Music Lessons Tulsa | Life Lessons From Music
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And this edition of the Curtis music Academy podcast, we are going to be discussing how, some, I can give you some life lessons from learning an instrument. It’s important that you know, you have mentors or people who are able to help you go further, faster in your life. It’s important that you can have confidence and competence quickly in your life. And I’m going to give you a few tips that I think would be, very, very helpful for you as you begin learning. And, these are just some life lessons from me, from music lessons Tulsa from learning an instrument most of your life. And so I’m one of those key points is going to be having, confidence.
Of course, you know, you also one, this is my first point. I want to learn at the pace of no mistakes. And so that is one of my life lessons from music lessons Tulsa. Without further ado, my name is Steven. I’ve been in music, a musician for 12 years and have been a musician at the Curtis music Academy or an instructor at the Curtis music Academy for 12 or a one year actually. But I’ve been teaching music for five years, going on six years in music lessons Tulsa. And so, it’s been an awesome, awesome journey. I’ve learned so much when it comes to music.
I’ve learned so much when it comes to, teaching students in music lessons Tulsa and, teaching differences that we all have. And so it’s important to, you know, begin to grow and learn from mistakes and learn from your own mistakes as well as other’s mistakes. And so if we don’t, then we become stagnant. If we don’t, we become the same and don’t grow. And so, I’ve learned so much in my, in my musicianship career, I’ve learned so much about, you know, learning the tricks of the trade. I’ve learned so much about bettering myself and self-education. I’ve learned so much about, I’m enjoying the process of learning in music lessons Tulsa.
You know, I think if you become a lover of learning, then you become better all the time. And so one of my life lessons for you guys is to learn at the pace of no mistakes in music lessons Tulsa. I’d say that this is key in becoming a pro in just about anything professional, a master at anything. You want to learn at a pace of no mistakes. That’s, that tells you that you’re, you’re very particular. You know, you’re intentional and paying attention to the details. You’re intentionally paying attention to the details. And so, learning at the pace of no mistakes is going to be huge because if you learn at a pace that is too quick for you and you’re, you’re constantly making mistakes over and over and over and over and over again, then how can you ever become good and develop the correct muscle memory to become excellent at whatever it is that you’re doing?
It’s nearly impossible. I’ve tried it. You know, if you’re, if you’re trying to learn things very quickly, then you tend to stumble more. So if you learn things very quickly, you know, you don’t really have quite a grasp on when it’s time to, you know, really pull down and hunker down and actually nail the parts when it’s time to nail the chords, when it’s time to nail the scales. And so in order to, you know, learn at the pace of no mistakes, you need to have one a metronome. It’s important to have a metronome when you are learning. Because if you don’t, then you’re not, you’re setting the pace for yourself and the pace for yourself isn’t quite enough in music lessons Tulsa.
You know, you’re not, you don’t have perfect rhythm, you don’t have perfect timing. And so a metronome is going to really help with that and keep you on perfect timing. And so you want to pay at it. You want to play at a pace that is, not too fast and not too slow. You want to have a pace that’s more like a 40 beats per minute. I’d say about 40 beats per minute. You want to have a pace that’s, that’s just not too fast, you know. So I said, I suggest 40 beats per minute for just about everyone in life when it comes to that. And so if you’ve got 40 beats per minute, that’s not too fast, not too slow for the general beginner. And so that is just one of my life lessons for you learning an instrument in music lessons Tulsa.
My second point is you are better than you think. And so this is, this ties into not thinking more highly than you want to, but at the same time, you definitely want to think of yourself as in the best light. You know, you want to think of yourself in the best way possible. And so it’s important to have the confidence in, you know, to think of yourself better than you in music lessons Tulsa. Not better than you are, but think of yourself as your potential, you know, think of yourself in the potential, in light of potential, you know, you’re better than you think. And I think that is just a common misconception of most people is that we, we think of ourselves very, very lowly. And I don’t, I don’t like that. Personally. I don’t like it.
I’ve never been that way. I have had my moments though, you know, where I, I really don’t think I’m very good at something. But to think of yourself in the lowest, lowest standard is just, it’s not a standard. It’s not even anything. It’s just to think of yourself. So lowly is horrible, you know? And so that isn’t, that isn’t what we want. We want to be confident, we want to be competent. And that it starts with knowing the principles. Principles really, really take care of a lot of problems that we face in life. You know, the principles are what makes or breaks the solution. It makes or breaks the process, you know?
So if you have problems and problems yield to principles, and so if you’ve got something, my grandfather told me, so you know, if you’re ever having trouble with your confidence, you know, you might, you might check a few areas. First I would check your actions and ask yourself, are you doing enough? Are you practicing enough? You know? And so that’s my, my second life lesson for you guys is that you are actually better than you think usually. Now, some cases that might not be the case, but usually you’re better than you think. My third point is never give up. You know, I, in my experience, there’s been many, many occasions where it would’ve been very, very easy to just give up and say, Hey, this is hard. And I don’t know if it’s worth it. You know, it’s not that I haven’t had those thoughts, but I’ve definitely had, you know, I’ve definitely been in situations where the mistakes I made were big enough to make me quit.
One of those mistakes, or what I saw as a mistake was, you know, so like getting up on stage and my voice cracks or getting up on stage and I missed, read the words or I didn’t say the words right. The lyrics were different on the screen for the people watching. And this was more of a church context. They were different for the people in the screen than they were than, than what I said. And so I said the wrong words and I stumbled over my words and I’ve said things that didn’t make, make sense. And you know, there’s been many different reasons why I should have quit, you know? So anyways, without further ado, those are my life lessons from learning an instrument most of my life.
You know, I’m coming up on 24 this coming March and I’ve been playing guitar for longer. A child has been alive. You know, I’ve been playing a guitar for almost more than half of my life. If I’m going to be 24 you know, I’ve been playing guitar since I was 12 and so this next year I will have been playing for 12 years. I will have playing. I’ve been playing every single year for 12 years. There wasn’t a one year where I did not play guitar, and so I’m going to do an analysis.
I’m going to actually do a math equation of how much time I’ve actually put into this. And I think that’s very important for all of us too, is really to track how much, how much time we’re putting towards something and be more intentional. That is my goal this next year, is to, in this next decade, is to be more intentional with, you know, with the things that I do. More intentional about music and teaching music, music lessons, more intentional with my music lessons, more intentional with my musicianship, more intentional with my life and my skills and abilities.