Learn Music

Learn Music: The Dark Side Of The Learning Curve

As a musician and teacher I have seen and helped a lot of students learn music.  Unfortunately I could not always help a student and consequently they would fail to reach their goals and sometimes quit.  I found that the most common reason was what I called "musical depression". 

Their musical depression is something that I think many (if not all) musicians go through at least once in their musical path.  Personally I have gone through it as a beginner and then again in my 3rd semester at Berklee College of Music.  

I call this musical depression because I was fine as an everyday person.  I didn't get depressed until I picked up my instrument and started to practice.  The main symptoms I have noticed including stage fright, creative blocks, low confidence and arrogance.  There are many other symptoms but these seem to be the most common that I have noticed.  

Personally, I had put to much pressure on myself.  My expectations weighed more than my goals and I lost sight of my future, I saw limitations and temporary failure instead of effort and playful excitement.  

As a teacher I have noticed similar issues with many of my older students (by older I mean college age and up).  The ideas of success have grown so large that the small goals involved in learning are not good enough.  I have found that as a teacher, my students learned faster and where happier with their results when I took the time to teach them goal management and "perspective training".  

Understanding the differences between goals and expectations was a largely overlooked idea.  Most of us lump them together into one pressure filled idea.  That is why I believe that practicing music properly starts with understanding goal setting and training yourself to have the proper perspective on what you are doing and where you are in the process of learning music.

How do we do this?

1. First thing is to understand that another persons success is not your bench mark.  We are all different and each of us has a different learning curve.  What they are good at you might struggle with, but sooner or later they will be struggling with something that you have mastered.
2. Second is that failure is temporary.  Your mistakes today will be a learning experience tomorrow.  Make sure that you understand what you have done and what you want to do in the future. 
3. Set small goals that you know you can achieve and reward yourself when you reach them.  Keep in mind that these small goals are the steps you need to take to reach your over all expectations.
4. Surround yourself with people that are better than you are.  It makes learning a lot more fun and you get to understand where you are going.  Your path is illuminated by the friends you choose to surround yourself with.


Understand that there is no one way to learn music.  Your music is found when you look back at all you learned and see where you have been and hope to be in the future.