I realized at around 22 years of age that I was never going to be a rock star. I usually play at least an hour a day, alternating between styles, some days i'll fingerpick, some days metal, some days blues, etc..

For me, it's usually the challenge of being able to figure out something that always sounded impossible to pull off. The first time I got Cream's version of Crossroads 99% down I felt proud of myself. Same with Panama. I learned by ear for the most part, listening to tapes, then playing along.

I've found that my own creative drive is more stimulated when I'm playing wth others. I have a small collective of musicians I play with on the weekends that brings my level of playing up a notch while having a lot of fun. Occasionally, i'll sit in with my father's band and play classic rock stuff. Lately I've been trying to get Sultans of Swing and Reelin in the Years down.

As Superman says, practicing was never a chore for me. I LOVED playing. Every time I sat down to practice, I got better. Perhaps you need to find that before you keep playing. If it isnt fun, what's the point?

Jared, I'm sure you are aware that there are TONS of aids out there from tablature to tutorial videos for just about any song you want to learn. But yeah, in the olden days you had to either put the needle on the vinyl dozens or hundreds of times and figure it out yourself, or be in the same room with somebody who knows the song. And yes, it was a lot of fun. For certain people. It's a puzzle. Some people are not as intrigued by difficult things as others.

And anyway, it is true that musicians have to sort of sacrifice their love for a song in order to play it. The magic wears off somewhere between the 400th and the 1000th time you play a song. YMMV.

In my current Open Mike preparations (I'm new to this and not going to take any chances), I'm doing Bring It On Home, the Sam Cooke song. After sorting the song out, getting everything down and choosing the exact melodies I will sing (a blend of three different versions), I've probably played that song flawlessly a hundred times. Bronze medalists practice until they get it right. Gold medalists practice until they can't get it wrong.

I've often wonder how bands who have been around for decades (Stones, Rush, Beach Boys, etc) can even bring themselves to play all of the songs that their fans want to hear.

It may seem like those guys would be tired of some of those songs. But how often do they really play them? Rush tours the most of any of those bands and still only does about 40 shows every 2-3 yrs. If you read any of Neil's stuff, he's always on a quest for the first part of every tour to play the perfect show. He usually gets there early on and then gets sick of it.

Well, I'm thinking they aren't doing it for free.

That probably makes it somewhat easier to bring themselves to do it.

Things could be worse for them, I suppose.