How Self-Directed Learning Can Bring More Fulfilment When Playing a Musical Instrument
Learning a musical instrument can be challenging because it requires a lot of independence, commitment and perseverance. How can we keep things fun? How can we ensure that learning piano, guitar or singing continues to feel meaningful when things start to feel tricky?
There are many different ways to ensure that our learning journey is not only effective, but enjoyable.
A lot of things in life are better together. Though learning piano, guitar or singing means we often need to practice alone — self-driven learning doesn’t have to be as isolating as it may initially sound.
The self-drive, focus and internal motivation that we gain when learning an instrument can actually stem from a strong sense of collaboration, reflection, connection with our teachers and creating space for honest evaluation.
Here are four tips that can help us feel more self-driven, meaningful and rewarding when it comes to learning a musical instrument:
1) Reflect and check in on how ready you feel to learn your musical instrument of choice.
There are specific skills and attitudes that help us thrive when learning the piano, guitar or singing. One of the foundational things to consider is having a conversation with ourselves (or with our kids) about how ready we actually feel.
What is our current workload like?
Does the schedule allow this investment in music lessons?
Do we have the time and space to practice the instrument between lessons?
Will this add value to our lives, or feel as though it’s a burden?
Here are a few characteristics that can signal that we’re ready to invest in music lessons:
Autonomy (I want to learn the guitar, and I am going to make it happen)
Organisation (I’ll get a folder for all my sheets & will regularly look through my practice notes)
Self-disciplined (I want to carve out this much time during the week to practice my vocal warm-ups and run through my performance piece)
Effective communication (I don’t understand this concept, could you explain it to me again please?)
Ability to accept constructive feedback (Thank you for letting me know, I’ll make sure to work on that this week)
Capacity to reflect honestly (I felt ____ this term when thinking about my progress in piano lessons)
Asking these questions can help us gage whether we are ready to invest in learning an instrument — whether it be taking group singing classes, weekly guitar lessons, or piano lessons in the evening after work.
Once we figure out our readiness to learn — it can bring us more clarity, and add to that sense of internal drive to put in the effort to practice and progress whilst taking regular music lessons.
2) Set clear, specific learning goals and communicate them with your music teacher.
Setting and communicating our goals with our music teacher is important. Knowing what we want to achieve in music lessons means that we have clarity about what matters to us. Sharing this with our teacher means we’re much more likely to feel a sense of autonomy and fulfilment when it comes to taking music lessons — because our teacher will keep us accountable, and structure the lesson to help us achieve our goals.
Are there certain pieces you’d like to be able to play on the guitar?
Is there a certain vocal technique you’d like to achieve?
Would you like to perform your first piano piece at the end of year recital?
Would you like for your lessons to always starting with scales? Or would you like it more flexible — prioritising music theory and aural skills at some classes?
When would you like to achieve these goals by?
Coming into our classes with a plan, and knowing that our teachers understand and want to support us in our musical goals can give us a greater sense of fulfilment, direction, motivation. It can affirm that our commitment to practicing during the week, and continuing to show up to music lesson is well worth the investment.
3) Develop a solid understanding of how you learn best and apply the new concepts you pick up in the music lesson.
When learning a musical instrument, it can be very helpful for us to discover the ways in which we learn best. Are we predominantly a visual learner? Auditory? Kinaesthetic?
Below are a few questions that can help clarify our learning needs:
Do I learn best when I see my guitar teacher demonstrating a riff in front of me?
Do I need my singing teacher to sing, so that I can hear the tune of the melody?
Do I need to take notes and write things down to make sure I understand things?
What kind of teaching style works best for me?
Have I had a favourite teacher in the past? What is it about them that I love?
Some of us work best when we take a deep approach to learning. Some students need to understand musical concepts for themselves and apply the knowledge to their new piece.
Other students work best with a surface approach. This means they thrive when they can reproduce or copy what they’ve been modelled.
Some students are more strategic when learning musical concepts. This means that they thrive when they have a clear, organised goal to work towards and achieve. E.g. Sitting an AMEB Music Exam and scoring a high grade.
It’s easy to box things up and fit ourselves neatly into one of the boxes - but more often than not, we all share different variations of each learning approach and preference. Committing to continue discovering and understanding the ways we best learn can be quite empowering and helpful. Especially when tackling more complex pieces.
4) Check in with yourself and your music teacher and evaluate how you’ve progressed in your music lessons each term.
Self-directed learning requires us to be honest and reflective about how we’ve progressed and felt during our time taking music lessons. This can look like having a chat with your music teacher and asking them for feedback.
Some questions that can help us personally reflect on our progress during music lessons include:
How do I know I’ve improved in my guitar scales throughout the term?
Am I flexible and able to apply new musical concepts to other pieces of music?
Do I have the confidence to explain the concepts I’ve learnt to someone else?
When do I know I’ve learned enough?
Checking in with ourselves at the end of each term can be great as it helps us to evaluate the results of our commitment and discipline to learning our instrument. It can also be a great way to keep ourselves accountable throughout the term — not only to our teachers, but also to ourselves.
Just as music is an art form, learning can be seen as an intricate, multifaceted art form too! Growing in our own understanding of how we learn best and applying these concepts to our journey with playing the piano, guitar, or singing can be an effective way to keep lessons engaging, meaningful and fulfilling.
If you’ve been thinking about learning an instrument, we’d love to connect with you.
Music on Purpose is a music school in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney (Maroubra) NSW. We offer piano lessons, guitar lessons and vocal + singing lessons for students of all ages. Adults included! We’ve got incredible piano, singing and guitar teachers who genuinely care for their students and tailor their lessons to meet each of their students’ learning needs and desires.
Click the button if you’re looking for music lessons in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney! We’d love to hear more about you, and how we can best help you.
www.music-onpurpose.com | Music on Purpose | Piano, Guitar & Singing Lessons for All Ages
