Often it’s got to get worse before it can start getting better.
I was EQing live tonight, during a dress rehearsal of a play. Like many, my EQ method is “find the ugly and get rid of it” – I boost a narrow EQ band and sweep through frequencies to find the nasal, woofy, or boomy frequencies for that performer or instrument, then gently duck that band.
That, of course, means whatever doesn’t sound good gets boosted before it gets cut. In the auditorium, it sounds like a performer walks into a tin can for a little while. A little jarring if you’re not expecting it, but an essential part of the process.
And I think that’s true for a lot of growth processes. Adjusting your piano technique? You’re going to get less facile before you get more facile. Changing how you approach your passagio as a singer? You’ll probably have a lot of cracks before the voice flows more smoothly.
When I switched dominant hands as a conductor, I got less effective in front of my ensemble, before I became more effective than I ever had been.
It’s true for music, but it’s also true for athletics (grip, gait, throw), and it’s true for any other place you want to get better. Sometimes you get better by getting better, and sometimes you get better by getting worse first.
Getting worse? Hang in there. It’s just part of the path. You have to go down one mountain to climb a taller one.