Mastering something is what you'll do throughout your life as a guitarist. As good as you get, there's always something you can't or haven't done. It's like juggling; first it's two balls, then three, then four...then chainsaws! Hehe...you get the idea. Always one more thing you can add to your bag of tricks.

With that said, don't hope to master something before you continue to play or learn.This is a Guitar World video posted today from Steve Vai on starting out. It's instructive but the key thing he says is that it is important to listen to what you're playing but also, just to play something you enjoy, even if badly to start. Don't let the idea that you haven't mastered it stop you from trying and enjoying.

The point being is to not worry as much about mastering something as to getting better at it. For instance, the issue with touching the 'next' string when fretting the third (index) finger. Yes, you are doing that now. Honestly, if you're not used to a pattern of something, that kind of always happens. Eventually you'll learn how not to do that. Not from a magic trick but by repeating things you practice. Your hand mechanics are different than mine. Our issues wouldn't be exactly the same. But practice teaches you how your hands work.

Oh, and this: "I'm in my 50s, so I'm sure my flexibility is shot". Unless you have arthritis, this is probably not true.

I sometimes give an example from my experiences...and for today's installment!

See this post from a few weeks ago. New guitars (a new Taylor too!) and yet....I hurt my wrist. It's been a longer recovery than I would have liked but I started with playing a little guitar and steadily improving.

For my church's Christmas program, my wife and I wanted to perform the First Noel. Easy enough with four chords cycling around (G, D, C and E). But a pain to practice when your outer wrist/pinky are stiff and ouchy. I've played guitar for a long time and those chords are a walk in the park..unless you can't seem to position your hand just so without yelping 'ouch!'. I trudged on and lo-and-behold, we did it. But it took some doing and given that it would have been otherwise pretty easy, darned frustrating to not be able to do it at first.

Now? I've decided I'm going to arrange 'Christmas Eve in Sarajevo' (TSO) for two acoustic guitars for next year. Guitar playing seems to be something of a rehab anyway so I'm rolling with practicing as part of rehab. It's hard to play some parts where I need a little more pinky extension and speed but, to my point above; I know my pinky ain't quite there yet so I continue to work on it and steadily improve. I'm still just learning and breaking down parts of the song so it's not like I'm in full performance mode. Just getting my hands back to speed.

That's the point. I can say that I am learning a harder piece of music and that's neato and all but the real point is your struggles and my struggles are still the same. The only real advantage I have is time playing but moreso, knowing that by stickin' with it, it does eventually come (back) to you and me.