Hi Laura,
I thought I should chime in here. I started playing fiddle when I was 48! With two small kids and a business to run, my wife thought I was crazy. I tell her, as far as midlife crises go, she got off lucky. Anyway, I am a now 64 and a fairly decent, gigging , fiddle player. Here are few things I’ve learned.
1. Same thing George and Lisa say. Play with other people.!You got to have a reason for getting better. Mine was I needed to be at a level where I could play in local bluegrass jams. If you aren’t playing with other people, find a jam! Maybe you are already a festival jammer. If not check out that scene. Camps are also a really great place for the whole family to learn how to jam and have a blast. The point here is, practice makes more sense if you are actually practicing something you are going to be performing. Actually work on a repertoire that will be useful. That is why the bluegrass or Irish thing is cool. It’s a shared repertoire so you can show up at a festival or camp and jump. right in. If I were you I would get one kid playing bass. Put the other on guitar or banjo. Tell them they get everything you earn while busking. You’ll all get good fast.
2. Think like an athlete. If you have a little time, work out. Learning fiddle tunes is great but you also have work on stuff that needs work. And don’t try to boil the ocean. Just focus on one thing at a time. . Like building speed. or double stops, or Learning a specific classic lick. And keep focusing on that until it really feels comfortable. With some things, it can take a long time… you know like weeks or months or even years. Be patient.
3. Practice for me was and still is an escape. It’s like meditation or yoga, or running. It feels good so I made it a priority even when my wife and kids were not really very happy to see daddy disappear for awhile. I had to fight for my alone time because it was a priority for me. Some dudes go to the golf course. or jump on their mt bikes. I grab my fiddle. ( often times it was very late at night after everybody went to bed. I would slink off to the garage) Anyway, don’t let anybody tell you it shouldn’t be high on your todo list.
That’s my 2 cents
good luck
Dave
