Recently someone posted a video on YouTube of a man building a chair. He started with a log and an axe and continued with a few hand tools (no electric motors to be found) and by the end of the video he had completed a beautiful side chair.
I watched the entire video with fascination. At first you think "I could do that" but your moment of insanity wears off and you realize the truth. You could do this only after about 20 years of practice, hundreds of hours of instruction, and enough mistakes to keep the bonfire out back burning for a decade.
I also watch other "build it" shows on TV. If someone is building a hot rod I'll watch. I don't know anything about cars and I'm totally impressed with those who do.
If someone is remodeling a house, doing some landscaping, or baking a cake I'll watch. I only think I know how to do that stuff. But I know that when reality collides with my fantasy there will be frustration and disappointment in my immediate future.
I see all of these endeavors as works of art. If you've ever attended a car show you can see some awe inspiring work. If you've ever looked at a wedding cake you wonder how anyone could possibly drop a knife through it and pull out a slice from that beautiful creation. We've all driven past someone's home and admired the beauty of the house or the yard or both.
One ingredient that is often overlooked in all of this is the grunt work. That's the part that keeps most folks from doing things like that. Ask the car guy to show you his hands. Chances are they're all rough and chewed-up from trying to work in tight spaces.
The construction worker and landscaper will have similar stories. And the baker will have stories of working the oven when it's hot and humid outside and even worse inside. Even more tales of aching hands from piping frosting for hours at a time.
Some of the work becomes routine. The chair builder showed how he made a leg. First he hacked off a piece from the log, then attached it to a foot-operated lathe and gently shaved it until it was the desired size and shape. Then he had to do it three more times (they didn't show that part). Then he had to make spindles using the same skill set.
The first few times I actually composed something I realized that I could come up with an idea fairly easily, but setting it down on paper was something of a pain. Although today I can use a computer to speed up the process, I find that I will often use paper and pencil instead. Like the chair builder using only hand tools, I feel like I'm more closely connected to the finished product.
We all prefer activities where the grunt work doesn't feel like grunt work. When my students discover that there is more to playing guitar than striking a pose and doing a "windmill" strum like a rock star, there is a reckoning. Some will quit and others will adjust their attitude. As I've said before, you have to love the process.