A lot of skills in music are not specific to one instrument. A number of musical skills are either universal or can easily be transferred to a different instrument.
Things like ear training, rhythm, phrasing, and music theory are universal. They aren’t specific to one instrument and can easily be applied to different instruments.
Things like finger dexterity, breathe control, embouchure, coordination, and fingerings may be more specific to one instrument, but can easily be transferred to another.
Finger dexterity is something that you need to learn for any instrument and is required for many different instruments. The more closely related those instruments are, the more easily that skill will be transferred over. If you know how to play guitar and decide to learn ukulele, the techniques involved in guitar will transfer over easily because those instruments are closely related.
If you know guitar and decide to learn piano, the overlap is less, but the finger dexterity will still help.
If you know guitar and you decide to learn flute the overlap is even less. There are many new skills you’ll need to learn. But the finger dexterity you learn to play guitar will help in being able to finger the keys on flute.
Some instruments share similar embouchure techniques. Clarinet and saxophone are two that are incredibly similar. This is often why professional clarinet players often play saxophone proficiently. The reverse is also often the case. The embouchure, and instrument construction are similar and allow for a lot of skill transfer.
This is also often true for stringed instruments. The bow technique for violin and viola is similar. The same can be said for the bow technique of violin and cello, even though it may be slightly different. The instruments are also constructed in similar ways and have a fingerboard with no frets on it.
The more instruments you learn, the more skills you have that will transfer over. This is why many band directors and elementary school teachers are able to play all of the orchestral instruments at a fairly high level. Once you learn clarinet, you can more easily learn saxophone and flute. Once you learn trumpet, you can more easily learn trombone, french horn, and tuba. And this keeps going the more instruments you learn. Once you know flute, clarinet, and trumpet, all of the skills involved in playing those instruments can be transferred to whatever the next instrument is that you are trying to learn.
This also applies if you have developed high levels of universal skills. Having well trained ears will help with learning any instrument. Having solid rhythm will help with playing any instrument because they all require that you play in time. Understanding phrasing can help you play more musically once you’ve gotten the basic techniques down.
When I’m coming up with ideas for videos or blog posts or melodies I often have a filtering process. It’s not very formal, but it helps pick out the ideas that are the best.
For writing music that often means improvising a bunch of different things until I come up with something that I like. I also will write multiple melodies down on a sheet of manuscript paper while I have a timer running. When the timer’s done I’ll cross out the ideas I don’t like.
I do the same thing if I’ve written a melody I like already. I’ll write down or play every single variation of it that I can think of. And I’ll write down or circle only the variations that I like.
I have multiple filters being added to this process that sift through all of the different ideas so I only end up with ideas that I think are interesting or useful.
This can be a useful tool to use while writing music because it takes some of the pressure off. The first idea you think of doesn’t need to be great. That’s what the filter is for. You don’t need to find all the variations that you like right away. Just find as many variations as you can. The filter will choose them later.
It separates everything into different steps so you don’t have to do everything at once.
Before I write a blog post I’ll brainstorm a bunch of different ideas and then go through and select topics that sound interesting and write about those.
Most of the YouTube videos I’ve created I’ve made after having written a blog post about that same idea. I’ll go through my old blog posts and find topics or posts that were interesting or I think could use some explaining. The posts that I think would make into good videos I’ll make note of and turn into videos.
These filters help streamline the process a little bit so that I can continue making videos and continue having topics to talk about.
Using this filtering process helps take some pressure off from the beginning. The beginning of starting something shouldn’t also be the middle and the end. The beginning can just be brainstorming as many ideas as possible. Then after that step is done filters can be used to pick out the useful ideas.
I’ve been playing instruments for quite a while, and I’ve learned how to play many different instruments that have a lot of different techniques involved in playing them.
One thing that’s helped me keep myself motivated and keep myself learning is by making that process enjoyable. Right now I’m practicing my violin skills and I’ve been able to stay motivated by practicing songs that I enjoy and learning songs that I’ve heard performed on violin for a long time.
I’m not at the point where I can learn violin concertos yet, but there are a few melodies from films that I can learn, and small sections of classical pieces that I can learn. So I learn those small pieces and those small sections. Those are enough because it’s a piece of music that I want to learn just for me to know.
Find a song that you want to learn just for yourself.
It’s easy to get caught up in learning pieces that you need to learn for work, or to get potential work in the future, but remember to take some time in your practice sessions to learn things that you just want to learn for fun. Learn a Disney song that you like. Learn a song from a soundtrack you really enjoy.
If you can’t play it as written right away, play a simplified version of that song.
On guitar I’ve been learning flamenco techniques and classical guitar techniques. I have no real use for those in my work as a musician, but I want to learn them just for myself. It’s something that I find fun. And that keeps me motivated to learn.
Something else I use is just playing around on the instrument. I often do this on piano. Just sit down and play something random. Make up a song you’ve never heard before. It doesn’t have to be good, but doing it more will help make it sound good. It can be a great way to discover the fun of playing an instrument again. I think of it as literally “playing around” on the instrument. You aren’t playing a specific piece or learning a specific technique. It’s definitely not “practice.” It’s pure “play.” Give it a shot.
Learning an instrument can turn into “work” fairly easily because there are so many things to work on and so many things to learn. Try to keep it fun.
