During the holiday season, they usually play the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, over and over and over again on one network or another. For many years, I’d watch my dad watch this movie over and over again wondering if it was really that good. And then one day I sat down and watched it … More For Pete’s sake!
Fall has arrived in Vermont and though the leaves are breathtakingly beautiful this time of year, it’s always hard to transition into shorter days. Luckily I have my fiddle to get me through. … More Falling into a practice schedule
As I write this, Mother Nature is bestowing upon us a good old fashioned snow storm. Despite the snow, spring is on its way, and I’ve already begun my spring cleaning. For the past few weeks I’ve been cleaning and purging, getting rid of cookbooks I never used, bike shoes that no longer fit, and … More If it brings you joy…
It’s that time of year that we celebrate everything Irish. Because of COVID the past couple of years have made it tough to celebrate in person. I’m happy to inform you that this year’s Burlington Irish Heritage Festival will be in person (mostly). There will also be some online events as well. From the festival … More Celebrating St. Patrick, 2022 style
I’m usually not one for making New Year’s Resolutions, or maybe I should say I’m not one for keeping them. But this past year I learned a tune a week for an entire year so I’m feeling pretty confident on the resolution front in 2022. A little background When I was a child, I loved … More New Year’s Resolutions
At this time last year, I made commitment to learn or relearn a tune a week for 52 weeks. There were some weeks where I had to put it off and learn 2 tunes but for the most part, I stayed true to my goal of learning a tune a week for an entire year. … More Making a commitment
I’ve been training for a bike race coming up in the spring. I hired a personal trainer and I have daily exercises I need to do to help build muscle and increase my endurance. Some days, however, life gets in the way and I can’t get on my bike, or I don’t have time to … More Taking a break gives perspective
With all sorts of software that allows you to slow down a tune without changing the key, it makes it pretty easy to learn even the hardest of tunes. However, every now and then it is fun to try to learn a tune up to speed. It’s not always easy, as some tunes are so … More Learn faster
This week I joined a group bike ride for more miles and at faster pace than I normally ride. We got out of the gate and I was feeling good in the middle of the pack. But as we started climbing, one by one, I heard “on your left” as each person on the ride … More Keeping up with the pack
Now that we’re all vaccinated it’s been so fun to head out to the Wednesday night session at Radio Bean in Burlington, VT. And although I have been diligently practicing for the last year and learning new tunes, resurrecting old ones has been, well, interesting. Sometimes those old tunes have a bit of dust on … More The dust is reel
Session Obsession 