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Robert Johnson's avatar

Thanks for this, Ted! When I was 18-25 I practiced all day, every day, trying to "make it" in the LA guitar-heavy metal scene. As good as I got, keeping bands together, along with seeing how there were always guys who were "ridiculous" (good), who could play circles around me: it was rough.

I had some success, but eventually dropped out of the circuit in order to teach, which I really loved. Then I got a better-paying job in a library, and had a 15 year non-amicable separation/divorce from the guitar. I had some sort of emotional breakdown with what the guitar had "done to me." I hardly ever played. I saw my relationship with guitar as one long disappointment.

With much reading of Neuroscience and Philosophy, I realized I had made that entire sadness myself. It didn't have to be that way, but I didn't know it at the time.

Gradually, I started practicing again, and for the past 15 years, I've only made a small handful of gigs and a few obscure recordings (when someone asked me to play solos for their music.) But my mental approach to guitar and music is 180 from when I was trying to "make it." And I'm so so so much more happy just improvising furiously, for 90 minutes, every night. I know it sounds weird, but it's a religious thing. I listen to Bach and Coltrane (and many others, like all the Steely Dan guitarists; Holdsworth, Eric Johnson, et.al) and just PLAY. And it never gets old; I'm playing for myself. I'm only trying to impress myself. It's such joy, every night, and never the drag I made it to be when I was younger.

So yea: INTRINSIC rewards! They're everything. Getting paid is nice, but if you're not having a blast, why bother?

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Kenneth's avatar

Your point is more important than ever in this age of glut. When I was a kid and mastered something on the guitar, I couldn’t immediately see a hundred other people doing it on Instagram and YouTube. A thousand! Facing this glut of mastery forces any sane person to evaluate: how much money is there out there for people who sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jim Hall or whoever? There’s only so many spots. When there is an OBVIOUS excess of “geniuses” you need to find some other, inner reason for picking up the instrument. Or rather that reason needs already to be there.

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