I nominate Bill to be our "Motivational Leader"

Seriously though, I watched the clip and it got me thinking of my own journey. Learning an instrument is different than anything else. It's not like taking a physics class and then proving to the rest of the world you know physics by passing a test and getting a degree.

I've reached a point where I don't know if I've really learned something, be it a song or a melody. I've learned how to play a lot of songs, but I can't honestly say I've learned how to PLAY a lot of songs. Know what I mean?

Dust in the wind is a perfect example. I know all the chords, start to end including the solo with the violin, but putting it all together to any near original tempo without flubbing a lot of notes is next to impossible. Many of Lisa's fingerpicking songs I can play on my own, but as soon as I try to play along with her I am lost even if I slow it down. And like you, some days it's all there and others it's like I'm trying to play it for the first time. I know practice and repetition is what it's all about with this, but how much practice and repetition can one do? Especially at our age with work and other committments that get in the way.

It's been talked about in previous threads you can't bogg yourself down trying to master a certain song or technique. You need to change it up a bit, go in different directions and try some other stuff, but then that just leaves you with a lot of sporadic playing ability at various degrees to various songs in our repertoires.

It's left me to believe that there is no having "Learned" how to play the guitar, but instead the constant evolution of "Learning" to play the guitar that we are all in. There is no test waiting for us to take, nor a diploma waiting to be nailed on the wall. It's just constant practice, persistance and hoping someday we'll be able to make some noise out of these things when someone hears it and says " Hey how long did it take for you to "Learn" how to play the guitar.

We can then laugh and say "Learn", heck I'm still Learning. It's never ending so enjoy the journey everyone.

My 2 cents. Great Topic Bill.

Moe