How to learn a musical instrument in 2020

How to learn a musical instrument in 2020
Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas from Pexels

Listening to beautiful music piece by great musicians like Yani, George Benson, Steve Vai to mention a few, you might want to give up looking at their technicalities especially when you try to play like them or hit that pitch the instant you hear them play without giving thought to the time and practice they invest in before producing such great music that you love.
But learning a new musical instrument can be a fun experience, and really great for anyone who loves to learn.
Highlights of this article:
In today’s article, I will be giving you vital tips to guide you in learning your desired instrument. These tips will be categorized under 2 sub-topics:
  • 1.       How do I start learning a musical instrument in 2020?
  • 2.       What is the fastest way to learn an instrument in 2020?
At the end of this article, you would be able to start learning any musical instrument of your choice and be capable of learning fast. Let us get into it!
Here are some amazing tips to help you start your learning. Trust me, I have been through these steps and I can say for a fact that following through succinctly will yield topnotch results.
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  • ·         Start slow with precision: this first step applies to every musician. Trying to make music from a musical instrument you have never played before can be frustrating especially when you have wasted time combining horrible notes only to finally get what we call noise. Yes, you heard me right! Let me tell you a story, I presently have a rookie that I tutor on the guitar, his name is Sam. Coming to learn for the first time, I let him play around his guitar to see what he can come up with but to his surprise, he couldn’t make out something meaningful from his guitar. I’ll explain why it happened that way shortly. This happened because he was applying a bad and complex approach. What do I mean by a bad approach? Sam was forcing his ideas out thus, pushing himself to play beyond his level as a rookie. This actually happens to some of the musicians around you including the greatest musicians that you know.

READ ALSO: A Beiginners Guide

The consequences of using such an approach are that you might develop a bad habit which would lead to self-performance injuries that in the future will limit your level of development.
My advice is simply for you to start slow and with precision as a beginner. Learn to take each practice one step after the other. At this point getting a metronome or the app on your phone would be of help, this way you will moderately start at a good pace with an appropriate bit rate (bpm). This tip will result in effective playing and learning.
  • ·         While following through the above tip, the next thing to do will be to get some good resources such as books or video tutorials on musical theory. In one of my upcoming articles, I will be having a guest to share more on music theory, and I know you wouldn’t want to miss that so stay tuned by hitting the subscribe button for updates or follow us on our social media platforms. For now, I would recommend you check out Sonic bids for more on musical theories. Learning music theory will expand your knowledge by giving you more insight into music and thus help hasten your learning.
  • ·         Join a music band: it has been proven that playing with others is a major way for you to get better at your instrument with increasing speed. A band will help you build your confidence and help you explore your instrument in real-time. Also, if you are much of the quiet type, getting a backing track can help you in the place of a band.
  • ·         Get more resources: books, videos, and articles such as this. Note that these cannot replace the need for you to get a personal tutor so you don’t just go about clicking and downloading almost anything you see over the internet as I stated in my earlier post “A beginner's guide to learning a musical instrument in 2020”.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
Following through the above subtopic to better prepare you for learning the musical instrument of your choice, I will be introducing you to tips that will help you maximize and enable you to optimize learning. Note that you can apply all of the steps in learning as much musical instruments including midi’s, synthesizers, and DAW plugins for music production.

However, taking the above information into consideration here are some useful tips you can apply to help you learn fast and with ease.
In my previous post, I explained that your instrument of choice depends on your personality or genre of music that interests you. If you missed that article, don’t panic you can read the full article here: “A beginner guide to learning a musical instrument in 2020”. Below are tips to help you learn fast.
·         5 Tips to learning a musical instrument fast

  • 1.       In selecting your instrument, make a wise choice to choose an instrument you think you are connected to. This way it will help you learn fast. For instance, let’s say you have two car options to select from with which you will learn to drive and take as a prize at the end. The options are a Range Rover sports, and a Toyota. Already, I know you would choose the range rover. This will be because you believe it is suitable and it fits your personality.
Okay, that’s enough, let us return to music! If you love the guitar, go for it! If you like to be like Kenny G, get sax and love it!
  • 2.       Set goals and follow through till the end. Let’s say you picked the bass guitar but noticed all your friends picked the piano. It could be discouraging seeing that you’re different but YES! That’s beautiful because in music no one is alone. It means you are special.
I remember back I college where I had an amazing set of classmates who were very skilled on the drum set. It created competition whenever it became time for us to play but we had other musical instruments that no one was interested in or playing as at the time.
I took the opportunity to learn the piano which later made me popular and highly sorted for. My point here is this, don’t let others be a distraction to your learning, stick to your goals!
Photo credit: pixabay

  • 3.       Get a specific time and be able to balance the the time you spend practicing and playing with others.
  • 4.       Study about the professionals or your role models playing the instrument and their genre of music. Examples might include: John Legend, Alicia keys, Steve Vai, David Ubani, Guitar Prince (Jokotoye Aanu) just to mention a few.
  • 5.       Lastly, have fun with your instrument because music itself is fun. You checkout Icon Collective for more explanations.
In conclusion, make sure you follow the tips given above and watch yourself grow and learn your instrument with ease, and enjoy the benefits of musicianship.
Feel free to contact me for clarification on a tip you are not clear with or for more suggestions.
What method did you employ in learning your instrument?
I will like to hear from you.
Don’t forget to comment, share, follow us and subscribe to get more updates on more fun musical tips coming up.

4 comments:

  1. I love this post.

    More often than not, there is a disconnect between what we have in our head and what comes out of our musical instruments when we play. This can be disheartening a lot of times.
    We can only bridge this gap through constant practice and taking one step at a time.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for reading and sharing. True, constant practice is key for effective and efficient attainment of musicianship.

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  2. Your blog provided us with valuable information to work with. Each & every tips of your post are awesome. Thanks a lot for sharing. Keep blogging, dj akademiks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you reading and finding it informative and useful.
      Don't forget to subscribe for our newsletters so as to get notified on our new tips.
      We can as well help put up something on the avalanche.

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