Just open the case

You’d think it wouldn’t be that simple. But as soon as the case is open, you’re looking at the guitar. And as soon as you’re looking at the the guitar, it’s difficult to not pick it up. Once you do, it’s difficult to not start playing it.

And now you have to make a decision.

What’s your intention for picking up the guitar. Fun? Improvement? Those two things don’t always go together.

If it’s for fun, you usually play stuff you already know. If it’s to get better, you generally need to work on new stuff, listen to new stuff, work on new ideas. 

That can feel like work. One of my college students once told me that I had taken something he loved, and turned it into homework. 

The plateau

Not looking at new things can lead to complaints of reaching a plateau, of not progressing, either technically or creatively. You just stay where you are, playing and making stuff that doesn’t feel much different than what you’ve already been playing and making for a long time.

So, how do you get to the point where you feel like you’re progressing?

It’s pretty simple. Stop playing stuff you already know, and seek out stuff you don’t. 

Deliberate practice 

Which leads to the idea of deliberate practice, something many people aren’t willing to do. Here’s what I mean when I say “deliberate practice.” This is from Ethan Mollick’s book on AI.

“Imagine two students: Sophie and Naomi. Sophie spends her afternoons playing the same pieces she’s comfortable with over and over again. She might do this for hours on end, believing that sheer repetition will improve her skills. She feels a sense of accomplishment as she gets better and better at this work. Naomi, on the other hand, conducts her practice sessions under the guidance of a seasoned piano instructor. She begins by playing scales and then moves on to progressively more challenging pieces. When she makes mistakes, her instructor points them out, not to chastise her but to help her understand and rectify them. Naomi also regularly sets goals for herself, like mastering a particularly tricky section of a piece or improving her speed and agility on certain passages. The process is much less fun than Sophie’s experience, because Naomi’s challenges escalate with her skill, making sure she is always facing some degree of difficulty. Yet over time, even if both students clock in the same number of practice hours, Naomi will surpass Sophie in skill, precision, and technique. This difference in approach and outcome illustrates the gap between mere repetition and deliberate practice. The latter, with its elements of challenge, feedback, and incremental progression, is the true path to mastery.”

In other words, practice stuff you’re not already good at. No, it’s not always fun, but experiencing yourself getting better is worth it. 

Listen to stuff you don’t like, and ask yourself, “What makes this good?” Does it feel like you’re threatening your identity as a hardcore metalhead, a pure-hearted folkie, a whatever? Don’t worry. Nobody’s watching. And you might learn something about your own tastes.

As you get better technically, as you accept other approaches, your creativity will soar. You will be able to do things you couldn’t do before. You will get ideas you never knew existed. That’s exciting. That’s worth the exploration.

It’s really about getting your brain moving down different pathways, to stop thinking the way you normally think.

Consider all that for a bit, and then check out the next post.