Back to Basics

Went back to learning the C, F, G7, and some of the Am7 forms. It's coming along. Also continued to work a bit on "Under the Rainbow." 

Finding it somewhat easy to learn the building blocks (chord forms),  but difficult in application within the context of the song.

The expectation that a lot to do with music learning is easy (at least for me) will only lead to frustration. Need to accept the fact that its difficult, but focus on merely continuing to do the work. The book The War of Art I believe talks about this. It is not the artist's job to criticize his or her work; in fact, the artist has no business criticizing the work. The artist's job is to create. The artist's job is to provide quantity. Provide quantity, and the quality will take care of itself. In terms of where I'm at now with this stuff, this can be worthwhile. My job isn't to criticize myself for any so called lack of talent or anything else that I might put a negative spin on during this process. My job is to just practice.

Relatedly, I read a story about an old time clarinet player, I think it was Artie Shaw. A fan approached him and said that he (the fan) tried music when younger, but the talent just wasn't there. Artie Shaw replied something like: you put in all the X number of hours of practice that I put in, and then come tell me about a lack of takent!