Tips For The Young Musician Vol. 17

by Stephan Hume

Music is a language. Literally, it is just like any other language in the world. You can speak it by playing it.  You can hear others speak it by watching a performance. You can have a conversation with it by jamming with others. You can feel emotion and meaning from it by closing your eyes or listening to lyrics. You can do just about anything with the language of music that you would with the language you use to order your next meal. So what does all this mean to the world? What are some tips to help us to begin speaking this amazing language?

Start speaking it right away.

At Band Dynamics, we have a lot of students who come to us for music lessons. Every single one of these students is speaking the language of music in one way or another. People come to these lessons as beginners, intermediate players, and even quite advanced. But either way, they are all speaking music. Pick up an instrument if you never have before, and make noise with it. It may seem like you don’t know what you are doing, but you don’t have to know anything to make noise. Focus on how amazing it is that the sounds coming from that instrument came from you!

Submerse yourself in it.

By going to a nice concert you are simply witnessing others who are speaking the language. If you are a beginner, it is much like going to a different country that speaks a different language. You may not know how to speak it, but you can understand how it feels. Chances are, if you stick around long enough you will pick up words and phrases the same way. In fact, if you live in another country long enough, you will speak their language because you submersed yourself in it. If you pick up a guitar and start messing around and hang out with people who can play for a long time, you will be able to start playing too. It’s really that simple!

Learn how to read it.

Black dots. Little tiny black dots on lines with all sorts of funky shapes, symbols, and numbers. The written language of music is quite beautiful to look at. If it intimidates you, it is because often times looking at a brand new language can be overwhelming. But you have to remember that learning to read is all about making agreements. Any given line or shape has a meaning behind it. If you learn to agree with that meaning, you have learned to read it. I recommend that every young musician start reading music as young as possible. If it seems hard, just be patient with it. Eventually, you can read any kind of music and then you are really speaking the language. Just remember to feel music above anything else. Just like it isn’t fun to read a phone book front to back, you may find it much more entertaining to read a book about a topic you like. SO find the music you like, find it written, and start reading that first. Maybe someday we will have a musical conversation together…you never know!

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Category: The Future