for a while. Tonight will draw.

In other words - the right hand wants to play skippy 16ths along with the right foot when instead it should be playing solid 8ths, while the other hand seems to want to sabotage/murder it’s sibling (and now in fact has).

This is basically ADHD in action.

Day 7 … no playing, but I did watch some harp technique videos. It's been weird to teach myself an instrument, rather than have lessons – and, having had the harp for almost a month now, I wanted to go back to reassure myself that I'm not making any massive errors.

Day 8 … a good practice session. Slowed down a bit to check my technique was okay … a bit frustrating, but probably worthwhile. Still loving the sound I can make, even as a beginner – even if I play the wrong note, it still sounds good!

p7eaven – not feeling strong enough to look at your image! Get well soon.

P7eaven - it's one from a trinity rock school book, grade 8 I think so way ahead of the main trinity grade 4 stuff I'm working on, but my drum tutor thought it was a bit more.up.my street than the funk/blues/samba stuff we've been doing so far. He was right, and it is difficult for me but I love the song so I'm determined to nail it. Also working on grade 4 exercises and rudiments at the same time.
I want to be able to play metal fluidly but with inspiration from all other backgrounds of music, not just the same old fast double kicks stuff all the time. I have a hell of a long way to go and hopefully this year will be the one to push me further.

Nasty injury hope it heals soon, I hurt my wrist a few weeks before a couple of gigs. Irritatingly I didn't fall it was just from riding in the skatepark for a couple of hours and it's been sore ever since. Fortunately it was strong enough to play the gigs but I avoided the doctors just in case, possibly not the best idea.

Rona - always beneficial to go back and re-check and also slow down. I follow Dave Elitsch, a master drummer and tutor to some of the best in the world. His motto is "slow down, do it again". Nailing things slow gives you the rhythm needed and starts the muscle memory being generated. Build up slowly and by the time you've got to the full speed it's almost second nature, feels frustrating sometimes but it really works.

Day 8 - today I did about an hour, playing the full set list from my last couple of gigs (of the 4 I've played haha) and then a few extras plus a YouTube hand warm up regime thing.
Finished with an attempt of trivium - down from the sky, way beyond my abilities, for now.

Still piano and Japanesing daily, trying to remember to go back and revise the earlier sections of Japanese and I'm very glad to say they still come easily to mind. Mrs Pondo was talking about some Afghan children at her school and how isolated they are with little English so thought I'd have a look at that, but the first lesson on Duolingo is very alphabet-based, rather than teaching even basic words, which is a bit of a turn-off.

Felt curiously tired yesterday, I did sit down at the piano but only gave it about ten minutes - it's not what I hoped for but that's ok, it's still better than nothing. 🙂 We're doing an almost dry January/February, allowing ourselves to go out on Friday nights, so that's the first drink we'd had since NYE, interesting if that's why I couldn't be arsed to do anything yesterday! No exercise though, which was disappointing - will try and get out for a stroll today.

PS - p7eaven, I had a nightmare about a hand wound like that many years ago where the hole stretched until I could effectively deglove myself. It stuck with me, as you can tell! Hope it heals up quick. 🙂

Good advice, thanks keefezza. 👍

Day 9 ... nothing – busy, busy day.

Day 10 ... finally got some kind of grip on an exercise I've been finding difficult since the start – again related to playing a note while at the same time placing fingers on strings for future notes. It seems a bit like playing chess ... having to think a few moves ahead ... I've never been good at chess! ... and it's pretty alien to me in relation to violin technique, which is more like one note at a time. I'm sure it will come in time.

Day 11 ... off to practice now!

Forgot to say pondo ... when I was practising yesterday I was thinking about what you had said about 10 minutes being better than nothing ... wholeheartedly agree ... but I was laughing to myself, as it took me about 10 minutes to get the harp tuned up before even getting started! 😂