Focus on the basics

In learning an instrument there’s often a ton of different information to learn. There’s technique for each hand. There’s often different pieces to learning technique. There might be embouchure technique. There’s often different ways of playing the instrument and ways to change the sound of the instrument with your technique. Learning different rhythms and playing to a beat. Playing with good intonation and learning how to read music. There’s a ton of new information to learn.

So rather than try to learn everything at once, focus on the basics.

That’s often what makes great players. They have the fundamentals down.

They also have many other things down as well, but every single great player has the fundamentals down.

And if you focus on just the basics you’ll get pretty good.

Work on things like rhythm and timing. Make sure you have solid rhythm.

Work on being able to sight read if that’s something that is relevant to the style of music you’re learning.

Work on intonation and playing in tune.

Work on a certain level of technical ability but focus on the things that matter; proper hand placement and finger technique. Playing quickly only matters if that’s relevant to the style you’re playing, and even then it is something that should be focused on after having learned the basics. The same can be said for expanding your range past the standard range of an instrument (speaking specifically to my fellow trumpet players).

Vibrato is likely relevant to every style of music that you learn and while it isn’t a beginner skill it is something that is a part of playing musically that should be learned.

Once you’ve got the basics down, and I mean really down, you’ll sound like a pretty proficient player.

ISJ