In Which She Relates Diatonic Triads to Book Publishing

Lo, it is Thursday, and I have not so much as thought about my diatonic triads since my lesson on Monday. I have a whole page of triad fill-ins which Bob very carefully wrote out for me, and which remain empty and neglected in my Clairefontaine Musique notebook. I could have come home tonight and worked on them. I could have, but instead I decided to remind myself why I am learning to play the guitar--by playing and singing some songs that I love to play and sing.

It's kind of like being a book editor. I got into publishing because I loved books with a passion bordering on the maniacal. But now that I'm an editor, I spend all my time reading and rejecting crappy books (and proposals for crappy books-to-be). I very rarely having the time to pick up a good book for the sheer pleasure of getting lost between its covers.

Similarly, now that I'm learning things like music theory and fingerpicking, my guitar practice has become much more civilized than it used to be, more like a study period than a jam session. One of the results of this change is that I've learned a hell of a lot. The other result is that I've lost some of the exhilaration that used to keep me coming back to my good old Oscar Schmidt--back when I knew very little, but made use of what few skills I had in my repertoire to play my little heart out every night.