{"id":1725,"date":"2015-12-09T16:48:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T21:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/?p=1725"},"modified":"2023-01-25T17:29:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T22:29:15","slug":"dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with Frustration when Studying Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever you start studying music, you\u2019re taking on a challenge. There are some people who are referred to as \u201cnaturals\u201d where music is concerned and, indeed, some people do have an almost spooky ability to play music with very little training. Most of us don\u2019t have this ability. In fact, most of the best musicians you\u2019ve heard spent a long time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/teachers\/rates\/show\">learning how to play<\/a> properly, even though you may not have guessed that from the way that music seems to flow naturally from their fingers or through their voices.<\/p>\n<p>When you start studying, here are some ways that you can keep frustration at bay and make certain that you are getting the most out of your music lessons.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/metronome.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/metronome-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"metronome\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/metronome-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/metronome.jpg 639w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Play Slowly<\/h2>\n<p>One of the most common mistakes that beginner students make is trying to play songs too quickly. When you are first learning a new piece, play it slowly. Very slowly. Take the time to understand the proportional differences between each note. For instance, if you need to stretch a whole note out to last a full two seconds so that you can play a passage of 16<sup>th<\/sup> notes in proper time, do so. Using a metronome can help this process as it will keep your tempo steady. Don\u2019t rush through music, as it\u2019s only going to make you more frustrated.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Choose Realistic Pieces<\/h2>\n<p>Remember to choose realistic pieces of music to learn from. This may mean learning Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star before you learn anything else. It also may mean playing that song to the point where you can barely stand to hear it anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody has to start at the beginning. Unless you have some strange ability to play the violin that science hasn\u2019t really figured out a way to explain yet, you\u2019re probably going to have to start with learning your scales, learning a few simple songs, and trying to master them.<\/p>\n<p>One way to think of this that may make it less frustrating is that you only get to be a beginner once. When you are studying music, it actually is one of the most exciting times, as literally everything you\u2019re going to study is brand-new to you and you can go in any direction that you want.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Don\u2019t Over Criticize<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/violin-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1727\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/violin-1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"violin practice\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/violin-1-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/violin-1.jpg 639w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a>Don\u2019t criticize yourself too harshly. Remember, if you\u2019re taking music lessons just so you can learn an instrument for fun, you don\u2019t need to hold yourself to the standards that somebody who plays for a professional orchestra needs to hold themselves to. In fact, there is a very good chance that you\u2019re never even going to be in the league of somebody like that, and so what? Learning music is worthwhile in and of itself. If you never ascend to the level of a professional player, that in no way means that you have lost anything in terms of the experience of studying music.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As one final tip, students are oftentimes encouraged by their teachers to record themselves playing and then play it back. If you\u2019re frustrated with something, don\u2019t listen to the playback right away. Wait a day. This will give you a more realistic assessment of how you sound, as you\u2019ll forget about most of the unnoticeable mistakes that you made when you were recording it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever you start studying music, you\u2019re taking on a challenge. There are some people who are referred to as \u201cnaturals\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,3,67,6],"tags":[69,88],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dealing with Frustration when Studying Music<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We all get frustrated sometimes, especially when studying music is new for you. Check out these tips for dealing with that frustration.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dealing with Frustration when Studying Music\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We all get frustrated sometimes, especially when studying music is new for you. Check out these tips for dealing with that frustration.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musika Lessons Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-09T21:48:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-25T22:29:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/metronome.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"639\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"852\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Musika\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Musika\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Musika\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/152d90406121c13736c2a60755c31bba\"},\"headline\":\"Dealing with Frustration when Studying Music\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-09T21:48:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-25T22:29:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/\"},\"wordCount\":569,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/metronome.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"music lessons\",\"tips\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Music\",\"Music Education\",\"Music Lessons\",\"Practice Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/\",\"name\":\"Dealing with Frustration when Studying Music\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-frustration-when-studying-music\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/metronome.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-09T21:48:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-25T22:29:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"We all get frustrated sometimes, especially when studying music is new for you. 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