Monday, May 9, 2011

Goal of Learning Music

Goal of Learning Music
[Originally Posted on November 23, 2010 by Richard Matteson]

Hi,

Today we’re going to explore the fundamental goal of learning to play music.

Many teachers and students don’t really examine the underlying psychological drives that motivate us to learn and excel.

If the only place you could practice or play an instrument (or sing) was in a soundproof room and no one could ever hear you- there would be no motivation to practice and excel.

The reason we learn is to perform for others. It’s the drive to share music with others and recognition of our personal accomplishments playing the music we have learned that motives us.

Simply- the reason we learn to play is to perform. This fundamental concept is often overlooked. Our goal is to learn how to perform. That’s not in many cases how we’re taught. Few teachers actually understand and have a plan to teach students how to perform. They are thrown in the water and must learn how to swim.

Fortunately there is a system to learn how to perform. It’s one that I’ve developed from Aaron Shearer who I worked with in the 1980s on his “Learning the Classic Guitar” books.

I’ll be sharing my thoughts in this blog and have started a video series “Secrets of Learning the Guitar” which will cover some of the information.

So the goal of learning an instrument is performing and the goal of performing is sharing music.

More to come—–

Richard Matteson

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