“Hello?”
“Its dark in here…”
“I was made to create sounds…”
Hasn’t that oboe been sitting in a closet for a year now?
Don’t let it become another failed investment. Learn how to play an instrument at an accelerated pace with these 5 simple tricks!
Familiarize Your Instrument
Get used to your instrument. Learn about all it can do.
Experiment with it. Discover a wide variety of sounds by playing whatever comes to your mind, and see how you could go further. Play combinations of sounds. Change your fingering and play different sounds.
Playing an instrument is an intuitive task. Experimenting can help you understand how the instrument works and speed up your initial progress.
Set Goals
Do you wish to simply stimulate your ears for leisure? Get better at sight reading and play at concerts? Play songs by ear without caring about the notes?
Setting goals can help you track your progress and serve as a motivator to continue forward. A combination of long term and short term goals such as mastering a specific song and learning new chords can help you stay motivated and progress faster.
Optimize Your Interest
“Optimize your interest.” You may be wondering what I mean by this.
What do you like to do on the instrument? Similar to setting goals, optimizing your interest helps you stay focused on your goal. Figure out what interests you most while playing an instrument. Do you like to sight read? Or maybe you are interested in converting vocal melodies of songs into a playable piece. What about playing random notes from different scales and piecing together what sounds good?
There must be some factor that led to your growing interest in the instrument. Optimizing your interest simply means to make the most of your interest. Build skills that you are interested in to stay motivated to practice.
Consistency
Practicing once a week for a short amount of time cannot guarantee the quick results you are looking for. Playing an instrument takes effort and time. Rushing practice sessions does not guarantee quicker results. Neither does practicing once a week but for a longer period of time.
Playing every day for 30 minutes to an hour can be enough time to grow efficiently. The first 15 minutes of practice should be allotted to refining older skills and the next 15 minutes of practice to learn new skills. This method ensures that old skills aren’t forgotten while you continue to gain new skills.
Record Yourself
Suppose you’re walking on the street and you hear someone singing along to a song playing in their headphones. They sing with confidence; however, you believe it sounds terrible. The worst part is that they can’t hear their own singing, so they don’t know that.
This applies to instruments too. Although you are actively listening while playing the instrument at hand, your full attention isn’t on how it sounds. Recording yourself can help you notice mistakes and gain feedback.
Conclusion
Playing an instrument can be a rewarding experience. These 5 simple tricks can help you grow your skillset quickly and maintain your interest.
