Somebody keeps moving the goalpost!

[mr. beaumont]

The better I get, the further away "good" seems.

The journey IS the destination.

[brencat]

I consider myself intermediate level at best and don't ever expect I'll become an advanced player. Just started too late in life to be a 'natural' at it versus someone who picked it up in their early teens.

That said, I do have an excellent sense of time and can feel the 'pulse' of the music, and no matter what I'm playing or struggling to play, my goal is always to sound "musical." That's the key...you can miss a few notes or fret incorrectly here and there but if you keep good time and keep going, do you still sound musical?

[RalphH]

Originally Posted by brencat

I consider myself intermediate level at best and don't ever expect I'll become an advanced player. Just started too late in life to be a 'natural' at it versus someone who picked it up in their early teens.

That said, I do have an excellent sense of time and can feel the 'pulse' of the music, and no matter what I'm playing or struggling to play, my goal is always to sound "musical." That's the key...you can miss a few notes or fret incorrectly here and there but if you keep good time and keep going, do you still sound musical?

A great sense of time is probably worth more than anything else; I'd always rather play with someone that can keen time than someone that has every advanced technique in the world nailed but can't keep time properly (does happen!). If you can play half a dozen chords and do it in time I'll jam with you.

[perttime]

It is not a sport. It is an art.

Even if it were a sport, there'd always be something more anyway. As it is an art, you don't have to beat everybody else at something.

[buddyhu]

Great to read the posts to this thread. I relate to nearly all of them.

When I focus on what I want to do but can’t, I can feel frustrated.

When I focus on what I have learned (especially if I look at the list of songs I know, or listen to recordings from a few years ago, or think about what I have learned about focused practice and how I use this knowledge), I feel pretty satisfied.

When I focus on my perseverance (playing and/or practicing nearly every day for the past 8 or 9 years), I am a bit proud: there are only a few things that I have committed to in that way for that long (especially if we don’t count my career or my marriage or my spiritual practice).

My guitar teacher says that the musical possibilities are as big as the ocean, and we have jumped into the water and are exploring this little cove together. Seems like a pretty apt analogy.

[DebbieE]

Originally Posted by perttime

It is not a sport. It is an art.

Even if it were a sport, there'd always be something more anyway. As it is an art, you don't have to beat everybody else at something.

I love this way of thinking!

[jdrnd]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

That goalpost keeps moving farther away

Yea
tell me about it.
I finally learned how to play “Mary had a little lamb” single note style, and then somebody wants me to strum the chords for “hang down your head Tom Dooley”.

Okay I did that. And then somebody asked me to play a simple version of “Greensleeves”.
So I am doing well with Greensleeves and now I have to learn the arpeggio for “ House of the Rising sun”.
And then its the opening for the Beatles “blackbird”
FINE
Through all this I learn how to play instrumental "Washington Square".
But no that is not enough.
Then I am asked me to play a simple version of "Kiss from a rose" by seal. But it is too simple so now I have to learn a complex version of "Kiss from a rose".
In the meantime someone asks me to play the first "Gymnopidie" by satie. But Not just a simple version, but one that is all over the fret board.
So I learn this, and the next thing I know is I have to play "Toccata and fugue in D".
Still, no one is satisfied.
I got the trombone version of "Asturias", transposed it for guitar, and learned to play it
Still not enough. So finally I learned to play Beethoven’s 9 symphony. The entire piece. And I did it on a left handed Esteban guitar (I am a righty).

Was that enough?
NO!
I was asked to play one of Liszts’ hardest pieces, the “Hungarian Rhapsody no.12” superimposed on a complex fingerstyle version of “Sultans of swing” while playing the baseline for the Peter Gun theme song.

I am learning that as we speak. But still no rest for me. My wife asked me to play some obscure religious song. I had never heard of it.
When I said that, she went bonkers.

I am not even sure what religion the song belongs to.

[Br1ck]

Pick a few players that you really admire. I doubt you'd find any of them satisfied with their abilities.

One of the bigger disappointments I see with people my age, 70, is stagnation. They have simply given up on getting better, learning new songs, exploring new styles, etc. Comfortable with what they do. Getting better, grasping more theory, and writing songs is a driving force for me. Perhaps too engrossing. No, I didn't type that.

[tbirdman]

When you are beginning, you don't know how much you don't know. As you get to know more, you are aware how much you don't know.

My instructors laugh at me and say I want to learn everything at once.

However in a year, I'm a lot further than I ever thought I be. I still want to get even better. That's why I'm always taking lessons and classes.

[Kaydee]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Hi guys,

Does it seem to you that you're truly never truly satisfied with your playing etc? That you have never arrived? I know playing guitar is a journey but darn it feels like a LONG journey sometimes. Maybe I'm just never happy due to some deep psychological reasons. That goalpost keeps moving farther away but I know it's me who keeps moving it!

How about you? Have you ever felt satisfied? Like you have finally arrived at the place you wished you'd be? Did that feeling last?

A wise man said to me,”the best you will ever be at your job is the day before you retire” by the same logic ,the best you will,ever be on the guitar is the day before you die.

[fuman]

The only way anyone gets to be truly great is a combination of great talent and the realization that great talent is not enough, and you can always be better. So you work at being better. And once you get better, you repeat.

[Glennwillow]

I guess we have at least imaginary goal posts because we need something to work toward. Once we reach that goal, a motivated musician establishes another goal or else the journey is over.

The journey is the real goal.

A dedicated artist is always learning more about his/her art and craft; for a dedicated artist there is no end to that learning. To be a dedicated artist requires a certain level of essentially child-like humility, to accept that you don't know it all and that you are willing to continue to go through more and more discomfort to continue learning your craft.

A dedicated musician will never arrive. But that's okay. It's a journey.

- Glenn