guitars

Don't waste your time on jealousy
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind
The race is long
And in the end
It's only
With yourself.

Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) - Baz Lurhmann

Totally agree. I never really go for the advice that it’s good enough just because you tried your best, or put your heart into it, or felt like you were expressing yourself. Sometimes it still sucks. That’s not to say it’s a reason to give up, though. If anything it’s a reason to keep trying. After 30 years of playing music, I don’t think that feeling ever fully goes away, either.

I was at an after recital/concert meet and greet with Itzahk Perlman. I was around 8 or 9 at the time. One of the other kid's mothers asked him if he enjoyed practicing as a child. She was horrified when he answered honestly, saying that he hated it and his parents had to make him practice until well into his teens. I snickered, and my mom swatted the back of my head to keep me quiet.

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.

That's a pretty daring statement. I'd say "because we feel the need to express ourselves" which is quite a different -and far better defined- thing than "good taste" which is whatever I think it is and you bunch of troglodytes won't understand anyway. Or vice versa.