What a load of crap! What do you mean "doesn't pay off"?

The "payoff" is if you are having fun. If you learn a new song or a new lick, and you feel like you've accomplished something, and you get a little thrill out of playing it to yourself over and over again. The "payoff" is the joy you feel, when you learn to play a song that you have wanted to play for thirty years but never somehow got around to. I got up early this morning and played one of them, that I have just learned, and I came to work with a lightness in my soul and a twinkle in my eye. I might play it at the song circle tomorrow night or I might not. I learned it for ME not for them.

I don't play and sing for others approval. I play for myself and for my own satisfaction of learning to express my creativity. Everybody has some creativity in some area of the arts, and everybody should express it a little, no matter how crudely. It enriches the soul.