How Long Does It Take To Learn to Play Instrument?

This is a question that is regularly asked by almost every beginner student, from young students to adults. It is natural to want to know how long it will take to be able to play an instrument. However, most people often forget the fact that it is their practice time and commitment towards the instrument that will determine their progress. Then again, there are some other factors to consider which determines the duration of their progress. Since we usually have two different age groups of students, namely young students and adult beginners, let’s discuss these two groups individually under specific parameters.

Young Students (Aged 8 years to 12 years) 

Approach to Learning: Young beginners should have fun with their instrument. As they are just getting to know the instrument and the skills they can achieve while learning it, it is very important that it excites them and inspires them to work toward progress. As they are young, theories and basic reading should be introduced in a progressive and practical way so that they can take in the details and master one aspect at a time. Over burdening these learners with a lot of Music theory can lead to them losing interest in their music learning.

 

Objective: Their objective should be to perform in about a year with the knowledge they have gathered during that time. They should be able to connect with their instrument and play the tunes they want to play. Once they can execute the music they hear, there is a sense of achievement that inspires them to learn further and therefore accelerates their learning progress as the instrument catches their interest.

 

Duration: If you are a complete beginner and aged between 8-12 years, it may take you about 6-9 months to have a strong command over the fundamentals, especially certain techniques such as chord shifting, pitch change and the coordination of both hands or hands and feet (as this requires advanced motor techniques), etc. Students aged above 12 have the capacity to take in more information and process a bit quicker, so they might be able to have better command on basics in 4-6 months.

 

 

Adults

Approach to Learning: As an adult, there is an interest to learn and play the instrument that has been there a long time but you haven’t found time or you had other commitments that prevented you from taking it up earlier. There are also cases of adults who’d learn from the ever-growing internet (mainly YouTUbe) but are either unsure due to too much information or stuck at a point where their progress has been constant for a long time (they don’t know where to go next). First as a working adult, you have to decide what you want out of it. Is it just to play in front of friends (as a hobby) or gather knowledge to be able to play in a band or release your own compositions, or for therapeutic, stress release or other reasons. Whatever the reason is, you should ensure that wherever you are learning from should be flexible enough to suit your timings as well as your goal. So, it should be a goal or result oriented approach. Music Pandit, has been created with just such a goal in mind. It’s the perfect destination for an adult learner.

 

Objective: The objective should be able to measure your progress and layout a practice schedule that works for you. Keep in mind what you want to achieve and spend time on that. Try to excite and inspire yourself during practice which will help you commit to the instrument more. Keep playing the songs you love other than just the exercises your teacher might have given you for your improvement and make a conscious effort to understand what you are executing.

 

Duration: If you are just beginning, it will take you at least 3-4 months to have good command over the fundamentals and then further take it to the level where you will be able to play along with certain songs and even hum it yourself. It also matters how you see yourself playing the instrument, if you expect yourself to be able to jam along with other instruments, it will take a little longer especially if you're just beginning to learn your instrument.

 

The duration is just an assumption, and not always exactly true but it is the average time one takes to finally understand their instrument based on our experience. There are other factors that determine how long it takes to progress including daily practice of the exercises and lessons given to improve muscle memory. So, make sure that you set your goals and follow them with plenty of regular practices and commitment to achieve them in the duration. Music Pandit has curated Practice Routines to counter these issues of not knowing what to practice. Whatever you practice must have a direct application and should build your skills for your learning purpose - that’s where Music Pandt comes in.

 

We hope you were able to get an educated understanding of how long it takes to learn to play an instrument with this blog post. If you want access to detailed guided lessons and practice routines, please do check out our Guitar courses on https://musicpandit.com – On Music Pandit, you get step-by-step lessons  that are designed to get you playing your favourite songs as quickly as possible. The lessons cover a whole range of topics including easy chords, popular strumming patterns, how to be creative with your playing and how to apply your techniques on any song!

 

We hope you enjoyed this topic and it was useful for you. Please follow our blog so you don’t miss out on any upcoming blog posts. If there is any topic you want to know more about, just comment below and we will definitely discuss it.

About Music Pandit

Music Pandit brings you the most effective way to learn music online with a 360-degree approach to learning music.

Music Pandit offers Online Video Lessons with the support of Personalised feedback from our Music Pandits, curated step-by-step lessons, extensive content - you can choose multiple instruments with One subscription, carefully organised Practice Routines, a Musical Community, Creative Challenges, Goal setting and so much more – so you can learn Anytime, Anywhere at your pace! Sign up today on https://musicpandit.com  

3 Mistakes that are Stopping you from Learning Guitar

There are many factors to consider when we are an absolute beginner trying to learn something for the first time. There are several difficulties that a beginner faces that can slow down progress or result in a complete failure at learning the guitar which is an amazing instrument.

In this blog, we will discuss 3 mistakes that people make that directly impact their guitar learning.

