Music Is Hard Work

I've heard it said that the guitar is one of the easiest instruments to learn to play, but it's the hardest to master.  Well, I can't confirm the saying completely because I've not tried every instrument, but I can surely attest to the fact that it is hard to 'master' the guitar.

I started playing guitar in December 2007, the same year that I turned 50!  Well, actually, I bought my first guitar in 1986 and tried to learn some children's songs for my kids.  After a 2 or 3 years with some practice and without a lot of progress, I hung up that old Anjo guitar and it gathered dust for nearly 3 decades.  Oh, I sorely wish now that I could have back all those years I could have been playing and progressing.

For the last 7 1/2 years, I've been very motivated to try and master the guitar and become a good and entertaining musician.  I've practiced 1 to 2 hours per day on average.  I've set goals for myself, and as a result, I perform very regularly in hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons - all unpaid gigs, but all very rewarding.  All of this personal practice and live performance has helped me to hone my guitar-playing skills to the point that I can watch a video of a performance and not puke.  But I feel like I have so far to grow, I feel so very far from being a 'musician'.  I suppose there are newbies that hear my playing and think I'm good, and I get lots of feedback from the audiences that they enjoy the songs; but when I hear a really accomplished musician perform with the guitar, I realize that I've got a long, long road ahead.

Over the past few months, I haven't been recording videos - I've been focused on trying to get a better 'mastery' of my finger style technique and things like Travis picking.  I've been working on mastering about 10 songs side-by-side, and feeling like I'm almost stuck.  I think I'm close to the top of the hill, and I expect to get recording some of these songs soon, but the last 5 months have sure been hard slogging.

I realize that there are very, very few child prodigies - and most people put in a vast number of hours in mastering the instrument, and even then only become masters of some of the possible musical styles within the realm of the guitar world.  I wish I could have those 30 years of un-played practice back - and failing that, I wish there was a magic wand for guitar excellence.  But then, I guess mastery would not be special, would it!

Over the past few years, I've become lighter with my strumming, I'm using finger style more often, and I'm practicing my songs better before I try and perform or record them.  My next step is to start memorizing songs, so that I don't have to rely on the song sheets so much.

It's not an easy road, but it is a highly rewarding one.  The personal therapy of losing yourself in the music is terrific.  The satisfaction of seeing eyes light up, toes start tapping, hands clapping - this makes it all worth while.