Last week, Smallsteps had her first piano lesson, and was given the task of 7 minutes of practice a week, the same as her age. That is not much, but it is a good start to build the habit of daily practice, as it is a small hurdle to leap each day, and still gives enough time to run through simple exercises a couple of times.
I can't play the piano, any other instrument, or sing, but I have a not bad ear for music in general. Perhaps the ear runs in the family, but I missed the talent to actually play. Or possibly and maybe more likely, the talent was there, but it was never nurtured, never supported, never forced. A couple months of piano lessons was all I received when I was the same age as Smallsteps, but my parents had better things to do than take me to practice, so I was convinced to quit.
Learning to play an instrument at a young age is a fantastic skill to develop, even if it is never applied, because it teaches so many lessons, and I believe, also changes the structure of the brain. The lessons come in the form of what it takes for incremental and consistent improvement, with regular practice and upping of challenge required. It also speaks to the core nature of foundational strength, where repetition, and then more repetition, and then more repetition again, is required.
But, there are also the structural changes in the brain, where I think that networks are created to tie physical pieces together, so that they can work in collaboration, but still independently of each other. Our body does this naturally in many ways, but it is harder to do it with intention, for instance, having the left hand play one set of notes, while the right does something altogether different, yet style maintaining that connection. I have never been good at this, but I haven't intentionally practiced.
However, last night while I was observing Smallsteps' practice, she got me to try what she was doing, which was a very simple exercise that ran five keys up and back, using both hands. This means that the left hand starts on the little finger, the right on the thumb. Very simple.
But not for me.
I was struggling with it until Smallsteps suggested a "trick" she has worked out to get it right, and when she mentioned it, it was so bloody obvious, but I hadn't thought about it in this way, in this context.
She said to concentrate on the left hand (the weak for both of us), because the right hand knows what to do already.
I am an idiot.
No surprises there.
But, my daughter is not. Focusing on the difficult task is the fastest way to improvement, even though it is the one that can take longer to get the satisfaction of success. But, small, quick wins are more compelling, more addictive, even if they slow down overall progress. The people who truly excel at their expertise, are those who spend the time on closing their gaps, not the ones who instead keep improving their strengths. For many, this is counter-intuitive, maybe because our conditioning has told us to focus on the positives.
Essentially though, every skill is a cluster of skills and in order to be good in general, all required skills have to be held at least to a passing grade. No matter how high the others are, ignoring a compulsory none, will mean the others are useless. For instance, a basketball player has to be able to do more than bounce a ball and shoot a free throw well, and the requirements will change depending on position. However, it could be that not being able to shoot a free throw isn't a deal-breaker, if the other aspects are very strong. But, if you can't bounce a ball...
All the compulsories have to reach a passing grade, ¨but the reason focusing on gaps is hardest, but will see the most improvement, is because they are the areas that are easiest to improve percentage-wise. Yet, they are also the ones that are probably not the most fun to do. It feels better to have the right hand play some keys and get that flow, than struggle through with the left hand, where there is faster improvement, but it is still lagging behind the right, and there is likely, no flow.
Smallsteps teaches me many things.
And this is a great one, because in other areas of her life, she does at times struggle to focus on the difficult tasks, preferring to give up instead. but, now I have a tool to use that brings in her own lesson, her own teaching, her own words to inspire her to pay attention to the difficult, because that is where the big rewards are built.
Pay attention to the easy, get the results easy gets.
Low-hanging fruit results are fine, but they are never going to create an expert, so it is worth considering what matters to us. It is too late for me to care about learning the piano, so I am not going to focus my attention on that, but there are things where I should spend my attention closing gaps. Things that matter to me now. And because they matter, it is easy to get those small wins and feel that sense of accomplishment, even though they aren't going to move the needle much, because it is the large wins that do that, and they are much harder to get.
We can do it the easy way, or the hard way.
Which is better?
Taraz
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