Many creative pursuits are compound skills, and individual skill elements must work together effectively. Many types of practice advice describe isolating one skill element to improve it, but if overdone that leads to a bad outcome, where that skill dominates and overall performance is blocked.

As a guitar player who is modestly ok at basic jazz, all the pattern-based rock stuff I spent years on is now an impediment. I have to unlearn it and approach the instrument like a beginner, but with a different intention.

So in some ways I’m reversing out of a cul de sac.