practice makes better

I practiced a little bit tonight, even though I didn't feel like getting started. I figured I'd just get through a quick song or two, just to be able to say I practiced today.

It's funny though... once I get started I stop thinking about time and just practice. I play a song once, and I feel like I could do it better, so I play it again, and then again. And then I go to the next song and play that three or four times. And before I know it 45 minutes or an hour have passed.

It's kind of neat how, even though my chord changes seem very slow and awkward when I first sit down to practice, they get easier and faster after I've been playing for a few minutes.

Sam came upstairs while I was practicing tonight. He said, "You're a funny little elf."

I know he means it in a good way. Because a couple of days ago, while I was practicing, he said, "You're doing really well. You're doing better than ANY guitar student I've ever had."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes," said Sam, "and it's because you PRACTICE."

It's been a month now. Well, a month since my first lesson. Three weeks of solid practice. I'm still not a Guitar Hero. I am no prodigy, no idiot savant. I have to work to get what I want. But because I am practicing, I am getting better, little by little.