The Middling Guitarist

 I am, by the few accounts I'm able to come by, an "intermediate" guitarist.  Those accounts are a recent guitar teacher who referred to me as an intermediate level guitarist (this surprised me, as I'd never really classified myself at any level in guitar, and I certainly wouldn't have put myself at intermediate.  So it was a pleasant surprise),  this article  (or one very similar), and another article I discovered in the past five minutes while trying to find the previous article.  According to the last article, I may even begin approaching the advanced phase based on the hours listed (and the dubious tie to the 10,000 rule). While I don't believe that creativity and artistic ability can be measured in a purely objective fashion, I do believe that having some measure of that ability helps to instill confidence in people who otherwise lack it and suffer from impostor syndrome, endlessly questioning themselves about whether they're good enough or should ju

 To be honest, I don't know if I'm taking my first step here, or I'm completing my first thousand miles before moving onto the next leg. My history with guitar is...complicated (which I suspect isn't far off from most people).  I started learning it at what I considered a late age at the time, 18, with aspirations of, well, what?  I certainly had a romanticized notion of becoming a musician, even as I made my way through a mechanical engineering degree.  I never wanted to be a rock god, per se, but had the pipe dream of being a self-sustaining indie artist, which is equally difficult to achieve. I immediately started taking lessons and spent the next three years absorbing some material, and along the way stumbling into a deep appreciation of jazz, while mostly stressing myself out because I was too overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material I could pick up if only I'd dedicate myself to playing at least four hours every day.  I'd then paralyze myself with the t