As we have said in our podcasts and written in our blogs often, learning to play music is hard. But the reward for making and keeping the commitment is being able to do something you’ll cherish for a lifetime. One of the challenges to learning to play well is the increasing difficulty as you progress. It’s easy to see your progress in the early stages but more difficult to recognize it as you become more accomplished.
In the initial phase of learning to play, you learn basic chords and simple melodies. That progress is quick, and it can provide tremendous motivation to keep learning.
As you enter the next phase of more difficult structures, melodies, and rhythms, progress slows as, for example, your hand coordination can’t quite keep up with what you want to play, what your ear tells you is good music. That can be frustrating, and is often where people give up. They had great expectations but they’re not playing how they expected to. They can decide that they’re just not “talented” enough to play well. But that is hardly ever the case; it just takes a little more and a little harder work. That’s where a knowledgeable, motivating teacher can be so valuable.
Eventually, then, your execution, including finger patterns, becomes subconscious and your focus shifts from mechanics to expression. Now you’re on your way to real music and the joy of playing—and, if you decide, performing.
Because your musical ear can develop faster than your ability to executive, your playing can sound unsatisfactory to you. That’s not just true for beginners. As you learn more, as you progress in your musical knowledge and skill, you realize there is always more and better things to learn. Few musicians, in fact, are ever completely satisfied with their playing. Even the greats are hungry to play better.
The bottom line: Learning to play music delivers a unique kind of pleasure that will accompany you throughout your life, but you’ll never run out of new things, better things, to learn, which means you’ll never be completely satisfied with how and what you play.