12 Things I Learned From Learning Instruments

Bear with me, I know this is a long text with no pictures or other visual stimulation. But if you persevere, maybe you can even learn something from it! Now isn't that fun?

I've been learning instruments since I was about 10-ish: first I taught myself how to play the drums, a few years later I wished for an electric guitar for Christmas, the following year I got my first bass guitar. I consider myself a good enough musician to successfully play in bands (I've played in several so far) and on stage, although I can't think of myself as a professional – on rare occasions I do feel like one, but that's only because I have learned a few things over the years that increase my insight into how learning and actually mastering music instruments works. The best part: This is not entirely limited to music at all; most points can be translated into basically everything else, like art, sports, writing, you name it.
Some of them are pretty obvious, and I guess everyone who learns anything will one day or another stumble upon them, or you'll hear them from every teacher. But others are a little more specific and sometimes contrary to what you're trying to achieve (or even conflictive to another point on the list), but they can really help a lot. Here are a few things I learned from learning stuff, in no particular order. (after the jump)
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1. Do small steps.
Yes, the first one is pretty obvious and not really what you want to hear when you're trying to figure out how the hell that peculiar drum break in the midsection of that song is played without throwing your sticks all over the place. But more often than not the solution is: just get to it slowly and thoughtful. Use tools like Audacity, plugins for Winamp or GuitarPro to decrease the speed of the song/the tablature and play along more slowly. Think about what happens when you're trying to play the riff: maybe there's an easier way to put the fingers on the fretboard? Just keep on trying, but don't expect to nail it on the first few tries.
The same applies in general: Can't nail that Pop-Shove It on your skateboard? Try really perfecting the Shove It first. The Lord Of The Rings is to difficult to read in the language you're learning? Try reading pages more than once; you can also start out with comic books (yes, seriously) and websites on the Internet.

2. Set yourself reachable goals, but don't limit yourself to it - have breaks.
Of course you want to be the best guitar player. Who doesn't? But that as a goal alone won't do, only as your absolute main goal above all. The first experience I had like that was when I tried playing No Such Thing by John Mayer on the guitar for the first time a few years ago. When I looked at the tablature I said to myself: 'I could never play that! How do you even put your fingers like that?'. So I pushed it aside and tried learning easier songs first, gradually building myself up to a stage where I dared to try No Such Thing once more. First thing I noticed was that I instinctively knew how to put my fingers on the fretboard; the rest was a matter of training. It felt so good to actually be able to play that song after a while that I was motivated to keep going and keep trying harder songs.

3. Use better, maybe more expensive equipment.
Now, I'm not encouraging anyone who's just getting started learning an instrument to run to the store and buy some signature model of whatever they're learning. Seriously, I hate that. BUT, if you've been playing on your little Peavey 10W practice amp for the last three years, maybe it's time to spend a few bucks and upgrade to something that suits you more and allows for more experimentation and possibilities. Same for other things: Yes, you can really make great drawings with those IKEA pencils, but a fancy high-quality pencil from a high-quality stationary shop might do wonders; you'll definitely FEEL more professional. Which leads to the next point:

4. Make yourself feel AND look professional.
When I was watching newcomer bands in local bars or wherever they'd play, I was often finding myself watching the drummer intensely and judging how he played. If he LOOKED unprofessional, he SOUNDED unprofessional to me, even if he wasn't that bad a drummer to begin with. Turns out, looking good while doing your thing increases how you feel about yourself (you'll definitely boost your ego) and how people think about you, especially fellow musicians. Don't be shy to put yourself in front of a mirror with your guitar or filming yourself with a camera to find out what looks best and most professional.
Huge bonus point in professionalism: Being really into it – close your eyes, bend yourself to the music, dance around, make epic gestures while striking the toms, the strings, whatever. Don't just stand around like you're at a student recital trying to show your parents what you've learned so far. Yes, it may look dumb when you're practicing this at home, but believe me, it'll get to your audience.
Now, I'm not sure how to apply this to other fields, but I guess you'll know what to do when you read this. Maybe there is a way to make your paintings look more professional or your way of playing soccer?

5. Watch people who know what they're doing.
There was a time when I was really frustrated when I was watching someone about my age totally rocking his drum kit; I knew I wasn't as good as them but I always begrudged THEM about it. That is not the proper thing to do, since I couldn't blame anyone except myself for not practicing more. Later I realized I could learn from that guys on the stage just as much as I could from watching Neil Peart's drum solos over and over again: either that guys on stage were good, then I could pick up some tricks from them, or they sucked – this way I could find out why they sucked and what I could do not to become like them.
On a side note: It's obvious that watching famous musicians helps a lot, so get every live performance of your favourite artist you can get, be it on DVD or YouTube – I've learned more from videos than I did from listening to music and trying to replay it.

