“If you can’t make yourself sound good and feel good, go get help from a skilled singer or teacher,” says LoVetri. He is a previous contemporary music fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation and has performed at Carnegie Hall and at other venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia. But finding ways to relax both physically and mentally can do wonders for your playing. We know that learning about the brain, especially its high plasticity, can help students want to better themselves. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. This is a great little instrument that you can take with you anywhere. Listen to multiple source versions, record someone’s version you really like and look for spots you don’t quite have where you want them. If you stay organized, complete basic sessions with warm-ups and cool-downs, and finally challenge and help yourself where you can, you can learn to practice playing your instrument effectively. If it sounds too low, play higher. Most young musicians don't just sit down and expertly play an instrument; they take lessons, practice, practice some more and although they move on from particular skills, they still take time to review and go beyond what is asked for by their instructor or teacher. How to get better at playing Push as a melodic instrument? Would you rather be able to play 200 tunes poorly or 25 really, really well? But if you want to get better, then there’s almost nothing that will help more than the consistency of playing every day. But at least when you’re playing, we think the opposite strategy is where it’s at. We get it. And yet most people who play for long enough recognize that focusing just on tunes and playing with others leaves some ripe fruit laying on the ground. Last Updated: September 15, 2020 Get comfortable playing the different parts of a song. Recording yourself can show you the difference, and help you bridge the gap between the way you want to sound and the way you actually sound. It’s easy to think that getting better at one’s instrument is about making our hands work better. If you are learning a fast piece of music, first practice it slowly until you know the notes very well. "I am so overwhelmed with so many guitar pieces I want to play. I play the clarinet and the hardest one I've seen is Violin Sonata No.9 by Beethoven (clarinet version). It will expand your understanding of how to write for them. Listening for good intonation, trying to get the groove right, wincing at little mistakes. We’re not even sure what the guitar players are doing. OK, sure, your family, your spouse, your dog, these are all important. Oldtime musicians can have a complicated relationship with technique. This article was co-authored by Michael Noble, PhD. Benjamin Smith, James Peterson and Richard Osban. When you sing and accompany yourself, you’ve basically got two things going on at the same time: playing and singing. So playing a musical instrument produces brain-building compounds and neural growth factors that are making you smarter, stronger, and better at doing activities throughout your day. A more intense version of the same is to “start a band”. For example, try to play your instrument while standing on one leg. This is difficult because the novelty of learning new tunes is so sweet. Are you ready to become better at your instrument? Hopefully, you can find one or the other here that will give a little boost to your playing. Once you think you have it, play through it to see if it sounds right, or if something needs to be changed. If you have a beginner's instrument consider buying a new one. Even when the total amount of time spent is less, consistency seems to win out. Go back to ones you already have in your bag and see if you can really nail them. This has brought us both much closer together and greatly improved our playing as well as his mood and energy level. Having the benefit of supervision and personal instruction by a music teacher is no doubt extremely valuable when you are trying to learn an instrument. But there’s good reason to exercise some restraint. On the one hand, that’s how you’re gonna learn.