The Curse of Knowledge: why you’re not getting along with your guitar teacher.
And what to do about it.
Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash
I experienced the Curse of Knowledge before I knew what it was.
I remember watching a drum instructional video with Aaron Spears. He plays all these Gospel chops with such a great a pocket and creativity. But after I watched the video, I thought, “This was the least useful thing I’ve seen about learning drums.” It would have been helpful had I been at the level he was teaching to, but I came across his video too soon. I wasn’t his audience and, without a background as deep as his, I ran head first into the difficulties of learning everything that is second nature to him now. Spears didn’t talk about the beginner level fundamentals and, as a result, I mistook his lack of description as a lack of teaching skill.
This is the Curse of Knowledge: when the fundamentals of a field become so obvious to the experienced teacher, they forget they’re not obvious to people new to the field.
Good teaching isn’t how to teach - it’s about what to teach right now.
Here’s the Curse of Knowledge at work in guitar lessons:
Teacher: “Strum the chord progression like this.”
Student: *plays out of time, leaving beats out of the bar*
Teacher: “No, like this.“
Student: *plays more out of time, leaving more beats out of the bar*
Perhaps the teacher assumes the student can hear and feel the beat when they actually can’t.
Teacher: “Okay, let’s pick the notes in this D chord.”
Student: *strums chord*
Teacher: “No, pick the notes.“
Student: *strums chord again*
The teacher has taken for granted the student knows what notes are.
The Curse of Knowledge is the first step in a negative feedback loop.
1. Teachers do a bad job of explaining. Anyone teaching guitar has developed pretty complex mental models that allow them not to worry about the fundamental facts of guitar playing. These mental models are so ingrained, the teacher mistakes them as obvious.
2. Students feel stupid because they think they should be able to do it. When the teacher brushes over something (thinking it’s obvious) and the student doesn’t understand (but feels like they should because of how nonchalant the teacher is), the student hesitates to ask for clarification. When they miss the fundamentals, they leave big gaps where new knowledge should be built.
3. As a result, students become less interested and motivated. They question their natural ability and wonder if the guitar is for them. They ask themselves if this is going to be worth it. These are the wrong questions that make students quit sooner than anything else.
4. Students don’t practice at home. Feeling unmotivated and dejected from their lesson, students aren’t that excited to practice at home. A commitment to practicing guitar is hard enough in the best of times, but add in the “why bother” factor and forget about it.
5. Teachers get frustrated because their students aren’t making any progress. The student comes back the next week and, having not practiced, doesn’t perform very well. The teacher doesn’t put in the effort to make sure the student understands exactly what’s going on. They’ve deemed them a “lost cause.”
6. Repeat until the student quits.
But there’s a simple fix.
Always go back to the fundamentals.
Teachers should refer to the fundamentals constantly and make them second nature for their students as quickly as possible. They should ask clarifying questions like, “Do you understand what I mean by X? Explain it to me in your own words.” When the teacher finds a gap in knowledge, they should find out how deep it goes. When they get to the bottom of it, work up one step at a time, checking for understanding, until the student can answer the original question.
Students should try to think in terms of fundamentals by asking questions like, “How does this idea fit with this? How does this new thing fit in with my existing knowledge?” Students should always look for ways to connect new ideas to old ones. They shouldn’t rely only on the teacher to explain every little thing. They should take their learning into their own hands and do the work of being a musician: layering different concepts together to the point of fluidity.
Treat the basics with respect. Use them, review them, imbibe them, teach them, learn them.