Comparison Is Not a Curriculum

Comparison is almost impossible to avoid in the performing arts. Who got the role? Who got the callback? Who has the bigger range? Who got into the program? Who booked the professional job? Who seems to be moving faster?

For young artists, especially adolescents, those questions can get loud very quickly. I also don’t think pretending comparison doesn’t exist is particularly useful. Our students are going to notice what their peers are doing. They’re going to have big dreams, and they’re going to experience disappointment. Sometimes somebody else really will get the thing they desperately wanted.

But comparison cannot become the curriculum.

I want my students to be ambitious. I want them to work hard and care deeply about their craft. What I don’t want is for them to learn that their progress only counts when it surpasses somebody else’s.

Research on perfectionism makes an important distinction here. Striving toward high standards is not necessarily the same thing as perfectionistic concerns, including excessive worry about mistakes and negative reactions to imperfection. That distinction matters enormously in performing arts education. A student can say, “I want to improve my mix,” “I want to make All-State,” “I want to get into my dream college,” or even “I want to be on Broadway someday.” Great. Let’s work.

The problem is when the goal becomes, “I need to be better than her.”

Because there will always be a her. There will always be somebody with a higher note, a different vocal quality, a bigger role, another callback, more followers, a famous teacher, an impressive résumé, or an opportunity you wanted. If your sense of artistic worth depends on staying ahead of everyone around you, there is no finish line.

Whenever possible, I want students comparing themselves to themselves. What can you do now that you couldn’t do six months ago? What used to feel impossible that now feels manageable? What happened in that audition that you handled differently than you would have a year ago? What did you learn? What didn’t work, and what could we try next?

Sometimes progress is dramatic. It’s a new note, a role, an acceptance letter, or a competition result. Sometimes it’s walking into an audition without feeling sick. Sometimes it’s recovering from a crack without spiraling. Sometimes it’s singing something imperfectly and not immediately apologizing afterward. Those things count too.

One of the hardest things we have to teach young artists is that someone else can be wonderful without that making them less wonderful. Someone else getting the role doesn’t retroactively make your audition bad. Another singer’s range doesn’t shrink yours. Someone booking a professional job doesn’t mean you’re behind.

Self-Determination Theory gives us a useful framework for thinking about this. Research in music education has looked at the importance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in motivation. That means I’m interested not only in whether a student is motivated, but in what is motivating them.

I want students who work because they’re curious, because they have something to say, because mastering something difficult feels amazing, because they love music, because they want the role, or because they have enormous dreams and are willing to develop the skills those dreams require. I don’t want them working because somebody else’s success has convinced them they’re running out of time.

None of this means lowering expectations. Dream ridiculously big. Work hard. Take the audition. Apply to the impossible school. Go after Broadway. Be disappointed when something doesn’t happen. You’re allowed to want things badly enough that losing them hurts.

But excellence doesn’t require somebody else to lose in order for you to win.

Our artistic lives are much longer than one audition, one competition, one casting decision, or one season. I’m interested in building artists for that long haul.

Research and Further Reading

Stoeber, J., & Eismann, U. (2007). Perfectionism in young musicians: Relations with motivation, effort, achievement, and distress. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(8), 2182–2192.

Evans, P. (2015). Self-determination theory: An approach to motivation in music education. Musicae Scientiae, 19(1), 65–83.