Imposter Syndrome & Dunning Kruger

Welcome to another practice thought! My goal with this one (as with all my Practice Thoughts) is to try to be as encouraging as possible. Also, there are always people who will say things like "just practice more" instead of digging into the complicated aspects of musician mindset. I think it's important to dig deep into these kinds of things so that you're prepared for (and don't feel alone during) those situations where you're feeling discouraged or weird about music.

In this lesson, what I was hoping to point out was the general idea that as you learn more, your confidence level might go through some strange places. This is actually a normal part of learning anything, but with musicianship it seems to hit a lot harder.

I'd also like to mention that I didn't draw the Dunning-Kruger graph perfectly and that (from what I understand) the main finding of Dunning-Kruger is this weird peak where beginners often overestimate how much they understand of a given subject. Here is a corrected graph with that peak labeled.

The reason I am bringing up Dunning Kruger in the first place is to compare it to imposter syndrome, which is somewhat opposite: The feeling of being a fraud or a phony despite having adequate or possibly more experience than the people around you about a given subject.

My goal with this lesson was to be encouraging and to say:

"Hey! Those of you feeling inadequate or like you don't deserve to participate in things like community challenges or writing music - you might be experiencing imposter syndrome! You might find that you're ready to take that next step. You might find that even if you have a rocky start moving on to the next thing, you are equipped to figure this stuff out and become the kind of musician you want to be. You might find that you're better than you think you are."

OR

"Hey! Those of you who are feeling really confident and like you've got it - HOLD on to that feeling! Even if you discover at some point in the future that you might be overestimating your competence, it's that confidence - saying to yourself "I've got this" - that will keep you learning and keep you going. You CAN do this."

Overall, I acknowledge that this was a very meta kind of lesson, but I think it's really important to talk about this kind of stuff. There is nothing wrong with experiencing imposter syndrome and there is nothing wrong with experiencing that Dunning-Kruger confidence.

Just learn as you go and remember that emotions and music and inextricably linked.

Part of the reason this lesson is important to me is that in my 20ish years of private lesson experience, I've taught people with such severe imposter syndrome that they quit playing music. And that breaks my heart because I think there is room for everyone in music.

On the flip side, I've seen people so confident and excited to learn who were crushed at some point by the sheer weight of how much there is to know and play and create and experiment with. I've seen students like this quit as well.

If you're still reading this, I just want you to know that the heart of what I'm getting at here is that learning music can be a bumpy ride and it's nice to be prepared for some of the bumps. Never forget to play, learn, and write music because you love music. No one can take that away from you. If you focus on that, you can make it through any of these pitfalls.

As always, thanks for being here. I believe in you. The reason I believe in you (yes, you) is because I don't think of music as something you just do. It's about who you are. If you make music from a place of sincerity and love of music, you are being the most musician possible in my book. The rest is just technique and preference.