"Mistakes are how we learn ....." - Navigating limiting beliefs that impact our learning curve

Hey All 😎,

Back when I began teaching my classes at The Passim School of Music 100% on Zoom because of COVID, one of the things that came up is that many students were actually learning faster than they did in person. Also, a bunch of them told me that they felt a lot less self-conscious because students are muted during class.

For me as a teacher, I've observed for decades that the speed of people's learning curve is impacted by lack of self-confidence and limiting beliefs.

Most of my students are way better than they think they are. When I tell them this, my students just think I'm saying it to be nice, so I've gotten in the habit of doing certain exercises so they don't have to take my word for it.

One is having them play a song while I call out the chord changes while they keep their eyes closed. It's a bit stressful to do this, but then I watch them play all or most of the chords correctly and experience the fact that their fingers know where to go.

If you'd like to try this on your own, put your smartphone camera on selfie mode and video yourself playing a song with your eyes closed. I promise, there won't be as many train wrecks as you think there are going to be. Also, it's normal to feel uncomfortable while you do this.

As my fav K1 teacher, Mrs. Nesti says, "Mistakes are how we learn."

When doing an exercise like playing with our eyes closed, I let my students know that there will likely be train wrecks, and that this is normal. It can also feel like I'm making everyone practice their mistakes and I end up pissing off their inner Hermione (she's like, "THIS CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HELPING ME, SHE IS MAKING ME PRACTICE MY MISTAKES!!" LOL)

But on the other side of doing it, they feel more confident in their ability to play.

There have been bunches of students who've insisted that I must not experience train wrecks since I'm a professional musician.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Don't believe me? Check out the video below of a guitar lesson I had back in 2018 with my pal and Passim School of Music colleague, Avi Salloway. You'll get to witness my mistakes as I navigate improvising a solo on guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9YKbgmtqs8

After working with Avi for a few months, I went from being a total disaster at improvising to being somewhat mediocre. Then, a few summers ago, I had a breakthrough while rehearsing with my bestie, Esther Friedman: She was sharing a new song and I took a solo and really liked what I did.

I got all weepy happy because that's something I've been wanting to be able to do for years. I just needed someone to teach me how to practice to get me there. So, with Avi's help and a moderate amount of practicing, now I can solo.

What are you allowing yourself to suck at for now while you continue to practice?

Peace, Janet