{"id":45716,"date":"2019-06-06T20:15:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T20:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/?p=45716\/"},"modified":"2024-07-01T16:44:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T16:44:55","slug":"aiming-perfect-actually-holding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Aiming For Perfect Actually Holding You Back?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postLeadIn\">\n<p>Aiming for perfection is admirable &#8211; perfection is wonderful! But is <i>music<\/i> ever really perfect?<\/p>\n<p>Is it possible that aiming for perfect is actually holding you back from your true potential as a musician?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In this video we\u2019re going to explain the two meanings of the word \u201cperfect\u201d &#8211; and why focusing on playing the \u201cright notes\u201d might actually be a mistake. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n<p>Watch the episode:<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bxw2MK0IzlY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class='mu_podcast_embed'><iframe style='border: none' src='\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/10067531\/height\/90\/width\/640\/theme\/custom\/autonext\/no\/thumbnail\/yes\/autoplay\/no\/preload\/no\/no_addthis\/no\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/59638c\/' height='90' width='640' scrolling='no'  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class='podcast_subscribe_buttons'><p class='subscribe_cta'>Subscribe For Future Episodes!<\/p>\n    <div class='buttons'><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeitunes' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"apple\");'><i class='fa fa-apple' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Apple Podcasts<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeandroid' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"android\");'><i class='fa fa-android' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Android<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeyoutube' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"youtube\");'><i class='fa fa-youtube' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> YouTube<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribegplay' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"gplay\");'><i class='fa fa-google' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Google Play<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribestitcher' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"stitcher\");'><img src='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/themes\/Divi-MU\/img\/Stitcher-icon.png' alt='Stitcher' class='podcast_icon'>Stitcher<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscriberss' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"rss\");'><i class='fa fa-rss' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> RSS<\/a><\/div>\n    <p class='review_cta'>Enjoying the show? Please consider <a href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>rating and reviewing it!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div>\n<h2>Links and Resources<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"shownotes_links\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/how-to-earn-your-inspiration-with-mark-cawley\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Musicality Now &#8211; How to Earn Your Inspiration, with Mark Cawley<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/song-writing-start-and-succeed-with-alex-forbes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Musicality Now &#8211; Song Writing: Start and Succeed, with Alex Forbes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/writing-songs-the-beatles-way-with-matt-blick\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Musicality Now &#8211; Writing Songs the Beatles Way, with Matt Blick<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class='podcast_review_cta'><p class='review_cta'>Enjoying Musicality Now? Please support the show by rating and reviewing it!<\/p>\n    <p class='review_button'><a class='cta_button' href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>Rate and Review!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div><!-- MU Podcast Schema -->\n<div class='mu_podcast_schema' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/PodcastEpisode'>\n <div style='display:none;'>\n  <a itemprop='url' href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/'>\n       <span itemprop='name'>Is Aiming For Perfect Actually Holding You Back?<\/span>\n  <\/a>\n  <div itemprop='datePublished' datetime= '2019-06-06T20:15:14+00:00'>2019-06-06T20:15:14+00:00<\/div>\n  <div itemprop='description'>What is perfection? In this episode we share a mindset shift for approaching your playing and practicing that will improve your musicality rapidly.<\/div>\n    <div itemprop='associatedMedia' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/MediaObject'>\n      <div itemprop='image' href= 'https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Musicality-Now-Is-Aiming-For-Perfect-Actually-Holding-You-Back2.png'>https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Musicality-Now-Is-Aiming-For-Perfect-Actually-Holding-You-Back2.png<\/div>\n   <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<h2>Transcript<\/h2><div class='mu_podcast_transcript'>\n        <div id='mu_podcast_transcript-link-45716' aria-expanded='false' class='sh_link sh_hide'><a class='cta_button mu_podcast_transcript_showhide_link' href='#' onclick=\"showhide_toggle('mu_podcast_transcript',45716,'Show Transcript','Hide Transcript');return false;\"><span id='mu_podcast_transcript-toggle-45716'>Show Transcript<\/span><\/a><\/div><div id='mu_podcast_transcript-content-45716' class='sh-content sh-hide' style='display:none;'>\n        <div itemprop='audio' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject'>\n          <div itemprop='transcript'>\n           \n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Hi, my name\u2019s Christopher, I\u2019m the founder and Director of Musical U, and this is Musicality Now.