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Day One Hundred Seventy Five (Year Four)

So, since the start of the year, I've labeled all of my blog posts with the phrase "put up or shut up."  Tonight was the first night I figured out exactly why I'm doing that.

I've known for a couple of days now that the next lesson in that Acoustic Goldmine book of lessons has to do with finger picking.  As I mentioned in Monday's post, my technique when it comes to finger picking is haphazard.  So, naturally, the idea that my next lesson was focused on this topic had me a little bit intimidated.  my brain started coming up with all these excuses (I play more chords than anything, I'm better with a pick, etc).  

That's all well and good, but, you know what?  At the end of the day I want to do everything I possibly can to become a better musician this year, and that means confronting my fears.  So, tonight, when I got into the studio, I headed straight for the acoustic stuff.  I dove right into the lesson, and made it through, but it was rough.  My biggest issue has always been that I anchor my hand to the body of the guitar too much, and then end up doing most of my picking with my thumb and pointer finger.  What I really need to do is not psych myself out so much, because when that happens, I tense up a bit, which is the absolute last thing I need to do if I'm going to make any gains in my playing in this area. 

Here's the other thing I realized: it's not just this lesson that turns the focus to finger picking.  It's the next seven lessons. Travis-style picking has always been at least a little bit easier for me, but that doesn't get covered until later in the run of seven.  Initially, this upcoming seven lessons stalled my progress and had me nervous.  Here's what I realized:

1) If I'm going to get better, I have to press on.  Avoiding something because of a few feelings of intimidation isn't going to make me a better musician, isn't going to help me get to where I want to be, isn't going to allow me to get closer to the point where I can replicate all of the music I hear in my head.

2) The other lessons in this book have all built on each other, with one leading right into the next, so what's to say that seven lessons on a similar topic won't do the same thing?

This run of lessons may take a little bit of extra focus.  I may need to slow my momentum down a bit, just to make absolutely sure that I'm getting everything right, but if doing that will make things easier in the long run, then what am I so afraid of?  And if I get to kill off (or fix) a few bad habits along the way, then that's a good thing, right?

"Put up or shut up" isn't for the nights when everything is going great.  It isn't for the practice sessions that go perfectly.  It's for the nights like tonight, when things look a little bit tough, and the perfect practice sessions are the things that result from nights like tonight.

What's that old chinese proverb about "those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it?"

I'm going to be one of those people out there doing it, working to get better, one moment at a time. 
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