The absolute cruellest thing about learning a musical instrument as an adult (who didn’t study much music at school) is the inescapable fact that you have to practice being really, really, really shit at it for an *awfully* long time before you can reach a level of competence that even approaches adequacy.
The second cruellest thing: as your friends and family shower you with sincere praise such as “wow that was amazing!” and so on, your awareness, understanding and vocabulary with which to critique the many ways in which that little performance of yours was shit are all increasing at breakneck speed.
This post contains graphic imagery pertaining to books of sheet music. Don’t say I didn’t warn you
The previous post is best enjoyed by imagining both the content warning and the post itself being narrated by the voice of GLaDOS