The Problem With Perfectionism

More than any other group, artists are known for over the top perfectionism. We all know the story of the tortured genius being held ransom by their own genius and perfectionism. It's held like a badge of honor that we all aspire to. It's the mark of a true artist and genius. It denotes quality, hard work and always expecting the best. These are honorable traits no doubt, but perfectionism isn't always a good thing. Perfectionism may be responsible for more failures than any other trait.

Perfection as we all know is a mirage. It's not real. There is no perfect in the real world. For every living organism there are faults. Some say that the beauty is in the faults. Perfectionism is in the eye of the beholder. Therefore it's entirely dependent on an external filter. An object's inherent beauty comes from the beholder and not the object itself. Some people find beauty in the most odd things. The things you find beautiful and perfect may be horrible to someone else. Some like rock, some like classical. Some people find noise beautiful some love the sound of the violin. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

There is a difference when you are the creator. In this way you have control over the 'beauty' of the object. In this way, there is the tendency or at least there is the option that you can always make the object 'more beautiful' or 'just better'. If the goal is to make the object or outcome as good as possible, what's the problem?

The problem is perfect is imaginary. The perfect object or creation doesn't exist. More importantly, what seems perfect today can appear to be imperfect tomorrow. To some there is the idea that no matter what, any object can be improved and 'made better'. In this way the creation is actually never done. It's never good enough. It never sees the light of day. There are some creators that do let their work out into the world. Yet for perfectionists, the work still isn't done. The work is never done. Even when the world has declared their love for the creation, the work still isn't done.

The worst side of this is when the work never gets done. The work never actually becomes good enough for public consumption. This is the biggest pitfall of perfectionism. The work is never good enough.

Being a perfectionist is supposed to help the artist in the creative process. It helps artists separate the great from the crap. It makes them question what they have created and wonder if there is a better way. If this helps make the art better, then it's a good thing. If it stops the art from ever getting finished, it's a bad thing. If it comes to the point where the artist no longer creates, then this is the worst thing.

In actuality, it is true that a lot of works could be improved upon. There are works earlier in an artists career that don't stand up to their later works. There are points in every artists careers where the work isn't as good as others. This is all part of the process. That's the point. You must create these 'points' or works of  art to signify your progress. If you've created something and it's not up to your standards, ask yourself why. Look at your art and see how you can improve and what you may have done wrong. Do you lack talent, need more training, or need more time on that particular skill?

Whatever you do, don't throw it away. It's there to teach you something. It's part of your journey. If you're assessing something right after it's been completed, are you being completely impartial to what you're seeing (hearing)? Finish it, wait a while and then look upon it with fresh eyes. Can you make some minor adjustments? Is it good for what it is? Is it a major piece/accomplishment or another step in your development?

If perfectionism keeps you on top of your game. If it's responsible for your high level of creativity, then that's great. If it's getting in the way; stopping you from creating, making projects take years instead of weeks, stopping you from being happy with your art, then lose it. Lose it now.

Create it, critique it, edit it, finish it, move on.

You, the Editor

More and more it's becoming a one (woman) man show. We now have the technology and ability to do so many things in not only creating music but also publicity and marketing. It all becomes much too easy to start thinking that you can do it all. I've written about this in the past and will comment again in later posts mostly because I think it's an important topic. One of the things that we have to do when we're creating music and recording tracks is discern between the stuff that is good and the stuff that has to be thrown out: enter the editor. When it comes to creating music and content, the role of the editor is vital. In this post we're going to talk about the role of the editor in making music and its vital importance in the music making process.

The Professional Editor

When it comes to editing I always think about newspaper editors that are portrayed on television and in film. You know the one I'm talking about: the guy with the short temper and the non-existent personality. He's the guy who rejects everything, feels the need to put people down, and will do anything to get the paper 'out on schedule'. Of course this is one of Hollywood's typical stereotypes but there is a hint of truth here. The fact is that the editor is crucial in the process of creating content. Not only does the editor make sure that the material is of a high quality but also that the material stays on track and on topic. In one aspect, you have to be ruthless sometimes about what is acceptable and making sure that things do get done.

Your Internal Editor

As mentioned above, the editor is responsible for quality control and staying on course with the program among other things. There are other things that the editor may be responsible for but we are going to focus on these two because they relate to what we're trying to accomplish the most. When you sit down to write a song, there is an editor present. It's your internal editor. It's the part of you that discerns what's good and what's bad, what's right and what's wrong. There are two definitive kinds of editors; ones that are way too lenient, and ones that are too strict. Of course there shades of grey here but most of the time, your editor will be much too hard, or not there at all. A lot of this is dependent on your personality and your self perception. In fact, it has little to do with actual reality. It's like your view of the world in general; it has to do with your perception of the world and little to do with the actual world itself. Some people are much too hard on themselves and think that their work is terrible and some people are way too generous with their opinion and think that everything that they create is a masterpiece. There are fatal flaws in both of these perspectives.

