If you’ve been making music for quite some time, then you may find yourself hitting a plateau. You’re good, but you’d like to be even better, and you aren’t quite sure how to achieve that. While growing in your musicianship will always take time and effort, read on for some ideas about how to become a better musician.
Take Some Lessons
If you want to move to the next level of musicianship, then find a good teacher, and take some lessons. Most musicians will reach a point where they simply do not know what to do to improve, but a teacher does. He or she will critique your playing or singing and point out all kinds of necessary improvements. Don’t be upset or discouraged. This is all part of musical growth. You need to know what to change before you can change it.
Practice Regularly
Never, ever neglect practice if you want to become a better musician. Set up a regular practice schedule, and then stick to it. Ideally, you should shoot for hour sessions at least a couple times a week, but if you can only fit in half-hour sessions, that’s better than nothing. Even if you don’t feel like practicing on a particular day, do it anyway. Missing practice sessions only leads to missing more practice sessions. Remember, too, that a rough practice is better than no practice at all.
Build Your Repertoire
Don’t spend your practice sessions just playing whatever music suits your fancy that day. Rather, select a set of music in various genres to work on continually until you are relatively satisfied with your mastery of it. If you are taking lessons, your teacher can guide you in this. Combining exercises, etudes and performance pieces will help you build your repertoire and gain confidence.
Perform
You should also make an effort to perform if possible. Join a community orchestra or choir, get active in the music ministry at your church or even play or sing for friends, family members or nursing home residents. Performing in public will increase your comfort in your music and your enjoyment of it.
Study Theory and Train Your Ear
If you want to grow in your musicianship, you must also expand your studies to include music theory and ear training. Studying music theory will give you a better grasp of how music works and help you improve your technique. Ear training is an excellent way to work on intonation and balance.
Listen to the Best
Finally, to improve your own musicianship, you should listen to the best musicians. Pick out of few favorites who share your instrument or vocal range, and study their technique and interpretation. If you play organ, for instance, follow James Mellichamp organist. If you play flute, you might focus on James Galway. Listen to recordings of your chosen musicians and even attend concerts if possible. Don’t limit yourself, though. Immerse yourself in good music wherever you find it, and make sure that you know the reasons it is so good. Then you can strive to imitate it.
Becoming a better musician takes time and effort, but if you’re willing to work, you may see your musicianship grow and discover true enjoyment in your music.
