TOPIC: Best ""nudge" for practicing...

I usually practice from 8-9PM most every evening. I closet myself in a back room where my wife can't hear me because things get ugly! Playing along with the CDs and sound files on the FM website is the most fun...it covers my mistakes but helps with keeping up proper tempo. I wish I could adjust the volume a bit louder but haven't found a way to do it yet on my PC. The other night my wife asked if she had heard me playing "Grandfather's Clock". What a breakthrough---my music was actually recognizable!

Talk about recognizable. I was practicing "Arkansas Traveler" and my wife comes into the room and asks if we were learning "Little Bumblebee" in class. I told her the song I was playing was "Arkansas Traveler" a tune I had known for forty years. She claimed she had never heard of "Arkansas Traveler" and insisted that it was the tune "Little Bumblebee" that she had learned in elementary school. I insisted that I had never heard of a song called "Little Bumblebee" and that it wasn't on Dave's music list.

Well, since we have one of those equal/democratic relationships, I will henceforth refer to the song as "Little Bumblebee". AMEN

Hey Jim I had the same volume problem with my computer so I got powered external speakers,they sound good and are inexpensive.
You just plug them into the earphone jack.

I have a set of those too, with a big subwoofer(for hearing the bass when I practice bass). And in my office I have my computer hooked up to my audio system, a real one. Makes a huge difference in audio quality when listening critically (trying to hear guitar or bass parts) or playing along. Makes practice way more fun.

I just set up a Mac Mini for a music computer next to my desktop PC. (my sons helped me as I'm mac-ignorant). Garage Band is really cool! Using a PreSonus interface to plug in my son's electric guitar or my bass guitar. Could never get it to work for two years. Should have let my teenagers set it up in the first place, they got it working with the Mac immediately.
This will also make practice fun!

I highly recommend The Amazing SlowDowner software, it can be downloaded in demo version and purchased very cheaply, it works great! I have to see if it's available in Mac version now.



Ed

Kmando that happened to me too with my nephew....I was playing Arkansas traveler and he started singing about a bumble bee......I thought he was making up the words as he went along but if Frances says it's a legit elementary school song, then by golly, it is!

“Little bumble bee” is a song form a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It is sung by the buzzard who is portrayed to be about as sharp as a marble.