It's hard to find motivation if you don't have weekly lessons, gigs or sessions. How do you do that when it's just you and your instrument, then? Set yourself goals. Same as for my new "Living Room Session", I need motivation and deadlines to be productive. Especially if it's about something "boring" but very helpful as working on technique and ornamentations.

But because it's boring, you can always make things a bit more interesting. Pick up a nice, new tune that you're really willing to learn, but choose a nice recording that requires a lot of technique, and set your practice with that goal in mind. That's exactly what I did with this great reel, "The Banks of the Illen".

Set a goal and do whatever you can and have to to reach it.

Working on tunes that I really like makes the whole difference for me. I can't remember who told me that, but during my Master one of my tutors told me:

"Life is too short to learn tunes you don't really like!"

And he/she could have not been more right!

Which tunes would you really like to learn?

Mad P