{"id":24910,"date":"2025-09-21T09:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=24910"},"modified":"2025-09-21T09:53:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:53:53","slug":"on-art-and-perfectionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2025\/09\/21\/on-art-and-perfectionism\/","title":{"rendered":"on art and perfectionism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note: I’ve been drafting this post for close to two weeks. This was NOT due to being a recovering perfectionist!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a insidious and prevalent trope of artistic life that boils down to this: to create (great) art, one must suffer. I don’t think that this is true \u2013 but I only make pretty good art. But the notion that art requires suffering in order to be good has been around for a long time. It may contain a kernel of truth, but I think the reason that it has lasted for so long is that it makes the basis for some really good fictional content. No one is going to make a biopic about Felix Mendelssohn \u2013 he didn’t suffer enough, his music is too ‘happy’ and ‘facile’. (But let’s not mention the fact that his family were baptized into Christianity to try to ameliorate the effects of rampant antisemitism.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many well-documented instances of composers and artists writing music or making art that is completely at odds with what is going on in their personal lives. Mozart wrote some of his sunniest music at the lowest emotional ebbs of his life, for example. But this doesn’t make for good storytelling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was recently listening to the Hidden Brain<\/a> podcast episode Escaping Perfectionism<\/a>, which talks about how perfectionism is on the rise in our society and, seemingly paradoxically, does little to make us more successful. As a recovering perfectionist myself, I can attest to this. But we are so conditioned to take perfection as a de facto<\/em> expectation – even if it is a wildly unrealistic one. I’ve suffered a lot (mostly mentally) for my art, and I don’t think it’s done much for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a crucial difference between the drive to work hard to achieve a goal and a drive to execute perfectly. But this is what is driven into us almost from the beginning (or at least it was when I was seriously studying to become a professional musician): if you are not striving for perfection, the person the next practice room over is. If you are not practicing 6 hours a day, someone else is. If you don’t play your audition excerpts as close to perfectly as possible, someone else will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much is lost with this mindset. Joy. Artistry. Love. Storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few months. I’ve been trying to reconnect with what drove me to take on music as a career instead of as an avocation. I’ve been trying to quiet my inner critic. I’m very much trying to recover a sense of curiosity about music – something which I’ve noticed in musicians that I have a ton of respect for – as it seems to be a key for longevity in the often repetitive world of an orchestral musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently read a newsletter by the viola professor and neuroscientist Molly Gebrian<\/a> which said to put up a sign in your practice room that says “Mistakes are an opportunity to get curious!” This is such a brilliant thing to say! It takes one’s brain out of the mode of self-judgement and puts it into a mode of discovery. I can’t tell you how many times a mistake in the practice room results in a lot of negative self-talk. That also translates into negative voices in the act of performing, which is pretty harmful to a successful and enjoyable performance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another discovery was through violin teacher and psychologist Noa Kageyama, who on his podcast Bulletproof Musician noted a clinical study<\/a> in which practicing musicians who had a failure rate of 30 percent actually learned difficult passages faster than those who had a lower rate of failure. Perhaps the better way to frame it is to say that a 70 percent success rate during practice sessions will lead to the most rapid progression of skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that’s what’s been on my mind (along with a family visit, starting a new season with the orchestra, and getting back from a vacation in the northeast) and I’ll let you know how my personal journey goes as the season progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: I’ve been drafting this post for close to two weeks. This was NOT due to being a recovering perfectionist! There is a insidious and prevalent trope of artistic life that boils down to this: to create (great) art, one must suffer. I don’t think that this is true \u2013 but I only make pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":24928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2706,2],"tags":[4061],"class_list":["post-24910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practicing","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-perfectionism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-6tM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21031,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/02\/06\/a-confessional\/","url_meta":{"origin":24910,"position":0},"title":"a confessional","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"As I think back to last year at this time, I realize that the pandemic was not even on my personal radar (I gave up most news consumption via radio or television in 2016). 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Wollenberg). There's been a big to-do on every available media outlet about the bow\/finger synching by the all-star classical quartet that performed at Obama's inauguration this week. True, it would have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"inaugural_quartet_was_prerecorded","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/inaugural_quartet_was_prerecorded-399x272.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16343,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/25\/im-back-sort-of\/","url_meta":{"origin":24910,"position":3},"title":"I’m back! (sort of)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday was the first day I got back on the bike (off of the indoor trainer), and it was a glorious day! This is looking west from the Springwater Corridor along the Willamette River. If all goes as planned, this is my final weekend of convalescence. I'm up to 90\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6989D1F2-97AB-47E9-84FA-1E0270652AD4.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6989D1F2-97AB-47E9-84FA-1E0270652AD4.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6989D1F2-97AB-47E9-84FA-1E0270652AD4.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6989D1F2-97AB-47E9-84FA-1E0270652AD4.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6989D1F2-97AB-47E9-84FA-1E0270652AD4.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6989D1F2-97AB-47E9-84FA-1E0270652AD4.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5344,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/23\/its-11-p-m-in-detroit\/","url_meta":{"origin":24910,"position":4},"title":"it’s 11 p.m. in detroit","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE: Looks like the clock has ticked to 11:59 p.m. tonight.\u00a0 Read the latest here. Remember the Doomsday Clock?\u00a0 It was established by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago in 1947.\u00a0 It reflects the proximity of the world to nuclear annihilation - midnight - by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14135,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/06\/19\/its-the-people-stupid\/","url_meta":{"origin":24910,"position":5},"title":"it’s the people, stupid","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This past week I've been rehearsing and performing at the Portland Piano International Festival as part of the Festival String Quartet. The quartet is quite a collection of people to play with! 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