<\/p>\n<p>Have you been aiming for perfection in your musical life? If so, you might want to be very careful about what you mean by the idea of perfect. Does it mean \u201cthe best it can be\u201d &#8211; or does it mean \u201cwith no mistakes\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Believe it or not, there\u2019s a big and important difference there&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>We feel like we &#8220;should&#8221; aim for perfection because we take it to mean &#8220;try to do your best&#8221; &#8211; and there\u2019s no problem with that. But in fact the word \u201cperfect\u201d means \u201cwithout mistakes or flaws\u201d and when we strive to be our best we often inadvertently also take on this idea that we must make zero mistakes &#8211; which is absolutely <i>not<\/i> the same thing!<\/p>\n<p>Trying to always do your best and improve does <i>not<\/i> have to mean aiming for perfect in the sense of zero mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>Music is an art, art is subjective. Meaning how \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d it is depends on each person\u2019s own judgement.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore it fundamentally can&#8217;t be &#8220;correct&#8221; or &#8220;perfect&#8221; &#8211; so why are we aiming for that?<\/p>\n<p>Often what we subconsciously assume perfect to mean is \u201c<i>technically<\/i> perfect&#8221;, meaning playing like a robot &#8211; but that&#8217;s not musical.<\/p>\n<p>The traditional model of learning music says &#8220;learning music means learning to play the right notes at the right time&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There are two problems with that.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, it tends to go without saying that the \u201cright notes&#8221; means &#8220;the notes that someone else has composed and put on a page&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Now I wouldn&#8217;t for a second belittle the importance of repertoire or all the incredible music that&#8217;s been written&#8230;<br \/>\nBut we absolutely should reject the notion that this is what music &#8220;is&#8221;, or that this is the only meaning of &#8220;the right notes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s a topic for another day: choosing the &#8220;right notes&#8221; for yourself. For today, let&#8217;s move on to the second problem with learning to &#8220;play the right notes at the right time&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s that it ingrains in us that mistakes are bad and we should be ashamed and disappointed in ourselves when we make mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>Now again, I want to be clear: I&#8217;m not saying this viewpoint is entirely wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly if we want to learn to express ourselves with an instrument we <i>are<\/i> going to need to learn to make that instrument play the notes we intend for it to play.<\/p>\n<p>So it&#8217;s not the idea of playing what you intend to play that I&#8217;m taking issue with.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s that the attitude to mistakes tends to spread way beyond its usefulness.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re trying to master the fingering for a certain scale then sure, treat mistakes as a problem and work on improving your technique so you make fewer mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>But if you let that spread further it causes more problems than it solves.<\/p>\n<p>When I look back on my own music education as a child, although there was plenty of good there which I&#8217;m grateful for, it was 100% oriented towards note-perfect performance of written repertoire and passing exams by not making mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>As a result I saw music as almost exactly analogous to taking a test in mathematics or science. You study hard so that you make as few mistakes as possible. The best people are the people who make fewest mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>This led to me being utterly uncreative &#8211; and in fact believing myself incapable of creativity.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect I can see clearly that it dramatically limited my enjoyment and fulfillment in music.<\/p>\n<p>Does that sound familiar at all?<\/p>\n<p>Every one of the greatest musicians we admire have made mistakes. And what\u2019s important to note is that many of them have not only made mistakes during the recording sessions for the albums we consider the best of all time &#8211; they have <i>chosen<\/i> to <i>leave<\/i> those mistakes in the recording!<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a duff piano chord in the intro to Roxanne. There\u2019s coughing in a classic Pink Floyd track and a telephone rings in a Steely Dan hit. There\u2019s badly-timed starts in vocals by The Who and Nirvana. We\u2019ve covered The Beatles extensively on this show and the backstories to their best songs are often riddled with happenstance and accidents that they chose to leave in.<\/p>\n<p>Did they do that because they were lazy and couldn\u2019t be bothered to go back and play the right notes at the right times?<\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p>They did it because they understood that music is a creative art-form where there are ultimately no \u201cright answers\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>They listened to their performance not asking \u201cdid I play this technically perfectly?\u201d but \u201cdid I create good music?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a result they were able to look past the apparent \u201cwrong notes\u201d and \u201cmistakes\u201d and see that what they\u2019d created was still great art. In spite of or perhaps even <i>because of<\/i> those so-called imperfections.<\/p>\n<p>Nature is not perfect. It&#8217;s beautiful, it&#8217;s elegant, it&#8217;s incredible &#8211; but is it &#8220;perfect&#8221;? Not really. So why are you aiming for perfection in your music?<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the thing: not only is perfection not attainable, and not something you should expect or want to attain &#8211; aiming for perfection is actually reducing your chances of becoming great.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s an age-old quote that &#8220;Pefect is the enemy of good&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When I interviewed award-winning composer Sabrina Pe\u00f1a Young on this show she called herself a \u201crecovering perfectionist\u201d and explained how she\u2019d had to unlearn much of the \u201cplay no wrong notes ever\u201d mentality she\u2019d grown up with in order to grow into her full potential as a musician.