Originally Posted by: metrowestalHi--I'm working my way through the course, am right now on the G chord, having just finished "Five Miles Out". I have a question, which will become more important as I continue: to what degree of perfection--or lack thereof--should I be trying to achieve while going through this? It's somewhere between incompetence and virtuosity, but I really don't know how far to take each individual lesson. Thoughts?
The answer is 'comfort' in my opinion.
A couple of things to keep in mind are; perfection is not a realistic goal, and accordingly, any definition your give your progress is subjective. It's not a math problem where 2+2 will always equals 4. It's more of a general reference of what someone defines as somewhere between ncompetent and a virtuoso. Also, as you get better, your baseline changes too. It's like grading on a curve; the better you get, the higher your skill definition curve goes.
Back to the comfort thing.
Since you're always prone to make mistakes, and every player no matter their skill does, perfection and virtuosity pretty much never apply. So I set my goal at how comfortable I am at playing something.
Example: This morning, I grabbed one of my guitars to play a little Eddie Van Halen (RIP) and started playing the main 'Ain't Talking 'bout Love' riff. It's an easy one that I played in a band a ton of times decades ago. But I hadn't played it in decades so I totally jacked up a pretty simple riff. I hadn't played it in a while and realized that I had to think at least for a second 'oh right, that's how the riff goes...oops'. But I'm very comfortable playing it.
For you, when you have something you're learning, like a song , even if not to complete perfection, does it feel comfortable? It doesn't even have to be to complete comfort but at least get to the point where you don't think you're going to burst a vain concentrating on what you're playing.
In the end, you'll notice it's comfortable because you're enjoying your playing of it.
That's how I see it anyway.