The Non-existent Editor

If you've ever see some of the reality shows like 'American Idol' you've probably seen some singers who are terrible and yet when they are told how bad they are, they react with complete disbelief. It's always good to believe in yourself and believe that you have the ability to make it in the music business. The problem occurs when you believe this so much that you shut out any sort of criticism and bad reviews and believe that these people are just jealous and are out to get you. The problem here is that these people don't have an internal editor and believe in themselves so much that they're unable to take any sort of constructive criticism or advice. If you believe that everything that you do is genius, not only do you not improve as an artist, but you lose credibility as well. There is always room for improvement at every level of being an artist. Having the ability to step back and listen to your work with a discerning ear is a crucial skill to have. Some well known producers have developed this skill to an amazing level and it shows in their work and the artists that they work with. With your own material, it's critical that you can step back and figure out what works and what doesn't.

The Critical Editor

The other side of this is the over critical editor. This is the one that decides that everything that you have done is terrible or flawed. Many well known artists and writers over the years have been overly critical of their own work even to the point where they are doing rewrites even when the work is done and has seen some success. This is a problem for a great number of artists that never seems to leave them. The fact that they are critical about their work may be the reason why their work is such a high quality in the first. This though, can be taken way too far. Some people allow that editor in too quickly in the work thereby effectively destroying the creative process. In the beginning of creation, there needs to be some level of experimentation and play. Bringing the editor in too quickly can destroy this step or bring it to a halt. There needs to be some level of trust and having an open mind to allow ideas to flow freely. Then, some people bring the over critical editor in later when reviewing their work. This is the best time for your editor to do his stuff. If fact it's essential that your internal editor is brought in. This is what assures quality control. This is when you start asking questions and making sure that you've accomplished what you've set out to do. Here again though, we don't what to be so critical that we entirely dismiss everything that we've done. Some people are so critical of their own work that it never sees the light of day, or even worse, never gets done it the first place. They get so caught up in rewrites and working on 'newer and better' material that they never release what they've created before. This can be just as worse as the non-existent editor mentioned above.

Stimulating the Editor

One of the best ways to stimulate the internal editor is to start asking yourself some questions. It's usually good to not let the tough minded editor in too early in the creation process and generally it's a good idea to let the ideas flow initially without too much resistance. Once you've gotten somewhere along in the song, it's time to let the hard ass editor in and start asking yourself some questions. Depending on what you're working on and what stage in the process you're in, these questions are going to be a bit different. If you're at the song writing stage you will want to focus on the lyrics, the harmony and rhythm. Are the lyrics working? Is there an easier more effective way to put the message across? Is it memorable? Is the melody memorable? Do you need to make it more elaborate or less? Is it heading in the right direction? If you're writing for someone else is it developing into a good song for them? You get the idea. There are a ton of things that you may want to go over. The hardest part is being honest with yourself. Can you write something better?

The Rewrite

Sometimes songs get stuck simply because the writer is having a hard time with the rewrite and nothing good is coming. The problem with rewriting is that the further along you are into a piece of music, the fewer choices you have. When you first start writing a song, the palette is virtually clean. The further along a song is, you may have fewer options for things to fit into the framework on the song. You no longer have a million choices but you are looking for that one idea that will fit. Many artists have a problem with rewrites because of this. The other problem you may run across is that fact that you may have fallen in love with your original idea even though it may not have been the best idea. Sometimes the more times you hear a song, the harder it becomes to do the rewrite because you've become accustomed to the old choice and nothing else will 'fit'. In this case you may want to try a bunch of ideas and just 'stick them in there' for now. Once you stuck some ideas in something that you've heard a million times, your ears will once again become accustomed to the new sound. If you've tried a couple of different ideas and then listened to them a couple of times at a later date, your ears may become used to the new sound or at least you may be open to new ideas.

Criticism

One of the problems that some people come across is when they get criticism from other people about their work and don't know how to use that criticism. Either they completely dismiss the criticism, take it too hard and see it as a personal attack, or just try to ignore it like it never happened. Whenever you create a piece of art, there is going to a reaction to that art; good and bad. If you are in the business of making music, there is going to be a situation where you going to have to accept some criticism from somebody in the business. The problem occurs when you don't make the best use of the criticism. It's important that you take advantage of this situation when it occurs.

