Do you have any tunes in your repertoire that you don’t play well anymore? Perhaps you learned them when you weren’t as experienced and practiced in bad technique. Perhaps you’ve been playing them for so long that your embellishments and rhythm have become less than ideal. Or perhaps you’ve been working on the same sets for so long that you just aren’t getting any better as a player!

This week, Andrew and Jim answer a listener question: How do you stop your tunes from becoming stagnant? They explore how to expand your musical horizons rather than solely focusing on polishing individual tunes, because developing a broader skill set and playing a variety of tunes can lead to more significant improvement in the long run. We also take a quick detour into Jim’s borderline troubling candy sorting process, and then back to importance of balancing fun with delayed gratification in practice routines.

Got a question you’d like answered in a future episode? Leave a comment or email us: [email protected]!

Here’s what we cover this week:
00:00 Introduction and Theme Setup
00:15 Morning Greetings and Formalities
00:35 Listener Mailbag: Simplifying Tunes
01:32 The Lord of the Rings Analogy
03:03 Expanding Horizons with New Tunes
03:58 The Importance of General Skills
08:37 Polishing Tunes vs. Learning New Ones
23:58 The Role of Light Music in Piobaireachd
26:18 Personal Anecdotes and Final Thoughts