Practicing

I've played guitar since I was about 12. I've not been in any particularly serious bands. I've never really played onstage. Church bands here and there, sitting in with other bands in garages, loose jam sessions... Decades of practice, all for a performance that never happens. Is that what this is?

I'm playing a lot these days, concentrating on the acoustic. My Guild is a beautiful sounding instrument, and I'm slowly building a repertoire of songs I can play and sing. I'm nothing resembling a singer, but put an instrument in my hands and I can do what you'd expect a guitarist to do: Hammer out a few interesting songs.

But again, for what performance? For whom? If I've got a guitar in my hands, chances are anyone who'd give a hoot (like my Angleton family) would ask me to do "Oreo Cookie Blues" again. And that's fine. I keep practicing that one too.

Still, I guess this raises the point that there's something rewarding and fulfilling in simply developing the skill. I benefit in some way from making music. It was certainly great solace to me here and there during some rough patches in my life. Just to hold the instrument and let my hands take me wherever they could. Sometimes it was a godawful racket, and sometimes it was musical.

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BB's current therapy: "I'm Confessin' That I Love You" by Dr. John

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It's a similar thing with martial arts. All this time I've spent training is really for some scenario I don't want to experience. I don't ever want to have to strike someone or try to disarm them to protect myself and/or my family. All this sweat, all the bruises and injuries, the busted knuckles and elbows, the stray punches that hurt, the kicks... all of this is in order to practice for something that probably won't happen.

And you know, what they say is true: All that training does actually lend one the discipline to keep a cool head when things get dicey. I noticed it several months ago at the office, when a client was simply not taking no for an answer. No, the person you need isn't here. No, having me call every number on the phone directory isn't going to happen, because it wouldn't help anything. This man got more and more irate, leaning into my space, glaring, becoming more insistent.

Under it all I had this sense that YOU'RE not going to rattle me with this tough guy routine; I'm familiar with tough by now, and it didn't walk in the door with you. My energy's better spent elsewhere. Simple as that.

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My practicum work sort of falls into the same category, though it's practice for something that actually is going to happen. Heck, I'm seeing real clients, and doing what I can right now to help them. One of them did something rather remarkable this week that may have been a result of something we worked on. I take some pride in that.

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Thank you to all the folks who sent the great responses to the Sad-Ass Songs post. That was great stuff.

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Wolfboy yesterday, as I showed him my Josten's catalogue and explained what a class ring is: "You're still in COLLEGE?!?"

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It's going to be a busy weekend. The rest of the semester will be crazy busy, in fact. I'll probably have to put the Starship BB in dry dock again soon.

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Ya'll have a good weekend.