Most people do, but what results do you get out of it? Is it beneficial?
It’s very natural for human beings to compare everything in their life with other people. Our look, our clothing, our performance, our knowledge, our salary etc. One performance we compare are our instrumental skills.
Any benefits?
By comparing your performance with others, you can get inspired to work further with yourself, and that’s good. But I’ll say the downsides are a lot bigger than the upsides. That’s because the people you’ll find for example at YouTube, and you’ll compare yourself with, often are at a very, very high level. They have hundreds of thousands of subscribers for a reason. Maybe they practice hours each day and has played thousands or ten thousands of hours in their life. For some people they live and breathe for the playing and do nothing else in their life, or doesn’t have a daytime job, so they can practice hours each day without sacrificing other activities in their life. In addition, for some of them, they learn instruments very easily compared to the average human.
Most people, on the other hand, have a full time job, doesn’t learn it as easy and only practice 3-7 hours a week. They have no intentions of making the playing to a very time-consuming activity in their life, because they still want to be outdoors, travel, go to the cinema, spend time with their family etc.
Because the people you are likely to compare with are way beyond any level it’s realistic for you to reach by practicing 30-60 minutes a day, you may easily get overwhelmed by how far you have to go. It’s easy to lose motivation since you are so far behind. When you are a beginner, all you can see when watching these people are all the things you have to learn. It just seem like much more than you can handle. But don’t let this false impression trick you. It isn’t too much you have to lean before you are able to play songs that are fun to play and that sounds really great.
What’s your intentional level?
What you should remember is why you want to learn your instrument, and what level you need to be at to be comfortable. Of course, you’ll always want to get better, but what is your main goal? For most people, they have no goal to be a world-famous player. It’s usually enough to be at a level where you can have fun, and play songs you have practiced on in advance at some event, in church, local concerts etc. It is important to define for yourself what’s the minimum level you’ll need to reach to be comfortable and satisfied. If the level as described is the level you need to be at, stop comparing yourself to the best players in the world, because it’s completely irrelevant. Focus at yourself and your playing. Find some people in an instrumental environment you can relate to and play together with and have fun with. That’s thousand times healthier than only being at home by yourself watching people on YouTube that are way beyond the level you have the intention to be at.
In short
Don’t be overwhelmed by how far behind you are the best players. Remember that you are not far from being a decent player. Take it from there. Find your position. Define how much you want to scarify and what level you need to be at. Find someone playing your instrument or other instruments that you can play together with and have fun.
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