Yeah, I have seen incubation at work sometimes over the past few months.  Sometimes a piece or passage that was difficult suddenly becomes easy after "neglecting" the song it is in for a week or so. 

With the "100 card" tactic, I'm not looking to grind two or three pieces into the dirt over a week or so.  I felt that was counterproductive after a certain point with a Annie Laurie experiment.  This is intended to be more about just "keeping score" on the pieces I normally play.  I am pretty sure I play some of them far more often than others, and the "trick" of having an arbitrary eventual goal of 100 plays may help to make sure I am not sort of unconsciously favoring pieces that I find easier to play.  Also I would like to see if the mental idea of the 100 plays has a worthwhile effect on how well I play the pieces or how quick I am to rely on them when I end up playing in front of family or friends.  

I'm trying a bit of a change in tactics with the hope of feeling like I haven't been just wasting time when my 6 month date rolls around.  LOL  Honestly, I think I'm probably doing ok for a self-taught noob, but it never seems quite as good as I feel it should be.  I also have some concerns for my 6 month mark, since I expect to be losing a part of my routine that I feel has been helpful with some things.  It will likely be getting too cold to go out into the backyard a few times a week to play a few songs for one or two appreciative neighbors at sunset with my acoustic violin.  So I am trying to think of some little things to add to my routine to make up for any inertia I lose with that.

But I agree that more "push" isn't always the answer and a bit of incubation is part of the learning process.

No, it isn't a dirty word, Oliver.  To date, written score is probably the most efficient stand-alone means that mankind has developed for storing and communicating musical ideas/songs/pieces.  It doesn't take any equipment other than a musician to read it, and writing it doesn't require more than a surface to write on and something to make a mark with.  No batteries required.  

I do use it sometimes for studying a piece or analyzing what a composer used to get a particular mood, or when audio is not available.  I also use it if all I have handy is a bit of paper and a pencil when I have an idea I want to develop later.

I prefer not to use it when performing, though.  To date, I have never played in front of an audience with a written score in front of me.  Most bands I was ever in, even something like a lead sheet was considered something for the rehearsal space only.

Some bands and groups I have played with, it would have been considered a dirty word, though.  A few times, I was the only person in the band who could read music (by any notation) at all.  Some folks who play strictly by ear have as poor an opinion of those who use sheet music as some sight readers have of people who can't read music.  LOL

As a side note, sight reading onstage was discouraged at least in some places in years gone by.  At some point in time, the RIAA charged venue owners a higher royalty fee if any "fake books" were visible when a group played there.  According to one of my music profs I asked, that rule came and went before my time.  But in my early years of playing in clubs, it was still believed by many band leaders and most likely used by venue owners to haggle their way out of paying the full fee they had promised the band when the booking was made.  So it simply wasn't done.  Back then, I couldn't sight-read. so I never thought much about it.

But sight reading is a valuable skill.  That's why I spent a semester in college playing easy beginner songs on piano to get it.  I could have passed theory easy enough without the ability.  I knew enough to be able to figure out what note was which and etc, but just had never worked to get the ability to play it without identifying the notes one at a time and figuring out where they would be on the instrument.  Like touch-typing, it is more a matter of discipline and practice than of just knowledge. 

Mostly, I just don't feel I need it for performance of the sort of material that is typically on my playlist, and I would worry that audiences might not react as well to it.  Most of an audience usually aren't musicians themselves, and they don't usually see a music stand and sheet music onstage with most popular performers.  For all they know, there might be one just out of the camera's view, of course.  But people don't usually think of things like that when they are all set to be entertained.

Ok, so I counted up how many songs/times I played in what was about a typical day.  24.  So that's about an hour or so spent on playing songs in the course of the day, which is about what I would have estimated I do.  With a half hour of scales and exercises in the morning, and about 20 minutes spent on working on improv against backing tracks from assorted genres, I'd call it reasonable. 

I spent probably another hour playing on the other instruments combined, which felt a little light, but ok.

We'll see how it goes.

Of course, the household had to remind me of songs I'd "missed".  Some of those I left out intentionally because they were too new, or I didn't feel they were something I need for the 6 month goal. 

But Annie Laurie?  How could I have forgotten that one?  It has had enough work put into it and is coming along well enough to definitely be a good piece for the "set list".  So I have added it.

The other main contender brought up was a piece I have worked on a bit more for sentimental reasons and here I hadn't included it because I am just getting to the point where I have some idea what I want to do with it.  "The Old Lamplighter".  In the end I had to agree that it would make a good addition.  I've only worked on it now and then so far, but it probably is to the point where including it into steady practice would polish it enough to have a good place in the 6 month playlist.

What makes it "sentimental reasons" is my mother and father.  It was "their song".  I started playing it more as a remembrance of them than with the idea of it becoming a performance piece.  But it is a pretty melody that would fit well with some of the other songs in a musical sense.  Still have some mixed feelings on it as a playlist item, but I'll practise it and see how it goes.

I have to watch against adding too much more at this point, though, since I am more focusing on what I feel are a reasonable number of pieces to have down fairly well at 6 months.  As opposed to having more songs only "sorta" well practised at that point.