I am tired! And it’s the last day before reading break. I have at least a presentation or final project in every class to be wrapped up in a little less than 3 weeks. As you will find in this week’s reflection, I was leaning a lot on podcasts – something that I didn’t have to read, but found expertise outside of my usual repertoire to think about a new perspective. I realized that I hadn’t really looked into a lot of sources for learning the flute outside of YouTube (although I obviously love Amelie!) so I searched for “growth mindset flute.” Wouldn’t you know, there was an episode about exactly that this whole time.
At first I struggled to get into it because tiredness is next to crabbiness, and every now and then you just don’t want to have a lady calling a fixed mindset “crazy-pants” in your headphones. But you know, sticking through it, there was a great piece of advice – look to others who are further down the path than you. Humble-pie in hand, here are the 10 quick tips and my thoughts on working them into my practice for these last few weeks.
number 1: embrace the fact that we are not perfect
You don’t say! No, really, this has been a big thing for me over the past few months. Or the last few years, actually. What stands out to me the most here is not the part about realizing that we are imperfect – tasks like learning a new instrument in a term or going back to school full-time do that just fine for me – but the part about embracing our imperfection. This I suppose is the key to a growth mindset: not minding that you have a lot to learn. Going into the second…
number 2: we can learn to take every challenge and see it as an opportunity
And, there’s the struggle. To not be so thrown off by the looming threat of something you haven’t mastered yet, something that you’ll fail at, something you want but isn’t ready. I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about not being good at something as better, because then I can work at it. I’ve certainly wished that I could watch movies for the first time again, see a city abroad with fresh eyes – but an opportunity to start from scratch still feels foreign to me. I want to want to see growth as an opportunity, but so far…
number 3: use different learning styles to solidify concepts
Here’s a good one. I feel I had to practice at this throughout this project. Turns out, you can’t just pick up a metal tube and make it make sound right away. Perhaps the most surprising to me was that playing notes without breath made me feel like I was improving the most, rather than eking it out kind of badly and at a really slow pace. Is this what scaffolding learning is all about?
number 4: take a serious look at the process (or journey) and value it over what you perceive as the end result
I think this is supposed to be the point of this project, for 306A and 336, but it feels so hard to see it that way sometimes. Moreso with 306A – I’ve set goals, and I want to achieve them by a certain time. I’ve set benchmarks to log my journey, but isn’t even that functionally recording results on a smaller time scale? Good news – no matter what I do at this point, if I stopped playing the flute today, I have gotten a load better from where I started. Presumably, that would more or less always continue, so if I never try to reach perfection, I will always be perfecting my craft.
number 5: focus on learning well instead of learning fast
Someone please try to talk me out of this being the point! Okay, I think the last tip had to come before this one because I would never believe I didn’t have to pump the gas on my progress in order to make something presentable out of this project. I talked about this more at length in my vlog: it’s ridiculous for me to think that I can become a flute aficionado if I’m practicing for less than an hour once or twice a week. Adding up all of my time, how would I ever expect myself to master my goals in like, six hours?! If I thought I could seriously sit down for less than a full workday and get all of this done, I wouldn’t be certain that my fixed mindset could be fixed. And still, deadlines haunt me. I got through this whole week without practicing once, even though the last time I opened my case it was on the pure adrenaline of just wanting to do it and having a good time while doing it. I can see my goal getting blurrier every time I don’t practice because my semester is finite. (Trying to be more positive, my flute practice doesn’t have to end when the semester does, but then, finals.)
number 6: start looking for signs of growth among others
Maybe this could affect me more if someone in exactly my position was nailing it; I shouldn’t give the impression that I’m above thinking someone’s success says something about my failures. However, it seems like we’re all kind of fish out of water with this project. My friend is learning how to play the saxophone and told me a few weeks ago that she can’t hit an essential note that she could before. Relatable! It reminded me that I can talk to myself as a friend – I would never tell her to give up because her high notes are in the valley.
number 7: reward our efforts
Disclosure: the podcast was certifiably weird about this one. It seemed to be part, “we have a workshop where you can practice for 100 days and get a reward at the end,” and part, “if you don’t meet your goal, no treat for you. start again.” Not sure if that really landed with me. Their larger point is to try something large or small and remind yourself that at the end of it, you’re not guaranteed results, but you will have certainly gone through the journey of improving your skill and dedication. That kind of self-trust building does sit well with me.
number 8: use the word yet in your vocabulary when speaking about skills we’re working on
Yet, yet, yet, yet, yet. Would that I could do anything but hold onto yet. (If there’s anything that has tangibly improved this semester, it’s my “yet.”)
number 9: allow teachers and others to show you what we’ve learned (be teachable)
Ding, ding! Okay, have I mentioned that a close friend of mine pursued the flute professionally some years ago? She has set down that dream, but expressed her interest in my project and is reliably easy to persuade, because she is one of the most kind and accommodating people I know. I am considering how to get her involved in this project, but we’ll have to wait and see. I would love to have her in for a mock lesson, but I may have to stoop for an audio- or text-only interview. To be continued!
number 10: take complete ownership over our own attitude
Be the student you’d like to teach. Talk to yourself as if to a friend (combat negative self-talk with “hey, don’t talk about my friend Aubree like that!“). Do what you can as often as you can. Do it when it feels pointless. Believe in who you are, not what you can do. Did you say complete ownership…? It feels like all I can do sometimes to be tired, to not want to get through another practice session a little defeated, to close up my case not sure where this is all going. I will say this – I am insanely curious to see where this will go, and if there will be some breakthrough moment that gets me to where I want to go. I also have to be open to the fact that I may putt along and just be marginally better than I am now but wildly better than I was when I started. I don’t have to be perfect to be proud. Though sometimes I think I need a little cheer squad. It’s happening slowly. Keep trying, keep saying yet, repeat, repeat.
