Remember How Far You’ve Come: Acknowledging and Understanding Progress
Along most people’s musical journeys, they get to a point where it seems that progress is very minimal and has maybe stopped in some way. This can often lead many to feel discouraged and maybe even give up on learning altogether. There’s an interesting theory called the “Dunning-Kruger Effect” that maps out what this can look like for most people trying to learn a new skill. It looks something like this:
On the X-Axis, we have wisdom; or how much you know about the skill on a scale from “know-nothing” to “guru”. On the Y-Axis, we have confidence in your ability to do said skill on a scale from low to high.
The first milestone you reach as you’ve started the learning process is the “Peak of ‘Mt. Stupid’”. Very silly name, I know. Think of the phrase “ignorance is bliss”: you don’t know what you don’t know! Since you’ve started from ground zero and know very little about the subject; any progress you make is positive and seems to be quite a lot. Then you reach this peak and start to realize maybe you don’t know as much as you thought, or you see someone else who has been doing this thing for a while and so their knowledge and skills are incredible. This tends to make people fall into the “valley of despair” where things have now gotten more difficult, you start to realize more and more that there are so many layers to this new skill that you hadn’t even thought of. Many people at this point unfortunately give up, even though that’s the exact opposite of what you should do!
If you soldier on through, keeping up with practicing and lessons, you’ll find yourself on a steady track on the “slope of enlightenment”, where you realize and accept the things you don’t know, but you also recognize the progress you’ve made so far! Finally you’ll reach the “plateau of sustainability” where you can easily teach yourself new pieces, enjoy your own playing and feel confident in the knowledge and abilities you now have with this new skill. So keep on going and don’t give up!
