Does Playing One Instrument Help You Learn Another?
1. Who Has the Time!? 🕰️
Throughout my many years learning, recording and performing music, there have been many occasions where I have been required to play various instruments other than the piano.
I have played the saxophone in concert bands, the guitar in jazz bands and various other bands, the violin, viola and cello in orchestras and string quartets, the mandolin and ukulele in folk recordings and I’ve also played the drums and bass guitar in rock bands.
It is because of this that I have been asked on many occasions, something like; “how do you have time to learn so many instruments?”
The answer is simple! I don’t!
The better question is; “does playing one instrument help you learn another?”
The answer to this question is much more complicated, but essentially YES!
However, there are several factors that determine how well you will be able to apply your knowledge of one instrument to other instruments.
2. Understanding Music vs Playing an Instrument 🎻
Learning music itself is no different no matter what instrument you play. The notes are the same and the way in which music is constructed doesn’t change. However, many students fall into the trap of spending most of their time learning how to physically play an instrument rather than learning music itself and applying it to the instrument.
An example of this would be a guitarist interested in learning some chords to play their favourite song. There are many guitarists that would do this by first learning to play a C chord (for example) by reading the chord chart for a song and remembering the shape of the chord to play on the guitar. This is a very common way of learning the guitar for passive players and they will end up with lots of shapes on the guitar that they can play and therefore they will be able to use those chords to play lots of basic versions of songs! However, this method is learning to physically play the guitar rather than learning music itself and as such it is very difficult to apply this learning to other instruments. The shape of a C chord on the guitar is not the same way that you would play the chord on any other instrument.
However, in this example if you were to take the approach of learning music instead, you would learn that a C chord contains the notes C, E and G and that each fret on the guitar is a half step (semitone). This way you would have the ability to not only find a C chord on the guitar (in many different places), but you would also have the ability to find a C chord on a piano, harp, ukulele, xylophone etc. (providing you know where the notes are on the new instrument).
The piano is one of the most visual instruments to learn. It’s much easier to learn how music is constructed and to see how the notes relate to each other by simply looking at the keys. This isn’t necessarily the case for many other instruments. This is why many musicians that can play the piano are also able to play other instruments to varying levels. It is also why there is a much higher percentage of other types of instrumentalists that don’t fully understand the theory behind what they are playing. A flautist (for example), can get away with not knowing how the notes they play relate to notes played by the orchestra surrounding them.
Ultimately, if you understand the theory behind what you are playing on your instrument then you can apply this same theory to any other instrument.
3. Multi-instrumentalist Prioritisation 🎺
Sounds simple right? Just learn the music theory behind what you are playing and you can play all instruments? Well…yes! But actually learning to physically play other instruments, read music using that instrument and learning to make it sound good then becomes the challenge.
Interestingly a lot of these skills are also somewhat transferable. If you read using the treble clef and bass clef while learning the piano, you will be able to read the notes in the bass clef to play the bass guitar or the treble clef to play the saxophone. You will also be able to read all of the rhythms and you will have built some natural musicality from your primary instrument.
Having said that, once you have worked out how to play the notes on a new instrument, you still won’t be able to physically play the new instrument without developing the technique to play it well. This is why it’s important to know that most multi-instrumentalists specialise in their primary instrument and then can play a “passable” amount on many other instruments for whatever they need it for.
If I were asked to play the piccolo in an orchestra next week, I would spend several hours that week practicing things like the mouth placement, how to shift octaves and where all of the notes are on the instrument. Then I would practice the specific pieces of music - a lot! By the end of the week, I would likely be able to do a passable job at playing, much more so than a non-musician. However, those that have dedicated all of their music learning to the piccolo would be much better, more natural and would learn the music much quicker.
Ultimately, if you take the time to learn the technique for one instrument very well and takes the time to learn how music is made, then if you decide to pick up another instrument you will have the ability to play it in no time at all!
Matthew Cawood
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