This is a really interesting discussion to read. I'm a person who has never learned to play an instrument (beyond being able to plunk or pick out a simple tune). I can't seem to get beyond the frustration of being a beginner with wonderful music running through my head, but the inability to make my fingers do what I'm "hearing" RIGHT AWAY!

Be it piano or guitar or mandolin or hammered dulcimer or concertina (all of which I've played just enough to pick out tunes REAL slowly), I either have a real short attention span or lack that "drive" to practice on my own. I can read music, and I can play by ear, but once you start adding in chords, arpeggios and the like, I get lost. The one instrument I feel I have control of is my voice, and working at singing has never seemed like "work" to me - all the other instruments always did.

Do many people have the problem that the music they love to listen to is done by masters of the instrument, and they get frustrated by not being able to be that good?