Play the Moment

So I've been working on this song for the past few weeks. It's a blues guitar solo by Robben Ford, and it's fucking badass.

It's also the hardest damn thing I've ever played.

I've worked my ass off on it, and broken more than a few sets of strings practicing it. I've developed a brand new callous on one of my fingers because one of the techniques I had to learn to play it places my fingers down on the fretboard a different way. Awesome.

This week, I got worse at the song instead of better. Shitballs. I haven't worked on anything new for a week, because I've been reworking all the stuff I already nailed down. Playing it slow. Working out the movements.

It's not that I'm playing it badly (though sometimes I do completely fall apart on one of the phrases currently giving me trouble). I'm actually playing it pretty well for a spare time musician. But I'm not playing it as well as I did last week, and it pisses me off. Teach says nobody'd be able to tell the difference listening to it, and I guess he's right, but my hands feel clumsier. The movements were smooth and confident last week.

Working the parts that are troubling me is the right thing to do. I need to nail them down again before moving on. But I think getting frustrated because I moved backwards a bit is screwing me up. Fuck it. Last week I played it better. That was last week. This is how I play it this week. I need to work on it. It's got nothing to do with last week. Work on -- and with -- what you've got now.

Play the moment.