If I’m going to be a real guitar player, I can’t take the easy way out.  Because, let’s be honest, the easy way is for ameteurs.

How many times have you uttered something like that?  I did for years, and I realized it really held me back.  I haven’t thrown in the towel.  I still try to master things.  I just cut myself more slack now when I don’t get there as quickly as I think I should.

Here is an example.  I was playing for church this morning.  One of the songs had a classic rock riff that went G-C2-Em-D.  The C2 was giving me fits.  I was hitting it clean about 50% of the time.  A few years ago, I would have stubbornly held to it.  But, today, I realized I wasn’t in the groove, so I switched and started playing straight C.  And after the service, person after person came up to me and told me they couldn’t believe I switched and played a straight open C instead of the C2.

No.  They didn’t.  No one knew.  They weren’t concerned about it.  And I was right not to be concerned about it either.

I finally allowed myself to live in this realization: I am an amateur.  So it makes sense that I will sound like one.  But even an amateur can sound good.  And as long as I’m sounding good, isn’t that the goal?