The Fastest Way to Learn a Musical Instrument Guaranteed

How do you know if you sound good when you play?  Most musicians are so busy focusing on playing that they find it difficult to listen to themselves as they play.  Instead, they rely on feeling good about the runthrough.
I’ve had countless students who have said to me during a lesson, “It felt good that [...]

Are master musicians born with their skills intact?  Some musicians say it was inevitable that Mozart or Stevie Wonder would rise to the top of their professions.  Others believe musical skills are only acquired through a singular dedication to daily work.
Being born with a certain genetic predisposition toward something (Nature) does seem necessary for certain [...]

Music lessons offer more to music students than just facts about how to play a musical instrument.  Through interaction with music teachers (sometimes for many years at a time), students learn life lessons, get advice on education and careers, and absorb information about musicians’ lifestyles.
A blog post on yesterday’s New York Times website by composer Michael Gordon offers [...]

When I speak to groups of music students about music practice tips, how to learn music, and achieving goals, muscle memory is always one of the main parts of the discussion.  When your muscles can correctly and automatically play all the notes in your music, your performances are easier and more fun.
But, one aspect of [...]

Online music videos are among the technologies readily available for anyone learning to play a musical instrument.  Both live performances and how-to tutorials are waiting for you online–usually for free–and all musicians absolutely must utilize them.
Watching video of music you are currently practicing can have a profound effect on your learning curve and your ability [...]

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about the importance of practicing distinct sections of music to aid learning and memorization. 
However, one element of music composition works against us as we prepare and learn music: repeated sections.  Most pieces contain musical material that keeps coming back throughout.  So, if we break up the music based on the sections as [...]

Like me, you’ve probably had a performance where the beginning of your piece sounded great, but the middle was just okay.  Most musicians have experienced this situation, and it can be a bit unsettling while you’re on stage.
There are many reasons this situation occurs, including always practicing from the beginning of a piece, not having [...]

Here’s some good motivation for practicing a musical instrument every day: 
Playing music may actually make you smarter! 
Research done by neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug at Harvard has come up with some fascinating results about how the brains of musicians are different than the brains of non-musicians.  Apparently, playing a musical instrument rewires the brain to give musicians advantages that will help them [...]

I’m a big advocate of efficient practicing for all musicians.  If you want to learn a musical instrument, it’s best to practice slowly, work on muscle memory, break your music into small sections, and stay intensely focused while you’re practicing.
Unfortunately, quality of practice alone won’t make you a master musician.  You need quantity too.  When all is [...]

There is evidence from recent neurological research that supports the concept of breaking music into small sections to learn it better.  Though the majority of musicians still try to learn their pieces by going through them from top to bottom (and stopping to make quick fixes along the way), these musicians are actually working against [...]