The Learning Curve

What follows is a thinly veiled excuse for posting yet another wav file of myself playing the banjo. This time it's a tune called "Whiskey Before Breakfast."

I've been playing for about three and a half months and have made a lot of progress. In fact, I think I've climbed the steepest part of the famous "learning curve."

Now I'm guessing you've heard of this learning curve ... but I'm also guessing that many of you don't have a good sense of what it is. If you're in Psych 42 or 144 I can explain it using language from class.

The learning curve is the generic statistical relationship between the amount of time one spends studying information or practicing a skill (X, the independent variable) and one's knowledge or skill level (Y, the dependent variable). It's called a "curve" because it's a nonlinear relationship, with skill level increasing quickly at first but then slowing down and eventually leveling off.

For example, in my first week of banjo playing, I went from barely being able to strum a chord in good form to playing simple songs--a huge improvement. In my second week, I went from being able to play simple songs to being able to play somewhat more complex songs. I was on the "steep part" of the curve. But then it probably took two more months to make any really noticeable improvement. I was moving toward the "flat part" of the curve.

So the bad news is that my rate of improvement is slowing down quite dramatically. The good news, though, is that I'll probably continue to improve--even if the increments are very small--until either my hands or my brain start to give out. I don't worry about my eyes. I can play with them closed already.