Inimitable Virtuosity

Bah nah bah nah bah baaaaahhhh na bah nah... (repeat). That's the intro to the Rush song "Limelight", performed by the inimitable virtuoso Alex Lifeson. My heartfelt yet somehow inept attempts to faithfully reproduce this simple refrain are battling two great vocabulary words:

in·im·i·ta·ble /ɪˈnɪmɪtəbəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation(i-nim-i-tuh-buhl)

1. incapable of being imitated or copied; surpassing imitation; matchless.

and

vir·tu·os·i·ty (vûr'chōō-ŏs'ĭ-tē)

1. The technical skill, fluency, or style exhibited by a virtuoso or a composition.
2. An appreciation for or interest in fine objects of art.

As it turns out, even rock music is about more than just reproducing the notes on a distorted electric guitar. Subtleties in the transitions between notes, sustains, and phrasing are everything. I must have played this intro 100 times or more over the weekend, yet it still sounds pretty much like total crap. My timing is slightly off, I'm accidentally picking strings I should leave muted and my left-hand fingering is far from "clean" on the transitions.

In my second post to this blog (where I entitled it "Jeff's Disparate Stuff") I mentioned I'm a "hack of all trades, master of none". That's why I'm so in awe of such inimitable virtuosos. Myself, I live by the credo: "If you can't do something well, at least learn to enjoy doing it poorly". Banahblahblahblahnaahhblahhabnahhblahhhhh! That rocked!