Chapter Two - Training and knowledge

 

Chapter Two

Training and knowledge

One of the greatest cautionary tales you’ll see out there is the artist who thinks that talent and good looks alone will lead to a long life of opportunity, money, and fame. That’s not necessarily the best path through artistry, as intuition will come by brute forcing it through experience and perseverance, and it won’t necessarily train your vocabulary. Before social media and cell phone technology became the great equalizers, all of these people quickly faded in comparison to the people who put in the time to understand the craft and cultivated their talent. It’s becoming more apparent on the various reality shows and especially in auditions, that the people who just wing it eventually fall away to the people who have had some study in their field. In other words, you can learn to tell a great story in a foreign language, but unless you figure out a way to really express yourself, you’ll eventually run out of things to say and people will stop listening. Training and study is where it’s at. 

Just to be clear, training doesn’t mean you have to take a class or find the best school to teach you how to be an artist. Certainly, the cost associated with some of the most prestigious schools definitely gatekeep access to an extent. The type of schooling is contextual to the particular discipline you’re interested in; Dancing and acting require proper training, and studying with a singing coach helps you manage and not wreck your instrument. Art schools will absolutely round you out in different mediums and disciplines. Sometimes there are no schools, so you have to find another way to learn more. Regardless, saturation and community will be your greatest allies to develop a foundation in the arts. Putting in the time to study those who are doing what you want to do - and study WITH them - is what will separate you from people who rely on talent alone. Sanford Meisner, the famous acting teacher, once said “You will only be interesting to the extent that you are interested in others.” Give me a person who works hard and is working through what they’re doing over a person who wings it, every time. 

A lot of this study and research is done at home, alone, and thanks to the internet you have various resources that will show you what others do, but mostly what you will end up doing a lot of once you find your groove is ambition, repetition, miscalculation, and resolution. There’s a term in music theory that creates tension over a progression of chords or notes, and then releases it with a resolution. It’s that moment of discovery, but the way to get there, the way to build a deep and rich foundation, is by making a lot of mistakes. As you repeat and work with various disciplines, you’ll gain a lot more by trying everything and making mistakes on your way to finding a few things that work than you would by sticking to only known ways of doing things. It’s good for carrying traditions forward, but not good for transcending art and finding your voice. 

This is what the pursuit is, after all, why we discovered and learned to develop our own talents. Artists relay something on a much deeper level, suffer to some extent for it, and spend the rest of their lives in the pursuit of discovering who they are, which sets them apart from everyone else. This journey of self-discovery and deep, personal communication in whatever art form you choose is only realized through practice, repetition, study, and training. Whether you keep it for yourself or share it with others, you have the potential to learn a lot about yourself by expanding your vocabulary. It can be scary to come out of your comfort zone, but the benefits completely outweigh the consequences, and the better you know yourself and build your foundation on that, the less you can be judged. Opinions are okay, and an audience is entitled to feel however they feel, but digging in and coming from a place of authenticity will put that in perspective. 

If your training gets you out of the house and amongst peers, you’ll find a lot of support, and probably unexpectedly so. Everyone will be in the same place, working hard, looking for some sense of improvement and some context for it, which is hard when you’re going at it on your own. You know when you achieve new skills, but usually peers or an instructor will be able to tell you if your skills are improving. Don’t confuse that with being a better artist, think of it more in terms of being a more clear artist, a more effective communicator. It can be frustrating to understand how a collective of creatives training together don’t advance at the same rate, but it’s important to keep in mind that you’re on your own journey, and the more unfamiliar your surroundings are, the more you learn. 

There will be a great hesitancy sometimes if it doesn’t just come easily. Here is where various excuses and doubts will creep in, because training for these things is largely based on breaking down the wall between your own intuition and your habits. To begin with, the commitment required may be an investment that’s unfamiliar to you and the people around you, and you’ll wonder if you have room, time, or the money for it. The story of family members questioning your priorities and practicality is a very familiar one, so don’t think this is uncommon. 

Also, other people will make it look easy. You don’t know what this person has been through to get to where they are, whether what you’re witnessing is the result of habits instilled from childhood or perhaps a breakthrough after trial by fire episodes in their life. You just don’t know. Also, it could be that what you’re perceiving as someone in their rhythm doing something flawlessly is actually just a disguise for them struggling behind the scenes. 

Remember, you may not be following a plan that’s comfortable for you at first. Some disciplines begin with breaking bad habits by starting with fundamentals you might think are too basic and then retraining you from there. Some of the training will feel foreign, or will keep different aspects separate before pulling it all together. It’s very easy to believe that because you can’t get it right away, that maybe you’ve already started convincing yourself that it’ll take too long before it’s fun again. The perspective to keep in mind here is that if you let curiosity drive you to understand how you function best, you have the greatest amount of knowledge to gain. Honestly, and this might sound weird at first, discomfort with confronting the unknown is going to be a very welcome and familiar companion in the future. Sometimes it doesn’t feel right unless it feels difficult and risky. 

The list goes on, but all of these thoughts are valid. You are allowed to doubt the process and weigh your investment into the tasks ahead of you. Now is not the time to betray your instincts, because you’ll need to strengthen them, too. Just know that whatever you’re feeling is absolutely valid and part of understanding yourself better. You are challenging comfort and denial, and daring to poke around some questions and answers that maybe most people will leave in the margins. You may not have all of the answers, but you can definitely use tools you both have and will develop to find them. 

Experience is priceless, and while you have this nagging, undefined part of you that’s itching to come out, self exploration will absolutely help you define your talent and grow with it. Once again, consider yourself lucky; Some people go their whole lives without a single act of self-discovery that leaves behind a legacy of art. With or without training, that’s not you. Just getting through two chapters of this book shows some curiosity and incentive, and we haven’t even talked about monetizing what you do or making it a career yet. So far, this is just about how you function and the journey of growth in a race of one. 

The training and study may be so satisfying for you that you can spend a life of self-discovery and not aspire to do anything else with it. You might even study it well enough to teach, and the world absolutely needs more teachers. Certainly, people study religion and read their scriptures for meaning their whole lives, and that in itself is a life well spent. Even if you invest yourself deeper and move on to other levels of your career, this part will always be with you; It’s a necessary habit as you grow and mature in your artistic and personal life, so absolutely, you should invest yourself in it. 

What have we done with this story so far? We’ve established what makes you different, that your talent has value independent of everything and everyone else, and that the study of you and how you function is welcome and worthy. What comes after this is something that is often forgotten or sacrificed. We need to address mental health.