Patience and persistence are important qualities needed to progress at any challenging task, especially music. The older I get, the more I see students, colleagues, and sometimes myself, needing more and more instant gratification. When working at a task that doesn't give instant results, the tendency is that more people will bail than follow through. As technology improves, we are all being conditioned to get results immediately. As a society, we are constantly going at a faster pace, which causes us to get caught up in a collective maelstrom and lose our ability to be patient. The need for instant gratification is completely contrary to the qualities of patience and persistence. Some things are just going to take time.
Lack of patience leads to frustration. Frustration is very capable of creating the desire to quit working on what ever demanding project you may have going. One has to be aware of which things cause personal frustration, and then come up with a method to overcome that frustration. For example, if I have a keyboard part to learn that I can't play yet, I like to look at the whole thing first, so I can map out a plan of attack. I usually will break down the challenging task into small workable chunks. My belief is you have to walk before you can run. After I've made a plan, I will put the keyboard part together chunk by chunk till I can play it. To be able to play more interesting and complex music, you have to be willing to be patient and take the steps necessary to see and understand the complete picture. By understanding more of the musical puzzle, playing more complex music will eventually happen with greater ease. By breaking things down and being thorough, you can achieve your goals. If playing music was easy, everyone would do it!
So often, I encounter students that would rather bail on learning a piece of music than take the time to really work it out. It seems easier to have the "I Just Can't Do It" attitude. One reason for this is that they may have not developed the skill of being patient while working at a challenging task. Teaching a student to be patient and figure out all the details is an important part of learning music. If they develop patience and planning, they will be more likely to achieve their goals, and eventually become more independent. Another reason for the "I Just Can't Do It" attitude is that ego makes the student self-aware. Being self-aware makes you realize that you may not be playing up to a certain musical ideal, which is a good thing as long as you don't get completely discouraged. For some, the ego has become hyper-sensitive, which leads to the desire to avoid the demanding music ideal all together. No one wants to play badly, but if you are going to progress you have to be willing to crash and burn to learn. Being patient and persistent through the crashing and burning process builds character, and eventually for most, the ability to achieve what they set out to conquer. Through patient, persistent repetition when practicing, over time one can achieve most anything. On the other hand, minimal effort achieves minimal results.
On the other hand, ego can also can lead to a false sense of actual ability, which is bad for progress. You can see this in a musician or student who's arrogance far outweighs their ability. This person is in denial. They do not want to acknowledge any shortcomings they have in their ability, but usually are keen to point out other players lack of abilities. This aspect of the ego causes them to not set goals and target musical achievements past what they can already do. They're quite sure that they have everything together, and don't need to be working on broadening their skills at all. This type of person thinks they have it so together, they don't even have to deal with being patient and persistent. Generally, this person is insecure or an oblivious jerk, or both.
To progress, you have to be disciplined and stay persistent. If you are not naturally a patient person, being disciplined will be a challenge, and there is no way to be persistent without being disciplined. Your attitudes are all intertwined and directly affect your ability to achieve past what you are naturally capable of, or can already do. If one can't get a grip on being disciplined, they will be challenged to find their consistent practice routine. With out keeping a persistent attitude towards practice and expanding ones ability, a musician can't help but be stagnant in their growth. Stagnation then stifles creativity. Stifled creativity is just bad for all of us!
Dave Latchaw
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