Habits and Skill

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, and these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

 The connections between skill and habit are critical pieces in improving and perfecting a

skill.  If you are one of the unfortunate millions who have picked up a bad habit in performing a certain task, and you learn of an improved way of acting, the change process could be painful and slow.  Habits have a tendency to become ingrained and resist change.  Yet change can come in time.

In the book The Power of Habits, Charles Duhigg tells us this: 

“More than 40% of the actions 

people perform each day 

are not decisions but habits.”

That is a remarkable comment.  Just yesterday my friend Travis and I tried our hand at putting golf balls into a cup lying on the floor.  He showed me a new grip for the putter which is supposed to improve control and guidance.  It is a simple rearrangement by placing the left hand lower than the right, which is a reverse of the way I was originally taught.  At best, it was awkward, but I do know that in time I could make this reposition of my hands as natural as every other habit in my life.

In your skill, what habits do you automatically fall into?  As a musician, are there fingerings that have become your default patterns and you have never given them a second thought?

As a sports performer, what are your habit traps?  If there is a change to be made, remember to allow yourself patience in reordering your brain and muscle memory.

From The Habit:  “Habits can be changed if we know how they work.”

I am a drummer who happens to be dominantly left-handed.  When I was first learning I had to adapt to a drum set positioned as my right-handed drummer friends used and I never gave it a second thought.  The idea of rearranging my drum set to compliment my natural biological imprint was not even in my thinking, yet today, had I made that change, I feel I would be a much better drummer. 

If I were a serious drummer these days, it would be beneficial, but since drums take a 3^rd or 4^th place in my life, time prevents me from making this change.

You see, I formed the habit of playing drums as a right handed drummer, even though I start almost every drum lick with my left hand.  It’s habit. 

The brain stops working so hard once habits form, thus engraining the habit even more. 

If you have a habit to change in your skill set, get ready for a fight, which can be won with persistence.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Watch the Pro

(This is a post dealing with skill development, whether you are a musician, sports participant, business owner or budding artist.  The logo implies music, and these ideas are transferable to all endeavors.  Thanks for reading.)

When is the last time you watched a pro do what you do?  This is something I endeavor to do frequently as a writer.  In my case, I expose myself to other writers, those far superior and more successful than I.  I can learn a lot from a pro, and so can you.

As a young drummer I would slow down the speed on my trusty turntable and play drum rhythms by Joe Morello and Gene Krupa until I was able to do a fair job of mimicking their style.  It is amazing how much these guys influenced my own drumming style. 

Who catches your eye in your field of interest?  Study them.  Watch them.  Listen to them. 

See what they have that you can use, and then make it your own.

A pro can teach a person a whole lot, if the student is willing.

I’m willing.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Stealing Is Allowed

If you’ve ever been encouraged to steal, now is the time.  Now before you rush out and start lifting a bunch of stuff, pause just a minute and read this.

We start with a quote from Pablo Picasso.

In whatever area your skill may lie, you can steal – ideas, patterns, style and form.

I was amazed when I recently watched a YouTube clip of Joe Morello, Dave Brubeck’s drummer of years ago, playing Take Five.  It became very clear to me how much I had emulated Joe’s style in my younger years.  I was guilty of stealing his drumming ideas.

I have several writers whom I admire and I confess I try my best to write in their style from time to time.  

Some of my poem ideas in A Time for Rhyme are borrowed from Shel Silverstein.  I read his stuff and am amazed at his gift and wit.  The words are surely mine, but the style is his.  

I am guilty of stealing.  I have borrowed musical styles, singing tricks, conducting tricks, drumming licks, writing flow, even actual words and phrases from others greater than myself. 

And you can steal too. 

Take time to study people who are greats in your field and whose style and gifts you greatly admire, and borrow a way of holding a club, a particular management style, or a musical motif.  I’ve even stolen from my brothers, whom I greatly admired as a young boy. 

The gist of our thought is this – borrow, learn, get better and then perfect your skill so well that you make it your own.

Class dismissed.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student

Moan or Morph

A personal story:

My schedule demands that I write six blogs every week.  I’m not crying the blues or trying to impress you, those are the facts

In six years of blogging I am going through a crisis of sorts.  In one of my blogs, Morning Notes, I have felt lost for a while.  I intermittently hit a homerun and I am used to hitting more homeruns than bombs. 

So Carolyn and I have been talking about and analyzing this dilemma.  Here is where we have come out. 

I’m going to narrow my focus and my scope and my aim and get back to the style and content that I started with in the beginning days.  It is my first blog, my baby that helped spawn all the others and I’m not finished with it yet. 

I use as my bi-line “offering hope, encouragement, inspiration one word at a time.”  My wise wife has suggested that I get back to the inspiration part of my bi-line for this blog in question.  I have definite designs and purposes for each one that I write and at times I’ve been mixing my focus and duplicating what has been happening elsewhere. 

So we are choosing to allow this period in our lives to be a morph period. 

Can you relate?  Do you have a talent that has gone stale at some point?  Do you have a business that seems tired, lackluster?  Perhaps it is time to take a step back and do some heart searching and deep analysis. 

Morphing is a good thing.  Oh, by the way, the main definition of “morph” that I am using is this:  to cause something to change its outward appearance.

In my case, it is more of a realigning with my original intent with which I started.  It’s a happy journey.  Come along if you like.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student