I like to say that I’m tough on problems and easy on people. That’s certainly always my objective. But sometimes I can be a little too tough on the problems. I can work a little too hard toward an objective and end up missing it. I remind myself a little bit of my cat that way. Sometimes she’s so busy meowing about her desire for food that I have to call her attention to the fact that I already put some in her bowl!

I’ve given myself a little more leeway lately to experiment with how I practice my own repertoire. As I’ve done that I’ve discovered the value of slowing down, and how sometimes it gets me to my objective faster than hyperfocusing. Sometimes if I practice something half as frequently, I get past the rough edges I’m trying to conquer a lot more quickly, or I discover that I’ve been capable of doing what I’ve been trying to do all along. Some of this seems to be related to having a chance to let go of mistakes made and bumps in the road more fully before reapproaching something – both the motor memory and any frustration or disappointment that might have visited me in response to a mistake. Also when I play a number of things less frequently, I just don’t have to try so hard to jam as much into a practice session or a day. I’m less stressed so I’m more present. Memory works better, muscles relax, and I’m more aware of the right things.

I also borrowed an audiobook of a language learning program using the Pimsleur Method recently, and while I was listening to the opening chapter I heard something interesting. Linguist Paul Pimsleur said that it was important not to review language learning material too frequently or too infrequently, otherwise the mechanisms of recall wouldn’t develop optimally in relationship to the language being learned. That provided some confirmation. I hadn’t been certain whether I was onto something or not previously, but I thought that maybe reviewing things too intensely might be a bit detrimental, and it sounds like that’s accurate.

It also joins up nicely with a point made by the vipassana meditation teacher SN Goenka, who advised students to use some degree of variation applied to their meditative technique. He taught the body scanning practice, moving one’s attention from head to feet and back again, taking note of the sensations experienced in different areas of the body. He advised meditators to periodically change the rate at which they did the body scanning practice, even if they were working successfully at a given rate, because “otherwise your mind will become bored and you cannot work properly.”

There were pros and cons to my education growing up, and although I learned a great deal about patience and perseverance, I’m learning that I took some of these lessons to a counterproductive extreme. I basically learned as a young person to tune out my own boredom and insist on paying attention stoically even if I was hearing the same information for at least the 20th time. It made me “a joy to have in class,” as was plastered all over my high school report cards in particular, but numbing out to my own innate sense that there wasn’t anything productive for me in what I was doing at the moment cost me something. If I’m not aware, it still does.

Fortunately the truth is that although we all have our overdeveloped and underdeveloped mental muscles, the imbalances can be moderated from a place of free choice, even well into the years past our most formative ones. In my 40s I am learning to let go, take it easy, relax, and reap the benefits.

What are your assets as a learner? What holds you back? What can you do to bring balance to your journey, making progress at greater peace with the process?

If you are a guitarist looking for someone to help guide you in the right direction, I’m happy to teach both in person in Santa Cruz, California, and online by way of Zoom. If you’re interested, click the contact button above and get in touch!