Staying in the game: The best practices, attitudes, metacognitive strategies, and intrinsic motivations of aging musicians
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LIVE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The Joy of Jamming

9/23/2018

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Cycling home today I passed a house having a BBQ with a live band jamming in the back yard. Band is a generous term. Guitar, bass, drum thingys. It was wonderfully awful: enthusiastic, spirited, sincere, and likely slightly drunk. All I wanted to do was run home grab a drum or keyboard and knock on the door with beers in hand.  I overcame the urge. But it made me think why do we jam. 
  1. Keep our social connections alive. As we age this is a big reason. Isolation kills. For the cheery data check out this fine article with footnotes to real data. Loneliness kills more folks than obesity, so the data apparently shows.  Yikes. Here is one study. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
  2. Impress the girls, even if at this age they are 60+. Two thumbs up.
  3. It's fun.

So, in conclusion, it's time to dust off the guitar, get out of the house and meet some folks.

Cheers,

David

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Are you working the wrong plot of land?

9/17/2018

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It is possible to be doing all the right things to succeed but realise you've planted your garden on the wrong plot of land. To continue the metaphor, the plants look sickly, or worse refuse to show their heads. What then? 

Change your environment. 

It works.

Same effort, different soil=different results.

Five things you can do.
  1. Are your colleagues worn and tired? Seek out some younger ones tied to a different scene.
  2. Move cities. I left Hamilton with a piano teaching studio of mostly children. In Toronto mostly adults. And much higher wages. 
  3. Learn a new instrument. Really. Drumming in my 50's took me to some cool places. Still does. 
  4. Compose and present your own music. Why not? If it works, bravo. If it doesn't nobody will remember anyways.
  5. Investigate new parallel paths in your own neighbourhood. Maybe the soil in your patch is fertile with a different crop. 

Cheers, 

​David

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Sarcopenia: Another reason to get off our ass and out the door

9/13/2018

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Sarcopenia "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sarcopenia is the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass (0.5–1% loss per year after the age of 50), quality, and strength associated with aging.[1] Sarcopenia is a component of the frailty syndrome. It is often a component of cachexia. It can also exist independently of cachexia; whereas cachexia includes malaise and is secondary to an underlying pathosis (such as cancer), sarcopenia may occur in healthy people and does not necessarily include malaise. The term is from Greek σάρξ sarx, "flesh" and πενία penia, "poverty".


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/well/live/preventing-muscle-loss-among-the-elderly.html

A quote from the NY Times article: In 1988, "Walter R. Frontera and colleagues at the Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University demonstrated that 12 previously sedentary men aged 60 to 72 significantly increased their leg strength and muscle mass with a 12-week strength-training program three times a week."

Conclusion: To maintain our ability to play over the long term we need to be healthy enough to pick up our instruments, get out the door, and survive a few hours of playing. Twelve weeks of strength training, at any age, apparently does wonders. So does a healthy diet, proper rest, and social contact. 


See you at the gym.

Best,

David 

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    Author

    David Story: Professional pianist, drummer, composer, and educator. Well into his 5th enthusiastic musical decade, David works with adults pursuing musical dreams in the autumn of life, while he maintains an active presence in the Toronto arts scene.

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