A Short, Comprehensive Guide To Becoming An Excellent Musician

Before we delve into this article guide, let me confess: I’m not an expert musician, though I consider myself to be well-versed in handling a couple of musical instruments. These instruments fall into the rock band category: guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums.

When we talk about these four instruments, I can say I can fairly make an impressive set of melodies and harmonies out of them, though it is the guitar that I can confidently say, “I’m quite good with it.”

Music is an exact science, and if you want to be a musician but can’t discern the real meaning of “exactness” as you perform, then I have to say that cleaning instruments should be your option for making some side income with music.

Side income? Yes, unless you are a regular gig-person in clubs, bars, and restaurants, or someone who’s able to establish a viewable music vlog, or someone who got really lucky and became a very marketable popstar, then music should just be a side income.

It’s not really a job so to speak, because having regular paying engagements is really hard, especially if you have a day job that nags at you everyday to get real serious with.

But the ultimate perk of being a musician is the joy and elation it gives. If you have attained that level where people applaud at you, and where they give compliments and (honest) praises about how good you are in playing and singing, then that’s the best reward you’ll ever get.

But how can you get there? How can you be declared as an excellent musician or performer? Like I said, I can’t really say that I’m already on that level. However, I can say that I’ve been to situations in which people, friends or not, compliment me nicely about how good I am with the guitar and with the drums.

From my experience, this is how you get to become a truly attractive and “pleasant to the ears” kind of musician. Here’s the guidance that I can give:

Pick the right instrument.

Like a valiant warrior choosing the right weapons, a good musician must choose his instrument well. Of course, you can’t possibly know what instrument you’re most comfortable with unless you get to immerse yourself in a few tries.

The best way to figure this out is to visit a recording studio, or just a garage where your rocker-friend loves to hang out. Pick a few instruments and try them out for a few days. Yes, days. You can’t easily figure out the real you, musically speaking if you don’t spend enough time on getting acquainted with your prospect instrument.

You could just listen to your heart, as Roxette says. But the Bible also says, “The heart is deceitful above all things,” so just weigh down your choice carefully. Is it the guitar? The keyboards? Or the drums? If you have already made your pick, then you are already on your first steps to greatness.

Devote time for practice, religiously.

Do I mean you should practice inside a church building with a Bible by your side? No. Although doing it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Many successful musicians including yours truly (though ‘successful’ might be a bit misleading as a description), actually started practicing within a church.

What I mean by practicing religiously is that you have to allocate a few hours each day for just ‘making out’ with your chosen instrument. I learned from my musicianship journey that you can never be a good musician if you don’t treat your instrument as your lover.

When I became a college teenager, I became the best guitarist at school because of one vital factor: I treated my guitar like my wife, my concubine, and my repetitive one-night stand partner. If you’re an aspiring keyboardist, bassist, or drummer, you should love those things too, the way you would treat your boyfriend or girlfriend.

Being a religious musician doesn’t actually mean you’d have to be “churchly”, it simply means you have to give your high devotion to your practice sessions. Speaking of practice...

Choose daily practice over weekly sessions.

Many aspiring musicians think that as long as they just regularly make love to their instruments (not literally, please), like in a weekly basis, they will still attain that greatness they aspire for. I have many friends and rivals, who go about their work or schooling in most of their weekdays and devote almost an entire day for practicing on weekends.

That could work if you have already reached your musicianship goals, and if you are already in your “maintenance mode.” But if you’re still trying to build yourself musically, that’s actually a horrible idea. The best way to deal with your days’ dealings is to enforce some daily 15-minute practice on yourself. Yes, 15 minutes!

Throughout the years of practicing myself, and in teaching others how to be a musician, I found out that this formula: 15 x 7 x 30 will make the most out of your musicianship in a month than you’d do if you enforce on yourself allocating an entire day of your Saturday or Sunday per week.

If you find that 15-minute routine to be too burdensome on your part, then make it 5 minutes each time. Having a 35-minute total of practice time per week is a lot better than having a 6-hour or 8-hour weekend practice! This method really works, you have to trust me on this one.

Never develop the ‘hopper habit.’

When you are just starting out, you will most likely experience the temptation of hopping from one song to another. Such a scenario will be very hard to resist, just telling you ahead. Here’s my advice, don’t succumb to it that much although honestly, succumbing to it is sometimes beneficial.

But the disadvantages will far outweigh the advantages, so it would be truly wise to decide on a song, and work on that for at least a week, if you follow that 5 to 15-minute a day rule. When you are able to accompany that song neatly and confidently already, then it would be time to move on to another, more difficult piece.

Most beginning musicians also have this mindset, “The more songs I can play, the better I’d be!” If you have that kind of thinking, avoid that by all means. Great guitarists, as well as any musician for that matter, don’t believe that.

Excellence in music is defined by the artistry that you can render in playing a musical instrument, and the quality of the sound that you can give with it. Maybe you can play a hundred or a thousand songs with your guitar, but if you’re just playing the same 3 chords on those songs, is it fair to call you skilled, or gifted?

So to transform yourself into the great musician you dream of, focus on strategy, quality, and discipline. Doing otherwise would be a mistake, and not to mention, foolish and counterproductive.

Hope this helps. Thanks for reading and Godspeed.