I decided to pick up the violin in my 30s. 

I have no previous experience with music or instruments, so I knew it’d be a steep learning curve.

Currently: I suck to anyone with ears. But watching myself improve ever-so-slightly, week after week, for the last 3 months has unlocked something in me. Learning the violin brings me so much joy.

But this week I got stuck. 

Keeping up with the beat, reading music, moving my fingers fast enough, and keeping my bow straight all at the same time was making my brain short-circuit. Frustration ensued. 

“It sounds like you’re getting stuck,” my teacher said.

“Yeah, there’s just a lot going on at once for me.”

And then she asked me a question:

“What do you do when you’re trying to solve a problem?”

“… break it down?” I half answered, half asked.

“Exactly.”

This was a half “duh, of course” and a half “eureka!” moment for me. 

Sometimes the simplest things elude us when we’re deep in a problem. When there’s a problem and you can’t figure it out, you break it down into parts to get to the root of it.

We broke down the problem. Turns out I haven’t nailed getting the beat or tempo right yet, so layering on this other stuff was messing me up. So this week I’m just practicing getting the beat and tempo right on open strings (without any fancy fingers).

And I’ll build from there. 

Where are you getting stuck? 

Have you tried breaking the problem down in a thoughtful, deliberate way? What might you be missing? 

Sometimes the simplest things elude us when we’re inside the problem – try stepping outside the problem so you can look at it from a different vantage point. You’ll likely see something you missed before.