There are several pieces of software that allow you to slow down songs and pieces of music without changing the pitch. Many of these also allow you to loop sections of the track. This is incredibly powerful both for practicing pieces and also for transcribing (working out the notes and chords in songs by ear).
The students I have who maintain a sense of humour through lessons tend to be the ones who progress fastest. I don’t entirely know why this is, bit it’s true. So if you can, take a light hearted approach to your learning too.
It takes a bit of confidence to ask questions – whether it’s to you teacher or other musicians. But it really will help you progress with music faster.
No matter how good a teacher or a course is, there may still be bits that don’t quite make sense to you the first time round – or even the tenth! There are a whole bundle of reasons for this. It doesn’t really matter what they are. The important thing is that when you don’t understand something, ask about it.
“What?” I hear you cry, “We’re guitarists not singers, we shouldn’t have to engage our vocal chords. That’s not what we signed up for.” But employing your voice while you practice can make an enormous difference to the speed you learn things.
This one always makes me laugh, because we’re making music, yet the number of students who don’t pay attention to how they actually sound is remarkable.
I understand why it happens. When we learn an instrument we start to focus on the physical aspects, the mechanics of it; which finger to put where, how to hold it, posture, breathing, technique and so on. With all that going through our heads we don’t have a lot of attention left to listen to the noise we’re making.
