The great part about learning or rehearsing a new song is that you don’t know what you’re doing. So you have to listen very closely, and sharpen your focus on the music, and concentrate on each phrase, and hone in on the chorus, bridge, solos and lyrics. However, once you learn the song you’re not listening anymore. You’re just playing on automatic. Then your mind drifts off and your performance suffers.
Kinda like cabin fever. We’ve only been quarantined for five weeks and already I know someone who said she’s getting restless, so she invited friends over for dinner. And the friends came! Yikes! Really?
I believe that confidence is everything. It trumps experience, rivals talent and beats the beans out of a good education. However I also believe that “overconfidence” causes artists & entrepreneurs to overestimate their knowledge and underestimate the risks. It provokes blurred reasoning and leads to flippant decisions.
And while it’s true that as we grow in knowledge and experience we also grow in confidence, it’s also nevertheless true that our minds are sharpest when we don’t know what we’re doing.
Important because consider the words of Shunryu Suzuki as he whispers his wisdom from the grave: “It is better to remain in the beginners mind. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”