luurtie wrote: "... Do the experienced players frustrate the beginners? Why aren't they in this group, maybe the should be here too."
I've wondered about that too.
I have to admit that I have three conflicting feelings when I hear someone who plays better than me, which is often:
1. "Wow, that's awesome, I gotta learn to play that." (picks up instrument and sets about trying to learn it)
2. "Hmmph, I'll never be that good, they've already played it perfectly, what could I possibly contribute that would be worthwhile."
3. "That's beautiful, but I don't need to learn to play it for myself, I'd rather just listen to them play it."
When someone else's excellent version *does* inspire me to try to learn a tune, it might be that I have an idea for a different combination of instruments, or a different key etc, just to see how it turns out. Often as not, I'm unable to come up with a version of my own that I like, so that tune gets shuffled off to the back-burner (or off the stove completely - I'm pretty handy at hitting the computer-keyboard key that flings my files into the digital Recycle Bin).
I'd say that of the tunes I've attempt to learn the last few years, there's probably only 1 out of every couple dozen tunes where I'm able to actually do anything with the tune, to where I can stand to listen to it that is (I'm much more critical of my own playing that I am of anyone else's playing). Anyway even the tunes that don't turn out so good are (usually) still fun to try, one probably learns something from each endeavor even if the tune doesn't turn into a 'keeper'. I sort of have to be really into a tune, have a 'feel' for the rhythm etc, otherwise when I play it it's just an exercise and won't sound very good.
One thing I like about this Song A Week group, is that it *is* about learning. As a result, people don't get called out or hollered at for posting a work-in-progress or something that isn't Nashville-slick studio quality or whatever. That makes it much more conducive to being able to relax enough to actually learn stuff.