Building compound skills through études, studies, and prototypes
The process of learning something new follows a predictable path from acquiring individual skills, to combining them into more powerful compound skills, to then applying them to novel situations. In this post, I explore techniques for building compound skills, drawn from music (étude), art (study), and design (prototype).
First, some definitions.
What is an étude?
Loved and loathed by student musicians around the world, an étude is a “short musical composition, typically for one instrument, designed as an exercise to improve the technique or demonstrate the skill of the player” (Oxford Languages).
For years, my flute lessons followed a similar pattern. After warming up with some scales or other exercise, I would turn to the étude I’d been assigned that week by my instructor. They were a gate I had to pass through to be allowed to move on to the performance pieces I was working on. Now, I appreciate those étude’s value and admire the craft which went into composing them. But then, they were agony.
They sounded almost like a piece I could perform for an audience, but not quite. Each étude could take up to several minutes to play through, and could be wickedly difficult. See, each one focused on a particular skill or set of skills set within a context similar to what I would encounter in “actual” music I would perform. For example, one could focus on big jumps between high and low notes, which require flexibility and strength to make them sound even and effortless. But instead of playing through one of these big jumps once or twice and moving on with the melody, the entire étude was made up of big jumps one after another. It was exhausting!
Then came the study
Some time after I had concluded my formal music studies, I took up painting as a new passion hobby. My first love was watercolors, but I have since added acrylics to my repertoire. Much like with music, I discovered a whole world of practice that goes into making a finished painting. In my early courses, I learned fundamentals like mixing color values or using shading to make a form pop off the page.
Also like music, the process to creating a polished work of art is iterative and cumulative. Before getting a canvas primed and my brushes all lined up is a quiet but critical little moment of making a “study.” A study is a quick sketch, sometimes on a smaller board, to try out composition and explore color combinations before working on the masterpiece. Master artists may complete many little studies before working on the main canvas, and it is this process that sharpens their thinking and seeing.
Not quite a master yet, I don’t always have the patience to make more than one study before diving in to the full project. Sure, I see the value in it, but impatience robs me of the benefits of spending more time with studies. Then again, I don’t claim any of my finished paintings are masterpieces.
Enter the prototype
Designing a service, website, or physical object that meets the needs intended requires time spent prototyping. You could go straight to designing the final thing, but correcting mistakes or reimagining the final product becomes terribly expensive. So designers reduce risk and cost by creating a prototype—an early representation of the concept or idea.
This prototype can be as simple as a sketch on paper. But with even rough shapes on paper, people can engage with it and uncover assumptions. You can make a ton of them in a very short amount of time and with little expense. Prototypes grow in detail and fidelity as you apply learnings, thereby making the final result much more likely to succeed.
What do they have to do with each other?
The steps to becoming proficient in any new skill follow the same path: learn the single skills, combine them into compound skills, then apply them to new contexts. It occurred to me that the étude, study, and prototype fill the same function for learning—by developing compound skills removed from the final context. More than that, they can be plotted on a spectrum according to their best use (separate from the discipline they originated from).
The étude is the most broad in application. It is developing a skill or set of skills in combination, usually with a high degree of repetition. This repetition and slight variation builds flexibility, so I’m ready to go when I run into it on a musical score. The étude isn’t concerned with a particular style or composition; it’s solely focused on developing maturity and fluency with a skill.
The study is often prompted by the desire to create a particular painting or drawing. But it doesn’t have to be. A study can be exploratory, such as trying to capture the light as it is coming through my window right now, before the clouds move in. I may or may not have a work in mind, but the act of capturing this moment in a quick and rough way sharpens my ability to see and then express through paint. When I do have a particular work in mind, I can then take the time up front to sketch the proportions, explore paint mixes and light angles. Each of these are individual skills brought into small combinations, still outside the context of the final painting. I’ll need to bring them all together unconsciously when I start working on the painting, so I can focus on bringing the subject matter to life.
The prototype is the most specific. Apart from tinkerers, a prototype is made in response to a design requirement. I make a prototype when I’m considering different options for bringing a concept to life. Most of my prototypes are sketches and diagrams, which allow me to think through the challenge from a variety of angles. I use them to engage in conversation with stakeholders, gathering responses and surfacing assumptions. The entire goal of each prototype is learning. Of course, I want to get as close as possible, but the stakes are lower than after launch—I can afford to get it wrong, learn, and make another one.
Looking for studies to build compound skills
Maybe I’m the only one who loves thinking about the nuance and function of études, studies, and prototypes, but I believe there are lessons to apply to learning anything. When learning a new topic or skill, the process is the same:
Break out the component parts (single skills). Get comfortable with them.
Combine the individual elements into chunks or groupings (compound skills). Mix and match the elements in as many combinations as you can think of. Keep doing this, gradually making larger chunks until things start to feel natural.
Apply to new contexts. This is the true test of having conquered a new skill—when you can successfully apply the skill in a new setting or with new starting information.
Looking for little “study” opportunities will help bridge the gap between being all thumbs and performing with a flourish. When I was learning illustration and digital design software, I would attempt to replicate logos and posters that caught my eye. These were my “studies” to understand how visuals were composed and become adept creating them myself.
As I build my business, I often sketch out processes or create Airtable bases to try out new ways of managing client engagements. These “studies” sometimes work, but often don’t. So then I try again, combining things I liked in new ways until I get to something that works well enough. Working on them outside the pressures of a client engagement gives me freedom to explore, get things wrong with zero stakes, and improve until I’m ready to apply them for real.
This blog is a “study” where I can practice the mechanics of writing and creating imagery to convey my thoughts. It’s a place to hone those skills, gradually moving to the point where I can focus solely on expressing concepts and ideas.
So if you couldn’t tell by now, I’m a big fan of the study. I hope you’re convinced to give them a try yourself!