How to learn music quickly (aka super fast)
from the blog at http://musictheorylessons.net/2017/01/02/how-to-learn-music-fast/
Learning music can be one of those activities that takes people forever. In fact, the naturally slow process of learning music is one of the common reasons that people quit music altogether! But fear not, there are many things you can do that will help speed up your musical processing. Before I dive into this, I am assuming a couple things about you. First, you have a passion for learning and that you want advice on efficiency. After all, it’s been proven over and over that music can’t be crammed. Just ask my Grade 9 students before a performance exam. Also, the strategies I’m about to share will help you make the most of your time. This way, you will know how to learn music as quickly as YOU possibly can. Second, you must have a growth mindset. This means that you have the ability to recognize improvement at smaller stages. If you are better when you are done practicing than you were when you started, that is something to celebrate. The advice that follows is merely to teach you how to learn music as fast as possible with tried tested and true practice techniques.
Set goals
Most people begin their practicing by getting their instrument and playing without intention. In other words, they aren’t playing with any particular goals in mind. This would be the equivalent of going into the grocery store and just hoping that by the time you’ve cashed out, you’ve purchased enough food to last you through the week. As we both know, that doesn’t work very well, especially if you are trying to eat healthy. The same is true for practicing. When I sit down at the piano or put my saxophone together, I have a goal in mind of what I want to be able to do and work specifically on my weaknesses. Also, make sure the goal you set for yourself is reachable by the end of the practice session. You want to feel accomplished when you’re done. That way, you’ll keep coming back!
Practice in small chunks
My first private saxophone teacher was a quirky dude. He offered many pieces of advice to me, but when he told me to “blow chunks” I looked at him wondering if he was sane. Aside from the off-putting expression, he meant to play small pieces of the music at a time. This turned out to be really invaluable for me in my quest of learning how to play music quickly. Here’s the thing, many musicians have a “macro” practice strategy, but no “micro”. You need both – and here’s why:
Tom is a guitar player who has begun practicing a song for his sister’s wedding. He starts playing the piece but makes a mistake in bar 4, so Tom goes back to the beginning and starts over. What do you know, Tom makes that same mistake in bar 4. Poor Tom. Well, he repeats this process a couple of times or so, but guess what? On the 5th time, Tom actually played bar 5 without a mistake so he keeps going.
In this example, guess what Tom did? He practiced a mistake 5 times and the right way only once. Guess which way Tom is more likely to play at his sister’s wedding?
Instead, Tom should have worked on the bar containing the mistake the moment he made it. If the bar is too difficult by itself, work on the second half of the bar at a manageable tempo that would ensure him the highest rate of success. This is what we call a micro approach. Now that Tom has isolated the weak area in bar 4, slowed the practicing down, and played it right. He can repeat it a few times, gradually speeding it up before inserting that into the rest of the performance. We call that the macro approach. This is the best way for Tom to spend his time. Guess what, Tom will have a glorious sounding bar 4 for his sister’s wedding.
Practice slow
To piggyback on the last point. It is so important to play slow when you are practicing because playing music takes a lot of brainpower. If you were to list all the things you are focussing on while playing and reading music, the list would go on forever. The thing is, to retain and learn the music, you must find a tempo speed slow enough for you to think through what you are doing. The more you do this, the faster you will think through playing music which in turn will add to your growing knowledge of how to learn music much faster. In other words, you must play slow to learn fast. What a paradox!
Here’s the other thing about that. When you are learning a piece of music, it’s actually the first approaches you take that seem to get locked into your muscle memory. If you don’t slow down in your practicing, you will make more mistakes which will be hard-wired into your muscle memory. Then, all that time you would normally spend trying to learn a piece of music now gets to be spent fixing bad habits. Not fun!
Practice with a metronome
This really goes hand-in-hand with practicing slow. The best way to practice slow is with a metronome. Better yet, get yourself a drum machine app. It will just make practicing more fun. Who doesn’t like a little Bach set to a funk beat! Joking aside, here’s why you should be practicing with a metronome: you will vastly improve your steadiness.
The reason that people are able to play quick and steady is because of a metronome. It actually forces you to line up your playing evenly, which will really help you out in the end. Have you ever heard someone play and the notes seemed rushed and uneven? It’s very obvious when musicians don’t practice with a metronome.
Metronomes have a psychological effect on humans too. There’s just no lying to yourself when your playing doesn’t line up with the metronome. There’s no saying “I’m right” – you just have to slow it down and master the tempo you’ve set it at. It’s a humbling experience to say the least. If it was easy, everyone would do it – which really is part of the fun in learning music. Would you enjoy magic if you knew how to do the trick? Would you enjoy puzzles if they were too easy? No, you wouldn’t. You probably wouldn’t enjoy playing music as much either if it were too easy. What’s enjoyable is reaping the benefits of all the hard work you put into practicing. Get a metronome!
Frequency over Duration
This couldn’t be overstated. I always tell my students that the most important part of practicing is taking their instrument out of the case. The reality is, if they take it out of the case, they are likely to practice for 20-30 minutes. Yes there is more to practicing, but practicing frequency is going to be the winner here. It’s common sense that the more you familiarize yourself with something, the more confident you will be with it. That being said, there are more important reasons for choosing frequency over duration.
Whenever you learn something, you have to process it. Have you ever just given up on playing something, only to come back to it and not struggling as much as you did before? It’s because you didn’t give yourself time to process the music you were learning. Want great news? If you want to know how to learn music quickly then you should take full advantage of this! Here’s what you do: identify your weak spots in the music, slow down the tempo, and work at it for short bursts of time. Then take a break. Take lots of breaks. In fact, sometimes this is the only kind of practicing I can get away with. Being a dad of a toddler, I have a busy schedule and practicing is often put on the back burner. So I catch myself practicing for 5 minute bursts but as often as 7-8 times a day. Some instruments will be easier to do this on mind you. Since the piano is right there, it’s hard not to just sit at it and play. I can really tell how much of a difference processing makes when you practice like that and I know you will too!
Learn Music Theory
Ok maybe a little plug for the website, but I wouldn’t have created it if I didn’t wholeheartedly believe in the profound impact learning music theory has on your ability to understand and learn music lightning fast. I’ll give you an analogy to put it into perspective. Imagine trying to learn a speech in a foreign language? Now imagine trying to learn a speech in english (or your native tongue). It’s a no brainer right? The great thing about music is that it is a language. It has logic. When I look at a piece of music I want to learn – I analyze the logic. I want to understand it. Why this chord and not that one. What is going on here that makes it sound so great? Once I understand it, then I know it. Jumping back to the analogy, the music theory avoider is practicing one word at a time, where I’m practicing sentences and paragraphs. It’s a winning recipe for speed – and I would also argue enjoyment.
Here comes the plug. My Music Theory Complete course is unmatched in terms of its efficacy in teaching you beginner, intermediate, and advanced concepts in the quickest way possible. No, I’m not taking shortcuts, but I eliminate a lot of the nonsense out there and use refined and practiced explanations and animations that have proven effective over in over in my many years of teaching music theory. When I’m in a classroom, my goal is to help the ones who struggle the most. The unmotivated ones. If my explanations help them, imagine how much they will help you if you’re motivated!
Let’s recap. If you want to know how to learn music fast like a pro then you must follow this advice. Set goals, practice slowly with a metronome, play frequently for shorter periods of time so you can process the information, and learn some good old fashioned music theory – preferably, by me!
Dan Vrancic