6. Get together with people who do the same.
Seriously, almost everything – especially playing an instrument – requires practicing with a few pals or even strangers to find out how they do it and what you could take out of it. If you haven't formed a band yet – do it. It's much more fun as well.

7. Reduce what you're doing.
This is essential, think of it as an addition to the part with the professionalism. I could fill a whole list on why it's good to reduce...
A long while back, after my band was done playing a gig, I proudly approached my Dad (whom I consider my most sceptical and honest critic, he has seen me on stage more often than anyone else except for my band mates) and asked what he thought of how I was doing behind the drum kit. He said something along the lines of: 'Well, it was good, but you're doing too much. Try to reduce it a little.' I was really confused – what was there to reduce?
I only completely understood what he meant when I watched a friend of mine play the drums on another gig – he was all over the drum kit, doing drum breaks everywhere he could, until his sound became one wobbly, unidentifiable wall of noise, and he lost track of what he was supposed to do as a drummer: hold a steady beat. So I tried exactly that, and believe me, playing a steady beat over a whole song can be harder than any 2-second drum break.
Any instrument suffers from Doing Too Much: you start to make mistakes or get out of measure. Reduce to the core until you really nail that. Or let me put it this way: One time I was watching a cover band, and the drummer had a double foot pedal attached to his bass drum. Believe me, Summer Of '69 DOES NOT require double bass work.

8.Get serious feedback!
After a gig, it feels great to be approached by people that just watched you rock away on stage and tell you how awesome you were. Only problem: Often they are drunk, your friends or overall full of adrenaline because they were rocking and dancing away and just having fun. So I have to say, even though I totally get off on getting compliments after a gig, I prefer someone who can tell me in all honesty what they don't like about what I'm doing, or tell me what I'm doing wrong. This can be your band mates, your significant other or someone in your family (although the latter two sometimes tend to be biased as well due to your history together).
Tell people you trust that you want them to be perfectly honest and, if they are, accept it. Don't get pissed or question yourself (especially not like this: 'No really, you can be totally honest with me, I can handle it!' - 'Alright then, I guess that solo you did was a little offbeat...otherwise, great performance!' - 'What? You think I suck? How dare you! I'm never going on-stage again!')
Oh, and no fishing for compliments. Believe me, you'll get enough of compliments sooner or later.

9. Show what you got.
A little conflictive with reducing yourself I guess, but here's one important thing I've learned: If you get the chance to bring yourself into something of public interest (a concert at your school, an exhibition at the city hall, a writing contest in your local newspaper), freaking do it! Even if all the others are doing it. Don't ever think: 'Oh well, someday people will see what I can do! I don't have to brag all the time, my moment will come!' So fucking what? Your moment comes, you miss it. And even if you nail it, that still was one tiny moment. You gonna wait another two years before the stars align and you get to show your talent again?
I'm talking out of my suitcase of mistakes here – for a time I was actually too proud and too snotty to run after every gig that I could've had, and if there's one thing I regret it's this.

10. Let someone teach you the basics!
So obvious, but oh so true. Another thing I regret: I never let someone teach me the foundations of drumming. I can't play rudiments, I'm hitting the bass drum all wrong, and sometimes my hands hurt because I'm holding the sticks badly.
Oh I know, it's really ego-boosting to brag about how you learned everything by yourself. Been there, done that. But a while ago I got so fed up with it that I actually took drum lessons, and I'm still on it. My skills have immensely increased, and it showed after a few months already. It's tedious as all hell, but it's so damn worth it. And don't worry if you're afraid to lose your individuality - your own style won't get lost; you'll develop a new one or fall back on the old one in no time.

11. Experiment.
This is something to consider when you've already come to a point where you feel you're getting good enough at what you're usually doing, and sooner or later, everyone will experience this.
Let's say you've been playing guitar in metal bands all your life. Even if that doesn't get boring over time (which, honestly, I dare to doubt), you should try and play music styles out of your regular behaviour. How about getting an acoustic guitar and learning Flamenco? Or did you ever think about jazz chords? It will heavily influence your own musical style and therefore your music, obviously. And additionally, it won't limit you to one thing only; from then on you can play in whatever bands you like, with whoever you like.
I'm assuming this can be applied to certain other interests as well; I'm thinking of art and writing especially. But who knows, maybe you can draw your own use of it for whatever you are doing? After all, you can experiment with almost everything.

12. Never ever be satisfied.
Of course you can be proud of yourself once you reach a goal you set yourself, or if someone tells you you're awesome. But don't you dare to relax now! In a time of high motivation it's best to keep going, even if you'll hit another obstacle soon. If you feel like you have done enough already and start to laze around, you'll find that you're losing what you've just gained – so give that song another go, even if you think you nailed the solo already last time you did it.
And while we're at it: Along with being satisfied with yourself comes being presumptuous and thus obnoxious. So try and avoid being a douche as well.


So was there anything on this list that might help you or at least made you think? Or was everything just common sense? What helped you most in your path of becoming who you are?