I am constantly reminded of what a big part psychology plays in learning. I see time and time again how fear will prevent somebody from being able to achieve something that is well within their skillset and, at the other end of the scale, how overconfidence will cause somebody to rush into something unprepared and get it wrong, thus denting their pride. This up and down cycle of confidence is very common and can be overcome by detaching emotion from failure. Making mistakes is part of learning. The thing to focus on is not the mistake itself, but how we respond to it. A mistake, once made, cannot be undone, the rest of the track, however, is still to be played. The correct response is to take it as a signal to refocus and concentrate harder on what we are doing, focus on the musician/backing track/click that we are playing to, focus on the next beat, focus on where we are in the track and make sure that we do our best to ensure that the rest of the “performance” is as good as we can make it. If the rest of the performance is good then, by the end of it, the “listener”, if they even noticed the mistake in the first place, will probably have forgotten it. The vast majority of people won’t even notice it in the first place! As a teacher I am happier to hear somebody make loads of mistakes, but keep the timing and keep the count, than I am to hear somebody play something perfectly then make a mistake and give up. Accept the mistake, keep going, concentrate and focus on making the rest of the performance the best that you can.
