Seven Rules for Beginners

A while back, a student challenged me to write a list of seven rules for beginners. At the time, I didn’t feel equipped for the task– it’s been a very long time since I was a beginner!– and in many ways, I still don’t. After all, the word “rule” implies certainty. And certainty is not really the spirit in which I believe music (and teaching) should be approached.

Rules make for good clickbait, though! And the idea did interest me. Beginnings are important. They are exciting times, times of openness and exploration, but they also set habits and patterns that can last far into the future. There’s more than a little truth to the maxim “Begin as you mean to go on.”

So I asked myself: If I had to pick seven things I wish that every beginner knew, what would they be?

I promptly generated a list of 63 vital principles.

Lucky for all of us, I’ve managed to winnow down. The choices were in some cases painful, but here’s what remains.

1) You can make progress!

It doesn’t matter how old you are. It doesn’t matter how talented you are. It doesn’t matter what you already know and what you don’t. You, yes you, are capable of learning! I suppose I might make an exception if you are comatose. But you’re reading this, so I know you’re not! Start your endeavor secure in the knowledge that, no matter who you are or when you begin, you CAN improve your skills.

2) But it will take consistent work over time

You may be surprised at how disappointing you find this to be (I was!), but music is not like a list of vocabulary words, a procedure for solving math problems, or any other fact or procedure-based body of knowledge. Music is an intensely complex psycho-motor skill that engages, deeply, the mind and the body. Many musical skills can only be acquired by consistent, deliberate, intelligent repetition, often spread over a much more considerable time span than you would like them to be. There is no substitute for this; there is no shortcut. The good news is that the ability put in work consistently over time is ALSO a skill, and thus something at which you can improve!

3) Aim for momentum, not mastery

I could also phrase this one as “aim for progress, not perfection.” The single greatest source of pointless student angst is the misapprehension that music is a results-based endeavor, and that complete mastery is the only acceptable goal. This is possibly because the part of music-making that most of us see, performance, is fairly results-based. But performing is the very tip of the musical iceberg, and an over-emphasis on perfection or complete mastery during your daily practice can retard your progress and embed habits of tension and stress. Focus on moving your skills forward over time, not on achieving perfection in the moment. Mistakes are an opportunity for you to learn!

That said….

4) Learn, don't unlearn

It is so, so, so much easier to lay down a new habit than to uproot an old one. Take the extra time to learn with optimal technique now, when you’re just beginning, and to learn slowly enough and thoroughly enough that you are always practicing relaxed, easy playing. This will pay massive dividends later.

5) I don’t care about your fingers

Well, I do actually care. But how fast you can move your fingers on the recorder should not be your top learning priority. It should not even be in your top ten, to be honest. Yes, moving your fingers is the most visible and self-explanatory part of recorder playing, but things like breathing, sound production, coordination and articulation are worth far more of your time and effort in the beginning.

6) You’ll feel uncomfortable

Beginning things is hard. When you begin, you have to do something you’re not particularly good at, and do that thing repeatedly. And humans tend not to enjoy that very much. Plus, a lot of us haven’t begun things in a while, maybe not since we were kids, so we’re out of practice at beginning. But beginning is good for the soul! And getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is a skill in its own right, and hence, something at which you can make progress!

7) You really don’t know what you don’t know

Beginning anything is a bit like being in an airplane and starting to descend from 30,000 feet. At first, you just see the ground. There it is; that’s where you’re headed; simple! Then lakes and rivers start to appear. Cities become discernible. Then roads. Then buildings. Cars. OMG, are those individual trees?? And now you’re telling me we need to land on this tiny strip of concrete????

As a beginner, you literally have no conception of what you don’t know. And trust me- it’s a lot. As you progress, you will begin to see more and more detail in your musical landscape. And this is OK! In fact, it’s good! Beginning to become aware of the outlines of what you don’t know doesn’t mean you’re moving backward; it’s progress.

The only part of my plane metaphor I don’t like is that, in the plane, you eventually land.

In music, the flight goes on forever.

Happy travels!