@kehaulani said in playing with a full lower de nture:
Rowuk - any special suggestions? Thanks/
Special suggestions,
well the biggest issue is maintaining attitude when everything is different and not working as expected.
I got lucky as my process started right before Covid. There were no gigs and therefore I could do what was best instead of just trying to get by. I got lucky (or we could call it divine intervention) as a church where I perform a lot had the idea of sending a loud instrument to 4 retirement homes every Sunday to give the church "presence" where the retirees could not go to church and the Pastors could not visit the homes. We agreed on 6 places for me to play and 3 tunes per place - a folk tune, a church tune and a childrens song. It worked out to about 45 Minutes of playing in easy chunks. The tunes were easy enough to allow me to play in spite of changing geometry with each adaptation of the dentures. I learned about what dental creme worked best, I learned that a cup of coffee could spoil the effort (melting the denture creme). Most important, I was still playing and had a reason to practice EVERY DAY!
After 2 years, we switched to once a month and the major church holidays. The first weekend in May 2023 was my "final" performance in the parks and parking lots.
That would be my 2 suggestions: get back to basics and find a reason to play - as often as possible. The people at retirement homes are eternally greatful. I have hundreds of stories and anecdotes from my time there. A lot of individual fate/destiny - including my own. I learned that what I have been teaching for the last 40 years + even works for an old guy like me.
