8 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE PLAYING MUSIC
99% of beginner musicians aren't seeing progress because they don't understand the most important thing for growth:
HOW to practice.
I've been teaching music lessons in Cypress, TX for over 20 years, and I keep seeing the same mistakes over and over:
Repeating mistakes.
No structure.
No system.
No plan.
Today I'm going to share 8 things I wish I knew before I started playing music.
So you can stop wasting time and start focusing on the things that actually work.
8 GAME-CHANGING TIPS
1. STOP GOING FROM BEGINNING TO END
When you start to learn a new song, scale, or riff, do you start from the beginning and try to go to the end?
Well, that seems logical, and that's what I used to do.
But I could never get through the whole thing without a mistake.
There was no consistency.
But when I started breaking it down into tiny sections, I started to see way more progress.
Try this:
Take it in small sections—one piece at a time.
Once that piece is solid, move on to the next little section.
After you can play each section solid by itself, then piece them all together.
2. SLOW DOWN
And I mean go really slow.
Now this is a tough one, because we like to go fast.
But if you go too fast you're probably playing sloppy and repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Which is actually training your brain to do it that way.
So you could actually be getting worse, even though you're practicing.
When you're learning something new, go slow—painfully slow.
Focus on accuracy and good timing.
And the speed will come on its own with enough repetition.
3. STOP PRACTICING YOUR MISTAKES
The way most people practice is they make mistakes over and over, and once they finally get it right, they move on.
The problem with this?
You've just trained your brain to do it wrong.
Because you've played it more times incorrectly than correctly.
We need to reverse that.
We need to play it more times RIGHT than wrong.
Try this instead:
Don't move on until you can play it right over and over again.
Turn it into a game for yourself—don't move on until you can play it 4 times in a row without messing up.
This alone will cut your learning time in half.
4. STOP PLAYING THINGS YOU KNOW
We all have our "go-to" thing we play when we pick up our instrument.
We like to play what we know and sound good at.
But if you're not working on the stuff you suck at, you're not going to see any improvement.
Spend way more time working on the things you're not good at, and way less time playing things you can already play.
This is where growth happens.
5. RECORD YOURSELF PLAYING
When I first started recording myself playing, it was a huge eye-opener for me.
I realized that the things I thought I was doing weren't really coming across.
I also noticed other mistakes, like bad timing, that I didn't even realize I was doing.
Try recording yourself and you'll learn something new about your playing that you might not have even realized.
Plus, you'll actually be able to see your progress over time.
6. USE A METRONOME
Timing is arguably the most important part of music—even more important than the notes.
And if you're not practicing with a metronome, your timing will always suffer.
A lot of beginners hate practicing with a metronome.
The sound is annoying, and it throws them off.
But the more you play WITH a metronome, the better your timing will be when you're NOT playing with a metronome.
And the more you do it, the easier it gets.
If you really hate practicing with a metronome, there's another way that is just as effective and way more fun:
Practice with drum loops.
But whether it's loops or a metronome, make sure it's a part of your daily routine because your timing depends on it.
7. SPEND WAY MORE TIME ON TECHNIQUE
Whether it's vocal warm-ups, rudiments, scales, or patterns, you need to spend a lot of time working on technique.
Technique is your foundation, and it'll make literally everything else you learn easier.
Every great musician I know spends a lot of time on technique.
I like to always start my practice with technique, and I usually spend about the first half of my practice on it.
8. BE CONSISTENT
I used to get a little lazy when I was younger and not practice as much as I should.
Then I would try to cram a few hours in the day before my lesson.
I would get to my lesson and not be able to play anything, even though I was able to play it the day before.
And it's because I wasn't consistent.
You'll see way more progress by practicing a little bit each day, even if it's just 10-15 minutes per day, than by cramming a couple of hours into one day.
You'll get out of it what you put into it, so if you can do even more, that's awesome.
But the key is just showing up and doing it every day.