Failure...a part of the art of Play

My father often says, "you learn more from your failures, than your successes".  I have tried to impart that same knowledge to my students each day.  Being that we are a performance arts class, our goal is perfection.  For example, students in most classes are happy with an "A".  Well, an "A" is scored, on the low end, at 93%.  That does not work well in music.  That means 7% of the time we are playing wrong rhythms, pitches, dynamics, articulation, etc.  This is not very appealing to listen to.  My students understand that we strive for perfection, which is unattainable, but to continue to improve and striving for being better than the last time is the key.  Our mistakes actually teach us.  I want to continue to offer my students opportunities to fail, and grow from the experience.  We will continue to miss notes and play rhythms wrong, and when we get those right...we will find some more challenging rhythms and notes to play incorrectly.  Through the experiences in my class, I will continue to teach my students that it truly is about the journey...not the destination. I created a poster for my wall and as a class we state what it says...in the words of the great John Wooden, "Failure is NOT Fatal...but Failure to change could be".