I have played almost every day for four years. When I taught skiing a few years back I took a longer one week breaks,but never more. Some have told me they have taken longer onesfor one reason or another. Have you ever not played for more then a week?
Yes. When I felt tendinitis flaring up in my left hand it put a stop to things for a few weeks.
Heiden F-5 #110
GMC Terrain VIN 2GTEC13Z871107423
2007 Tempurpedic mattress
$1.35 in assorted change
Yes, after getting robbed recently, I've taken to keeping my Givens A locked away, not out on a stand like it was before. Seems to keep me from playing as often, so I'm going to have to find another way of keeping it safe. Frank
FJ Russell
Es mejor morir de pie que vivir de rodillas. E. Zapata
This past winter was a bear. Work load,(I plow snow), kept me from doing anything. The mandolin, and home life in general took a back seat for awhile. Thank God spring finally sprung.
A couple of mandolins
A couple guitars
An Upright Bass
Some banjos
Wax Paper over a comb
A Loar era Didjeridoo
"I Never Wanted To Be A Barber. I Always Wanted To Be A Lumberjack !"
Injury - 6 longest months of my life!!#Still can't play guitar or banjo. Thanks GOD for the mandolin!!!
Several periods of many months over the last three decades. It usually took a few weeks to get going again but there always seemed to be something new in my playing after the break.
Probably a week while I was away somewhere where I did not or could not take the mandolin. But never more than two days normally.
"Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man."
Since I started playing about 6 years ago I don't think I've missed more than a week, but I definitely go through periods of varying intensity. Lately I haven't so much been practicing as noodling and playing a few songs in the evening...I've got a couple of new books coming, though, so we'll be back at it again soon!
Chuck
Went surfing in Costa Rica for a month, when I came back I felt like I couldn't play for more than 30 min. without my fingers hurting. I'll be taking it to Cali. in June, even though I'm only going to be there for a week. Two days is about as long as I will go these days.
"They say the ocean, she is a woman, who waits for her man to come home." M.Houser
I'm a relative newcomer to the mandolin (4 months), but I'd say the longest lapse in playing has been 2 days. I have to go to Montreal in October for a week, so I suppose I better get that Calton case on order.
'08 Weber Fern 'Old Wood' Red Spruce
Well, at the time mandolin was more a secondary instrument to guitar, but in the late '80s a head injury (on the left hand side) put my right hand completely out of commission for a few years. Took about 8 or 9 years to start playing music again, and then another 1 or 2 for mandolin to become the primary rather than the secondary instrument. But, since then the andwer is no, never a week off (sometimes a day or two but that's about as long as I can stand).
Greg Henkle
2002 Prucha F5
1962 Martin D18
1965 Fender Telecaster
I started playing bluegrass rhythm guitar in 1968. I picked up the mandolin in 1979. I played the mandolin for 10 years the quit in 1989. Didn't play music of any kind and didn't listen to bluegrass music until 2007. Then wife got me a Martin D-35 for my birthday in 2007 and I was off to the races. I bought a mandolin in August 2007 and have been playing like a mad man ever since. It's amazing how fast things come back to you. When I stopped playing in 1989, I sold my mandolin, a Kettler KFM-5 made in 1982, and just last week bought a Kettler KFM- 5 also made in 1982.The serial number on my new kettler is only 1 digit away from the one I sold in 1989...it's awsome!
Longest I went without playing? Well I slept about ten hours a few nights last week.
There has been about 3 times my wife & I went to Japan to visit her parents and stayed a couple of weeks each time. Didn't bring my mando. It was a great vacation each time but it sure felt good to get back home and pick a little.
I Pick, Therefore I Grin! ... "Good Music Any OLD-TIME"
1922 Gibson F2
2006 Gibson F5 Goldrush
2015 Martin HD28-V
2017 Gibson J45
I've gone months without playing my mandolin - mostly when the kids were babies - life was just too hectic. It seems that every year though when front porch season began it'd come out. Now that I'm taking guitar lessons I'm also taking weeks at a tiem without playing. Just as long as I stay busy and remain enjoying music, I'm o.k.
f-d
¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A
... after a couple weeks on a bicycle tour, without, I got a small travel mandolin,
to take with me before the next multi week trip.
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
About 8 hours just long enough to sleep!
A couple of years....due to bad wrist problems. I'm happy to say it's all been resolved.
Avi
Avi
Four years, after a serious hand injury.
Mike Snyder
About a year, some time ago. I'd been heavy into rock climbing, and my digital flexibility was pretty much trashed. There were benefits that offset the loss, of course, so I have no real regrets.
12 years. I lost interest in playing music from 1993-2005. I got too involved in school, work, and other pursuits (photography, mostly). Part of it was that music for me when I was younger was very much a collective pursuit. I played violin in the youth orchestra, bass in the jazz band, and mandolin in an Irish/folk duo. When I went away to college, I lost these contexts for playing and was drawn into other things. In 2005 I picked up a ukulele for the first time and discovered the fun of making music for myself and my family. That led quickly into buying a new mandolin (my original pac-rim Antares wasn't playable anymore), and then another. Now there are musical instruments all over the house, ukes, mandolins, a violin, a guitar, etc. and I'm much happier.
***
Alex of the North
(Eastman 604, Mid-Mo M2)
Two weeks - when me & my wife go on our annual vacation. Apart from that,yesterday when my computer totally crashed & me & the young guy that built it for me,spent all day getting it up & running again. I'll make up for that today - an 8 hour, solid 'Mandoblitz' is on the cards.
I did have a period of 3 months where i couldn't play Banjo (no remarks please !!!!) because of an op.on my left hand.It was well worth it afterwards though,
Saska
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Weber F-5 'Fern'.
Lebeda F-5 "Special".
Stelling Bellflower BANJO
Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.
Ha, the story of my life, well at least the last 8 years. I've been an on and off player. I would play for a year put it down for 2. I did that 3 times. I think the longest I put it down though was almost 3. I don't know what happens I just don't feel like playing any longer. Than I see something that inspires me usually meeting someone who plays music, then I'll pick it back up again. Recently I've found some like minded folks and play in a band. Hopefully I stick with it this time around. I always think, "what if I never stopped playing I'd be pretty good right now." But whatever happens happens.
Eighteen months, after 25 years of playing with breaks of no longer than a week or two. It actually did my playing good (not that I'm recommeding it)
I travel a lot. Everytime I get back to the Mandolin after a long trip I find I have lost some of what little ability I have to play, and it seems it takes longer to recover it. I used to be able to play a complete Cello suite from memory, but I took a trip for a couple of weeks, and I just couldn't do it any more. Still can't.
Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
--William Shakespeare
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