Mistake #1 – Being Stuck on Warm-Up exercises

When you go to a music school or first guitar instructor, the first thing they are going to do is ask you to play guitar exercises. Typically, to master this exercise you may take a month or more. In our experience, most of the time, students complain saying that “I'm stuck at this exercise forever”. Now, if you're stuck at the same kind of exercise for two weeks or more, it’s obvious that you're going to lose interest. And once you start losing interest, the next thing you do will be to discontinue learning this amazing instrument.

So, what’s the Solution?

The right way to learn is to learn chords at the same time. So, why do you need to learn the chords at the same time? That is because chords by itself are going to take more than two or three weeks to master. So, let’s calculate the total time you’re going to take - you are going to learn the warmup exercise for three or four weeks then after that you're going to start with the chords. Chords will take you another two or three weeks so for two months you're just doing some exercise on the guitar

Mistake #2 - Learning Complicated Chords

When you first started learning to play chords on the Guitar, you tend to learn these chords C Major, E Minor, G Major and D Major. Now, while E Minor and D Major are not so complex for a beginner, the other two chords – C Major and D Major can be quite tricky for a beginner.

So, what’s the Solution?

That is why you should learn ‘half chords’. So, what are half chords? Half chords are simplified versions of the full chords – these typically have less notes that need to be played. These notes are typically played on the first three strings. So, we highly recommend first learning the half chords and how to apply them correctly. Playing these half chords and being able to apply them will help build your muscle memory and confidence. Once you have gained mastery over these half chords and are ready to venture into full chords, then you can start with full chords.

Mistake #3 – No Rewards/Motivation

A lot of students end up spending their first few weeks or even months on warm up exercises. They are unable to move their fingers fast enough, not coordinated or just unable to get a grasp of the instrument. The problem is that, if they are unable to achieve anything, they are going to get bored and lose motivation very quickly.

So, what’s the Solution?

The first thing we need to understand is the psyche of a learner. If somebody is trying to learn anything, it's directly related to how enjoyable that learning process is. How much of a reward system is it based on. So, learning and accomplishing things at a faster pace will keep you motivated. This in turn will keep you motivated to learn further. And if the process is really slow and complicated, you will either get tired or bored and you will ultimately stop learning. At the end of the day, with everything you learn, to keep you motivated, you need to have accomplishments. So, while warm up exercises are important, we advise that you don't spend more time on only exercises. Learn to play songs and learn songs alongside which is more rewarding and keeps you motivated to learn more.

In Summation

So, that was our 3 Mistakes that are Stopping you from Learning Guitar and our 3 solutions to counter that problem. So, make sure you don’t repeat these mistakes on your journey of guitar learning to achieve your goals. If you want to see a video demonstration of these topics, please see the video on our YouTube Channel - https://youtu.be/XcPYZXhdyt0    
 
If you want access to detailed guided lessons and practice routines, please do check out our Guitar courses on https://musicpandit.com – On Music Pandit, you get step-by-step lessons  that are designed to get you playing your favourite songs as quickly as possible. The lessons cover a whole range of topics including easy chords, popular strumming patterns, how to be creative with your playing and how to apply your techniques on any song!
 
We hope you enjoyed this topic and it was useful for you. Please follow our blog so you don’t miss out on any upcoming blog posts. If there is any topic you want to know more about, just comment below and we will definitely discuss it.

About Music Pandit

Music Pandit brings you the most effective way to learn music online with a 360-degree approach to learning music.

Music Pandit offers Online Video Lessons with the support of Personalised feedback from our Music Pandits, curated step-by-step lessons, extensive content - you can choose multiple instruments with One subscription, carefully organised Practice Routines, a Musical Community, Creative Challenges, Goal setting and so much more – so you can learn Anytime, Anywhere at your pace! Sign up today on https://musicpandit.com  

4 Ways That Learning Music Make You Smarter

There are numerous substantiations about the role Music education can play mental and social development, as well as life lasting communication skills. In this article, let us look into the impact music education can have on brain development and stimulation.

1. Heightened Brain Development

When playing an instrument , it requires the attention of our brain which opens up several neural path in brain that helps in developing the brain. It undergoes various mental activity that keeps the brain active and drilled for complicated arrangements so that it can solve and react to  the things as quickly as possible. Somehow the architecture of the brain changes in a way that it starts perceiving tasks in a broader, smarter and emotional way. Thus, regularly practising music heightens the processing ability of our brain and it tends to decipher complex activities with ease and efficiency. Listening to music and playing music is considered the equivalent of a full-body workout for your brain!

2. Stronger Memory Power

Music education pushes you to understand certain capabilities of the brain, most importantly - the ability to memorise in innovative ways. It can teach you to analyse the task at hand and process the data in a way that helps you connect them with relation to its purpose. This way, when you can connect the dots, it helps you remember things better. It also enhances your spatial, auditory and visual capacity that helps you comprehend things much better.

