MUSIC: A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO LEARNING A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT IN 2020

Whether you are a complete beginner or you are among the folks who have missed playing their musical instrument for a long time but is ready to pick it up, dust it, and get back to the grove after a lifetime 9-5 daily routine, the internet has provided possibilities for you to start learning or pick up from you left off.

Despite its vast resource on the topic, the internet can sometimes be misleading such that a rookie or beginner could get everything on learning a musical instrument mixed up. I am not saying the internet is a bad approach for beginners who want to learn a musical instrument, what I am saying is it becomes a bit difficult to get a good start or navigate especially without a coach or guide.

Let’s try out an experiment.

As a beginner or someone who is interested in learning a musical instrument, ask yourself this, where do you intend to start from? What is the first step to take?

Now you get what I am driving at!

There are lots of good materials on the internet but without a good guide, you might learn for years without getting hold of a good amount of knowledge to make you a pro.

So, in today’s topic, we will together be walking through a musical journey to help set you up for learning a musical instrument.

READ ALSO: How To Learn a Musical Instrument

What you stand to get from this article:

• 1      A brief history of my musical journey

• 2       Why you should learn a musical instrument

• 3       What is the easiest instrument to learn to play?

• 4       Which instrument you should learn first

• 5       Best Musical instrument to Learn

Without further ado, let us get started! (smiley)

What is music?

It is explained as thus, vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. It can be enjoyed, danced, and listened to.

·         A BRIEF HISTORY OF MY MUSICAL JOURNEY

It all started with a gift from my dad. One day he came back from work and handed me a mini keyboard that made use of batteries at the time. I was so excited that I quickly turned it on and played around with it but after spending hours with it couldn’t make sense of it. That’s when I became interested in learning the piano because I wanted to play like my pianist in church and those, I see on tv.

Fastrack to some years later, I became proficient with the piano but now I was so much in love with music that unending passion for it gave me a large appetite to learn more. Yes, I picked a handful of musical instruments along the way like the recorder, trumpet, drum, violin, and bass guitar till I finally found one I really had a passion for “the Guitar- acoustic guitar and electric guitar” yes!

Guess what, it’s the best thing that happened to my music career, and to date I still rock on with my guitar and I have seen its benefits over others some of which I will be sharing as you read on.

An interesting brief story about my journey, right? Now let’s get your facts!

READ ALSO: JAZZ INTERVALS

·         WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT:

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Yes! Why should I learn a musical instrument? I have work, family, education, and my bills to sort out!

I know right, many constraints or reasons might serve as pointers to why you shouldn’t as you have clearly stated above but the benefits of learning a musical instrument cannot be overemphasized. I will quickly and aptly walk you through four (4) beneficial reasons:

• 1.       Healthwise, music increases blood flow in your brain thereby, reducing stress and depression. Trust me if you are going through a tough time, try picking up a musical instrument to learn and watch its therapeutic capabilities play out and thank me later. Yes! I mean that.

• 2.       Musicians can process multiple things at once thus, their multi-tasking abilities. Perhaps you find it difficult to multi-task at your workplace, I recommend you learn a musical instrument.

• 3.       Research has shown that in children and adults, those who had music training are generally smarter than their counterparts. Kids who play musical instruments perform better in their academics.

Sono Music in one of their articles pointed out a research paper titled “music training causes long-term enhancement of pre-school children’s spatial-temporal reasoning”. It was reported that “music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically boosting the reasoning for children in mathematics and science”.

• 4.       It creates a happy atmosphere: learning a musical instrument creates fun for you and others around you. It gives you an escape from the continuous repetition of our day-to-day life.

Now that you are aware of the reasons why you should learn a musical instrument, the question of what is the easiest instrument to learn sets in. Don’t worry, that’s what I will be talking about in the next post.

·         WHAT IS THE EASIEST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT TO LEARN TO PLAY?

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At this point, I must say that it depends on your personal interest and personality as well as what your set goal is.

If you have absolutely no idea whatsoever, I will suggest the acoustic guitar. There are arguments on which musical instruments are easy to learn. for example, between the acoustic guitar and the ukulele which is easier to learn?

A notion takes it from the angle of cost. They believe that the ukulele is less expensive to purchase and super fun to play. With just 4 nylon strings one can quickly pick up some simple songs and play within weeks of getting it.

Another narrative is that the guitar provides you with more options and does not limit your playing or style of playing. Most guitar players can play the ukulele whereas only a few ukulele players can efficiently play the guitar.

Some people also believe that the piano is much easier to learn than any musical instrument especially for a beginner, learning the key of C is like having the world in your hands but looking at it from the cost-angle, it is more expensive and its mobility can be somewhat uneasy.

For the purpose of our online classes and freebies coming up soon, I will suggest you get a guitar but if you can afford or already have a different instrument no worries we will also be of help.

·         WHICH MUSICAL INSTRUMENT SHOULD I LEARN FIRST?

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This depends on the genre of music you like and the reason why you want to learn it.

All musical instruments are amazing and each in their own different way gives color to the general music.

According to a post on Quora Digest, a suggestion was made that for a strong foundation, the piano would be the best option, and the reason is that the piano is among the only instruments in which you have to interface and work with both bass clef and treble clef simultaneously. This will strengthen your music reading abilities if you want to move on to other musical instruments.

Here in Nigeria, and across the world, I can categorically say that the piano is the most common instrument you find in churches, so it is easily accessible for church folks who are interested in learning.

But if you love jazz, rock, or heavy metal, you should go for the guitar. The guitar has a variety of advantages some of which I will state here from music radar.

• ·         Guitar playing is beneficial to your overall well-being and mental health in other ways such as helping you develop a greater sense of personal achievement.

• ·         Playing the guitar benefits you because it represents a form of therapy. In schools, charities, and health organizations, guitar playing is used to manage a person’s stress as explained by a friend of mine in the United States Reward Eleazar. it enhances one’s memory and helps you feel comfortable and able to cope with life.

• ·         This has been proven by a study carried out by the” mind-body wellness center and Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Applied Bio-systems”

• ·         Guitar playing builds and increases your creativity. If you need to get creative for other ideas relating to life, such as creating and presenting ideas for your team writing, or playing around your guitar, a few times will create space in your brain for an inspired idea to spring up.

Now let us wrap it up on today's article with the final point!

·         THE BEST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT TO LEARN

There is an infinite class of musical instruments that you can learn to play online, however, some are easily approachable for self-tutoring. Some of the best instruments to get started with include the bass guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, drums, violin, ukulele, and saxophone.

As you know by now for me the acoustic guitar works well but stay tuned as I will be teaching, writing articles, and videos, and relevant materials are necessary to help you kick start your journey in learning the guitar, bass, and piano.

CONCLUSION

Learning a musical instrument is more like learning a language. I say this because it takes time, persistence, endurance, and continuous steady practice. So, when you see performers, rock stars, and pros like Eric Clapton, Slash, Carlos Santana, George Benson, David Ubani, Guitar Prince, and Agefingerz (Yes! That’s me), and you are like OMG! I need to get gears and start playing like these guys, you should note that in getting to that level there is a lot of practice and arrangement behind each of their performances.

 Not to worry yourself, I’ll be walking you through tips on how-to steps for learning a musical instrument so stay tuned and expect my next article.

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Why not share your music experience or tips to learn a musical instrument with us!

Hoping to hear from you!