Thomas J. West Music

How many times in your life have you heard someone say, "I can't do it. This is too hard!"? It is practically the battle cry of any struggling student in any subject area. It is the mantra of those who were raised in a culture where success and failure continue to be taken personally. When I inevitably have a student tell me that a song they are striving to play on their musical instrument is too hard, I always give them the perspective that "hard" and "easy" are completely subjective terms relative to one's level of experience with any given task.

One Man's Difficult Is Another Man's Simple

Each of us has a completely unique perspective on the world around us, and our perception of that world has a fundamental part in creating the world we experience.Our attitude determines our perception, our approach, and our willingness to take risks. This applies to every decision we make in life, and my students learn to apply these concepts to areas outside of music. However, we begin by putting it in the context of learning a piece of music on their instrument.

When a student looks at a piece of music for the first time, they immediately will compare it to their previous experience and make a prediction on how "hard" the music will be to learn. Typically after a first attempt, they will either have those predictions confirmed or denied to a variable degree. If the music turns out to be much harder than they anticipated, some students will immediately label the piece "too hard," which is a story they tell themselves to rescind all responsibility for doing the work necessary to learn the music. Ultimately, everything in our lives is our responsibility, even if we give away our ability to act.

What I try to help students realize is that "hard" and "easy" are totally relative terms. I often will tell them, "To you, playing 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' or 'Ode to Joy' is easy. To a beginning student in fourth grade, it's hard." Once upon a time, 'Ode to Joy' was "hard" for them too. How did they change that song from being hard to being easy. The answer is simple - by repeating the song multiple times until the neural connections necessary to execute the fine motor skills were mapped and in place. In effect, "hard" BECOMES "easy" when the musician BECOMES the person who can perform it effortlessly.

The Myth of Difficulty, Success, and Failure

There is no question that a sequential building of skills is necessary to complete more complex tasks. Just as a beginning gymnast will not attempt to do a level 10 difficulty high bar routine, a beginner instrumentalist will not attempt something like the Haydn trumpet concerto. The ability to play complex music is built in many small acquisitions of necessary skills much in the same manner that a person must learn basic computational mathematics before they can understand the concepts needed for trigonometry and calculus. Calculus, when compared to whole number arithmatic, can correctly be labeled "difficult." Similarly, concert band repertoire is grade on a six-point grading scale with a one being an elementary band piece and a six being a complex piece reserved for advanced performers playing at a professional level.

Within that spectrum of difficulty, the musician finds themself working on music that is appropriate to their skill set. If a musician or music teacher knows the performer's abilities well, they should be able to select repertoire that provides a challenge to the performer without being an insurmountable task. The difficulty selected is appropriate given the amount of preparation time that is available. It is also true that less experienced musicians can master complex music by providing them a longer period of time to work on the skills necessary.

Unfortunately, our culture has made it common practice to attach your sense of self worth to your ability to succeed or fail. My students, despite my encouragement, constantly compare themselves to one another and tell themselves a story about how wonderful or miserable a musician they are. For the student who compares and finds themself coming up short, they create the perfect excuse to limit themselves and give up. The latest hip version of this attitude can be found on the popular fail blog website, where users submit photos and videos showing people or signs that are making an obvious error usually due to lack of attention and stamping it with the word FAIL. While I must admit that some of those pics are pretty funny, deeming something an "epic fail" has worked its way into my students vocabulary. Comments like "I fail at life" are very common.

The Natural Evolutionary Learning Process

In order to grow and become something grander and more expanded than we are now, all people follow the same evolutionary process of learning, stated here in abbreviated form [1]:

1. Knowledge: We learn theories and philosophies about how something works in reality.
2. Experience: We apply that knowledge to actual performance and experience either success or failure. If we fail, we revisit our knowledge base and attempt the skill again after making modifications.
3. Wisdom: Through the experience of success and failure, we develop an understanding of what we did to produce the results we received, which in turn allows us to select behaviors that create our desired outcome.

There is no learning without failure - we're supposed to fail. It is in comparing our failures to other people's successes that we develop a sense of inferiority or victimization. We literally separate ourselves from others in a way that inhibits our growth.It is the slow, methodical repetition of skills over a period of time that gives us the eventual mastery of the skills we desire to know. By taking the time to let our brains coordinate activities with our muscles and build the neural networks needed to perform the skill, we are literally becoming the person with the ability to perform that skill.As I often tell my students, 90% accurate is insufficient. Every skill required by the music we study must be repeated to a point of mastery, until we literally own that skill and can perform it accurately 9.5 times out of 10 attempts."Hard" becomes "easy" after the process of learning is complete. When one takes the time to learn the philosophy and theory behind a desired skill and then applies that theory to actual practice in repetition, one develops mastery of that skill. Once that skill is mastered, it creates a new launch pad to develop more complex skills.

Detatchment and Patience

There are two other virtues that are necessary in the process of learning a skill. One must detatch themselves from the emotions associated with success and failure. Of course, emotions will come with both events, but when one identifies with them and makes it a part of their sense of self, the story in their mind about who they are, they take power away from their ability to make progress. As celebrity trainer Tony Horton is fond of saying, "Do your best and forget the rest."

The other virtue that almost goes without saying is the virtue of patience. Even in my own practice, I still have to remind myself occasionally to not get frustrated with my own body. Each of us has a different level of aptitude when it comes to musical intelligence, kinesthetic motor skills, and so on. Mastering a skill may take longer to accomplish than we predict or desire. The steady repetition of skills over days, weeks, and months is necessary for the brain to create the neural networks capable of performing the skill. As the Dali Lama stated, "Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it."

References

Evolve Your Brain, The Science of Changing Your Mind. Dispenza, Joe. Health Communications, Inc. pp. 206-208.

This article (c) 2008 Thomas J. West. If you wish to reprint this article on another website or offline, please contact the copyright holder before using.

  

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