rough spots

I have gotten the chords to Phil Ochs's The Bells, which is a really cool song because it's based on an Edgar Allen Poe poem.

All of the chords are easy except two barre chords, B minor and F# minor. I figured out fakes for them and showed The Mighty Sam, who pronounced them legitimate fakes. He showed me an even simpler way to do the F# minor.

Then I lost my pick (or really, Sam's pick) and The Mighty Sam said, "I'll get you another one. I was going to move you to a different pick anyway."

I'm kind of in awe of the calluses on my fingers. Feeling the toughness get thicker is just as cool as feeling your muscles get stronger after you've been lifting weights for a while, or running farther and farther without getting tired. It's tangible evidence of my practicing. It's a good thing, to have tangible evidence of your effort. Even a little thing like calluses on the ends of your fingers.