Learning a Musical Instrument by Richard Crozier

Author:Richard Crozier
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780719820557
Publisher: Crowood

PRACTICAL TIPS FOR MAKING GOOD PROGRESS

If you have made a start with some lessons on your chosen instrument and you are finding it reasonably easy to play the notes that you need for your first pieces, it is time to explore some ideas to help you maintain that good progress. At this stage, learning may sometimes feel like two steps forwards and one step backwards, but that is to be expected because you are multi-tasking, and attempting to master a number of new skills all at the same time. Progress will, on occasion, be slower than you may wish it to be, but nevertheless it is progress.

Practising

Most adults look forward to practising because they are doing what they really want to do. They know that practice really is the key to success, and the idea of ‘me time’ that actually produces a beneficial and positive result is appealing, especially after a hard day at work. Practising can relieve tension that builds up so easily during the working day, it can occupy time if you’re bored, and can easily produce a measurable result. Effective teachers will often invite students to play something they learned six weeks or six months ago to remind them of the progress that’s been made, and you can always record yourself playing to monitor your own progress.

In his fascinating book Not Pulling Strings (Lambent Books, 1987), Joseph O’Connor writes about how he explored practice with his students, and he sums up their collective definition of practice as follows: ‘It was repetitive, it isolated and concentrated on the difficult sections, it aimed at improvement and wasn’t much fun.’ Clearly, adult learners understand this, but there is no reason at all why any of us should feel like this about self-improvement – which is what practising is all about.

Finding the right time of day to practise can be tricky. It may be possible, if your chosen instrument is a portable one, to take it to work with you and to find a quiet place where you can do some playing at lunchtime. If your journey to work isn’t too arduous, you may find time for some practice before setting off in the morning, and evenings and weekends should enable more valuable time to be put in. As with any form of learning, little and often is usually best, and for some instruments you may need to develop physical stamina, which a lack of, at the outset, will prevent you from playing for more than a few minutes.

The gaps between practising give your brain and muscle memory time to assimilate and consolidate what you are learning, making that time in between practices all the more important. This aspect of learning away from the instrument mirrors what has been developed in sports training. The old adage ‘practice makes perfect’ very easily becomes ‘practice makes permanent’, and if we do make something permanent we need to be sure it’s absolutely right. This is where the weekly lesson with your teacher beats online

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