Knowing how long it will take to learn a skill is essential to maintaining a positive outlook – and succeeding in learning it.
Learning to sing an A on command in rehearsal reliably takes my students a couple of months. Learning to scat like Ella will take 1,000 hours of deliberate practice and years of performing. In between, every skill, every piece, every challenge will take some amount of time.
If you think something will take 1 hour to learn but it actually takes 10, you’re demoralized by hour 3 and likely to quit by hour 5. By accurately anticipating how long it will take, you avoid that demoralization and quitting.
Most of all, it’s important to not self-criticize when learning takes the time it takes. Not being able to learn a 100-hour skill in 10 hours isn’t a failure.