Reaching Proficiency

I was thinking this morning how I don't really know how I gained the knoweledge that I use every day in my career. I have a related master's degree, but I didn't learn the stuff there. It feels like I just absorbed it by daily osmosis over the years. I wasn't trying very hard to learn these things. And somehow now I feel totally proficient. I'd say this process probably took about 15 years, though I wasn't trying AT ALL for the first 4 or so years and think I was proficient by the 8th year. Call the first 4 "pre-contemplation" and the last 7 "post proficiency". So it took me about 4 years of moderate effort via osmosis to become proficient.

With the drums I'm trying very hard to learn. Lately, besides time with the sweetie and time spent working for the man...all I do is think about or play drums. I scour the internet, I read books and magazines, I listen to recordings, I do exercises, and I play. I can see real progress...but often I feel overwhelmed...like I'm not progressing fast enough...or like there is far too much ahead of me to learn. Often I feel like I will never be proficient.

So this morning I was thinking about how my career proficiency kind of just "happened" without much trouble on my part...and how long that took.

I think I was in "precontemplation" with the drums from the time that I bought the kit until last winter. That's three years. I've been putting forth more than moderate effort for about the last 10 months. If things progress on drums the way they did in my career...I ought to be proficient in about another 3 years. Right now that feels like a long time from now...but it really isn't. It won't feel like long at all once it's passed.

I was reading through the entries in this blog last week during the transfer process and noticing already how much my thinking and my understanding has changed. It is fascinating. And last night, while reading Modern Drummer I was realizing that there is a whole language...a whole vocabulary...that I didn't know last year at this time that now feels like second nature.

The mind is a wonderful thing. Life is a trip.