23d (edited) • General discussion
Where are you at in the learning curve? Are you in the valley of disappointment?
Don’t you think this chart from Atomic Habits applies to most worthwhile endeavors?
When I was a child, somewhere I got a set of juggling balls. I thought it was so cool what the jugglers did at the circus!! But I gave up trying to juggle before I ever even got close.
I tried and dropped the balls. I tried again and dropped the balls again. I lacked understanding and persistence. I succumbed to the disappointment of failure.
I was in the valley of disappointment.
It wasn’t until about a year ago that my interest in juggling resurfaced. At the Play It Again Sports store I picked up a microfiber hacky sack spontaneously. I began to love its texture, and I realized the first of two critical principles when it comes to learning to juggle, or any other challenging hobby:
- You have to love it.
I realized that it was important that, if I ever wanted to become proficient at juggling three balls, I needed to have tools that I really loved.
This is like having a flute that you really like. Or improvising with songs you actually love.
So, when I saw someone on TikTok playing with FlopBalls, I thought, “ah! I will love these toys. Let’s give it a try.”
Then, I took a leap of faith and bought a set of 5, setting my intention to be able to juggle at least 3 of them at a time one day. I thought, “Playing the flute is HARD. If I can learn to play the flute, I can learn to juggle, right?”
Then I had another revelation:
- Chunk it.
Some of my best flute teachers taught me that, when I wanted to master a challenging technique or section of music, it could be done by breaking it up into small, digestible chunks - and then practicing those chunks separately until they became natural, and THEN combining them. I thought, “how can I break this juggling skill up into chunks, like when I learn something new on flute?”
That’s when I watched a 3-ball juggling video in slow motion until I could see what each ball was doing individually. I realized they work together in a unit like a musical triplet! And with a triplet, what happens when you remove one? We get the long-short pattern we find so frequently in jazz.
Then, once I saw it as a triplet and related it to music, I was able to break it down into chunks: 1 at a time, then 2 at a time, then…
About 10 months ago, it clicked. Juggling 3 balls at a time. It happened!!! Now, it’s one of my favorite hobbies.
Improvising on the flute is a lot like juggling. At first it will be hard, and your inner critic will want to give up. You will feel in over your head. Your brain might feel like it’s going to explode.
That’s why I’ve designed Improv Games that try to break up the elements of music into tiny, digestible, practicable chunks, that you can practice separately…
So that, hopefully one day soon, your learning curve trajectory looks up, you start improving exponentially, and it happens:
You’re improvising on auto-drive.
One day soon you’ll be able to choose what notes to play next and also make beautiful phrasing, dynamics, and vibrato at the same time.
Want to practice with me? There’s always room for improvement. I try to create a playpen perfect for making mistakes and learning from them.
Have you checked out the calendar? Tomorrow I’ll go live again for the Atomic Flutist technique at 9:30am CT and then at 1pm CT we’ll play some improv games and I’ll show you how you can apply these techniques to a church song like Sanctuary.
-Vic
PS - Remember, there is a most-heartwarming-flute-story contest happening!
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Where are you at in the learning curve? Are you in the valley of disappointment?
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