Taking Advantage

If you've gone out of your way to get your music to a professional in the business and got some criticism about your work, it's an opportunity to learn and grow. Sometimes your music will get rejected because it's not right for the artist or it's not what they may be looking for at the time. But, if you've submitted something and there's a remark about it being too simple, bad production (or worst…outdated production!), then you should really take advantage of the situation. Thank them for their opinion and see if you can more info. Can they suggest things to do or to make the track better? Would they accept it if changes were made? Keep in mind I'm talking about a professional and somebody that knows what they're talking about. Sometimes people can be less than helpful (even though they don't mean to be) when they really don't know what they're talking about. I've played some material for 'other musicians' before and got less than great responses. Some people aren't happy when they see that you've created something great. Then there's the opposite side of the spectrum where it's family and friends who are really supportive and have nothing but great things to say about your work. Even though this may be a great boost for your ego, it doesn't help your craft that much. Effective criticism helps you grow as and artist and allows you to think and see things in a new way. Most of all it gets you out of the misconception that makes you think that everything you do is great and that sometimes you do need to do a rewrite.

Working on Your Editor

Being subjective about your own work is a critical skill to have. You have to have the ability to let the ideas flow initially without getting in the way. Once you've got something going, you're going to have to step back and assess what you've done. This is where the editor comes in. Did you accomplish what you set out to do? Is your message getting across? It's the ability to look at all of these things and know what you have to change. You have to discern what's working and what's not and know what to do about it. This part of the process may be the hardest for some writers out there because it's the time when you may not be too inspired and may have to work at it a bit until you have something you like. Your editor is like all of the other processes in music though; the more you work at it, the better you will get. Above all, there is no art without flaws. Sometimes it's these little flaws that make it great in the first place.

The Wisdom of a Music Education

Image from WikipediaMore and more I hear students telling me that they don’t have music at their school or that it’s been delegated as an extra-curricular activity. It’s a shame because in my opinion a musical education can teach us much more than we ever thought about learning and succeeding. It’s much like sports where the lessons we learn have far reaching effects over all areas of our life. Sometimes the effects aren’t as tangible as say learning how to add or write a proper paragraph but it teaches us how to learn, work on our own and overcome difficulties on a weekly basis.

The Lesson
A music lesson usually consists of a weekly visit to a teacher who hopefully has a lot of real world experience in the craft. The teacher will review what was covered last week and make sure that the student practiced the necessary exercises. If the student didn’t practice, or didn’t improve enough in that particular exercise, then it’s left again for the next week. If the exercise is too difficult, it’s broken down or simplified and practiced until the student can complete the exercise to the teacher’s approval. While the student has a number of exercises in a couple of different areas, they all point to a common goal. Hopefully, the basic techniques will be covered and ingrained before moving on. Week by week the student goes through this, slowly building skills while the teacher ensures that the student improves and keeps focused on the material at hand. While this system may seem simple at first glance, it’s brilliant in its simplicity and very effective in getting the desired results. It’s the same method that is used in sports with the coach/athlete relationship and is now used in mainstream teaching on everything from math to social skills. Basically its learning one thing at a time, in incremental steps, while keeping focused on the big picture.

Big Dreams…What Are We Doing Here?
Whenever I start working with people and/or students, we usually begin with discussing all of the things that they want to accomplish and/or learn in the coming months. Somebody may just be there to get the basics and learn something about their instrument and how music works. Others have visions of mastering the instrument and playing in front of thousands of people. It doesn’t matter, it’s a personal thing: there is no right answer for this initial stage. I know that when I sit down and figure out my goals for the upcoming months I usually go over the top to begin with. While it’s easy to go over the top with what you’d like to do, I usually don’t put any limitations on this…initially. Whenever I discuss the same things with fellow musicians, it’s the same thing and I try not to put any damper on what they want to do. Initially, I’m just trying to decipher what their most important goals are and what we need to do/learn to get them to their goals. It’s not until I have a grasp of who they are and what they want that I start to make some decisions about what to do next and make some definite plans about what we may be able to accomplish and what we may have to put off until later. What students don’t know is that as soon as I figure out what they want and where they are now, I immediately start putting together a plan. What the plan is and what the next couple of steps are depends on the student and the situation.

