2004-12-03 - 6:52 p.m.

It's remarkable how much playing the guitar is like driving a race car. To do either takes rhythm, building a series of well executed maneouvres. Failing, even only slightly, to achieve each consecutive goal precisely can lead to a loss of control, a hanging on with tooth and nail, sometimes leading to a recovery and sometimes leading to a crash.

Over time, with practice, you get a feeling of confidence when doing low-speed handling, and you start to feel your mastery growing. You get a sense of how far you can push before hitting your limit, and you see that limit move outward and upward over time, lifting like a weight from your mind.

Once mastered, the skill comes to bear without effort, not even called to mind, but permanently in it, responding without question at the moment of cusp.

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