Totally focused, always experimenting and driving towards your grand goal. No artificial ingredients or flavors. Your a organically growing musician constantly getting after it. Congratulations!

Also less than 2 months, & some of that trying to set up a Stick that had been curiously used in the past. Guitar is still getting almost equal shares in time, but that's at least partly because

a) I've only recently reached the stage where I feel like I'm playing it rather than poking, which is still a novelty.
b) I'd already booked a 12 week on-line improvisation course starting this Friday that will require me to use an instrument for the assignments & I'm certainly far enough on with Stick for it to be that instrument (but I hope to do at least a bit on non-assignment stuff with it)!

Once the course is over I may hope to give the Stick a higher proportion. Maybe I'll have news of my Railboard by then - I'm keen to find out what a Stick that's been properly set up by SE feels like!

I also plonk a bit on keyboard too in an in-expert but relaxed way - if it sounds musical that's as much as I ask for. I hope to keep bubbling along even if it's just just playing a few times a week as the opportunity arises (as much as possible I try to keep all instruments 'out & ready').

Gary Burton's at Coursera?

Jelske Hoogervorst's Mixed Harmony course. It's only run once a year, with a maximum of 10 students.

I've previously done the Introduction to Melodic Improvising workshop that she runs in conjunction with Improvise for Real. It was doing that workshop that took me through the transition from feeling I was just 'poking my instrument' to 'playing my instrument'.

I'm a big fan of the Improvise for Real way of looking at & understanding the musical environment. It would be fair to say it's the lens through which I see/hear & approach musicality.

Every now and then I get out my alto sax, or dabble with a synth, but in 1992 I stopped playing those instruments, put away my effects pedals, and buckled down to really learn and record The Stick. I spent about 500 hours that year making Stick Figures, all live takes, no edits. That concentrated time made me a Stick player...

https://greghoward.bandcamp.com/album/stick-figures

I went through my 20s trying to be a multi-instrumentalist (keyboard, guitar, bass) after some formal training with flute and concert bands in my school days, but I felt I wasn't getting proficient at any of them. I did get my first Stick in 1995 but it became another "dabbling" instrument along with the others.

It was when I got my first acoustic guitar around 2003 that I suddenly shifted from a multi-track composition mindset to being more interested in developing solo instrument music. I had an NS/Stick at the time and found it challenging to read piano music (I remember trying to play the first Goldberg Variation), so I revisited an idea I had before the NS/Stick was produced- to get a Grand Stick tuned in 4ths, also allowing me to adapt ideas I came up with on other instruments.

I debated whether to concentrate on acoustic guitar or Stick (I loved the completely "self contained" nature of acoustic guitar - no electronics or cables, and a beautiful feel, sound and wood smell), but I also moved to Virginia around this time and had the positive influence of attending a Stick seminar and getting to know Greg Howard.

Ultimately it seemed like there was a lot more new and fertile ground to explore with Stick, so I ended up with the mirrored 4ths Grand in 2004 (after a short time with parallel 4ths) and haven't looked back. I put down all the other instruments and the Stick has never failed to provide inspiration or limited what I've wanted to accomplish musically.

As for developing proficiency - I left my comfort zone and committed to playing open mics almost every week for a year, using just a Fishman amp with reverb. While I still don't consider myself a really solid live performer, forcing myself to get on stage helped a lot, and led to greater gig opportunities (again, Greg was a valuable friend and resource during this time).

More recently, I started to learn a bit of classical guitar which gave me other creative boost and motivated me to order the custom 5+7 Grand Stick, which enhances mirrored 4ths even more and allows me to delve easily into the classical guitar repertoire (it's possible to play guitar arrangements note for note- one effective approach is playing the melody on the right hand and the rest on the left). I've been putting in more practice time on this new instrument and it's incredibly fun and fulfilling.

I've found the Stick to be such a great foundation for making music- it can be quite satisfying approached simply, with minimal effects, or you can build complex sonic worlds with it, able to utilize all kinds of synthesis and effects technology.

Very interesting. It’s hard to “put down in words “ for a life long musician like your self. I’m sure the bumps in the road while searching for contentment is what put many instruments in your hands. When you separate the tares from the wheat you end up with fine wheat. I seen your playing it’s fine.

No, I play some other instruments besides the Stick. For recordings, I play all kinds of guitars; acoustic, electric with 6 strings multiscale and whammy, multiscale 8-stringed, ordinary strats, tele, LP-styled, fretless, and lap steel with two levers (Dusenberg Fairytale). They all sound different and I regard them as a sort of palette when recording. I also record with sax (tenor, soprano) and flute (alto, c-flute) and EWI. And I have a fretless electric bass guitar with 5 strings that I plug in a lot for recordings. Oh, and I recently acquired a sitar, but it has only made it into three recording projects so far. I mostly record production music for media licensing these days and I don't tour any more. Only during the summers do I now get booked locally for a handful Stick solo concerts in churches, where I use the SG-12. In the past I have been playing guitars professionally for sideman touring and studio musician jobs, but as the music business looks today those kinds of gigs have become history. For solo gigs I love the Stick!

I actually play my seven string guitar a little more than my 10 string stick at least in the past year or two.

Ah-ha, there you have it ! I know pros who get bored ( non stickists) after 2 hours. Like Poorman had said quote; “ The treaded plateau “. No boredom with you and a lot to study and play. Amazing to me so many instruments. Yes the pan demon has really reposition the musician’s in the last 2 years. Two questions; how old were you when you started playing music? And how do you like the Fractal FX III ? . I also use the FX III . That alone will keep one busy.