How Your Family Can Teach Themselves to Play Music

You and your family have made the decision to play music. Now you have the age-old dilemma: should you get music lessons or teach yourselves to play? There is no easy answer to this. On the one hand, music lessons can be expensive, and there are lots more people studying music by themselves now. On the other, music lessons can help you to avoid unhelpful habits that can knock your progress back. If you are nervous about teaching yourself and your family to play music, here are some top tips that could help you. 

Look at YouTube

YouTube is a treasure trove for would-be musical geniuses, with plenty of tutorials online that can take you through the process of learning to play an instrument step-by-step. These videos are often split into different lessons and start from the very beginning. One of the major benefits of these is that you can rewind them at any time and return to their lessons even when you are a pro. However, sometimes, it can be difficult to see what the instructor is doing or a video that goes at your own pace. You will also be unable to answer questions. However, this is a great option for those who like to study independently and in their own time. 

Invest in Sheet Music

You might want to create your own tunes one day. It is important to know the basics first, though. Instead of thinking up your own melodies, you should first invest in sheet music that allows you to play almost any tune under the sun. Some sheet music has been specially designed for beginners, though, and this can be a great place to start. This will make studying music exciting and personalized to you while allowing you to follow tunes that have been written out in a much larger and clearer typeset than usual. Luckily, there is a lot of piano sheet music for beginners online, meaning that you can download the instructions to play a song whenever you feel like it. 

Have Patience

It can be harder to have patience with yourself when you are teaching yourself solo, and you might easily get frustrated and give up. However, by trying again and again or taking a short break and coming back to it, you might soon find that you learn from your mistakes and master what it is that you need to do. It can also be helpful to support each of your family members throughout the journey and help to teach each other new skills. You might also ask questions on different musical websites and forums to get help from players all over the world who may be happy to help you. 

Get to Know the Basics

Before you do anything else, though, you must have an understanding of the basics, such as chords and scales. This can come from just playing around with your instrument and getting to know it, finding the way that you are comfortable holding it and acknowledging its weight in your hands. You must also focus on the standard techniques before trying to do anything out of the box as this will give you a groundwork which you can then build on and rules to break as you improve and wish to experiment.

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