6 Things I Wish I’d Known When Learning Music
1. It’s Not A Competition 🏈
Since the invention of piano competitions and the marking system used for graded exams, there have been many attempts at quantifying what “success” looks like for learning an instrument. This has some merits, it enables us to see how we are doing and feel a sense of constant progression and this can be motivating.
However, a negative consequence of this is the constant comparison to others that you might end up feeling. Ultimately, music isn’t a quantifiable endeavour and everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Music requires a vast array of skills and what is your strength may be someone else’s weakness.
Everyone that is learning an instrument is also doing it for very different reasons and they want to get different things from it. The person that is 4 years old and being forced to practice 6 hours per day by their parents, is going to be doing very different things to the 85 year old that is doing it to keep there brain and fingers active!
It’s also completely fine to not want to become the best thats ever lived at the instrument and each person has a different level of commitment to learning. This makes it very difficult to compare your own music learning journey with anyone else’s. So, it's important to remember that learning is not a competition and you don’t need to prove anything to anyone (including exam boards).
2. There’s No Replacement For Doing 🎹
It’s incredibly easy to fall into the trap of believing that understanding a concept means that you should have the ability to put that concept into practice. Unfortunately, this is not the case and it can be even more frustrating in music learning because many of the concepts that we study are easily understood. However, being able to use and play these concepts on an instrument, requires you to train them into your hands and allow your brain to make the connection lots of times before it becomes something that you are able to do without thought.
This is actually the same with all motor skills (skills that require physical movement). Although we all know that chopsticks are used to get food from a bowl to our face, and we all like to believe that we are going to pick them up and expertly navigate the chasm between the bowl and our mouth…for many of us the first few attempts will often lead to a stray noodle on the table.
I realise many will be able to use chopsticks very well, although the point remains, we can understand exactly what we are supposed to do, but often physically doing that thing requires practice and so…there’s no replacement for doing the repetitive physical practice.
3. Lean Into The Things That You Can’t Do 😓
For many years I avoided spending any real time dedicated to improving my reading ability. The reason for this was because I had become very good with my ears…so I always relied upon that.
However, later on it became a great hinderance in a lot of situations where music reading was needed. If I tried to accompany anyone, I couldn’t and the speed at which I could learn pieces was greatly slowed down by my weak reading. The reason that I never dedicated any time to it, is because it felt difficult and I knew I could learn something much faster using the method I was strongest at…but this can become limiting very quickly!
That feeling of struggling is an opportunity and it shows you exactly what you should be working on. It would have taken me far less time to become proficient on the piano if I had not spent so many years avoiding my problems and instead used them as a sign that I should spend some more time practicing them!
4. Understanding Music Unlocks Choice 🔓
Many people that are learning an instrument seemingly have an allergic reaction when the term “music theory” is mentioned. This has never made too much sense to me because attempting to learn anything in music requires some level of music theory! It is simply the act of labelling and categorising the things that we are learning so that in future we can recognise them or recreate them.
This means that learning to understand music and understanding how music is constructed allows you more freedom with your instrument because you know what will sound good, what will sound like it clashes, what types of sounds you like and what chords and patterns work well together.
Learning to understand music also makes music much more comprehensible. If you are listening to a song, you can recreate it. If you are trying to interpret a piece of music, you will be able to interpret what has been written more effectively. If you want to create your own interpretation of a piece of music, you understand how to create a desired sound.
Learning to understand music enables you to connect on a much deeper level with the music because you can find the deeper meaning behind the choices being made.
5. It’s Not A Linear Process 📈
As with any new skill, there are a lot of factors that go into learning on a day-to-day basis. Some days you might be more tired than others, you may have had too much coffee before practicing or you may just be having an off day. In any case it’s perfectly normal to spend a practice session working on something, only to return to it the next day and have to relearn some of it again.
As previously mentioned, it’s also important to remember that there is a difference between understanding a concept and training it into your hands. Many musicians find that they can easily understand what they are supposed to do, but actually doing it is much harder. This is all just a part of the process and some days will feel easier than others. As long as you are frequently learning new things and practicing regularly, over time you will definitely be improving! It’s often better to compare your playing to where it was a year ago, rather than where it was a day ago!
6. There’s No Such Thing As Good Or Bad 👍👎
It goes without saying that music is an entirely subjective endeavour and so there is no right or wrong way of playing music. However, there is a “what you intend” and “what you don’t intend”. This means that if you are trying to learn a particular skill or you are attempting a particular section of a piece, you can improve your ability to execute what you were intending to achieve.
However, if you are the type of player that wants to mess around on the piano and play your own types of music in your own way…then that is perfectly fine too and it is no better or worse! There are many gatekeepers in music (exam boards, teachers, other players) that will give you both wanted and unwanted feedback, however, if what you are playing is what you intended to play…then you keep doing what you’re doing!
Ultimately music learning is all about having fun, challenging yourself and improving each day and each of these elements means something entirely different for every musician. So however you want to learn and whatever you want to get out of learning is perfectly valid!
Matthew Cawood
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