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It is a question that every aspiring musician asks themselves. How much time will I spend trying to learn?
And it isn’t as easy of an answer as you would think. It depends on the goals that you have, how much you practice and what method of learning you take.
One of the most important things to do is evaluate your goals.
Do you want to play music well? Do you want to perform for crowds? Perform for just yourself? Express yourself with music, or play songs that you love? Do you want to understand every aspect, and the history, music theory, and know every single thing about the mechanic of music?
If you just want to learn a song, you can usually do it in a couple hours.
If you want to play music for yourself, usually around 3-6 months.
If you want to play in a group, or for an audience, you are looking at 6-12 months.
If you want to compose your own music, 6-9 months.
If you want to understand every tiny aspect of music theory, every symbol, be able to read any piece of sheet music as fast as you first read it, and be able to teach university classes on it… decades.
So, the first thing you need to do is decide on what skill level you are trying to achieve. It will change the approach you take, and the method you use
Here, habit is your best friend. If you want to build any skill, repetition over time is the key.
10 minutes a day for a month is much more successful than an hour a week, once a week for a month.
30 minutes a day is better than 5 minutes a day.
But there is a point of diminishing returns. Is 7 hours a day better than 6 hours a day?
The biggest factor here is – what can you do consistently? If you can only carve out 5 minutes per day, every day no matter what, then do it.
If you find an occasional extra 30 minutes, on top of the consistent 10 minutes a day, great. But be realistic in your goals.
Very few people can set aside two hours a day for any new activity.
Almost every method of learning has a different focus of theory or practical actions.
There are as many methods of teaching as there are teachers.
Imagine spending the first three months of learning how to read music, without ever getting to touch an instrument. It would be a frustrating experience, even if you had the mental stamina to survive it.
On the other side, practicing a single song for three months, without any other understanding of music theory. Sure, you could play that song well – but you wouldn’t be able to play anything else, and you won’t really understand anything about that song either.
There IS a proper balance of music theory and practical skill.
Nearly every program we have looked at have mis-estimated the ratio, however.
90% of music theory is unnecessary when learning to play music!
Don’t get this wrong. Some music theory is completely fascinating. And if you want to get all of it so that you can teach it at university level, great.
But if you just want to play music, read sheet music, compose, and perform, 90% of music theory will just slow you down.
Leaning music can be a fun, fast, easy experience. No matter how many times you have tried before.
If you are interested in learning to play the piano, check out the Ridley Academy.