If you’re learning an instrument or how to conduct or something similar, recording yourself and listening to and watching yourself perform can be an indispensable tool in improving your own abilities.
I recently conducted a concert of some of my students performing and watching the video back gave me a lot of information on how I can improve my conducting skills and my music directing skills.
It’s easier to critique yourself more objectively and in more detail when you’re simply watching yourself. While you’re performing it’s incredibly hard to be objective and honest and focused on small details of your own playing or performing. That’s for a number of reasons, but one main reason is that you’re also performing. You’re not just focusing on listening to and watching your own performance. You’re focused on actually creating that performance. Even if you’re just in a practice room practicing your instrument.
So recording yourself gives you the opportunity to just watch yourself. You don’t have to think about where your fingers are going to go. You can only take a look at your own playing and think about how you can improve it and what you need to work on.
I still remember some of the first few times I recorded myself. I was a beginner so it wasn’t very pleasant at all. And it can be de-motivating at first to hear yourself more objectively and you realize that your ability isn’t where you thought it was.
But after recording yourself a number of times and getting comfortable listening to your own performances you’ll see it as a useful tool for improving your own playing abilities.
I recently directed a Christmas concert with my students singing Christmas songs. Some of the songs had harmonies in them and some of them everyone was singing the melody.
One thing that helps younger students learn to sing a song properly, and in tune, is by using your left hand to sort of “draw” the pitches. You’re trying to guide them to where the next pitch is with your hand.
I do this by using my left hand, because my right hand is doing a standard conducting pattern. I try to give them an idea of how far apart two pitches are and which direction they go.
If the melody goes up by a step I’ll move my left hand up a little bit. If the melody goes up by a fifth I’ll move my left hand up a little bit more so that it’s noticeable that those are two different intervals.
This can also help with scalar melodies because it shows the students how many notes down the melody goes and when to stop or go back up in pitch.
Some people use Curwen hand signs. I personally do not, for no other reason than I don’t know them well enough. But they could do the job too.
Guiding the students to know which direction the melody is going can help a lot. It can help them start to hear in their head what they should be singing next because you’re giving them an idea of where to “look” for it. They don’t have to rely on just their own inner hearing. They can use your hand guides to help themselves figure out where they should be going.
I’ve been practicing my classical guitar playing recently and I’ve been challenging myself by sight reading songs that aren’t arranged for classical guitar. Recently it’s been Christmas songs or other songs I have arranged for piano.
Start with just the bass and melody is what I’ve been doing. If I can play the bass note and the melody on top and find a way to make that fit on the guitar then I know I’ll be able to add to it later. But that’s where you need to start.
Start with just the bass and melody.
Focus on only two lines first. Then you can fill out the chords later. It’s good sight reading practice for me and helps me practice letting two different lines ring out on the guitar.
This same thing can be said about songs on piano too. If it’s a song that looks difficult start by learning just the bass and the melody first. Make sure that you can play those two pieces together. Then once that’s comfortable add in the other stuff in the middle to fill out the arrangement.
It could even be generalized to composing music in some cases. If you have a melody, figure out a bass line for that melody. Then once that’s together figure out what chords you want on top of that bass line.
This can help simplify the process of learning a song or creating a song because it gives you a few steps to take, rather than just playing the song as written from the very beginning. It breaks it down into smaller, more easily learnable, pieces.
Adam Neely recently posted a video about how he feels after finishing a large project or large concert. And I largely feel the same way after finishing a large concert or project. But I’ve always thought to myself, “on to the next thing.” I don’t know why, but that’s always been an easy thing for me to think about finishing something.
In the video he explains that he often feels directionless and a little depressed after finishing a large project. He then says that thinking, “what’s next?”, helps him to manage that feeling a little better because it focuses him on to the next project.
I recently finished two concerts. One with my youth orchestra. We recorded the performance because we couldn’t have a live concert with a live audience inside because of COVID-19 restrictions. The other was outside and in person with a live audience. Both were things that I’d spent at least 2 months preparing for and organizing.
And I’m happy they’re over and went as well as they did. I know there will be other concerts in the future and other projects to work on so I don’t feel that same depression and directionless feeling that Adam Neely is describing. But I have felt that way in the past after finishing large projects.
But that mentality of, “onto the next thing”, or “what’s next?” definitely helps manage that feeling so that you can feel happy after having finished a concert.
Another thing that’s helped me is realizing that there will always be another concert and another project to work on. There always will be something “next.” Sometimes it’s just about finding what that next thing is.
I’m not a world class musician by any stretch of the imagination, but I don’t believe that you ever get to a point where you don’t make any mistakes.
And I’m including world class musicians here. I don’t think they ever get to a point where they consider themselves flawless in their playing. Making 0 mistakes ever.
The mistakes just get smaller.
When you start out the mistakes are noticeable by everyone, including people who don’t play any instrument at all. The more you practice and the better you get the smaller those mistakes become. Fewer people are able to notice them. You still might make mistakes, but it might take someone that plays that specific instrument to notice them.
Eventually it might take someone that has played that specific piece on that specific instrument.
And eventually it might take someone who has played that specific piece on that specific instrument and has more developed technique than you to notice those tiny mistakes.
Unfortunately the ‘mistakes’ don’t go away. But they do get smaller and less noticeable.
Eventually becoming so small that you don’t view them as mistakes anymore, just things to practice for next time.