30-Day Trial of Learning Music (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

30-Day Trial of Learning Music

[Elfwing]

This is a bit of a synchronicity. I love music, I want to learn but I have no idea where to start, where I want to go or how I want to get there. I hope you post more about this trial soon!

[SarahLuvzYu]

Synchronicity for me too! I'm part of the worship team at my church as a back up singer but recently I've been keen on learning how to play the drums. Once exams are over & when my friend isn't busy I'll start learning yay!

It's weird I used to be like you in the way that I wanted to do compositions on the computer but I've been more drawn to physical instruments at the moment. I think because for me I really like the traditional coming together as a group when creating music. It's like a social thing for me hehe.

Cool post Steve! Good luck on your musical endeavour

[nickynoodles]

Funny that you posted that. After 15+ years of playing guitar I recently gave in to my long held ambition to play piano and have started taking lessons.

The problem with reading some music theory and poking around with computer software is that it's a bit like getting a word processor, reading a bit of French grammar then hoping to write a letter in French. You don't have all the tools you need to achieve anything.

If you want to get somewhere in 30 days my advice would be to get a cheap M-Audio MIDI keyboard and learn a few chords. It'll bring the theory to life and you can hear the how keys, intervals, inversions and cadences sound.

If you have access to software like the Native Instruments suite you can then play about with the sampler by actually playing the keyboard, rather than struggling with the mouse and computer keyboard.

[FelineNostalgia]

I read another post about the workshop too, it sounds amazing. Also I saw the cure in September there, I'd wanted to see them for years, brilliant band! Good luck Steve in learning music, show us your song when your finished!!!

[neilarthur]

Love this 30-day trial .

I have played music for over 30 years and the learning continues to challenge and fascinate me.

Some random thoughts:

Explore what aspect of music most interests/excites you (melody, lyrics, rhythm, composition)

Explore different music styles and forms - especially those you don't particularly like

Explore the mathematics of music you like.

Make music using objects around the house.

Listen for rhythmic patterns around you.

Biographies of musicians can be interesting and inspirational.

Music can be approached in the same way you would learn a language or a sport.

I am looking forward to hearing about your 30-day trial - enjoy

Neil

A fantastic book for ideas is The Listening Book (discovering your own music)by W A Mathieu Chapter titles include -Singng with Machines, Gibberish and 20 Sounds to Get Lost In

[neilarthur]

I have just had another look at the Listening Book and can see so many great starting points for a 30-day trial not just for beginners but also for more experienced musicians.

Has anybody here found any websites helpful in improving their music skills and practice?

I originally found Steve's site when I was looking for ways to make more effective use of my practice time.

Other helpful sites I have found include - Musicians Way, The Practice Notebook, Stringvisions, The Talent Code and Study Hacks

To Steve .. I like the new avatar photo .. you are looking more like a musician already

[marksmeritt]

Another member here that I know has been actively following Steve Pavlina's work for some time, while my keeping up with Steve has been much more casual. This other member told me today about Steve's 30-day trial of learning music, believing that people here might be interested in the piano method that I teach, since it's very much a paradigm shift compared to traditional methods. I'm sensitive to the fact that this is my first post on the forum and that solicitations are frowned upon, so I'm happy to basically just share a bit about the method for informational purposes.

It's called Simply Music, and you can learn something about it at my own website at http://potluckcreativearts.com/lessons/method/ and also at the main Simply Music website at http://www.simplymusic.com/ -- The method was developed originally in Australia and has been taught in several countries for more than a dozen years.

I'll leave the details for those interested in exploring these other pages, but in a nutshell, the method involves developing a natural relationship with the keyboard immediately, getting students playing really quality-sounding music with both hands from the very beginning. You develop a repertoire of dozens and dozens of songs, in various musical styles, all of which you can play from memory. Through the program, you develop as a self-generating musician who has all the tools you need to proceed independently, taking sheet music for any piece you want to learn, knowing how to approach it and break it down, building it back up as you teach it to yourself, and then it becomes part of your repertoire, just like all your other pieces, with no need to refer again to the sheet music. Essentially anyone who has the diligence to stick with the program can achieve these results. It's a stark contrast from traditional methods, where many who try fail, and of those relatively few who succeed, most are forever tied to sheet music, helpless to play a note unless the page is in front of them telling them what to do. Another of the many great things about the method is that it brings improvisation and composition in right from the very beginning, while these things are usually left out of traditional methods altogether or at best brought in only much later on.

I've been a musician basically my whole life, a composer/songwriter since my early teens, and also involved in computer-based music production for the last two decades. Most of what I learned as a musician when I was younger was on my own, in spite of rather than as a result of the piano lessons I took. If Simply Music had been available for me when I was younger, I'm certain that, as much as I'm capable of doing now, I'd be capable of that much more, without various holes in my technique as I now have. And I certainly wish that, as a teacher, I'd known about Simply Music from its start so that I could have been teaching it to my students sooner. The difference my students and their families experience compared to traditional methods is, quite simply, night and day.

Interestingly, the method also resonates with some things mentioned here in this thread.

The traditional coming together as a group when making music is present in the fact that most Simply Music teachers teach most lessons in a group format. Everyone works together around a single keyboard. It's very dynamic. The method thrives in a group environment compared to one-on-one lessons as a result of its involving so much learning by doing. Of course, even one-on-one Simply Music lessons remain a quantum leap beyond other methods.

Someone else here mentioned an interest in improving practice. Since Simply Music's approach succeeds by harnessing an understanding of natural learning processes (which is exactly what traditional methods fail to do and is therefore why traditional methods fail so many people), it has an incredibly smart approach not only to the musical content itself but also to managing the learning process in general. Indeed, the founder of Simply Music is especially keen that students learn not only great pieces but that they learn how to learn great pieces, and that they not only learn how to learn music well but that they understand the process as a way learning in general, applicable throughout their lives. So the practice process itself gets a tremendous amount of well-informed support in this method.

For anyone interested in learning to become a musician, especially anyone who has always wanted to but believes they never could, and certainly people interested in learning to create your own music, I wholeheartedly recommend looking into the method. You can find out if there are teachers near you at the Simply Music website. If not, some Simply Music teachers such as myself offer lessons online. I'd also be happy to provide what information/suggestions/advice I can to those interested in more deeply exploring improvisation, composition, and using computers to create and produce music.