I wish you played an instrument

In the past week, for some reason, I’ve come across a lot of people who said they wish they could play an instrument. *Raise hands those of you out there* Then my next question is, what instrument? Most people pick the traditional instruments like piano or singing. But honestly, not everyone is cut out to play an instrument, especially the ones they wish they played. I play four instruments, guitar (electric & acoustic), saxophone (alto, tenor, bari), piano and vocals. I only consider myself an actual musician at two of those, guitar and sax. Why, because I can play a few songs and improve on piano, but there’s no way I’ll be performing with one on any stage in the near or very distant future. Vocals are another story. I can sing, but I’ve never taken formal lessons. I have, what you say, a solid one and a half octaves, and that’s that. But if you’re really motivated to learn an instrument, here’s how you should break it down.

First, you’ll want to decide what instrument it is that you want to learn and then find out if it’s possible for you to obtain one. I’m going to use piano as the example instrument since that’s probably what most of you want to learn. If you dream about being on stage, surrounded by the London Philharmonic (anyone? just me? ok.), playing the keys of a majestic grand piano, get a new dream. Why, because the first day you try to learn piano, that dream is so far from possibility that you’re going to want to quit. That will happen with any instrument, unless you have previous experience already. But if you dream smaller, keep in mind that music never comes easy, unless you’re a prodigy at the age of 2. Now, if you want to learn piano, you don’t need a grand or stand up piano right away, unless you already have one which makes me jealous. But a very respectable alternative is a portable 61-key keyboard. You can find these for under $100 and are good start kits for any level of beginners.

Next step is actually sitting down and learning how to play. There are a lot of beginner books out there that work for all levels. But first, you must learn music in general. DO NOT just sit down at your keyboard after you’ve taken it out of the box and fool around like you know how to play piano. It won’t get you anywhere and it probably will lead to bad habits which will then interrupt you from learning proper piano. That goes with any instrument too. Especially with piano, you have to know what the names of the notes are and where they are on standard sheet music. You can even go as far as learning easy chords right away by practicing scales with chord progressions. That most likely is in your beginner book if you don’t understand that part, maybe not though. Chord progression is important with any instrument because it will allow you to play songs or improvise in different key signatures. However, I love piano because when you learn notes, you can learn them visually by hitting the keys, but then also with ear training and being able to hum the notes back, which will really help with thinking quick while reading sheet music.

Ok, so if I lost you, well you probably stopped reading, but if you got this far, let me reiterate. If you love an instrument and want to pick it up, it is possible. You just need a lot of patience because it will not come easy. But it also takes a lot of perseverance to get to the next step. It may take years to get to a place where you can truly say you play an instrument, but you must practice, practice, practice! That sounds familiar…

I believe though, if you love an instrument and want to be able to put your mark on that sound, you will work as hard as you can to learn. And just because you did not learn an instrument in school, doesn’t mean you can’t learn one now. But like I said before, learn properly, otherwise you will regret it in the future. Anyone who learned an instrument in school basically had to learn it properly, otherwise their grade would suffer. Look at it as going back to school, however there are no grades, no stressful recitals, or teachers who will push you to practice. It’s all up to you, but if you do learn an instrument, you will not regret.

BC