Participation trophies have a bad rap.
In sports, it’s certainly reasonable that the trophies, medals, and ribbons go to the team or athlete who won. It’s a contest.
But the arts aren’t like that. Neither is entrepreneurship. Neither is learning a new skill. You win by doing it — by showing up day after day to do the work and get better. It’s not a competition. “The best” is irrelevant.
Read MoreWhen I was a kid first setting out to write songs, I was terrified of copying someone else. I wanted my stuff to be totally original.
I eventually realized that no one would ever care if a teenage girl in Maine happened to steal a chord progression or a bit of melody from an established artist. Everything was fair game.
This playful attitude freed me up to create without worry. I was able to forge my own path without thinking at all about what other artists were doing.
Read MoreWhen I first tried to write songs as a teen, I was stuck. I had a few ideas, but nothing seemed complex or interesting enough.
As I built my repertoire of other people’s songs, I had a breakthrough. I realized that most of the songs were built out of simple and familiar patterns. I decided to try writing a song that consisted of only four chords, with two of them repeated extensively to comprise the verses. I finished my first song and was on my way to writing several others.
Was my work notable or groundbreaking? No way! They are cute songs, but they will never make me famous. That’s fine. They showed promise, but they were just like any songs you might expect from a teenage beginner.
Read MoreIt’s a major stressor for lots of inexperienced teachers:
“How do I get kids to calm down in order to start the day’s lesson?”
A pattern of ignoring chaos leads to more of it. In this spirit, experienced teachers will suggest that the teacher not do anything until order is established. They should wait for appropriate behavior if it takes the whole class period.
Read MoreWhen we're learning something new, it can be discouraging to compare ourselves with more established artists.
It can almost make you want to put down the guitar, step away from the watercolors, or get off the stunt motorbike.
The first thing to do is close out Instagram or Facebook or wherever you're watching people make art instead of doing it yourself. Social media can be great for inspiration, but it's easy to overdose on consuming instead of creating.
