Making Music — Or how I learned to stop procrastinating and make loud noises
Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
-Plato
People find inspiration in music. It defines social groups. It changes moods. You probably forgot all the chemistry you learned in high school but can still sing along to your favorite songs from your teenage years. Even Plato, in his “Republic” speaks to the importance of music in education. I won’t go into the details of the cognitive benefits of music (it’s well documented), but since learning to play an instrument (albeit poorly), I’m less stressed out and my mind is sharper.
I hear a lot of people whimsically mention that they wished they had learned to play an instrument. This statement always seems accompanied by a sense that age and adult responsibilities make this impossible. It’s a camp I once found myself in.
Musical education was a subject I avoided completely, and despite loving music, I was never interested in music theory or its creation. After twenty-five years I realized that I had spent massive quantities of time and effort learning technical skills. In college I had drowned myself in a sea of computer code and mathematical symbols. Soon after college flight training took all my energy and attention while I tried not to die. I had few creative pursuits. Reflecting on the idea of a well-developed person, I realized my education as a human being was lacking and that I had to remedy this. So with a little thought and research I decided to change my life and learn to play the accordion.
Believing it’s too late to learn is for those who accept a never ending gray curtain as a metaphor for their life. But it’s important to realize the ways your musical journey will differ from that of a child who is hesitantly picking up their first practice instrument. I’ll be discussing tools and techniques I have discovered along the way, either through my own twisting journey, or via other sources.
The biggest obstacles in your path to musical prowess are going to be time and embarrassment. Children look dumb in front of people all the time. They are constantly in an environment where the people around them are more capable and competent. They are always being taught, criticized and instructed. Adults get out of that environment and become comfortable in whatever niche circumstance has placed them. You’re going to have to get over that and the best way is to get an instructor who will guide you and provide useful criticism. Even with self-discipline you’re going to want someone who will nudge you along the right path and prevent you from developing bad habits and perpetuating mistakes and misunderstandings.
I practiced for two years before I got an instructor. I bought an accordion (more or less blindly and overpaid) and a few intro books and dove in. And I crashed into the bottom of the pool. With no foundation to build on I was constantly overwhelmed with information and had no reference to how things should be done (or sound). Once I got an instructor I saw a huge amount of progress during the course of my first lesson. After that lesson I realized there were two years of wasted effort behind me (as far as music goes, I was doing other stuff too). I could be two years ahead of where I am right now, if I had gotten an instructor immediately. I can’t stress this enough. It you’re starting from zero, get an instructor. It may be embarrassing at first, but that’s the learning process. Depending on your budget and what instrument you’re learning, weekly lessons may not be feasible. But especially when you’re starting it’s worth getting 3 or 4 lessons on a weekly basis; then maybe one a month or however much your budget allows. It will prevent a lot of grief down the road.
Time management. This is a common excuse I hear and I hate it. I hate it. You get one life. One chance to develop yourself and become the person you want to be. If you want to learn to play an instrument you can, and should, make time for it. With only 20–30 minutes a day of deliberate practice you can make a lot of progress.
Practice deliberately. Read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”. In addition to being an interesting and well written piece of non-fiction it presents several ideas that are relevant here. First, you get better at something by practicing it, a lot. Second, your practice cannot consist of mindless repetition. Playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for ten-thousand hours will not make you an amazing musician. You need to develop a cycle where you practice material outside your comfort zone, receive feedback once you’ve mastered it, then incorporate that feedback into your practice before moving on to harder material.
You need to make goals & you need to practice every day. My goal is to practice 10 hours a month. Sometimes I get more, often I get less. But I make an effort to do something on my instrument every day. Even if it’s only 5–10 minutes. Music is a physical activity as much as a mental one and your body needs to make the motions repeatedly and often to build muscle memory.
Track your practice. Maybe you have to take a day off because of work commitments. Then the next day you can’t practice because it’s a holiday and you want to spend time with your family. Three days later you’re not sure if you’ve taken 3 days or 5 days off from practice. It’s all fuzzy in your mind. Did you practice 30 minutes last Tuesday, or for an hour? There are many advantages to be gained from tracking your practice sessions.
Tracking allows you to meet the goals of consistency because you can avoid taking too many days off or practicing too little. Additionally, it makes it obvious if you’re making progress towards your goals. Tracking also aids making your practice deliberate. You’re human, and life is busy. You may not realize you’re taking the easy road and repeating your favorite song for the five-hundredth time. Until you look at your tracker and notice each entry is the same. I use an Excel spreadsheet, but there are also several apps (like music journal, etc.) that can make tracking your music practice simple.
Learn to read music. It seems a lot of people are intimidated by the prospect of having to learn to read music. Of all the progress I have made over the last few years, learning to read music seems to surprise people the most. Like playing the instrument itself, it’s not hard if you take it incrementally and train in it deliberately and consistently. This is also made easier in the present age, because there are a multitude of apps for your phone and tablet that help you practice music theory and music notation on the go (I use the Musicopoulos apps). Do you play smartphone games? You can use that time to learn music notation. And most apps do it in a game-like format.
The reason learning to read music is important is because it opens up a huge amount of resources to you. An incredible amount of music has been made and transcribed, and if you can read it, it will be at your disposal. With music notation you can also transcribe your own original work someday and share it with the world. It will also allow you to attain a more sophisticated understanding of music theory.
Playing an instrument is an amazing creative outlet that will enrich your life and make you a better person. Don’t let the random circumstance of your childhood, which was outside your control, determine whether you attain this skill during the singular, precious life you have. You can make your dreams come true. Make goals, get a teacher, practice deliberately, and track your progress towards your dreams.
