I’ve been feeling acutely aware of the gap between how I want to play and how I actually play on the nyckelharpa, and this has been discouraging. Interestingly, Olov discussed this very issue in our class shortly after I told him about my frustration. He drew this diagram on the board:
Olov initially drew the person with a small ear, then erased it and put this very large ear.
Olov discussed his experience studying at music school, how when he started he thought the other players were all very good, but came to realise the differences between them over time. His ability to hear and discern those differences was growing.
He pointed out that our ears are growing while we are experiencing this education. and that the growth in our ability to hear better playing can happen well ahead of the growth in our playing ability. This can lead to a frustration with the gap between our ability and what we want. But if we persist, growth in our playing can occur at any time, and even be a big leap. I found this very encouraging.
Ira Glass
- Here is this quote from Ira Glass (host of This American Life) about this topic: “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Re: The title of this post: In London, they tell you on the Underground to watch out for the gap between the train and platform by saying, “Mind the Gap!”. [In Sweden on the Stockholm commuter train they announce, “Tänk på avstånd mellan vagn och plattform när du stiger av” (Consider the distance between the train car and platform when you get off). Many more words,]