Embrace Mistakes: How Doing Things Wrong Feels Right
& Explore How Disliking Things Can Improve Your Creativity
My friend Nick is a fantastic horn player (French Horn, for you non-musicians). Horn players are notorious for cracking notes because horns have notoriously small mouthpieces. Composers obviously hate them, he told me once, because they constantly have to play soft, exposed, solo entrances on their highest notes.
I’m a little ashamed I’m guilty of it myself.
Sorry, Nick.
But he also told me how he practices not making mistakes: by making them.
Nick explained that to prepare for delicate entrances, he plays the wrong notes on purpose: he’ll practice playing too high and too low. He told me that he does this so that he knows what the wrong notes feel like, and it helps him find his placement for the right ones.
An Idea From Me
As creators, we can take a cue from Nick when it comes to making decisions for our projects. Too often, we’re preoccupied with trying to find the “best” idea. Many of the tools we use (and I teach, even!) are centered around helping you generate more / better ideas.
But sometimes more isn’t always better.
Sometimes it’s about saying “No.” Sometimes, when we’re overwhelmed with (too many) good ideas, it’s more helpful to think about what ideas we don’t want.
Deciding what we don’t want can help us define what it is that actually matters to us for our project. Once we define what actually matters, we’re able to better prioritize our ideas / intention, and strengthen the material we use.
Question To Ponder
What do I not want in this project?
Challenge To Try
This week, while you’re creating:
When confronted with a choice, make a list of options you definitely do not want in your project
Bonus: Explain to yourself why they wouldn’t work
Let me know how this goes for you. If you’re stuck, reach out and we’ll take care of you.
Until then, go Art Badly
Never miss an event!
Sign up to the newsletter and get the latest events, discounts, and other exciting things: (I never SPAM)
Contact Us
For all support:
artbadly@badnomad.store
You can also find me here: