--- title: Being bad at something and keeping going — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Being bad at something and keeping going», a lesson of the arts course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Everyone is bad at a new skill at first: guitar strings hurt, paintings go muddy, the hands you draw look like bunches of bananas, a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/) / Being bad at something and keeping going # Being bad at something and keeping going Lesson 37 of the arts course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/0/) — Everyone is bad at a new skill at first: guitar strings hurt, paintings go muddy, the hands you draw look like bunches of bananas, and that is the normal start, not a sign you were "not made for it". - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/1/) — Skills grow by practice, but the clever kind: find the one hard bit, do it slowly and correctly a few times, then put it back, instead of playing the whole piece and making the same mistake every day. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/2/) — Online you see other people's best take after years of practice and lots of tries, so compare yourself with yourself last month, not with a stranger's highlight. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/3/) — Rest counts too: sleep helps your brain lock in a new movement, so a dance spin that failed tonight often works better tomorrow. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/4/) — People say it their own way: "nesh" in Yorkshire means soft or easily hurt, "peng" in London means brilliant, "butt" in Wales means mate, "lush" means lovely, and "the GOAT" means the greatest of all time. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/5/) — Guitar strings hurt beginners' fingertips; after a few weeks of short regular practice, the skin toughens into calluses, patches of hardened skin, and the pain fades. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/6/) — Videos online usually show someone's best take after much practice, often filmed many times and edited. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/7/) — The "10,000 hours" idea came from a popular book; the researcher behind it, Anders Ericsson, said there is no magic number and the kind of practice matters as much as the hours. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/8/) — Playing a whole piece over and over repeats the same mistake; musicians stop at the tricky bar (a small section of the music), play it slowly and correctly, then join it back in. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/9/) — Professional performers make mistakes on stage too; the skill is to keep going, and a small slip is often not noticed if the music does not stop. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/10/) — Mixing too many colours, or painting wet on wet, turns paint brown or grey, called muddy colour; using fewer colours and letting layers dry fixes it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/12/) — Research shows sleep helps the brain store new movement skills, so practice plus rest works better than practising tired for hours. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/13/) — Switching to a new hobby after giving the old one a fair try is a sensible choice, and skills like rhythm carry over. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/14/) — Hands are one of the hardest things to draw; drawing your own hand often, starting with simple shapes, helps. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/15/) — People start with different strengths, but skills in art, music and sport grow mainly through practice, and calling someone "born talented" can make them stop trying. - ← previous: [AI pictures and AI music, as reported](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/36-ai-pictures-and-ai-music-as-reported/) - next →: [Praise and criticism: giving and taking feedback](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/38-praise-and-criticism-giving-and-taking-feedback/) - ↑ back to [Arts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/)