3. Enhanced Cognition and Co-ordination ability

Playing an instrument requires concentration and conscious attention to details. It also requires a lot of coordination to be able to execute the playing accurately. So, with regular practice you can develop your coordinating abilities that will enhance your skills in the instrument, but also it will help you tackle other activities that you come across in your daily life that requires you to have some type of coordination. Practicing music is like a workout of your brain, so you are building muscles which will store more information as well as react more efficiently to the tasks given. Thus, it also improves your cognitive abilities which helps you retain things better, plan effectively and focus your attention to the necessary.

4. Faster ability to learn

As we have seen from the points discussed above, music really plays a vital role in the development and enhancement of our intelligence. It is safe to say that, if one has successfully done their music education, it can help them in long-term. They have a higher sense of conscience, consciousness, enhanced cognitive and spatial capacity and a broader sense of how things work. It prepares you for all the challenges that may come your way. You tend to learn about your surrounding faster and take the reasonable action necessary. It provides you the ability to learn things faster and use them to benefit your skills.

Music does not only make you smarter, it supports you emotionally as well. It can be one of the most supportive base that you can rely on. It also provides you with so many benefits that can improve your emotional life. Finally, the reason one should consider learning music is not just because of all the benefits stated above, but also for the simple joy you get by listening to music and playing music.

5 Music Albums that Changed the Music Industry

Some bands became immortal because they put out a song that no one can resist singing, while some write music that no one might have expected. In this blog, we aim to cover 5 famous albums that changed the course of the Music Industry.

1. Radiohead’s “In Rainbows”

“In Rainbows” shook the music industry's very infrastructure. They simply announced on their official site, "the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days." With that, Radiohead completely invented a new promotional method in the digital era. Ever since, In Rainbows arrived in everyone's inbox simultaneously and listeners experienced those torrid first notes of "15 Step" together, many artists have tried to "pull a Radiohead,". Beyoncé and U2 succeeded in delivering their music in a similar manner. The album's "pay-what-you-want" offer that allowed diehards, casual fans and curious listeners to put their own value on music, was just another step forward in questioning how the music business does business.

2. Run DMC’s Self-Titled Album

This was the first classic hip-hop album that anyone can remember. This was the breaking point where the buoyant post-disco rhythms and future-shocked electro were introduced which ended up dominating the genre's first five years on record. The Hollis, Queens crew did nothing short of reinventing the still-new style in their own image: hard, raw, in-your-face and catchy enough to challenge anything else in pop. The rap-rock fusion "Rock Box" stands as a foundationally transformative moment for American culture itself, while the earth-shaking one-two punch of "Sucker MCs" and "It's Like That"  presented grandstanding to complex social realism. The album is minimal and stark, but was revolutionary for its time.

3. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”

It is hard to imagine the present-day musical landscape without “Thriller”, which changed the game both sonically and marketwise. The album's courageous blending of pop, rock and soul would completely change the scene in radio. They introduced an intense guitar solo, in what was considered pop at the time. A lot of elements from different genres added up to spice up the sound of the songs in the album. The album's fun, cinematic videos attracted even more audience and forced MTV to incorporate black artists into its playlists. Its promotional strategy, which led to seven of its nine tracks being released as singles, raised the bar for what, exactly, constituted a "hit-laden" LP. It broke records, showing just how far pop could reach: the biggest selling album of all time, the first album to win eight Grammys in a single night and the first album to stay in the Top 10 charts for a whole year! This was truly game changing.

4. Black Sabbath’s First Album

When Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut in 1970, they didn't think they were starting a movement. But their sludgy take on psychedelic-blues and incorporating catchy riffs in songs, it became the core of what's now known as metal — whether modified by "thrash," "progressive" or even "glam." Part of the influence lies in the way Tony Iommi's guitars were tuned down, the result of a freak accident that resulted in him shearing off two of his right hand's fingertips, and having to play with their tenderness in mind. That contributed to a doom-filled atmosphere that was only enhanced by frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who was still refining his "prince of darkness" persona, and song titles grasping toward signifiers of evil. The album proved inspirational to generations of musicians, who used Black Sabbath's ideas of rock & roll - making it faster, slowing it down even more, adding orchestral flourishes — to create not just a genre, but a musical movement.

5. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's wasn't the first album to blend rock music with high art, but it was probably the first time that musicians of the Beatles' stature and popularity decided to turn their back on the style that had made them famous. It was the first time the Beatles were free of the responsibility of being the Beatles. The irony is that no other album cemented them so firmly in the public's mind. The Beatles as a whole defined an era inspiring many generations and song writing that still inspires the current crop of artists.

Music Pandit brings you the best and the most effective way to learn music with a complete 360-degree approach to learning music.

Music Pandit offers Personalised feedback from our Music Pandits, curated step-by-step lessons, extensive content - you can choose multiple instruments 🎤🥁🎶🎸🎹with one subscription, carefully organised Practice routines, a Musical Community, Creative Challenges, Goal setting and so much more – so you can learn Anytime, Anywhere at your pace!

Reference : https://www.rollingstone.com/interactive/most-groundbreaking-albums-of-all-time/