.. and achievement / improvement will follow ..
I feel strongly that the absolute top priority when participating in music should be enjoyment. Heck: I’d go as far as to say that this should be a primary motive for everything that you do in your life. The idea is that the more you enjoy something, the more you participate in it…. and it is through that regularity of engagement that you begin to get better, more advanced, more confident, more knowledgeable… more sure about what you’re doing.
And, the point is that the process should always work in this order. If you come to your lesson or your practise session thinking that you will start to enjoy it when you get better, it’s my view that you should stop right now and go find something to do that you can enjoy immediately. It’s true that students can and do improve even when they are purely trying to get better for improvement’s sake, but I would argue that enjoyment would rarely spring from such a situation.
I know that it’s a strange thing for a music teacher to write on his website for all to see, but I really think that students should focus less on improvement and more on enjoyment, because enjoyment feeds improvement and achievement, not the other way around. And, even if you find that your progress is slower than you might have liked, at least you’re enjoying what you’re playing right now.
So, my advice for 2020 is to let go of the critical parent that we all harbour inside; stop trying to appease the inner voice that tells you that you must get better and quickly…. and, instead, nurture your inner child who takes pleasure from every moment as it passes; finds wonder in every chord and when (s)he makes a mistake doesn’t stop to analyse it, but just keeps playing and having fun.
On that note, here are the free slots for this coming week:
- Tues 7th Jan
- 10:00 (30 mins)
- Wed 8th Jan
- 14:20 (30 mins)
- Fri 10th Jan
- 14:30 (30 mins)