6 things you need to know before starting music lessons

6 things you need to know before starting music lessons

Have you just signed up for music lessons? Or maybe you think you want to take lessons, but you’re not sure what you’d be getting into. Let me give you some pointers, based on my experience taking and teaching lessons, to guide you toward some reasonable expectations about what studying music will be like. These are six realities of taking music lessons that you’ll want to know about before you start.

(Parent of a young beginner? Read “8 things parents need to know before starting music lessons” instead.)

1. You won’t have fun or learn if you don’t invest enough.

Imagine learning music as a series of tiny hills: if you only push yourself partway up the slope, you’ll slide down again every time. You have to get all the way to the top of the next rise in order to maintain your progress. You’ll need to invest time, effort, and, yes, some money. For starters, you’ll need to put time and effort towards daily practice. Maybe just a little practice! But daily reinforcement is going to be necessary if you don’t want to lose what you’ve worked for every week. You’ll need to budget for lessons for an extended period of time, and you will need to invest in an instrument and materials before you start.

Read more: “Do I HAVE to practice?”

Lots of people think they’ll wait and see if the lessons work out before they get a good instrument or spend money on books or tools. Actually, you’ll sabotage yourself if you don’t have everything you need from the beginning. You have to give it a real chance and take the plunge if you want to truly find out how much you like learning music and what you could achieve.

2. You’ll have to clear a space in your life for music.

As we’ve just said, you are making a big commitment of time and energy. It’s only your weekly lesson time and your daily practice time, which might be no more than 20 or 30 minutes a day at first, but it adds up as the weeks and months go by. That time and energy will have to come from somewhere; there are things you’re currently spending that time and energy on, and you’ll have to do less of those things. Making music is a pursuit you’ll have to make room for in your daily schedule, and it will most likely be a beautiful and rewarding addition, but there’s only so much room in your life. Clear a space for music, or you won’t be able to fit it in.

3. Expect to be challenged.

Your brain will be challenged. Your body (fingers, breath, mouth, voice, energy) will be challenged. Your emotions, especially, will be challenged. There will be fun and joy and pride in your accomplishments, of course, but there will also sometimes be frustration, confusion, maybe even feelings of inadequacy or competitiveness. All of these feelings can be handled, if you pay attention to them. Be aware of how you personally react to challenges and be mindful of what you’re experiencing when you learn.

4. Focusing on getting quick results leads to disappointment.

Learning takes time; be patient. You won’t transform your singing or play a Beethoven sonata the first week you take lessons. You have to be okay with not being amazing immediately. Progress doesn’t necessarily follow a straight path or proceed at a constant rate, either. Focus on achieving short-term goals and enjoying the process, rather than fixating on how quickly or slowly you learn or sighing over how much you can’t do yet.

Read more: “How soon will I see results from my music lessons?”

You’ll also need to be patient with yourself in a more immediate, day-to-day sense as you learn the basics and start to practice and experiment. There’s nothing wrong with making a lot of mistakes, feeling confused or uncertain, or trying stuff that doesn’t work out. That’s just what learning looks like.

5. Music lessons will change you.

We all change, incrementally, constantly, as we live our lives. With all the new input and new skills and new behaviors you’ll be getting from lessons, you have to expect that who you are as a person will change. How you see yourself, and how others see you, will change. Growth can be uncomfortable! It can be hard to let go of being the person you used to be, and it can be scary to embody new and unfamiliar traits. Know that, as you grow as a musician, you will always be leaving your old self behind and becoming another person with new skills and new qualities.

For more insights on this point, I highly recommend you take a couple of minutes to read “Why do some people suddenly stop their singing lessons?” from Tanya Lawrence

6. You are not alone.

You may think learning to make music is something personal, something you do alone that only involves you. Actually, as soon as you start to make music, you’ll become part of a community of musicians in all places and times. You’ll be building relationships - your relationship with your teacher will be important, of course. You’ll build relationships with other musicians in your communities. You’ll be making personal connections with the composers and performers throughout history whose music teaches and inspires you - maybe you won’t meet them in person, but you’ll get to know them through their work. When you perform, you’ll be creating a connection with your audience members. Your relationships with your family members and friends who support you will be instrumental (haha see what I did there) in your learning process and your identity as a musician. Music will bring you into its wonderful world of people and ideas and art, and you can find all the help and support and inspiration you could ever want in this community.

Can you get on board with all of that? If you’re willing to try, you’re ready to start taking music lessons! Give some thought to these six points before your first lesson, and you’ll be a little more prepared for the journey you’re about to take.

Read more:

Singers aren’t real musicians?

How to help your child practice

The importance of doing a bad job

all articles“8 things parents need to know before starting music lessons”