<\/p>\n<p>And who do you think improves faster as a song writer? The person who spends six months trying to perfect one song, or the person who writes one song every day for six months, learning from each one, improving each aspect of their song writing with each song? Hit songwriters who\u2019ve appeared on this show such as Alex Forbes, Matt Blick and Mark Cawley all emphasise the importance of regularly writing and finishing songs as the way to improve, not endlessly polishing every single one to perfection.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s another huge hidden danger of perfectionism: Not only does it bring your progress grinding to a halt, it can also set you up with a very fragile mindset in music, destroying your confidence.<\/p>\n<p>As top symphonic horn player Marc Gelfo put it in his masterclass here at Musical U: &#8220;Perfectionism in practice leads to debilitating stage fright&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll talk in another episode about recovering from mistakes during a live performance, but I\u2019m sure I don\u2019t need to explain why a perfectionist attitude can trigger stage fright and lead to a vicious cycle of being nervous, making mistakes, being more nervous for your next performance, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>So aiming for perfection is not necessary to do your best.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s holding you back from learning quickly.<\/p>\n<p>And it can produce a very fragile and vulnerable sense of identity as a musician.<\/p>\n<p>Start to throw away any perfectionist tendencies you might have &#8211; and you&#8217;ll be amazed how much faster you can improve, and how much more enjoyment and fulfillment you experience in music.<\/p>\n<p>Now I know you might still be thinking \u201cIf I want to be the best I can be, I need to aim for perfect\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;ll leave you with a question to ponder: Can you aim for perfection &#8211; without <i>requiring<\/i> or ever even <i>expecting<\/i> perfection?<\/p>\n<p>And if so, what effect might that have on your musical life?<\/p>\n<div class='podcast_subscribe_buttons'><p class='subscribe_cta'>Subscribe For Future Episodes!<\/p>\n    <div class='buttons'><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeitunes' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"apple\");'><i class='fa fa-apple' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Apple Podcasts<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeandroid' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"android\");'><i class='fa fa-android' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Android<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeyoutube' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"youtube\");'><i class='fa fa-youtube' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> YouTube<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribegplay' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"gplay\");'><i class='fa fa-google' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Google Play<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribestitcher' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"stitcher\");'><img src='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/themes\/Divi-MU\/img\/Stitcher-icon.png' alt='Stitcher' class='podcast_icon'>Stitcher<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscriberss' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"rss\");'><i class='fa fa-rss' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> RSS<\/a><\/div>\n    <p class='review_cta'>Enjoying the show? Please consider <a href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>rating and reviewing it!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div>\n\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<!-- \/MU Podcast Schema -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is perfection? 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In this episode we share a mindset shift for approaching your playing and practicing that will improve your musicality rapidly.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Aiming For Perfect Actually Holding You Back? - Musical U\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is perfection? In this episode we share a mindset shift for approaching your playing and practicing that will improve your musicality rapidly.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musical U\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MusicalU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-06T20:15:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-01T16:44:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Musicality-Now-Is-Aiming-For-Perfect-Actually-Holding-You-Back2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher Sutton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MusicalU\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MusicalU\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher Sutton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Christopher Sutton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#\/schema\/person\/091906af6ab68cb4ab9fa3c3ec9271c0\"},\"headline\":\"Is Aiming For Perfect Actually Holding You Back?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-06T20:15:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-01T16:44:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/\"},\"wordCount\":1409,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Musicality-Now-Is-Aiming-For-Perfect-Actually-Holding-You-Back2.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Mindset\",\"Planning and Goals\",\"Podcast\",\"Practice\",\"Song Writing\",\"Teaching\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/\",\"name\":\"Is Aiming For Perfect Actually Holding You Back? - Musical U\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/aiming-perfect-actually-holding\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Musicality-Now-Is-Aiming-For-Perfect-Actually-Holding-You-Back2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-06T20:15:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-01T16:44:55+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is perfection? 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