5 stages of learning: how to take the stress out of mistakes for anxious students

(hard not to feel like I was posing for Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’ while taking these photos)

A common problem for my anxious lessons is that horrible dread of making mistakes.

It’s so easy to get stuck – you make a mistake, you freak out about it, your brain freezes up…and now it feels like you can’t do anything. Least of all risk making another mistake that might make your brain freeze even more.

So I’m forever grateful to my old singing teacher who taught me the 5 stages of learning :

Stage 1: you’re making a mistake and you don’t know what you’re doing wrong

Stage 2: you’re making the mistake, but now you understand why

Stage 3: you get it right sometimes, and every time you don’t it’s a step on the way to…

Stage 4: you get it right consistently so long as you concentrate

Stage 5: you’ve practiced enough that you get it right without having to think about it

This is how I teach students how vital making mistakes actually is. It helps them relax – and, therefore, to think and to learn. Plus, the handy number 5 also means they can use their own body get comfortable with the idea, helping them to internalise that it's ok