Mastering the four Ps of a musical instrument | Dace Anderson

So ya’ wanna’ play a musical instrument do ya’? You say you went down there to the big guitar store and got yourself the prettiest and shiniest little red electric guitar you could find and a sweet looking amp with all the blinking-red-and-green-light-adorned knobs to go with it? Or maybe you went down to the neighborhood instrument shop and bought that cool looking acoustic; the one that looks just like the one Jimmy Page played on Stairway to Heaven.

By Dace Anderson • October 8, 2010 4:46 pm

So ya’ wanna’ play a musical instrument do ya’? You say you went down there to the big guitar store and got yourself the prettiest and shiniest little red electric guitar you could find and a sweet looking amp with all the blinking-red-and-green-light-adorned knobs to go with it? Or maybe you went down to the neighborhood instrument shop and bought that cool looking acoustic; the one that looks just like the one Jimmy Page played on Stairway to Heaven. Or maybe it was the small drum set you found at the drum store that within a few years will surely grow into being as big as the one Neal Peart from Rush plays on. That’s cool. No matter what it was, it’s now time to learn to play that thing. As your unsolicited musical advocate, then, I hereby advise you to adhere to a strict musical diet of what I refer to as “The Four P’s.” They are: Point-of-view, Practice, Patience, and my personal favorite, Phun.

  • Point-of-view. If you think that you won’t be happy playing music until you’ve mastered “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce, then you probably won’t be happy for a while. If plucking out the melody to “Happy Birthday” sounds like fun, then I bet you’ll leave your very first lesson with a smile on your face. Goal-setting is very important in every aspect of life. And, just like anything else you do, playing music will probably not come easy at first. A set of realistic, achievable goals seems to be the best way to ensure that you will be happy along most of your musical quest.
  • Practice. I’ve read that it takes anywhere from about 300 to about 10,000 repetitions of a physical movement in order to master it. That’s a lot of practice. If you’re the guy who wants to play “Through the Fire and Flames” I suggest you tell your friends you’re busy the next several weekends because you’ll be needing to spend hours every day running scales and exercises. If you’re like most people and your goals are more modest in nature- maybe you’re cool with learning the drum parts to a few AC/DC songs- then that mastering process will take considerably less time than the dude above, but you’ll still want to keep in mind the hundreds – if not thousands- of reps necessary to achieve awesomeness.
  • Patience. You want to be awesome now, but you’re not because you just started. Number one, you are awesome because you did start. Remember that the journey of 10,000 miles begins with one step. Number two, I know how you feel. When I was a teenager I would sometimes get angry at not being able to play as well as Eddie Van Halen. It really bothered me. The only thing that kept me going was the fun I was having while learning to play. Which brings me to the fourth P.
  • Phun. Purposely spelling words wrong is phun. You know what else is phun? Playing music when you feel you are successful in regards to achieving your goals through a rigid diet of goal-setting, practice, and patience. Remember to learn songs that you like to listen to. Play with some other people. Have some phun.

Dace Anderson is the founder and president of Dace’s Rock ‘N’ More Music Academy in Maple Valley. He is also the guitarist and singer for the band Sealth.

Reach him at uofrock@hotmail.com.