Tips to Learn Music Effectively

As you know, it is quite difficult to learn to play an instrument or music effectively, unless you spend several hours practicing it. The truth is that you can reduce the time you spend learning music by following these steps.

Read Through Entire Score

It is quite tempting to pick your instrument and begin playing after reading a book. The first thing to do is to plan to learn a piece. For example, when you travel to a new place, you first take your map and understand the route before taking a ride or walking. Therefore, it is vital to read through the score first and understand the piece before playing it with your instrument. For instance, you need to check different things such as time signatures, key areas, repeat signs, and double bars. Also, look for foreign words that you are not familiar with and then make notes.

Listen to Recordings

It is a good idea to listen to recordings. You should note that some people like to figure out their interpretations. If you choose to listen to other people’s renditions, start by listening to recordings with the score and write down anything that is worth noting.

Play Through Entire Piece

After reading through and listening to the piece, you need time for playing through it. Before going all guns blazing, you should not underestimate the power of this step. Remember that you are playing it and not performing it. In this case, you can study the piece with your instrument. Start by checking the phrasing, structures, and how sentences follow each other. Stop to make notes in the score.

Workable Chunks

Also, you need to find logical breaks in your piece of music. For instance, you can find it easier to break your piece into parts. You may also want to start from the beginning and mark places where to take a break and see how the phrases are combined into large sections. An easy and quick way of finding the breaks is to play music as if you are talking.

Whenever you talk, you take breaths where periods and commas ought to be written in a passage. Although it is natural for wind players to know the places for breathing, this is applicable to drummers, guitarists, and pianists.