There’s a concept in martial arts called Shu-Ha-Ri. In short, it’s about the progression of learning from the beginning stage to the expert stage. It’s been in the back of my head since I first learned about it a while ago and I’d like to talk about it in this post.
The first stage is Shu. At this stage, the learner copies the teacher exactly in order to learn basic skills. Once the learner has the basics down, he moves onto the Ha stage. While he still has some observation of the basics at this stage, he has much more freedom to experiment by tweaking things to match his own style, skills, limitations, etc. This is taken to the fullest extent at the Ri stage. At that point, the learner can throw out what he’s been taught and make up his own rules as he finds things that work well by thinking outside the box and getting increasingly more creative.
While this comes from martial arts, it can apply to any learnable skill. For example, early in my swing dancing journey, one instructor talked about learning the basics and then throwing the rules out the window later on. While some dancers insist on sticking to the rules as closely as possible, the ones who seem to have the most fun and attract the most attention from others bend and even break the rules as they see fit. In fact, when someone I’m dancing with apologizes for making a harmless mistake, I’ll often say, “We dance for fun, not for money.” That helps remind us both that this is meant to be a fun hobby rather than something to take ultra seriously.
The little knowledge I have of musical instruments seems to reinforce the notion of copy first, create later. So many aspiring musicians spend long hours learning scales until they have them down solidly. From there, they can play nearly anything they like, and many of them learn how to improvise as they play. Even if they play the same songs repeatedly, they can mix them up so much that they sound different every time they’re played.
The fairly large amount of knowledge I have with juggling is how I know this concept works outside of martial arts. Lots of basic juggling guides and tutorials start off with just one object and move on to two and three as skill increases. Some of them even have certain postures and body positions to use. Once the basics are down, it becomes possible to modify everything for your arm lengths, aesthetic preferences, equipment used, juggling goals, etc.
This comes up at times in the art world because of Bob Ross. Although many critics complain about art classes in which every participant ends up with a painting that looks like all the other paintings, that’s the exact opposite of what Bob wanted. In many episodes of The Joy of Painting, Bob said, “We’re not trying to teach you to copy. We’re trying to teach you a technique and then turn you loose on the world.” He encouraged viewers to paint whatever they wanted and to add as much detail as they liked, especially since they could spend as much time as they wanted with each painting while he was limited to a half hour for each episode.
I recently experienced something similar to this when drawing Minnie Mouse at Animal Kingdom’s Art of Animation class. All the drawings likely looked similar since the instructor showed us how to draw Minnie from a particular perspective. So what? Art doesn’t have to be entirely unique and original. Lots of works of art feature humans, animals, places, events, and objects that are seen in other works and positions in society. Indeed, if art had to be wholly original and unlike every other piece of art, then it would quickly run out as there is only so much that can be done before arriving at something similar to what someone else has made. With the Minnie drawings, despite their similarities, each one was still personalized by whoever drew it, and everyone seemed to enjoy the experience. What’s wrong with that?
While I’ve focused heavily on moving on to more advanced stages after mastering the beginner levels, I’d also like to say a few things about sticking with the basics. Out of everyone in the world who learns to juggle, most will stay with just three objects and only one or two patterns at most. Even if many of them have the potential to learn many more patterns and several more numbers, it’s ok if they don’t want to go that far. The same applies for anyone who draws, paints, sculpts, makes music, or otherwise pursues a personal interest. Hobbies are for fun, and anyone who has fun with a hobby is on the right track.
In summary, I wish nobody would discourage someone who starts out with little skill at a particular activity. How else is skill developed? Even those with natural talent can still greatly improve their abilities with practice. Likewise, don’t discourage someone who enjoys something even if he’s not very good at it or doesn’t take it as far as possible. It’s perfectly fine for anyone to just enjoy something without trying to be the best in the world at it. Simplicity in life is wonderful and leads to some of the best times. My best times in life were hanging out with my dog Sawyer, enjoying some fun hobbies, and being around good humans. That’s much better than struggling to reach the highest possible levels in a particular skill or criticizing those who are fine with their current skill level, and I’m so glad to be keeping things simple now.