For Example
If I get a student who really wants to learn how to improvise, I try to figure out what their musical knowledge is and what level they are at right now. If they are a beginner and have no knowledge of music theory, and they tell me that they want to learn how to improvise over jazz standards, I know exactly what has to be done and a basic estimate of how long that will take. It’s only experience of many years of teaching and playing that gives me this knowledge. If the student is a beginner, I know that we’re going to have to go through the basics before we get into any heavy improvising. I want to make sure that they have a certain amount of technique and knowledge of some basic music theory such as time and form before we even start memorizing any scales. The point here is that as soon as they start, whether they know it or not, there is a plan in place. Now, every student/musician is different and although there is a plan, the exact plan isn’t concrete because it isn’t clear immediately where the student’s strengths and weaknesses lie and that every student is at a different place as far as knowledge and ability. What most students don’t realize is that when learning a new skill, the skill is broken down into small, manageable steps. The harder the skill, the more steps are involved. For example, if a student wants to be able to sing a major scale, I have to make sure that they initially can sing any given note. That means just singing one note when I play it to them. If they can’t do this, then I give them exercises to master this. Once that’s done, we work on two notes and so on. Every student has his/her challenges and what may be difficult for one, will be easy for another.

One at a Time…a Little at a Time
The point of all of this is to learn a musical instrument but it can be applied to any skill. If you look at it, it’s really how we learn in the first place. We almost always learn from a teacher, be it your parents, a formal teaching situation or ad hock from multiple sources, a small piece at a time. We then acquire one small skill at a time until we master the thing that we set out to do. There may be times that we seem to learn on our own and master things quickly but they’re usually based on already acquired skills. We may find that we are gifted in some areas where others are difficult. A lot of the time these exist within that same skill set. For example you may be gifted musically but can’t dance to save your life. Or, you’re a great singer but have a hard time writing a song. The point I want to make here is not about what you’re good or bad at, but how we go about learning new skills and how we can use that knowledge to acquire new skills faster and easier.


A good teacher will a) be able to fully assess where you are and where you want to go b) figure out your strengths and weaknesses and figure out ways to work on these areas c) be able to devise a plan that allows you to complete your goals and d) be able to regularly review your progress and change the plan of attack according to your individual needs. This is the true value of a music education but we can apply this methodology to all other areas of your life.

Let’s look at these one at a time:

a) Assess where you are and where you want to go. Two of the biggest problems I’ve had in becoming a success are failure to plan and trying to do too many things at once. So it was either failure to plan, or failure to plan effectively. I know that this is a problem for most people and I think that in this day and age, it’s all too easy to multitask our way into ineffectiveness. When I look at how I teach and how I learned to master my instrument, I realize that the answer was there all along: one thing at a time. The great thing about having a teacher is that they have the wisdom to see where you are and your weaknesses. They have experience and know what steps are need to accomplish your goals, and they will focus on one area at a time until all of the needed skills are acquired. Like I mentioned before, most of the time, the student isn’t even aware of this.

b) Identify your strengths and weaknesses and figure out how to work with them and around them. We all have strengths and weaknesses. To succeed these days in the music industry you’re going to have to be able to do a number of different skills at any given time. This may include being a songwriter, an engineer, a producer, a computer specialist. Or you may have to some public relations, marketing, finances, and tour promotion if you’re releasing your own stuff etc. This is just a small list but you get the idea. There are a lot of different skills involved in each of these activities and I don’t know of anybody who can do it all. I wrote a post in here before about trying to do it all, and it’s not only hard but very counterproductive. The point is that whenever you take on any plan, it’s a good idea to figure out what you can do, what you can’t, and what you may be able to delegate to somebody else.

c) Devise a plan. It’s only after we’ve figure out what we want to do and what we can do that we can set down some possible plans. By knowing what it is we can be certain about where it is that we want to go. By knowing our strengths and weakness, we can assign certain objectives to ourselves and set out to get help on the ones that we can’t. When we get a basic plan together, we need a plan of action and deadlines to make those actions a reality. In a music education, the deadlines aren’t always written in stone since one objective usually relies on the completion of the one before it. But so it goes in life; especially a career in the music industry. Keep in mind that a plan is always a work in progress and that changes will have to be made. It’s simply a general road map, the exact directions have to be written en-route.

d) Review and revise. This is especially important and is never given enough thought. As soon as you get going with your plans, it’s essential that you sit down on a regular basis and figure out what worked, what didn’t and if you are still on course. This is where the wisdom of the music education approach really kicks in. The student and teacher get together once a week to review. Anytime you have a lesson, the first thing you do is review what you did last week and assess to see if you can move on to the next step. There are two important points here. First of all there is the weekly review. It tells the teacher if the student has worked on the material, if there any problems with the material or the student and if they are still on course. If the material was too tough, there may have be a change in plans. The second lesson is that whether the student knows it or not, the teacher has made the student focus on one single lesson and didn’t allow the student to go one without completion of that lesson. This is where the one pointed focus comes in. In a music education there are just too many things for a student to learn. They all must be taken one step at a time. When the student becomes proficient in one area, s/he can then move on into more advanced techniques. If the student was to take it all on at once, it would just be overwhelming and the chances of success would be greatly reduced.

