I truly felt the lack of practice today while performing during today's mass. I started the alleluia so poorly that I apologized and started over. I misjudged the length of the communion line, starting up a second song that I had in reserve. And I messed up the strum pattern on the last song, making it sound like I was rushing the priest out of the door (well, mass had gone over an hour).
Most everyone was still quite kind, thanking me for playing the guitar. One of the parishioners said that my playing was better than nothing, and then stuttered to say that she meant it was better than having no accompaniment. When I smiled at that, she blushed and said that I did great.
When filling my gas tank later, one of my former students was with his family, also getting gas. He stuck his head out of the window and said, "You messed up some of the music today." I replied, "I know. I messed it up hard."
When playing the guitar, I'm keenly aware at how limited my ability is. The music I pull out is full of pencilled in markings that remove chords I still can't play and replacing them with chords that only kind of sound right. For that reason, most of the songs I pick tend to have similar melodies, or at least keys.
Still, I enjoy playing. I'm glad that I've been pressured into doing it. However, I would like to know how to play better. It's more than simply needing more practice; there are a number of skills that I simply don't understand.
I certainly do need to practice more this week. I'm playing at next week's mass too.