Our Relationship with Failure: Beginning Our Growth Mindset Journey in the Music Classroom
By Hannah Greer-Young, Music Specialist

Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. studied how students encountered failure and noted the different reactions of students to mistakes. In her work compiling her research, she identifies these differences as two separate mindsets: fixed mindset and growth mindset. She defines them as follows:

Fixed Mindset: The belief that people are born with a fixed amount of intelligence and
ability. People operating in the fixed mindset are prone to avoiding challenges and
failures, thereby robbing themselves of a life rich in experience and learning (2016).

Growth Mindset: The belief that with practice, perseverance, and effort, people have
limitless potential to learn and grow. People operating in the growth mindset take on
challenges with the understanding that making mistakes and failing are essential to
growth (2016).

My growth mindset journey began during my first year of college. I had been placed in the bottom band. At the time, I couldn’t understand how I had been ranked so low when I had been the best flutist in my largely successful high school band. After placing so low, I woke up early every morning to practice for an hour or two before classes. My playing began to improve, although never at a rate that I was happy with. I became impossible to please and regularly declared my own musicianship was never good enough. I developed a tick in which I would slap my hand every time I made a mistake in a difficult passage. These are all symptoms of the larger issue- I did not have a healthy relationship with failure. I lacked a growth mindset.

A growth mindset is not just about our ability to try again. It’s the perspective we have on our successes and failures. I came into college only comparing myself to others- not considering how to become the best version of myself. Music is a performative skill, so it is easy to fall into the habit of comparison to others as opposed to comparison with self. It wasn’t until I refocused my attention on personal growth that I began to achieve my goals.

Although not to the same extent, I have seen the stirrings of these symptoms in my band students. Students who apologize as soon as they make a mistake. Students who react aggressively when they don’t get it the first time. Students who ask if they are “better” than another student. Students who shut down if they do not understand something immediately. Students who are satisfied with being advanced in their class, who have little interest in pushing themselves further. These are not music-specific behaviors, but the solution is best served in the music classroom. I believe that my role as a music educator is to help students develop a healthy relationship with failure and to begin their growth mindset journey.

I remind my students that they do not need to apologize for their mistakes. We start every class with our goals to accomplish, and at the end of class we review those goals. I ask the students questions like: Have we grown? How? What is the next step? I have a poster hanging on my door so that each student who leaves the music room sees the same essential message: “If today you are a little bit better than you were yesterday, then that’s enough.” I believe that it is so important that students are reminded regularly that we are always trying to better ourselves, but we are never striving for perfection. As a music educator, I am constantly searching for balance between setting high expectations and prioritizing the mental well-being of my students. In that way, music education is uniquely suited for students to practice and learn a growth mindset.

In making music, we are confronting our ability to make mistakes every day. Music is not a way to escape our humanity but to embrace it. Mistakes happen all the time! The beauty in music class is our ability to learn from our mistakes, to pursue excellence in spite of our struggles, to respect our failures and to be grateful for them because if there is no failure, there is no growth.

Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mindset: The new psychology of success . New York, NY: Random House.