One More Time...From the Top
The lesson here is that within getting a musical education, we learn certain things that we can apply to all other areas of our life. I’ve focused mostly on music and the music industry but these lessons can apply to almost anything. When we learn to play a music instrument, it’s imperative that we learn in incremental steps and use what we’ve learned to build upon. It’s also important to note that when learning an instrument, most of the work is done on your own. Most of the development happens when you take the time to work on the task at hand, on a regular basis. There are no shortcuts. It’s this regular, incremental work ethic that allows us to achieve things that in themselves seem impossible. If you’re unsure, just check out a great artist who has really learned their craft. It almost seems magical when seen live yet realize that that magic was the result of the ongoing daily work and learning ethic that we learned about here.

Practice Time

Whenever it came to practicing I would usually pick up my guitar and just start working on whatever I felt like at the time. I would spend a lot of time working on separate styles and songs until I had enough. I would then put my guitar away until I felt like practicing again. I loved the guitar so picking it up at least a couple of times a day wasn't a stretch. There were times when I would work on specific lessons and songs but most of the time it was whatever goes. I spent a lot of the time just 'noodling around' without much focus. After a while, I realized that I could probably accomplish a lot more and improve a lot quicker if I was more disciplined about my practice time. I then read up and researched all that I could about practicing and how the great players practiced.

What

I found out that not only did the greatest players practice a lot, but they were also very disciplined about what they practiced. If you've ever read about John Coltrane's practice regimen you can see that he was not only hard working but thorough. He worked through everything in all twelve keys, working on every variation imaginable; a method well known among jazz players. I also learned that not only does this apply to the greatest players; it was also true of the great composers, songwriters and pretty much anybody else in an artistic discipline. It's not enough to practice; you must be disciplined in figuring out what it is that you have to know and then working through all of the necessary exercises to gain the required knowledge and ability.

There are a lot of ways to find out what it is that you need to learn and it's just a matter of asking the right questions and you'll find the right answers.

Most of the players mentioned had minimal education and some were completely self-taught. The point is that they figured out what it is that they had to learn then spent the necessary time to master those techniques. They were focused about what they had to do. You'll also find that although a lot of these players were self taught and had a style of their own, the method by which they went about learning their craft is very similar. For example, most jazz players go through the same method of learning scales to improvise over complex chord changes. This includes systematically going through all of the different variations of progressions in all keys, in different tempos, with different variations. No small feat that takes a considerable amount of time and focus. The same can be said of composers who learn the necessary theory and then go about working through all of the different ways that the theory can be applied to their craft. Ask Quincy Jones about some of the things he went through when learning his craft.

How

When I teach guitar, I usually treat the lesson like an actual practice session. In other words, I go through all of the things that you should be going through every time you practice. The following is a general list that I start with and then adjust according to the level of the student and their goals. For everybody the basic list is like this:

• WARM UP - 2 minutes
  
• PICKING EXERCISE - 2
  
• READING - 5
  
• EAR TRAINING - 5
  
• CHORDS - 10
  
• SCALE - 10
  
• SONG/REPERTOIRE - 10
  

Within each general heading there is a few things included that isn't listed in the title. For example chords and scales also include rhythms and theory. I always try to apply the theory to real world examples and songs that they're working on. The picking exercise includes arpeggios and finger-picking. The warm ups are to be done slowly to focus on the left hand and develop independence. This of course is the short list and depending on the student and genre, other headings would be added. For a jazz student, more time would be spent on scales and chords because this would include improvisation and comping. The times are a general indication of how much time to spend on each discipline within a 45 minute practice period. You would spend more time on specific areas when needed; before a big performance for example, the majority of the time would be spent on learning the pieces.

When

I'll be going into more detail about this in the weeks ahead but for now this is a basic outline to give you an idea of how you should approach your time practicing. For every different type of student the list will be slightly different but the idea is the same. Work in the areas that are the most important everyday. Take time out to evaluate what it is that you want to accomplish and then find all the material you can about it. Above is a list for learning a musical instrument; a songwriter's list would be slightly different. By having discipline and working everyday on the things that you know you should (generally your weakest areas) you will learn more and become better in a much shorter time. You will probably surprise yourself.