Youth

My wife went on a youtube binge the other day and at one point I looked over her shoulder to see what had gotten her attention. Well, there were bunches of videos of dachshunds, but there was one music one. It featured three kids sitting on the sofa playing a bluegrass piece. (I've been searching the site and have been unable to find it again, so I can't post the direct link here.)

There were two guitars and a mandolin. The kids were somewhere in the 6-10 range and they were really good.

What got me though was that they didn't appear to be having all that much fun. They kept looking to the person holding the camera and all I could read in their eyes was something like: daddy, can we stop now?

What really got me was that I feel like here I am pouring my heart into the guitar and I may never get as good as these little kids. On the other hand, I think I'm having more fun than them.

Relax

I think I tense up for some things. I find that's certainly true for pieces that I'm making an effort to play without error, or for difficult chord shapes (bars), or difficult fingering patterns.

I would imagine that, as a relative beginner, I'm generally holding my hands, fingers, arms too rigidly.

While practicing yesterday, I tried monitoring this and really made an effort to loosen up. I'm not sure it sounded any better, but it certainly felt better.