So you want to learn how to play a music instruments, do you?
The first mission will of course be to choose what instrument you want to play. So how do you choose? Here are some things to think about that might help you:
How to Choose which Instrument to Learn?
- Which instruments do you love the sound of? (passion = motivation)
- Which instruments can you afford (some can cost a fortune)
- Do you have to consider the loudness (neighbours, family members etc.)
- Do you dream about joining a band or an orchestra? (choose a common instrument)
- Do you want to sing along when you play (avoid wind instruments)
Then you also want to consider what part of the music you would enjoy playing. For example:
- Rhythm & Groove = Drums, Percussion, Bass etc.
- Chords & Harmony = Piano, Guitar or other Comping Instrument
- Melody & Lead = Melodic instrument like Violin, Saxophone, Flute etc.
7 Tips for Learning to Play an Instrument
After you have your first instrument in your hand, and can start learning and practicing, you want to make sure that you make good progress. Here are some tips to help you out on your learning journey:
1 – Learn the Instrument Foundations well first
This means you want to become familiar with all aspects of the instrument. How it really works, all parts of the instrument, how to set it up, how to clean and maintain it well, how you produce the sounds on it, how to play notes, and all the basic playing techniques you can perform on it.
2 – Start with Basic Songs with Slow Melodies
Instead of boring scales and repeating phrases, I recommend that you dive straight into playing real tunes and songs on your instrument.
This will be much better for your motivation, however you want to also make sure the songs are not too hard so that you loose confidence. Find simple, and slow songs, and then learn those first.
3 – Learn in Half Tempo and Speed Up
Everything is easier when you slow it down, and the most common mistake beginners of any music instrument makes is to try playing a song or phrase too fast. It’s like trying to run before you even learned how to talk.
For every new song or phrase you want to learn, start at half the original tempo (or even slower) until you feel comfortable. Then increase the tempo.
4 – Scale & Interval Training
It may be boring, but there is a reason why scales and interval training are so important for learning to play any instrument. It will train your ears and co-ordination with your muscle memory, so that you in time will be able to play songs and phrases without even having notes available.
I do have a tip regarding scales and interval practice though, which is to only do it for a few minutes of your daily practice session on your instrument. The rest of the time you should have fun with your instrument, by playing songs, tunes and being creative. This tip is somewhat controversial, but it’s worked for me.
5 – Practical Ear Training
Something I always enjoyed personally when learning all my music instruments, is to listen to a song or tune for a short while, stop the music…and then instantly try to figure out the melody on the instrument I am playing.
This will be great practice for finding the key, notes and intervals of any piece of music. And the more you play by ear like this, the easier it will become to simply pick up your instrument and then start playing any tune you know.
6 – Change your Instrument
If you find out that you don’t really enjoy the instrument you have chosen, or that you struggle too much with making any progress whatsoever, I actually think you should stop and choose a different instrument.
Feeling progress is a huge part of motivation, and it may be that a different type of instrument will be more natural for you. For example: I struggled on the acoustic guitar as a kid, but then switched to piano and felt more at home on it.
7 – Play every Day
This is probably the most important advice I can give you. The reason for consistency is that it is how our brain works. You will get more out of playing 30 min a day, compared to not playing during the week days and batch all practice into the weekend.
Bonus Tip – Have Fun
And finally: have fun! This is never emphasised enough in my opinion. You pick up an instrument to learn, because you believe it will be fun once you learn it right?
Well, I would say that you also want to make the journey as fun as possible as well. Learning to play any music instrument will take time, and if you don’t have fun you risk loosing interest or even quitting altogether.
So do what you can to add some fun into your journey. Play songs and tunes you love, and come up with your own practice routines that feel more motivating to you.
Do you need a Teacher to Learn an Instrument?
No, and I can say this with confidence. Why? Because I have learned how to play more than 10 different music instruments simply from self learning.
You can always find tips and tutorials on any specific instrument online. Websites with articles, online videos, and cheat sheets for finger charts etc.
If you want to go the extra mile you can buy an online course, which still is much cheaper than paying for weekly lessons with a teacher. And save you time since you don’t have to travel to the location your teacher is based.
Here are some of the music courses I offer online: