Tom,

Glad if any of my drivil was usefulI. I just saw this video today, and I had to come back to this thread and share what it showed me. .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks0EeVGtQCM

(sorry, I couldn't get a hyperlink to work)

As you watch this demo, of learning a complicated bending technique, watch how this skilled guitarist breaks down learning a difficult passage. He uses the same technique that gets taught to beginners!! Break it down and work out the small pieces frist, then put them together. He is facing the same delemma as all the beginners wanting to play cowboy chords for the first time. IT IS THE SAME TECHIQUE!! No matter how much you grow as a guitarist, as long as you are still developing your skills, you will face frustration with learning new skills. This never changes!

So learning to accept what you can do and still, work to develop the skills you want, without getting derailed in the process... is a fundimental skill as valuable as learning to tune the instrument or turn on your amp.

Even Steve Vie (an exceptional world class virtuoso) spent a lot of time working this skill out! You would be hard pressed to name a guitarist who is better than Vie... Diffrent yes, better no. Yet, Steve Vie is clearly still facing that frustration roadblock, at the peak of the profession! Nobody get out of befriending this challange... again and again and again.

So try to face frustration with anticipation, not dispair. You will constantly face it until you give up the instrument or you die. Leaning this lesson is absolutly invaluable. Rising over this frustration, without giving up, is a good indicator of just how skilled your really are. Good guitarists have all leaned how to turn this situation to their advantage.... No guitarist gets out of this one alive, without this patient skill in their quiver of tricks.