Ugh . . . I used to be the most stuckup progsnob proghead out there. But what am I listening to now? Seal, Cirque du Soleil, Chroma Key, Morcheeba, Dido, Sade, Bela Fleck, and whatever jazz I can get my hands on. Rush is still amazing though, because they never let the craft overcome the art. However, ever since Jordan Rudess joined Dream Theater, DT hasn't produced a decently listenable piece of work. And of course all prog bands are Dream Theater wannabes, and so come off sounding like a clone of crappy music. Kevin Moore was really the only thing that restrained Portnoy and Petrucci's wankery, and DT has barely been worth a damn since he left. So that's my prog rant. No flames please, just my honest opinion.
As far as being "average," I know and accept that right now I'm not anywhere near as good a bass player as Jaco, Wooten, Clarke, or my teacher, Overthrow. And I know I'm not going to be able to touch their abilities for a long time, if I even do. But I keep pressing forward, keep learning, keep working on making myself better. I think Berklee College of Music will help a lot in that come next fall. But for me, not giving up in the face of amazing talent is just a matter of telling myself that I am still a good player who has a lot to learn and a lot ahead of me.
There's also the matter of personality. Every musician has a different air about them, a different sound, a different approach. People can often put too much importance on "Can you tap this melody at this BPM?" or "Can you play these scales in this time signature at this speed?" To me, that doesn't matter even a little bit. It's all about your relationship with your instrument, how you express yourself through it. Technique is just a means to an end, not an end in itself. It's all about how you feel the music. And how you feel it can make or break you. I know technically proficient guitarists who sound terrible because they just don't understand how to feel music.
